Happy Homemaker Monday

The weather in my neck of the woods: A mild, gloomy January day. All the snow has melted: and Hannah is wondering where her snowman went.

One of my simple pleasures: hugs

On my bedside table: Toddler Wise

On my TV: off right now

On the menu for tonight: left overs tonight

On my To Do List: laundry, grocery store,

New Recipe I tried last week: apple bars, touch down taco dip, mandarin chicken stir fry, Mom F's spanish rice, and grilled tuna melts

In the craft basket:still workin' on baby hat

Looking forward to: spring...where are you?!

Homemaking tip this week: find an organizing buddy...it's much easier to purge with someone there telling you that you don't need it! Thanks Beth! :)

Favorite Blog Post of the week (mine or other): I kinda took a break from blogging this past week with my sister here...so I'm sure that I missed reading some good posts, but I did read a few good ones.

• I'm forever taking to my teen girls about planning a time, but sometimes I need the reminder too! This is a good post!


• my dear husband linked to a post from John Piper in response to the earthquake...check out the great quote in his post too.

Favorite photo from last week: I just love every moment (well almost) with this little girl!

On my Prayer List: Haiti, friends and family

Devotionals, scripture reading, key verses:

Philippians 2:3,4

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look on only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

A winter walk

Friday was Seth's day off and the first day we had for some family time in a while. Seth was great to help me with some of the cleaning that I didn't get done during the week, and we enjoyed some fresh air. It warmed up a bit this weekend, so we decided to bundle up and take Hannah for a walk. She was so excited to see the snow again! Seth made her a mini snowman which she thought was great! (Now every time we go out to get in the car...she wants to walk over to say hi to him, and she loves to wave to him from our living room window :))

After we made a snowman we went walking. Hannah would stop every few feet, scoop up some snow and throw it in the air. When we got to the park, she loved wandering away from us and walking in the snow. Ah...the fresh air, even though it was cold, felt so good!

A week with my sister and best friend

We got home on Monday, and that same day my sister arrived with Ethan. I was so excited to get to see both of my nephews in the same day! My sister stayed from Monday until Thursday. We had a great week together. It was fun to take her to my MOPS group on Tuesday and Crosstrainers on Wed. It's nice to have her share in some of the experiences that I always talk about and meet some of the people here that are so special to me. We took both of the kiddos and ventured out the the Thrift store on Thursday (found some great deals), and did some organizing all through the week. Beth helped me organize my clothes (I think I filled 3 huge bags of clothes to get rid of..yes I have that many clothes!) and she helped me organize my kitchen pantry. It's always nice to have an organizing buddy...and I love that my sister is mine! It was also a joy to see Hannah help take care of and play with little Ethan. What a great week!

Ethan having a little bit of tummy time. He is starting to pick his head up now...unfortunately, I didn't catch in on camera.

What a cutie pie!

I love that he's full of smiles now!!

Hannah just LOVES her Aunt Beth! They played and read lots of stories together. When Beth told Hannah she was going home...Hannah even cried. The next morning she woke up and said "Where's Aunt Beth?" We both adore her and enjoyed our time with her so much...it's hard to see her go home...but at the same time we are so thankful for the moments that we had with her this past week.

an overnight with baby Eli

After we gave the teens back to their parents on Sunday...I couldn't get my one little one fast enough. The 2 hour car ride seemed so long..esp the last 15 minutes. It was nice to be greeted with hugs and kisses and hear all about her weekend. We met up at Cody and Erica's house so that we could spend some more time with them and Baby Eli. We enjoyed a pizza dinner with Dad and Mom F & Cody and Erica on Sunday night. We spent the night there...had the most delicious cinnamon rolls on Monday morning and headed back home on Monday afternoon. It was great to get some time with Cody and Erica and see them in action as "Mom" and "Dad"...they are already great parents!

my sweet little nephew...Elias

Hannah and Eli hanging out in their jammies

holding him is SO exciting!

I love this pic!

he's so tiny!

Snow Camp 2010

Well, I'm a week behind in blogging...it was nice to get a break from everything last week as I enjoyed some time with my sister and sweet little nephew.

Last weekend, we took the teens to Camp Barakel for snow camp. We took a small group of teens and had a great time with them. The Lord worked on all of our hearts, we enjoyed time of fun and fellowship and had great weather! Hannah spent the weekend with her Grandma and Papa. I missed her terribly, but they all had a great time...and I do know that it is good to get a "kid break" every once and a while. Here are a few of my favorite pics from the weekend:

Barkakel has a great tubing hill

fun ice skating with my girls :)

Seth and I went snowshoeing with Kimberly...it was a snowy adventure!

our broom ball team

what a great group of kids!

many of them made spiritual decisions over the weekend. Seth and I love being back in the camping atmosphere...esp. with our teens. It was exciting to hear from one of the girls this week...she's already putting what she learned into practice and had the chance to witness to two friends at school...praise the Lord!

Fun in the Snow!

It actually took a while for some good snow to come this winter. Once it finally came, I realized I didn't have boots for Hannah to wear out to play. We stumbled on a sale at Target this week, and planned to go out to play today because it was suppose to be one of the warmer days this week. It was a beautiful, sunny day, thank you Lord!

Hannah was ready to go! Thanks to the Rehbines for the great snow pants and coat!

my little sweetheart

She kept saying "look at the big snow"

she loved throwing it in the air

fun sledding! It was a good workout for me! First I pushed her, but that had me out of breath in no time, so I tied a sting onto the sled which worked much better. She had so much fun!

she would sit for a while, then lay down...what fun!

of course when we got inside we had to have hot chocolate. This was her first time tasting it and she just loved it! We sipped hot chocolate and read Biscuits Snowy Day.

What a fun morning with my little girl!

Fun with a Cardboard Box

Mommy needed a new flagpole for the house and found a great deal online. We love online shopping because, we don't have to go to the store, and I get to play with the boxes. This was a really tall box, so Mommy flattened it out and traced my body on it (she said that the kdg teacher in her couldn't resist). I've been coloring on it for 3 days now and still loving it.