Happy Award!

warning: picture heavy post...




The rules for this award are as follows:

1.)When you have received this award you must thank the person that awarded you this in the new post.

2.) Name the 10 things that make you happy

3.) Pass this award onto 10 other bloggers

Miss Jaci over @ Me and My Soldier Man gave me this sweet award! i'm not sure exactly what it means, but i'm going to choose to believe it means that *I* make her happy too, hahahahaha. Thanks Jaci!

10 things that make me Happy:

1. my family


2. having salvation in Christ and His grace to help face each day.


3. taking a nap with the sun shinning through an open window to warm me, with the breeze blowing the curtains and honeysuckle scent in the air


4. reading a book that teaches me something or encourages me in my faith


5. extended family days spent laughing and loving






6. watching Joel grow into an even better husband and father





7. sisters




8. friends that stand the test of time and give encouragement when i need it most




9. awesome friends for my children





10. music that speaks to my soul.... and flowers and trees






(pictures that are not of my friends/family are from weheartit.com)

What makes you happy?
i tag you all!

no, i'm not dead. just in a funk. Leland's party and other great stuff!

there are a few reasons that i'm in a funk, and i really need to just pull myself on out of it!
with out diving into the issues, it's a combination of feeling fat and unmotivated (my own fault), disappointed and dismayed(regarding government and friendships), and just plain old tired......
and..... DONE! no more whiney talk.

Leland's birthday party went pretty darn well on Saturday! My mother told me it was "the best party EVER!". hahaha.
Of course she is my mother, but i think every one had fun. I may have mentioned that every birthday party we were at recently Leland thought "whatever happens at THIS party will happen at MY party too!!" not in a bratty way, in a kid logic way.
Jax's party was at Monkey Joe's and Brooklynn's was a "princess party" where everyone dressed up. (he was a ninja turtle)

So we ended up renting the elementary room at church, borrowing their 2 inflatables, dressing up, making freezer paper printed shirts, having a pinata... and i'm sure i'm forgetting something. I made a Super Why shirt and cape for Leland and my wonderful mother made a Super Why cake.
Before you think i'm crazy, we spent a grand total of about $90. including $50 for the room rental, supplies for everything, balloons etc. not too bad.
I spent a rEALLY long time on the Super Why shirt because i ended up having to take the whole T shirt apart (with the exception of the neckline), cut it down, and then sew it back together. After all of that i messed up on painting the front... oh well, the cape turned out pretty great and he's wanted to wear it all everyday since then.
Party Pics!





since i was running around trying to get everything done the whole time I didn't get very many pictures of the actual party, and i lost the camera after about the first 10 minutes and found it when we were cleaning up... typical!
I wish i had pictures of the painting room!
we told everyone if they wanted to bring a T shirt or item to paint we would have stencils and supplies for them. Everyone was really creative especially my wonderful friend Jaime who cut out and brought like 35 freezer paper stencils. she saved my butt big time! Here's the shirt i did for Emory...


Leland also got to finally meet Belle, Bethany's daughter, because Bethany and Matthew were nice enough to make the trip for the party and then hang out afterwards at Jillian and Owen's... it was great to visit and the kids got along so well! wish i had pictures of Cash, Emory and London playing but after the party i was pretty brain dead. i did get one of their little dinner for two though! Jillie was sweet enough to whip something together for all of us to eat on the fly.



My super close friend Jessica and her daughters Brooklynn and Letty got to come for the weekend also, and stayed the night on Sunday. Brook and Leland are about 6 weeks apart in age and are pretty much betrothed. they always just pick back up where they left off, even though they don't get to see each other that often. Much like me and Jess:O)
Emory and Letty are only about a week and a half apart!! they were busy busy busy, crawling everywhere, not interested in smiling for the camera. it was so good that have them over.






then on monday we had our baby dedication at church.
Emory was not too happy, but Cash was an absolute doll the whole time :O)
the closest we came to good pictures of her:


Sorry for the thousands of pictures, i just couldn't bring myself to spend all of next week playing catch up.
Hope you are all have a great weekend planned!
Thanks to all of our friends and family for helping making the party such a great day, you were all so generous with gifts for Leland and donations for Inner City Mission. i think Leland will remember his wonderful day for a long time!
Do you have a particular birthday that has stuck with you from your childhood?
Emory loves the fact that we still have colorful balloons floating about:O)

Book Review Thursday! brought to you by Leland and Elise

Leland loves to read (child of my heart) and some of the books we've read lately are too fun not to share.
We thought it would be fun to do it in a review format, so here we go!
Some weeks it might be two children's book (like this week) and the next it may be a parenting book, adult fiction (as in, not children's literature...i don't mean ADULT fiction... you know what i mean!) or Christian living. I think it will be a good way for me to force myself to finish the 23 books i'm in the middle of. without further ado:


LadyBug Girl and BumbleBee Boy
by David Soman & Jacky Davis

This book is about a spunky girl named LuLu who goes to the park with her mother and dog Bingo.
But she's not just LuLu, she's LadyBug Girl! She can jump over cracks in the sidewalk the size of canyons and quite frankly, do anything! She meets her friend Sam at the park and the authors give a very realistic telling of kids trying to agree on how to play together and the solutions they come up with all on their own.

(aren't the mannerisms spot on? Not too surprising that the authors are married and the inspiration for the story came from their daughter)

Get ready to swing into the clouds with LadyBug girl and BumbleBee Boy!

(one of our favorite pages)

Leland wanted to read this 3 times a day the whole time we had it from the library.
The illustrations are great, the creativity and themes are right on and it makes you want to get outside and pretend.
If you have a spunky girl or an imaginative boy you NEED to check out this book.
The Bug Squad is waiting for you....

Next up:



The Curious Garden
by Peter Brown


as you can see, the illustrations in this book are so whimsical and detailed i had a hard time choosing what to share.
we will show you our favorite pages but rest assured there will be plenty more to see when you read it for yourself.

I will admit to being a little concerned when the first page looked like this:

thinking "oh dear, another book ruined with mother earth-never drive a car-don't breathe or you will destroy the environment- sentiment." However, i was pleasantly surprised. It was more of a beautiful story of how the city and nature can coexist and work together. Shall we continue? I thought so.

Liam is an adorable red headed boy who finds a little bit of green life in a mostly dreary city and decides to be its gardener.
This bit of green is up on an old abandoned railway and as he waters, sings to, and cares for the small group of plants, his small garden becomes curious and spreads down the line....

(We just love this spread! Leland now wants to find lilly pads to jump on, 'animal plants', and picnic everyday)

As the garden gets curiouser and curiouser, more gardeners step up to help care for it. In this picture you see a grown up Liam with his family, enjoying the garden.


The last illustrated page looks like this:

still a booming city, but definitely more beautiful!

the VERY last page explains that the story of the curious garden on the railway is a true story!
The HighLine railway in Manhattan was closed in 1980, if you want to check out the real life results just click here.

Leland's favorite things about this book were:
1. Liam sounds a lot like Leland, so he felt like the story was about him.
2. Liam sang songs to the flowers and plants.
3. There are children jumping from lily pad to lily pad near a dock and he really thinks we need to give that a shot.

Kids won't get tired of looking at this book because there is more fun hidden on every page.

I hope you have a good library system in your area so that you can cozy up with these good stories!
If not, go ahead and buy them, Leland says they won't disappoint.

So you aren't having Emory with-drawls, her she is in her St. Patrick's green and pink.
She really liked the books too but is teething pretty hardcore right now and can't be trusted with library goods!