Stickers and Shapes

Bekah has always loved playing with stickers, so when I saw this idea, I was excited to do it with her. However, it got lost in a pile somewhere and didn't get pulled out until now. This great idea came from Muffin Tin Mom and didn't require much work on my side at all!

I already had star stickers on hand, but you can really use any small stickers to do this project. We just printed out the shapes (you can even draw these free-hand) and Bekah put the stickers around the outline of the shape.
Simple and fun!

Valentines Day Muffin Tin Monday

Happy Muffin Tin Monday. We haven't done a muffin tin meal in awhile now, but with today being Valentines day I figured it was a perfect time to start up again.
Bekah had her breakfast in a heart shape muffin tin. She had:
Life Cereal (her current favorite), heart shaped banana pieces, & strawberry yogurt with valentines sprinkles.

You can see what others are having at Muffin Tin Mom.

Simple Way To Say 'I Love You'

One night as I was taking a bath I spotted Bekah's bath crayons in the corner of the tub. I grabbed the orange one (her favorite color) and wrote "I love Bekah" on one of the tiles. After she found her little "love note" she exclaimed that it "made her day!" That night when she took a bath she wrote me a note: "Bekah loves ME". (ME was her sounding out and spelling mommy.)

Since that time we all write notes back and forth with bath crayons. Some times when I clean the tile there are 5 or more notes we've written. It's just a simple way to say, "I love you"!

Happy Valentines Day!

Hetty's 100 Hats

We did this project when we were learning about the letter H. I have to admit, I ended up being the one to make the hat, but I do think Bekah thought it was pretty neat that you can make a hat out of a piece of newspaper.

Hetty's 100 Hats is an adorable book by Emma Dodd. It's about a little girl who starts collecting hats. She is determined to have 100 hats. At the end of the book, there are directions included to make your own newspaper hat. Bekah really enjoyed this story, but did not want to wear her hat. Oh, well!

Puffy Paint Snowman

I found this easy idea for a puffy paint snowman on MeloMomma. First, I made a mixture of white glue and shaving cream. (Our kitchen ended up smelling like an old man, but the craft ended up being very cute!)

I set up Bekah's art easel for this project, which she loved. I had also cut out black dots and an orange triangle for the nose.

I love simple crafts like this!

Sarah's Birth Story

The week before Sarah was born I had a doctors appointment. The doctor told me that he was pretty positive he would not see me the following week for my next appointment. He was sure I would have delivered by that time. Well....a week later I was driving to my doctors appointment...feeling very angry with that doctor and not very happy that I was scheduled to see my least favorite doctor in the group. It was also a bleary and rainy day, which didn't help my mood. As I drove past Dunkin' Donuts I thought what a great idea it would be to surprise Bekah and my mom (who was watching Bekah) with donuts. Yummm!

After a short wait the nurse took me back and checked my blood pressure. It was elevated and she kinda hinted that I might be having the baby that day. I wasn't having any contractions, though, so I thought maybe she was joking. When the doctor came in to examine me he found that I was already 5 cm. Because of that and my raised blood pressure he immediately sent me next door to Labor and Delivery. I was so excited that I called Nathan before I even made it to the elevators! He was at work (which is an hour away) and I knew the first thing I needed to do was to call him. When I got him on the phone he was as excited as I was. I reminded him to take his time....I wasn't having any pain and didn't even know if they would be keeping me. I was actually still thinking I would be getting donuts soon! I called my mom who said, "I KNEW I should have gone with you!" She had my dad stay with Bekah and she came to be with me. It was such a whirlwind of a morning.

It felt very surreal as I drove myself over to labor and delivery. I stood making out papers at the front desk very thankful that I wasn't in pain...yet. The doctor on duty there checked me and decided to start pitocin. (I had this same drug when Bekah was born.) The nurse was wonderful and I was surprisingly calm through all of this. My mom and Nathan were there in no time. It all went rather quickly. I got to the hospital at 11 AM. They started the pitocin at 1 PM. Sarah was born at 5 PM. It was a very smooth birth and I ended up not having any problems with my blood pressure. (Thank the Lord!). She cried right after being born (it was so good to hear that cry) and she weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz.!

One thing that shocked all of us is how alert she has been right from birth. She loves checking out her new world.

I feel extremely blessed by God for what He has given me.
Here's Bekah meeting her new baby sister for the first time.

I'm Back......

It's been a very busy few months since I've blogged last. First of all, I am now a mommy of two!

Our baby daughter, Sarah, was born in November and has been keeping us busy. Things are finally settling down into our "new norm", so I plan on blogging more now. I really wanted to just take this beginning time to focus on my family. It was great to take a break, but I've missed blogging and I love being able to look back at our memories and things we've done.

It's great to be back!