Alphabitty Moments - The Letter N

Wow, that was another quick week. I am so glad school is almost out for the summer. I feel like we have all been too busy the last few weeks. Anyway, it's time for another installment of Alphabitty Moments, a blog carnival created by MamaBear at 4 The Love of Family.



This week we are on the letter 'N'. 'N' for Naps! What mom doesn't LOVE nap time? It has always been important to me that my kids be able to get to sleep on their own, in their own beds. However, there is no better feeling than holding a sweet napping baby. It doesn't happen often now that he's a little older, but our Little Man just loves to nap in the arms of those he loves!

New Best Friend

I did a little rearranging/spring cleaning over the weekend. One item that was moved in that process was a mirror that used to hang on the wall over our tv. When my brother came to visit and helped me set up the entertainment armoire my sister gave me, I had to take the mirror down. Since then the mirror has been hidden behind the dry sink in my dining room. I moved the dry sink and the mirror yesterday so Sweetpea could mop. Little did I know I was introducing my son to his new best friend. He is totally enamored with the cute little boy in the mirror. He can't walk by without coming back for a second look, dancing with the little guy, or giving him a kiss. Sadly, the mirror is framed in wrought iron and is quite heavy, so it will soon find a new home where it can't fall over and break anyone's toes.

Alphabitty Moments - The Letter M

It's Thursday again. Man, this week has flown by. It's time once again for Alphabitty Moments, a blog carnival created by MamaBear at 4 The Love of Family.

This week was a tough one for me. I really had a hard time coming up with what I wanted to do for the letter M. I finally decided to use Music.

Little Man has loved music since he was a little tiny thing. It used to soothe him when he was fussy, and now if he hears music, he immediately starts dancing.

Still photos of dancing are not that easy to capture, but here he is in the midst of one of his dance moves.

Please note that he is listening to the '80's XM station. Music from the 1980's and 1990's seems to be his favorite. Well, those and the theme song to Yo Gabba Gabba!

I Heart Faces Photo Contest

This is my first ever entry into the I Heart Faces (I don't know how to make those cute little hearts!) photo contest. This week, participants were asked to submit what they consider their very best face photo. I have always loved this picture of my princess. I even used it on our Christmas card two years ago. It was taken at Disney World the day after the Pirate and Princess Party at the Magic Kingdom. She didn't want to wash her princess makeup off, so we let her sleep in it. This photo was taken as we were waiting for the bus that morning.

Go check out the other entries. There are some amazing photos!

I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.

Not Me! Monday

My house is NOT messy, my laundry IS all clean. Had I had time for a shower this morning, I would NOT have been forced to dry myself with a hand towel....again.

I do NOT think men are complete wimps when it comes to illness, and I fully understand why a cold requires a full day in bed and a lot of whining.

I did NOT forget to move the two year old daycare kid's car seat out of my hubby's car and back into mine. Therefore, I did NOT have to rush around in the rain this morning trying to rearrange car seats in order to get everyone to school on time.

I was NOT at all frustrated at being one of only five moms to show up to decorate for my daughter's 6th grade banquet. I mean really, there are only 80 something kids in the 6th grade, why on earth would more than five show up?

I did NOT attend a meeting at the middle school Tuesday night because I do NOT have a child old enough to be starting middle school next year.

And finally, this CANNOT be my daughter. NOPE, my girl was a baby just yesterday. How could she have grown up in just the blink of an eye?





I totally did NOT forget to link back to MckMama, the creator of Not Me! Monday. If you would like to find out what she did NOT do this week, head over to My Charming Kids!

Alphabitty Moments - The Letter L

It's Thursday, which means it's time for this week's edition of Alphabitty Moments, a blog carnival created by Mama Bear at 4 the Love of Family as a way to document the little things.

This week we're up to the letter L. Now, of course I considered Love and Laughter, but I've already used Giggles, so Laughter was out. Love is not really a little thing, so I went with Lemons! Last week I talked about how much my girls adore their little brother. Now we get to see how they also like to torture him just a little bit.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who gets a kick out of seeing their little ones try a lemon for the first time.

Not Me! Monday

First of all, having two new day care kids on top of the three I had before plus my own three children did NOT turn my brain a little mushy! And, I did NOT change at least 20 poopy diapers last week!!

I also STILL did NOT resort to the tv as a babysitter at any point during the week.



Nor do I think these little hands clasped behind a certain Little Man's back while immersed in any sort of DJ Lance Rock tv coma are the cutest little hands on the entire planet.



Because this is NOT the new "smile" my son has adopted whenever he sees my camera, I am NOT worried about what future school pictures will look like.



I am NOT a stickler about my baby going to sleep in his own bed. I do NOT get a little irked with his daddy when he decides taking the little guy into our bed to snuggle is a good idea. This does NOT ever mess up my own morning routine due to the fact that I cannot leave a sleeping baby on my big king sized bed for fear of him rolling off and landing on his head. I have NOT on two occasions this week been forced to wake Sweetpea up, make her get out of her bed and move into mine to keep her brother from falling off the bed so I could get a shower.

I also did NOT hold the precious little boy until he fell asleep in my own lap last night while telling myself that I was certainly messing up the wonderful bedtime routine I worked so hard to establish.

I did NOT then sit and kiss his little head and smell his little baby soap smell and realize how big he is getting. I did NOT look over at this framed photo and get a little teary and wish I could just make him stay little forever.



The sudden memory of the at least 20 poopy diapers did NOT make me realize that being a little bigger and potty trained might not be such a bad idea!

Now head on over to My Charming Kids to see what MckMama and her wolverines did NOT do this week!

Alphabitty Moments - The Letter K

This blog carnival was created by Mama Bear as a way to help us record and remember the little things in life.

I really wanted to be super creative this week and come up with something other than K for Kisses. However, we do not own a kangaroo or a koala, and those are about the only other K words I could think of. I cannot wait to see what everyone else used this week!

So, I "settled" on K for Kisses. This little guy gets about a million kisses a day. It warms my heart to see how much his big sisters love him. He gets so excited when they get in the car after school, and they still fight over who gets to hold him first. I'm sure there isn't much time left before they will find him quite annoying, but for now, they still adore him!

Now, head over to 4 the Love of Family to see who was more creative than I was!

A Vague Attempt at Organization

I think I may have mentioned a time or two that I would LOVE to be an organized person. While we're at it, I would also love to be an independently wealthy person with a high metabolism. I have pretty much resigned myself to the fact that none of these things will ever happen.

Right now, Mama Bear is having a contest involving tips on organization, so I thought I would share my one shining moment of organizational brillance.

Late in my pregnancy with the Little Man, I didn't know at what point I would be rushing off to the hospital, and I didn't want my girls to be unprepared. I knew that Grandma and Nana would each be with them at different times during my hospital stay, and I didn't want either of them to have to search for the right clothes. Okay, so that probably came from a fear of them actually rummaging though drawers and closets and my laundry room.

My solution was to have an outfit ready to go for each day of the week. I found ten plastic hangers and wrote the days of the week on them....just Monday through Friday. I decided the girls could pick out their own clothes on the weekends. Each time I did laundry, I put outfits together and put the entire outfit on a hanger.

I even went so far as to check the weather and make sure their outfit was weather appropriate. It was February in Florida, which means the weather could be 35 degrees one day and 75 degrees the next!

The girls have PE every third day and are required to wear socks and tennis shoes on those days. My Princess doesn't really believe in socks. She prefers to wear Crocs or sandals every day. Because PE is every third day, it falls on different days each week. To make sure she knew when she needed to wear socks, I put one of her hair ties on the hangers for the PE days. At the end of the week, I just moved the ties to the PE days for the next week. When she got her clothes off the hanger and saw the hair tie, she knew to go get out her socks.

Sadly, we don't keep up with the "Hanger System" like we did then. As a matter of fact, when my brother was visiting and was in my closet rewiring the light I accidentally ripped from the ceiling, he asked me why my husband had a hanger with "Friday" written on it! Although, knowing my husband's inability to match, maybe it's not a bad idea for him too!

Speak Softly Gibberish & Carry a Big Stick

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I have NOT missed MckMama's Not Me!'s over the last few weeks while she has been at the hospital with Stellan. I am NOT thrilled that they are back at home now!

I did NOT meet with two moms this week and agree to add two more kiddos to my daycare menagerie! The new two year old did NOT arrive here bright and early this morning for her first day. She is NOT loud or messy.

I did NOT put off grocery shopping for so long that when I finally went, the assistant store manager said, "Thanks for filling up your cart." Also, my bagger did NOT say, "Well, I guess we won't be seeing you for a few weeks." I did NOT then get in my car and remember that I forgot to buy tomatoes. I do NOT think it will only be a couple of days before I hear the words, "There's never anything to eat in this house."

I did NOT look for a bottle for my 14 month old son who has been off of bottles for two months. He is NOT the messiest drinker on the planet. I have NOT tried every type of sippy cup I can find only to realize that the cups don't leak, the baby does!

I did NOT spend much of my Sunday afternoon attempting to rearrange my kitchen in a way that would somehow stop my little guy from pulling all the plastic containers out onto the floor, unrolling the aluminum foil and parchment paper, chewing on a raw potato, and just generally making a mess. I am CERTAIN I succeeded!!

God's Provision

Alternately titled "Why I spent Many Hours With My Nose in My Bible".

Or "Why My Husband Ran Out of Clean Underwear".

Like almost every other wolverine out there, when I found out Stellan had been hospitalized with SVT, I wanted to do something. But what?

First, while reading through comments on MckMama's blog, I wished I knew scripture a little better so I could leave a more encouraging comment.

An idea struck.

An idea I couldn't possibly accomplish alone.

Then God stepped in.

And He provided everything needed to do something.

He provided a new friend in Mama Bear. A friend with the very same idea and the skill and talent and know how to see it through, just not enough time to do it alone. A friend who's very first request was that I find some Bible verses. (Ok, God, I hear you! I'll go read my Bible now and learn scripture a little better!)

When Mama Bear and I couldn't come up with a plan to get our hands on the hundreds of unopened photos in MckMama's inbox, He provided a request directly from MckMama for help with uploading those photos to Stellan's Name Gallery.

He provided me with a husband who understood what I was doing and why I was doing it.

He blessed me with wonderful daughters who helped out with their baby brother while Mommy uploaded 100's of photos and searched the Bible and Crosswalk for just the right verses. They love Stellan!

He provided me with the opportunity to be a part of something amazingly rewarding. Not because of any accolades, but because I was "forced" to spend time with my Bible.

He provided me with the opportunity to show my children how you can and should do things for others, not for any sort of reward, but just because it's the right thing to do.

He provided me with insight into the goodness of people. People from all over the world who reached out to pray for and support (and wear A LOT of orange for) a little baby boy from the sometimes Frozen Tundra (and his mama).

I wish I could say He provided me with a little patience, but seriously, waiting for that book to get into MckMama's hands was sheer torture!

And now my prayer is that through this book, He can provide the MckFamily with a little peace and encouragement. And when Stellan is old enough to understand, he will have proof that the world prayed for him and believed that he would live!