The Home Project - Week 1

Five weeks from today will be Thanksgiving Eve.  A little over 9 weeks until Christmas.  I decided to start doing some of my deep cleaning now.  Not wait until right before the holidays and then stress out about trying to get it all done quickly.

I have decided that each week my goal is going to be to have one deep cleaning project and then one other project.  Would you like to join me in getting your house ready for the holidays?

Let's just set a small goal today.  Think of all the things you want to get done between now and Thanksgiving.  After Thanksgiving we will continue until Christmas but for now lets just think 5 weeks.

There may be some weeks you can do 2 deep cleaning projects but this week I am only going to focus on one.  My project this week is my baseboards.  Yes, to hand clean all my baseboards.  We have been in our house for over 9 years and I use to be pretty good about vacuuming them but with a three year old sometimes just to keep your house clean is hard enough without throwing in the baseboards!

So, in addition to cleaning them I told hubby we need to go pick up some touch up paint so I can touch up a few spots here and there.

My other project is to organize my little desk area.  It seems like it becomes a catch all for whatever may be in my hand  when I come in the door.

So who wants to join me and start now getting your home ready for the holidays and then you can enjoy the days leading up to the holidays rather than stressing over cleaning!!

If you want to join in the Home Project I would love for you to leave a comment below!

The Princess....Fall Flowers.....and Wave of Light

This weekend the Princess went shopping.  It was so funny because she found things she liked and told us she was going in the dressing room.  She has never tried things on in the dressing room before but has been with me trying things on.  We normally pick her clothes out and bring them home to try on.  She is growing up way too fast!  Here is a picture of her from Sunday morning wearing a new dress.  Hubby picked this dress out for her.

Sunday we took Kate's fall flowers to the cemetery.  The princess really wanted to take the scarecrow home.

If you saw my post yesterday, you know that October 15th is National Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day.  Last night I lit two candles, one for Kate and one for the little girl we lost through a miscarriage for the Wave of Light that was at 7:00pm.

Hope you all have a great Tuesday!! 

October 15th - National Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day

Today we celebrate and remember our babies that have gone to heaven before us.

National Pregnancy & Infant Loss Day is celebrated on October 15th.  I love, love, love there is a day to celebrate and remember all of our angel babies.  The picture above was taken several years ago at a balloon release.

Last Monday my MOPS group celebrated Pregnancy & Infant Loss Day a week early.  We did this because we meet on the 2nd and 4th Mondays.  One of the other MOPS moms who has had three miscarriages spoke and then I spoke.  It was such and honor and blessing to be able to share my story of Kate, my miscarriage and Ella's birth at the the meeting.  We also had a panel of 4 of my friends talking about what to do when your friend loses a child.  After the panel was finished we had a balloon release outside.  We released pink, blue and yellow balloons in memory of all the little ones that have gone to heaven before us.

Losing a child is one of the hardest things to go through and the grieving time can be such a long journey.  Without God I do not know how someone deals with such a loss.

I am so thankful for the friends that God had placed in our lives before we even knew about Kate.  They have walked the long journey with us in one way or the other.  Below is a picture of four of my friends that were friends before Kate was born.  They were all so sweet to take time out of their day and on a day their kiddos were out of school to come to the MOPS meeting.

 Ok, either I am really short or they all had on some mega heals last Monday!  I have a feeling it is the fact I am short. 

 (Picture is courtesy of our MOPS coordinator who also does photography.  She gave me permission to use it...thanks Christie!)

Tonight I plan on joining in the Wave of Light and lighting a candle at 7:00pm in memory of Kate and in memory of our little girl we lost through miscarriage.  If you would like more information on National Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day or the Wave of Light go to http://www.october15th.com/

Snapshot Saturday!

 

Growing up way too fast!!!

Super Easy Crock Pot Meal

Today over at Kelly's Korner she is hosting Crockpotalooza 2.  I love cooking in my crock pot.  One of my favorite things to make in the crock pot all year long is Chicken with Black Beans.

I love this recipe and even my 3 year old likes it.  I recently even took it to a friend who had surgery who has three little ones and she said her kids and husband all loved it.

This meal is so easy!!

What you need:
2-3 Frozen Chicken Breast
2 Cans Black Beans (or 1 can of black beans and 1 can of ranch style beans)
1 package taco seasoning (I use low sodium)
Tortillias
Cheese
Sourcream

In your crockpot first put in the frozen chicken breast, then the black beans and then the package of taco seasoning. 

• Cook on high 4-6 hours. 
• Once it is ready, remove the lid and using 2 forks shred the chicken and stir everything together.  
• (My husband does not like shredded chicken so I either try and slice it, you will see it is so tender it falls apart or sometimes I use chicken strips and then do not shred them

• Serve on tortillas with cheese and sourcream.

Enoy!!!!

Kate's 7th Birthday!

Kate's 7th birthday was September 15th.  This year the 15th was on a Saturday so we took balloons to the cemetery that day and took a cupcake for the Princess to have while we were there.

Each year a couple of our friends leave balloons and a gift on Kate's birthday.  It means so much to me for our friends to remember our precious Kate.  To know her memory lives on in other peoples lives too makes my heart happy.

The Princess was quite excited that Kate got a Barbie for her birthday from the Crowell's and Jeffcoat's.  Now to some of you that read this you may think this sounds strange....to those that know me well know it is just me...but we told the Princess that was Kate's Barbie and she gets to play with it. We are very open in our home with the Princess that she has a big sister named Kate.  She is only 3, so I realize she only understands so much but she will grow up knowing about her big sister.

Below, the Princess is getting ready to release a balloon for Kate's birthday.  I am guessing she was not to sure about letting go of it in this picture.

Up, up and away the balloon goes......Happy 7th Birthday Sweet Baby Kate!  You are missed and loved so very much!!

Birthday Party!!!

We celebrated the Princess birthday party on Sunday, the 8th of July.  I really like having her parties on Sunday afternoons because it gives us the weekend to finish up the last minute details.  I had a hard time deciding between a Strawberry Shortcake party and Jessie from Toy Story party.  The Princess loves to play with both of them so much.  I finally decided on a Jessie party and it was so much fun!!  The only thing is they really do not make party stuff for a Jessie party but thanks to Pinterest I got some great ideas.  I used cow print, bandana prints and red and yellow.  I think it turned out really cute!  There was probably around 30 people or so there.  It was a very fun day!!!

Here are pictures from this years party!  Still can't believe my baby is 3!!

Here is the cake!  On the top it had her name and then I added candles when we got ready to sing and and eat.  I thought the cake was so cute!  The same girl has made all the Princesses birthday cakes.  Her cakes are amazing and taste so good!!

 Here is the entry way.  I got the idea from Pinterest to include Mr. Potato Head and Mrs. (as the Princess calls her).  In the center is a bandana tray with bags of kettle corn for the take home treat.  Jessie and Bullseye were suppose to greet all the guest but the Princess did not always want Jessie left there....Jessie was in her hand alot of the party.

See what I mean...here she had taken Jessie and Bullseye off the table.

And here is the Princess enjoying her birthday cake!  This little girl loves sweets when she gets them.  I really did not notice she had put a crown on until after all the pictures were being taken....she wears one so much during the day playing that it never even phased me.....I guess I can just think of it as her birthday crown....

The etch a sketch was so much fun!  I have pictures of families with the etch a sketch too....here were a couple of the Princess and one of her friends with the etch a sketch.  So hubby cut this out for me and I painted it and my friend Jen, who also took the birthday pictures wrote the words on it.  So it really was a group effort.  I thought it turned out really cute though!  I want to figure out a way to incorporate it into the Princess playroom now I think it is so cute!!  Maybe a picture of her and use it as a frame or something.....I don't know....we will see what I end up doing.