July 2017 - Loving Our Messy

Month: July 2017

28
Jul
2017

Friday Favorites! {7.28.17}

This post contains affiliate links. Click here to see my full disclosure statement.

Happy Friday! This week has seemed to fly for us. Josh took a vacation day in the middle of the week and we spent the day at a really cool park with some friends and the evening at swim lessons and grilling burgers. Just the refresher I needed mid-week to make it through!

I’m linking up with Erika, Andrea and Narci for Friday Favorites! Per the usual, I have a wide array of things on my favorites list this week!

one

On Saturday night when the heat index was up over 100 degrees, we made homemade ice cream with our crew old school style by rolling a coffee can up and down our driveway. Our boys LOVED it and shockingly the ice cream was actually really good. We used to do this all the time growing up with my mom but this time I switched out some of the ingredients with what we had in the house. (The recipe we used as kids called for half and half – we used 2% milk this time- and rock salt but I used just regular table salt and it worked perfectly.)

We mixed 1 cup of milk, 1/2 tsp of vanilla and 2 tbs of sugar in a quart size baggie that we sealed after removing as much air as we could. We put 3 cups of ice and 1/3 cup of salt in a gallon size baggie and mixed it up a bit. Then we put the quart size baggie inside the freezer size bag, sealed it and put it in a coffee can so we could roll it. You could absolutely just shake up the baggie but it was more fun for our kids to roll the can instead of shaking a bag.

We rolled the can for about 10 minutes for the first batch and the ice cream had gotten so cold/frozen that it was more like dip n’ dots consistency. When Josh and I made another batch for us to try, we rolled it for about 5 minutes which was a ‘just barely frozen’ consistency which is how I prefer my ice cream anyway. Both ways were delicious.Our kiddos topped it with chocolate syrup. They were so into it and have been asking to do it again since! Easy family fun is always a FAVORITE around here.

two

The time we prefer to go to Church on Sunday does not have a nursery for the littles so we all sit together every week. It has been getting harder and harder to keep our twins quiet (and contained!) as they get older and more adventurous! I’m pretty sure we keep everyone behind us very entertained with all the activity. I saw these Melissa and Doug Pop Blocs and got a set for Luke and Reid because they were so cute. All the animals are made of two pieces that come apart and can be switched with other animal pieces to make a cow-pig or a horse-sheep,etc.They are hands down their new favorite toy PLUS they are quiet toys and perfect for Church! I keep a few of the animals in our Church bag so they are excited by them every week and our pew is quiet…. for a little while at least. 😉

three

As much as I’m trying to live in denial, it is Back to School shopping time. If you are looking for a bento style lunch box for your kiddo, we love Yumbox Panino. I bought one for Caleb last year to take to kindergarten and I plan on ordering another one this year so we have two. I love this brand because their largest part is big enough to fit a sandwich. Some of the other ones I found only had room for small items and while I don’t pack it often, sometimes a sandwich is his lunch choice. I put it in his lunch box with a thin ice pack and his leftovers were always still cold when we got home in the afternoon. They are top rack dishwasher safe which I love too. (Heads up- if your child is not super good at remembering to empty their lunch when they get home every day and perhaps everyone forgets about it over the weekend, the silicone will smell like the food that is in it. That happened to us one time and I had to soak it in vinegar for awhile to get the smell out. After that, we made sure to be more on top of emptying his lunch box and didn’t have a problem with smell again.)

four

I mentioned last week that Eli was having trouble all of a sudden at swim lessons. Earlier in the summer he had passed level 1 easily and with no issues at all- all smiles! When level 2 started, he suddenly developed this intense fear of drowning and it got to the point where he was too afraid to even do the things he was doing fine the week before. I could tell he was trying but he just couldn’t get past the fear and was getting so upset about even being in the water. The instructors at lessons were so sweet to him and took turns talking to him and reassuring him (and so did we of course) but he was just really struggling with the fear that no one would save him if he went under.

We talked about it, I prayed about it, we even pretended we were floating in the water on our living room floor! After a week of struggling we decided it would be best to pull him out and try again another time. Wouldn’t you know though… Eli woke up on Monday morning with a brand new determination and wanted to go to lessons. Sweet boy got to swim lessons on Monday, jumped in the water, floated on his back with a huge smile and never looked back. Last night was the last day of summer session, he passed his level and I am SO PROUD of him. Such a FAVORITE this week.

five

I stumbled across this post by The Humbled Homemaker written by her husband about having all girls and the comments strangers (and even acquaintances) make when you are a parent of children of all the same gender. You know how sometimes things just speak to you as if they had read all the thoughts in your mind? This one did for me.

People ask us all the time if we are going to have another to ‘try for a girl’ – seriously all. the. time. Or they say “Don’t worry. My sister/aunt/friend had four boys and then a girl!” That’s great…. but why am I worried? I love my boys! I know God knew what he was doing when he blessed me with four boys.

I just loved it. If you have all girls or all boys or get unsolicited comments from strangers about your beautiful family…read this one. FAVORITE!

Hope you all have the very best weekend. Bring it on August!

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If you missed my other posts from this week, find Twin Tuesday: The Best Children’s Books About Twins here and my What’s Up Wednesday link-up here!

26
Jul
2017

What’s Up Wednesday

categories: Everyday Life

Happy Wednesday everyone! I can’t believe it’s already the last Wednesday in July. I’m linking up with Shay, Sheaffer and Mel to chat about everything we’ve been up to lately.

What We’re Eating This Week….

We have quite the busy week this week with the end of summer swim lessons and a special zoo members night in the evening. We haven’t been getting home until after 6:30 so quick and easy is the name of our game this week!

Sunday- Chicken gyros with homemade cucumber tzatziki

Monday – Blue Cheese Burgers and Wedge Salads

Tuesday – Sloppy Joes and steamed broccoli

Wednesday – Paninis with cold veggies/dip

Thursday – Grilled barbeque chicken with pasta salad

Friday- Pizza night!! (#andallthemamassaidamen)

What I’m Reminiscing About…..

We took the boys to a Truck Jamboree a couple weekends ago and they still haven’t stopped talking about all the giant trucks and race cars they saw. They’ve apparently been reinspired to get their Hot Wheels tracks out and have their own Truck Jamborees every day since.

The snow cones were also a big hit with everyone except for Eli who being Mr. Picky insisted on a vanilla flavored snow cone instead of the Spiderman flavor everyone else got. And he hated it. Who is surprised.

What I’m Loving….

This age with our twins! We’re finally having more success getting them to use their words instead of pointing at the air and whining all day long. They are way more into playing together and reading books with us then ever before and I’m loving it! We’ve found some seriously adorable twin books that they are pretty obsessed with and will even sit and flip the pages together and look at the cute pictures.

For my picks of the best children’s books for twins check out this week’s Twin Tuesday post! Twin books are perfect gifts for those who have or are expecting twins and their siblings!

What We’ve Been Up To….

A lot of swim lessons.

A lot of bike rides.

Except when the bike path looks like this…

Soaking up the last of our summer days before life gets crazy again.

What I’m Dreading….

I feel like dreading is kind of a harsh word for my feelings but I’m sort of not looking forward to all the preparation for the start of school this next month brings. We have 5 doctors appointments scheduled in the next few weeks, school registration, and of course the back to school prep!

What I’m Working On….

After the kiddos go to bed every night, we’ve been working on giving our family room a facelift . So far we’ve painted everything, replaced all trim, added a toy closet for storage and are currently working on remodeling the fire place. I never liked the color of it but now it sticks out even more so now that everything else in the room is lighter and brighter. The black mortar just really gets me… so it has to go! I also believe we are single-handedly keeping Home Depot in business right now.

I think we’ve made some serious progress though so far… stay tuned!

What I’m excited about….

I’m excited that this is the last month of the year without football. And it’s almost over! We are counting down the days until Iowa Hawkeye Football is back and of course Bears preseason games.

And we can’t forget the most wonderful time of the year. The hunt for October in baseball, the start of the football regular season, my birthday AND Luke and Reid turn 2. 😉

What I’m watching/reading….

I’m in the middle of two books in two very different genres. Lauren Graham’s Someday, Someday Maybe and The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. Loving them both!

As for what we’ve been watching, check out my favorite shows we’ve been watching as a couple!

What I’m listening to….

I’m clearly not in charge of my own car radio anymore so we always have this year’s Vacation Bible School CD playing. Last year’s CD was pretty awesome and this year’s came pretty close to being as good. We’re big fans.

What I’m doing this weekend….

We have a few more things left on our Summer Bucket List including finding a new zoo to visit, riding a train and going to a waterpark. So I think we will knock one of those things off the list!

And I’m going to paint the new shutters and front door that I have been putting off for weeks. Hold me to that. Ok?

What I’m looking forward to next month….

I’m not looking forward to the back to school prep but I am excited about getting back into our routine! I’m excited for the beginning of pumpkin and apple everything season.

Bonus question: What’s your favorite thing about summer?

I feel like everything and everyone just kind of hit ‘pause’ during summer and I love it. We have a break from sports, from school meetings, from homework, from a rigid schedule and it gives me a chance to breathe. I love that I get my older kiddos back from the world for a bit.

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday!!

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25
Jul
2017

Twin Tuesday- The Best Children’s Books About Twins!

categories: Twin Tuesday

(This post contains affiliate links. Click here to see my full disclosure statement.)

Happy Twin Tuesday! This week’s post is all about our favorite children’s books about twins!

I love adding books to our collection that my kiddos can relate to and use them as a way to spark conversation. We know our twins are special because of the bond they share and yet unique in how they have their own personalities and own interests. I loved that all these books celebrate the joy of twins and how lucky and blessed we are that we have them in our family.

In our experience, twin books are hit or miss but whether you are looking for a book for your twins, for a friend/family member who has twins or even for an older sibling whose family is expecting two – any of my picks below will not disappoint!

God Gave Us Two– by Lisa Tawn Bergren

Hands down, this book is my pick for the favorite. We already had another popular book in this series, God Gave Us You, which we loved so I had some high expectations. This sweet story is about Little Cub and her feelings about a new baby joining her family. She talks about her worries (will her parents forget about her when the baby comes) as they reassure her and encourage her about how wonderful having a sibling is (to love, to play with, to teach). They tell her how God blessed them with her and now he has blessed them with another baby. Spoiler Alert: They actually return home from the hospital with surprise twins. (Apparently bear ultrasounds aren’t up with the times 😉 ) This book has a lot of words so probably would be best for ages 2+ and also perfect for siblings as well as twins themselves! We love this story and it always inspires more conversation about how God has blessed us with each of our children who bring different and unique gifts to our family!

Playtime for Twins and Bathtime for Twins – by Ellen Weiss

These two sweet books are most definitely our 22-month old twin’s favorite choice. They ask to read these two again and again (..and again!). The story is short and the rhyming always holds their attention. The illustrations are adorable and perfect for their age right now. Playtime for twins goes through the adventures of the day with a set of twins: building block towers together, reading books, going to the park, etc. Bathtime for twins follows the same format but at bathtime. We loved them both and I know those are going to be favorites for a long time!

Two is for Twins – by Wendy Cheyette Lewison

Our littles loved this one for the beautiful illustrations. They go through different things that make two – hands, eyes, feet and then transition to the relationship between twins. I loved how they talked about how each one always has the other to play with and live life with. We love this one because it’s cute but also because it shows the special twin bond as siblings as well as friends!

Fraturtles – by Keith Greenstein

Can I just say that I absolutely loved Fraturtles because of the cute story but also it’s super clever play on words! It’s about twin turtles who are confused that they don’t look alike even though their friends tell them that twins do. Their mother tells them it’s because they are ‘fraternal’ and the sweet girl turtle heard ‘fraturtle’. (I was rolling at that part and so was our 6 year old but it went over the other boys heads.) She’s pretty pumped she has a fraturtle and doesn’t care that they don’t look alike after all because she has a best friend for life. LOVE this story because it’s unbelievably cute. It didn’t hold our twins attention very long at this point because it’s a big longer but with how much our older boys liked it, I can only imagine it will be a favorite as they grow up.

Twin to Twin – by Margaret O’Hair

The illustrations in this one were the best of the bunch. Luke and Reid loved pointing out the babies and all their toys on each page. The book has minimal words discussing all the doubles that come with twins (double giggles, double talk, double kisses and hugs). It’s short enough to keep even younger kiddos entertained but tells a sweet story of twice the fun and joy of twins. Loved this one too!

Happy Twin reading!

For all Twin Tuesday posts click here.

21
Jul
2017

Friday Favorites

categories: Everyday Life

Happy happy Friday everyone!

It’s been a hot, sticky week here with heat indexes over 100 degrees since Wednesday. Ick. The heat doesn’t get me as much as the humidity when the air makes me feel like I need to take a shower the moment I step outside. I think we are in for a hot weekend so I’m thinking some pool time is going to have to be on tap!

Today I’m linking up with Erika, Andrea and Narci for Friday Favorites!

ONE

I have to start off with the real reason my eyes are even open right now. LOVE this coffee from Harry and David. My mom is a teacher and spends her summer breaks with little day trips and outlet shopping. #goals She brought back these little treasures for me last week and I’m in love. The mocha coffee seriously makes the whole house smell like a chocolate brownie when I make it. For this time of year though, the coconut is my favorite. It just tastes like summer to me. Specialty coffees are always a FAVORITE here.

TWO

New episodes of Suits are back! We watched the first episode of season 7 this week on USA and it’s already drawing us in. This season looks to have some big changes for the show after one of the main female leads left last season and I’m excited to see what the writers do with it. If you like law shows, you should seriously check it out!

If you missed my Tuesday Talk post, I shared our favorite shows to watch as a couple and Suits was one of them! Plus, all the shows in my post are available on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. Sitting together and watching a show or two in the late evening with my husband is always a FAVORITE.

THREE

If I’m being honest, it’s been kind of a rough week around here. The heat has kept our outside activities more limited than usual which is probably partially responsible for the increase in bickering and serious crabbiness going on around here. Also, our sweet Eli (Mr. Never Been Afraid of Anything in His Entire Life) is having a lot of trouble with this session of swim lessons and has suddenly developed an intense fear of the water which we are struggling to get through. I was moving some pictures from my phone to our picture storage and I saw this image I had saved a couple months ago from Ashley Willis. I SO needed to see that this week and needed the reminder that God has my back in everything. I’m praying for the grace and guidance to get through these tough times even when I feel like I am totally underwater. A favorite for this week- no question.

FOUR

Sunday night, Caleb and Eli went for a big boy sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa’s so Josh and I had a whole evening with just our twins. I can’t even remember the last time that happened! We absolutely took advantage of half our crew being gone and went to Lowe’s with just two kiddos, played outside, had a fun dinner with just our littlest and had some bonus time to ourselves once they were in bed. I know they liked the extra time together and more one-on-one time with any of our kids is always a favorite! Oh and you better believe the older boys came back with stories of Despicable Me 3, ice cream with dinner and staying up way too late. 😉

FIVE

I read Lauren Graham’s newest book Talking as Fast as I Can, and I really enjoyed it. If you liked her on Gilmore Girls, you would like this book. I think it reads just like she talks and is full of funny side comments. It wasn’t the typical autobiography that I was expecting but more of a collection of short essays that made up each chapter. I loved her in Gilmore Girls and Parenthood and there was a chapter on her experience filming each of those shows plus another on the Gilmore Girls reboot this past fall. It was an easy read and I enjoyed it, even if it wasn’t the usual memoir type book that I was expecting!

I’m reading her first book now that’s called Someday, Someday Maybe (that’s fiction) and so far I’m liking it too!

Those are my favorites today! Hope you all have a good weekend!

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20
Jul
2017

New House Remodel: Wet Bar turned Toy Closet!

categories: DIY

When we moved into our new house last summer, we honestly never gave this wet bar a second thought. We stuck a couple boxes on the shelf in there, shut the door and never really thought much about it. Our wet bar was about 10 feet from the kitchen so I never really thought about using it. Plus, the sink wasn’t in very good shape and we didn’t really want to repair a sink that we wouldn’t use.

This winter when we were stuck inside all the time, the toy clutter really started to make me lose my mind! I tried to keep most of the toys in the basement but it just wasn’t realistic with two toddlers I didn’t want climbing up and down the basement steps all day long. Plus, we were starting to look like hoarders because Caleb and Eli would pile up their toys and art stuff on top of the dining room table and sofa table to keep them safe from twin toddler destructive hands. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me sooner that we didn’t need to keep something we weren’t using! We decided to tear out the wet bar we weren’t using anyway and make it into a toy closet with shelving.

This is what it looked like before. The picture is poor quality because we only really had one from way back when we bought the house. Once we decided to do this, I was so pumped about getting the toys off the floor that we ripped everything out without even thinking about taking a before picture.

We removed the upper shelf and sink pretty easily and then Josh installed shut-off valves to permanently turn off the water. After we removed the lower cabinets, this shockingly roomy space remained. Who knew those giant cabinets were hiding that much space?

We bought and installed a bunch of wire shelving for the boy’s toys and I collected all our various dollar store tubs floating around to organize them. Josh removed the old brown bifold closet door and frame and installed a new white one. I painted the new closet a ____ by Valspar from Lowes and installed carpet where the cabinet used to be. I love how clean and fresh the new color makes the space look.

It’s nice because we put Luke and Reid’s toys on the floor and first shelf so they can reach them fine but can’t reach Caleb and Eli’s stuff on the higher shelves. It’s a pretty big closet with a bit of room to play on the floor so it’s not uncommon that I walk in on ‘meetings’ like this one. Reid is trying to tell me to close the door again so they can play. Haha!

Honestly, it feels amazing once the kids are in bed to be able to shut that toy closet door and pretend for a minute that our house isn’t full of toy clutter. I only wish we had thought of it sooner!

Fighting the ability of toys to overtake our home seems to be a constant battle. How do you handle the toy clutter?

18
Jul
2017

Tuesday Talk – Favorite shows to binge watch as a couple!

categories: Everyday Life

Today I’m linking up with Erika and Fancy Ashley for Tuesday Talk!

Even though it’s summer right now, with swim lessons, working on our house after the kids go to bed most nights and just the fact of keeping 4 kiddos happy and alive, Josh and I have been completely exhausted lately! One thing that gets me through is knowing that I can hang out with my husband and watch a really good episode or two of a show together at the end of each day. It gives us something to look forward to together and sometimes sparks conversations that we probably never would have had!

Here are a list of our top shows we love to watch together and are husband-approved. Plus! All these shows are available to stream on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video!

White Collar

This is our very favorite show probably ever. We love LOVE White Collar. It’s about a convict convicted of bond forgery (and accused of about a million other white collar crimes) who is released from jail to wear a tracking anklet and become a consultant for the FBI. The writing of this show is amazing and the cases are often suspenseful and keep us watching more and more episodes until too late in the night. Matt Bomer (who I love!) plays the FBI consultant and his chemistry with Tim DeKay who is his FBI handler makes the entire show. If you’re not sold yet, just watch the Pilot episode. It’s one of the best pilots I’ve ever seen. I’m not ashamed to say that we have watched this entire series multiple times!

All 6 seasons of White Collar are available to stream on Netflix.

Survivor

Josh and I are serious Survivor Junkies. We found Survivor about 9 years ago when it was airing on CBS and have watched every season they have aired since and caught up on all the old seasons we missed. It is a reality competition show but it’s so much more than that. A group of people are put on an island and have to survive (make their own shelter, catch food, etc) while also competing in physical competitions. The group votes someone out every week and the best part is that at the end of the game the last batch of people voted out actually become the jury who votes for the person who wins the game and a million dollars. We love watching the strategy, psychological games, and unpredictability of human behavior. All the seasons are good but a lot of them are GREAT. Season 1 when the game had just begun is such a classic but is a little different than the rest of the series because it’s filmed a bit more documentary style. My advice if you have never seen the show is to start with Survivor Micronesia (season 16) or Survivor Tocantins (Season 18).

19 of their 34 seasons are streaming on Amazon Prime Video. (If you love it like we do, pay the small monthly fee for CBS All Access and you will have access to stream all 34 seasons!)

Suits

Suits is another one of our very favorites. It’s similar to White Collar in that there are two very likeable male leads who have amazing chemistry together and the supporting cast is full of some strong, badass female characters. It’s about a man with a photographic memory who was hired to work at a top law firm as a lawyer under one of the best in the country, except he isn’t actually a lawyer. The show is about different law cases, love triangles and eventually about how to contain Mike’s secret that he is working as a lawyer without actually being one. The show is suspenseful and cleverly written by writers who aren’t afraid to throw some curve balls at the characters. Especially as the show goes on and more and more people inevitably find out. Watch the pilot of this one too and tell me you aren’t hooked!

Suits is still airing on USA but has the rest of the series available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Parenthood

Parenthood is an amazingly well-written and acted show about families. It’s completely relatable as a parent and as a child and full of real everyday problems. It has a huge cast full of some big names and we loved every minute of it. I never watched it while it was airing on NBC because I heard it was sad and I can’t do sad shows that bring me down. We binge watched this on Netflix and I have to say I completely and totally disagree. It’s not sad at all, for sure thought-provoking and sometimes pulls at your emotions- but not sad! So if you are holding out because of that, I promise you won’t feel that way. I loved watching this one with Josh because it that stimulated so much conversation about how we were raised and how we wanted to raise our own kids.

Parenthood is streaming all episodes on Netflix.

The West Wing

The West Wing is a fast-paced show about life in the White House and the outside lives of the staffers who work there. I loved Martin Sheen as president and even if you aren’t a lover of political talk (like I’m not!) you will like this show for the drama that comes along with it. Even though The West Wing aired in the early 2000’s, it’s amazing how many of the issues, political and otherwise, are still relevant today. It has won a ton of awards and has some amazing actors. This is a show that always gets us thinking and talking because it’s so well written.

All episodes of The West Wing are streaming on Netflix.

A little extra bonus tip – we watched The People vs. OJ Simpson when it aired on FX last year and loved it. There is only 1 season of 10 episodes and even though we obviously knew the ending it was suspenseful and drew us in every week. I thought I knew the basic story line of the famous trial but since I was still in grade school when it happened, there apparently was so much I forgot or didn’t know. We found it fascinating. It is streaming on Netflix too.

Okay, those are my picks for series to watch with your spouse. What are we missing? We would love to find some new good ones. Comment with some of your favorites that are husband friendly! (Gilmore Girls and One Tree Hill were already vetoed… surprise, surprise.) 😉

Happy Tuesday to all!

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14
Jul
2017

Friday Favorites

categories: Everyday Life

Happy Friday to you! I spent all week thinking we were a day ahead so this week has seemed super long! I even sent a text to my friend praying for her daughter’s surgery a day ahead. *facepalm* Thanks be to God it is actually Friday today! 😉 I’m linking up with Erika, Andrea and Narci for my very first Friday favorites!

ONE

I’ve talked a bit about my love of double strollers and how we were looking to find a lighter, easier to navigate stroller now that our twins are out of their infant seats. I debated for a long time but we finally bought the Joovy X2 Double and I LOVE it. I originally wanted a jogger with a single front wheel but read so many reviews about that front wheel shaking while running with it. I’ve jogged many times with our Joovy and love how it maneuvers. We’ve taken it on the baseball fields, to the zoo and to fireworks without any problems with its size. It is narrow enough to fit through a single doorway everywhere we have tried!

Also, it turns out I’m kind of a stroller hoarder because even though I love our new Joovy I can’t seem to get rid of the others. Josh screwed some heavy duty hooks on the edge of our garage ceiling so we could get all the strollers off the floor. It’s great for space but it’s making it more obvious how much I need to get rid of them….perhaps part of his evil plan! 😉 Don’t let those tired faces fool you- Luke and Reid love it too! This stroller is a FAVORITE in our house!

TWO

This week, Josh and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary. We always order a small cake from the bakery who made our wedding cake every year to celebrate. I look forward to this week every year because of course I love to celebrate our marriage but I also have to get my hands on that cake. 😉 It’s white cake with raspberry filling and their famous buttercream icing. It did not disappoint.

Wow can 8 years fly by. I am so blessed to have this supportive, patient man as my partner to do life with. He has always inspired me every day to be better and from day 1 has always loved and accepted me in spite of my flaws. (Except my tendency to leave the windshield wipers on at full speed after it has stopped raining very hard so they squeak against the windshield. He said that had to go. Haha!) Josh was saying our wedding day feels like lifetimes ago and it sure was. Four little lifetimes ago! To many, many more happy years! My husband is always a FAVORITE around here.

THREE

Has anyone read any of Matthew Kelly’s books? If not, you should seriously consider it. My bible study read his new book Resisting Happiness over the past couple of months and I completely loved it. I’ve been a fan of Matthew Kelly for about a year now and love his mission. It made me really think about what being happy means to me and what a serious waste being unhappy is. I came away with new prayer ideas, new strategies to get through the low parts of life we all deal with and a completely new understanding of the simplest concept that he focuses on: Happiness is a choice! A new FAVORITE mantra of mine.

He offers this book and a bunch of his others free if you pay shipping and handling here.

FOUR

Now that we’re out of the infant twin stage and have some sweet toddlers that finally enjoy their rest (!!!), we’ve been trying to get some work done on our house. We’re working on our family room and exterior (front door and shutters) right now and found this painting app we love. Paint tester allows you to take a picture of your room and visually try out different paint colors on your walls. I have debated what color to use on our exterior for months and this app helped me realize that our brick on the outside gives us a limit on what colors will look good. Thank goodness we found this app or I would have wasted a lot of time repainting! Bad news is I’m back to square one on colors….

FIVE

If you were overwhelmed by all the school papers and projects that came home from school with your kids this past school year than check out my post on how we control the clutter and display our kiddos art projects. I love how the display wall came out and more than that I love that this was a solution to the paper clutter all over my house and refrigerator. The kids love to show off their chosen projects on our display wall to everyone who comes in our house. 😉 If this is a problem for you- check it out! This solution is definitely a FAVORITE for our family.

That’s it! How’d I do on my first Friday Favorites? Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

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13
Jul
2017

Kids Art Display Wall

categories: DIY

There were many things that I wasn’t prepared for when my oldest started kindergarten this past year but honestly one of the biggest was ALL. THE. THINGS. that came home in his folder everyday. Every assignment, school papers, art projects, morning coloring pages were taking over my life. For awhile, we hung all his projects on the side of the refrigerator but there were so many that it was beyond cluttered all the time. Then our twins started walking and found it to be an enjoyable past time to pull down all the papers off the fridge and onto the floor in the entrance to our kitchen all the time. All day long. Every day. And when I walked into the kitchen on piles of paper they had pulled onto the floor over and over, I began to lose my mind. The cluttered papers on the fridge had to go.

So Pinterest to the rescue, right? I found a few ideas that I combined into something that would work for our family right now. Caleb has wanted to be an artist when he grows up for a long time and it was one of my main goals to continue to encourage his goal and show enthusiasm for all of his hard work while also making sure we all realize that we cannot hold onto everything that comes home for the rest of our lives. And of course, I wanted it to look nice and not be a big expense!

I created a sign in Photoshop (but you could use Picmonkey or another free service) and stuck it in a 16 x 20 frame that we already had. I found inexpensive curtain rods to mount on the wall that were 9.99 each. I also bought rings with clips to put on the rods to hang the artwork for $4.99 with a deal on Cartwheel. I bought all ours in the oil rubbed bronze finish but they had other finishes there to choose from. We hung ours high enough so the twins couldn’t pull anything down but low enough that the boys could enjoy their work! We hung our art gallery in the kitchen but I think it would be great in a living room/den too!

We don’t put anything on the side of our fridge anymore. They each have 7 clips to hang something on and choose what they want to hang every day. When the clips are full, they choose what to take down to put something new up. Sometimes they really love something and leave it up for a long time and other times things only stay up for a couple days. When we take something down, we take a picture of the things we really liked and recycle it all. It’s been a really good system for us this past school year.

What do we do with the rest of the paper clutter you ask? I recycle as much as I can right away (information on sports he is too young for or invitations to groups we are already involved with or are not interested in), take pictures of event details that I know we need and recycle the paper, or I file things that we do absolutely need to hang on to in this organizer which sits on the corner of our kitchen counter. It’s small and doesn’t take up too much space. I try to go through it when I notice it is getting overly full to make sure we actually need what is in there.

Please share any tips you have for controlling the school clutter! It’s overwhelming to think of four of them being in school and coming home with papers!

12
Jul
2017

A week with us!

categories: Everyday Life

What summer fun we had this week (and a half)! We enjoyed the fourth of July, some beautiful weather and some bonus family time with the holiday. I was definitely not ready to get back to normal everyday when Monday rolled around!

We spent a lot of time outside lately while the weather was unseasonably cool. Caleb and Eli have become obsessed with tracing each other with chalk on the driveway and making their outlines into monsters.

We got these little trikes for Luke and Reid for Easter and until recently they were afraid of them. I guess they assumed they were stationary chairs and when they would roll forward they were SO mad. Now, after seeing big brothers on their bikes they are starting to understand the concept of pushing themselves forward! Their little seats open to store ‘treasures’ and we have certainly found some in there including old snacks, mass amount of rocks from our landscaping and toys we thought had been lost. 😉

Baseball season is over for Caleb! He had a great year and is already asking about next season. Truthfully, Josh and I were ready for it to be over because of all the games/practices every week. And this was only t-ball! I don’t know how all the families at higher levels with more time commitment do it. Props to you all.

Another Caleb mention. He had his long awaited eye appointment to see if his eyesight had improved from wearing his patch all day everyday for the last month. His eyesight did improve so they recommended he continue to wear it part time for another month and then we will go back and make sure his eyesight has stayed the same. He got a new pair of glasses that he loves and is completely pumped about not having to wear his patch as much. I’m so proud of him for being so responsible with this and all things considered, hardly complaining about it. I think his glasses make him look so old!

Josh and I went for an overnight away to see one of his close friends get married. It was our first time being away overnight since our twins were born so we were definitely enjoying some alone time. A quiet 3.5 hour ride that we could actually carry on a conversation and only stop once on the way there. It was wonderful having some time together!

We spent our fourth having a bbq at my aunt’s, a little zoo time to visit the new ocean exhibit and seeing fireworks. We have been waiting months for the ocean exhibit to open and it did not disappoint.

The kids LOVED seeing the octopus and some small sharks!

They had a very nice Animal Educator there who spent some time with the boys showing them a shark jaw, an octopus beak and some other cool ocean things. When we went to the library later in the week, you better believe they hit up the ocean section because they needed to know even more details about him.

Last year Luke and Reid slept through the fireworks so we weren’t really sure what to expect from them this year but they did great!

They loved their glow sticks which kept them entertained while we were waiting for the fireworks.

We got there a little bit too early giving us an hour or so to wait so by the time they were ready to start, Luke and Reid had lost interest in the whole adventure. They played with each other climbing in and out of the stroller while the rest of us watched! Hey, whatever keeps them happy. 😉

We spent some time over the weekend with some friends that we haven’t seen in awhile and our kiddos were thrilled.

Their kids are very close in age to ours and they all picked up right where they left off. When we left our fun day, Eli was SO sad and truly couldn’t understand why we couldn’t invite them to live in our house with us….

Hope everyone had a wonderful week!

03
Jul
2017

Twin Tuesday- How to live life with newborn twins

categories: Twin Tuesday

When we moved last year and were meeting with our new realtor for the first time, we immediately bonded because she is a twin mom too. While we were taking a break from looking at house listings, she and I were talking about our first weeks home with our babies and the special kind of crazy bringing home twins brings. She said it is all such a blur to her that she doesn’t have her first real, detailed memory of them until after they were a month old. All I could do was laugh and commiserate! I have some very vivid memories of my babies in the early days but I definitely understand feeling like parts were a sleep-deprived blur! I’m not even going to pretend (for one single second!) that life with newborn twins is easy BUT you can do it. Here are my tips on how to survive newborn twins and live to tell the tale. 😉

1.The first piece of advice I have is one that I have to literally remind myself of every single day. Do NOT compare yourself to mommas with only one baby. It is NOT the same – you have 100% more newborns to take care of! My sister-in-law and a couple other friends had babies right around the same time my twins were born. I would hear about taking their babies out and about- running errands, going to the park with their older kids, etc. and I felt like I should have it together and be able to do those things too. It took me a long time to realize the super obvious fact that I had TWO brand new babies and they had one so of course it was harder for me to do those things! I still struggle with that daily while I have two active toddlers to keep track of when we are out!

2. Put your family first. Those first few months after welcoming twins can be quite a steep learning curve. Do what is best for your family always. If that means that you feel like you can’t travel to see family for a holiday like you usually would or keep your running dinner date with a friend right now then explain to them, offer apologies and don’t feel guilty about it. We felt a lot of pressure about keeping holiday plans or spending time with our family/friends like everything was the same as when we were a family of four. But it wasn’t the same! We spread ourselves way too thin, had to deal with some seriously crabby kids and regretted not doing what was best for our family even if others didn’t understand. After those experiences, we decided to keep other people’s feelings in consideration but in the end always put our family first.

3. Take advantage of the wealth of knowledge available to you when you are in the hospital. Those NICU/nursery nurses are amazing. If you don’t know what to do or wonder if something is normal – ask! Especially if your twins are your first babies, ask your questions and get advice from the professionals. Our NICU nurses helped us get our twins on the same feeding schedule so they would also be on the same sleeping schedule. The lactation consultants at our hospital were invaluable to my success breastfeeding my twins. Our doctors helped ease my concerns on whether to sleep the babies together or separate. We left the hospital nervous (obviously) but feeling confident we could do it!

4. Accept help and ask for it when you need it! This is common advice for new mommas this but it sure is hard sometimes to do. A week or so after our twins were born, we were attempting to care for our older boys and Luke at home while making it back and forth to the NICU to visit and feed Reid at least 4 times a day. I was recovering from my c-section and emotionally/physically exhausted but I didn’t want people to think I couldn’t handle having twins and ask for help. My parents one day called and insisted they bring dinner/help with our older boys so we could go to the NICU together and it was such a massive relief. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t asked sooner. They came up every evening until Reid came home and I know we couldn’t have done it without them.

5. Allow yourself some grace and be kind to yourself. Let the laundry go as much as you can. Let the house go for awhile. Order take out. Take a break when your babies sleep. You have been through so much and so much is demanded of you and your body. Be patient with yourself!

6. Don’t forget about your spouse/partner. The newborn days are hard and I think the only way we got through was because we were determined to be a team. It’s exhausting for you both and may not come as naturally to your other half, so try to find an ounce of patience. And when you can’t find that patience remember, anything said in that sleep-deprived haze at 3AM is immediately forgivable under twin code. 😉

7. Do your very best to remember- this part will not last forever. Someday soon you will sleep again. Someday soon there will be some quiet. Someday soon you will feel like you kind of, sort of have it together again. I promise.

Snuggle those babies. Take a breath. You got this momma!

Twin Mamas- any other advice?

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