I ♥ Fake Things...as long as they look real!

Am I the only one that loves these battery operated, flickering every so lightly, real looking candles??!! Not to mention that you can put them on a timer and they just come on at oh say...5 o'clock. Love that! Oh and they are lightly scented!!

I'm all about simplicity these days and these are perfect!

My mom gave us battery operated candles for our windows, that have a timer- talk about easy- I used to go to each and every window and flip the darn switch {I realize I may live in the dark ages but this is what I've done for the last several years during the holidays!} She gave us 4...so I need 5 more!!

And by the way, my youngest mobile munchkin has not even attempted to mess with my fake candles or the tree for that matter!...

{How big is Bennett??...Soooo Big!}

Have I mentioned he's pretty much the perfect little baby?;)

Oh and on a total side note, said munchkin has finally decided to crawl some on all fours!! {without the SPIO vest!}...

He still prefers his army crawl but every day he does it more and more! Yay!

******

Okay anyways, for a soft, romantic and festive look, run to your nearest Target and pick up some fake candles!

Now as far as real, smell good candles, these are my current faves for the holidays...

Just don't burn them at the same time-a little too much sweetness going on at the same time;) "Baked Apple Pie" is from Hobby Lobby and "Cookies for Santa" is from Target.

And since we have a fake tree...

This one fills the house with that real tree smell!

Sometimes fake=simple and I'm all about simple, as long as the fake/simple looks real!

Family....

You know I've never been a big fan of Thanksgiving. I don't know, I just really like Christmas so Thanksgiving was never a big deal for me when I was younger. One day of all. out. eating and then onto Christmas preparation. But now it's different. It's really about family and of course giving thanks. And we have so much to be thankful for. At times it seemed like we didn't this year but now we realize we have so much.

We have our family.

And I'm so thankful for mine.

Thanksgiving is a time to really treasure your family and this year I did.

There was plenty of time for mommies and daddies to relax because life is always so busy.

Time for tea parties at girly restaurants.

Time for perfect nights by the fire.

Time for practical jokes! My dad woke up to this in his yard (if you know my parents, this is typically not their holiday decorating style) but they got a good laugh from it and it's still up!

And of course lots of time for play.

That's what it's all about...family.

And I'm so thankful for mine.

18 Months.

Happy 18 months sweet boy! We love every little detail about you, right down to your beautiful, almond shaped eyes and we thank God for you every. single. day!

A New Contraption and Signs, Signs, Everywhere There's Signs...

So Bennett's private PT ordered the SPIO vest to help with the muscles in Bennett's tummy. Many times this vest is used for sensory processing disorder but in his case we're hoping to give his core strength and compression to get up off the floor and just help him in general with the stomach muscles. It's a tad silly looking- looks like a girl's bathing suit but it can be worn under clothes and he doesn't have to wear it all the time by any means. When he has it on though, he looks very fit and tight- lol and his posture is awesome! And I don't know, there may be something to it because when he has it on, as soon as I say "rock, rock, rock" he gets up on his hands and knees and will stay up for a long time. He hasn't really done this since he's started his efficient army crawl. So it's exciting to see this progress in just a day!

He's made a few attempts to move while up on his arms but will go right back to his old ways that are just plain easier for him and quite efficient. "Why on earth can't I just army crawl mom!?" "It gets me where I want to go!"

Sophie's impressed with this quick progress too;) Really she's hoping the kid's got some cheerios stashed somewhere!

Even without the vest he's been doing this leg thing where he tries to get up on his leg, almost like a bear crawl. His therapists are okay with this for now.

Okay, other than the vest, here he is showing off some awesome "crossing midline" techniques. He totally could have dropped the green circle but held onto it and got the blue one with the opposite arm-way to go Bennett! And I didn't even stage this exercise, he was just playing with them and I happened to take the picture. Crossing midline is great for cognition (reading, writing etc.).

Here he is imitating Ainsley by hitting his mouth and making noise at the same time. Look at that posture! He seems to sit nice and straight and usually will have one or both knees bent while in the SPIO-I really think he feels like he's more stable in it.

Oh how he loves to try an imitate his sisters!

So Bennett has really stepped it up in the signing department! I mean literally has starting using 5 or more signs a lot, some new that he just learned and some that we've been working on for months now. But all of the sudden he's decided to use them. He can now sign on command: all done, eat, more, mom, dad, thank you, night-night (I do the sign for bed for this because I think it's cuter!;)), dog and drink. He will sign without prompting: eat, daddy (hmmff!), more and all done. He seriously went from one here and there to all of these pretty consistently! He's also pointing out body parts-another thing we've worked on for months! I don't know what's happened but things are clicking and I love it!

We've got a nice break from therapy so we'll keep using the vest and see if it helps with his crawling! Someone will be 18 months in just a few days!

Fun and DECORATIVE party snack!

Alright, first off I am sooo not above bringing store bought cookies to school functions and such. With 3 kids, we are always running out the door to get places, seriously, RUNNING! It's almost comical...except it's not. Bennett's hanging on for dear life as I'm hurrying everyone out the door-I'm sure some of you can relate...I hope.

However, when I have the time and feel like doing something creative and fun I love to do it. So Ainsley has a girl scout Thanksgiving party and I thought I'd bring some chocolate covered pretzel rods-I've been wanting to make these because I love how they look standing in a glass vase, all pretty with all the different colors and sprinkles. Plus most kids love them and it's kinda healthy;) But I knew I couldn't bring a glass vase so I thought I could somehow use the plastic container it came in and then pretty it up! Here's what I came up with....

So I painted the Utz label with chalk board pant-took a few coats (tad gloppy, but I was in a rush) and then attempted to write a message {I have terrible hand writing} and draw what's supposed to be a turkey-LOL. Looks more like a dog paw now that I look at it but Ainsley immediately knew what it was so it can't be that bad!

I added some harvest mix candy corn to the bottom for the pretzels to stand on to make it look festive and then decorated my pretzels with brown, white and orange chocolate and even some caramel ones!

The view looking in. YUM!

So I thought this would be a cute little thing to have for a playdate, where there are lots of kids or you could offer it to a host for a casual party-she can reuse it-remember it's a tiny chalkboard! You could do peppermints at the bottom at Christmas, jelly beans at Easter, candy corn at Halloween- endless possibilities. My kids love these pretzels and I like how it looks sitting out so I think I'll be keeping this one-{the party isn't at anyone's house} and make some Christmas rods to put in it! Maybe my Christmas tree drawing will be better;)

Hey, did you notice my "eat" sign back there? No, I didn't make it but my friend Elisabeth did at "No Greater Gift" and she sells them to help with her adoption fund. I love how it looks in our kitchen! Thanks Elisabeth! Go check out her blog and help out a great cause!

Twins?

Now I hope you didn't think I was pregnant with twins!? LOL- No, no!

Anyways, I've said this before but I'm always getting comments about how Bennett looks so much like Harper and I took this recent close up of Bennett and then saw this one of Harper pop up on facebook and thought, wow, that was Harper at the exact same age....

Hello, twins! I mean, really!

My two little butterballs!:)

This....

...this large thing on my nose is what I get for going to the dermatologist! Ha!

{Why am I showing you? I don't know, maybe it makes me feel better to let you know, in case you see me and wonder if that's a wart on my nose!}

Okay, let me explain. First off, I go every 6 months now and I've been going for the last 5 years due to the history in my family, my fair skin and the down right stupid mistakes I made in the past ie: too much sun exposure and not enough sun block. Seriously, if I could take back the damage I did and listen to what my mom said, I would in a heart beat.

So I was extremely nervous for this check up even though I was just at another dermatologist in July, yes, less than 6 months ago. But everything with my dad has made me super nervous so I wanted another opinion. My old derm hasn't removed anything or frozen anything in 2 years and this new guy took off two moles, wants to remove 2 more and basically froze the tip of my nose off. But I'm loving this new guy. He's aggressive and that's what I want. He doesn't think the ones he's removed and the ones he's going to remove are bad moles but he doesn't want to risk it. Oh I'm just hoping and praying my old derm was right in his ways and this new guy is just overly cautious.

What was on my nose was called actinic keratosis- precancerous. It was an innocent small red mark, hardly visible but now it looks like a witches wart, it will go away-it's just a blister from the freezing he did, but it's a tad bit embarrassing. I've had this done before but forgot how it ends up looking for a good week or so. Did I mention it oozes from time to time? Yeah, gross, I know.

So now I wait. Wait for the biopsy results from the 2 moles he removed and wait to get these others removed and then wait for those results. I HATE waiting! I've waited in the past for things and received bad news. I've also waited and received okay news. But lately I've had issues with my health where I've had to wait, stress, wonder and quite frankly I'm over it! Am I nervous? Well how can I not be with everything that has happened with my dad? Speaking of my dad, he's doing well! He's getting radiation now but seems to be okay. He's recovered very well from his surgeries too. He's hoping to get into a clinical trial soon. Still need those prayers though;)

So I'm going to try real hard, with lots of prayer to not dwell on this. I really am sick of worrying about my health. Worrying won't change anything, it will only add more stress. I've changed my ways when it comes to the sun, (like pretty much gone to the extreme to avoid it and lathering up in sunblock every day, seriously.) and that's all I can do.

The take away for you is this: don't be stupid, go to the dermatologist and protect yourself from the sun. For the record my dad was not a sun worshipper like I was. You don't necessarily have to be. But if you are or you have a family history of melanoma, do yourself a favor and make an appointment.

Okay I'm stepping off my soap box now and that's the end of my little pity party;)

Kid's {mini} Bathroom Makeover...

Linking up to Kelly's Korner for "Show Us Your Life- Bathrooms". Our kid's bathroom was one of the only rooms I had not painted or really decorated and it was more girly than I wanted it to be, now that we have a little boy. So my goal was to make it a boy/girl bathroom although it's still probably more girly but I tried!

These are before....

just builder white on the walls and minimal decor.

The shower curtain (I already took it down) was a pale green with white polka dots, cute but I was over it.

Please ignore that dreadful looking hallway in the background!!

And after...

I found this umbrella shower curtain on etsy and liked how it had boy and girl colors and thought I would go with a "rain shower" theme-perfect for a bathroom-right! The color on the walls is hard to see in these pics and it looks different in every one but it's this light grayish-blue and I really like it with the rain theme.

I had a book of scrap paper and found these cloud/umbrella/ rainbow sheets and thought they were just what I needed to go with my theme.

After I purchased the curtain I found the same fabric and added it to the bottom of these white towels for decoration.

And then I made a simple valence for the small window.

These pictures were taken last year but I remembered I had them and again, perfect to go in the rain shower bathroom! Don't have any pics of Bennett playing in the rain yet but I'll be sure to add some when he does!

So sorry about the quality of some these pics- this bathroom is not big and I couldn't get the lighting right!

I found these vinyl letters at Hobby Lobby and thought they looked cute above their towel holders.

So it was a small makeover but sometimes just doing little things can make a big difference. I still would like to add more pictures on the wall and I have a small shelf to go above the toilet but just haven't gotten around to hanging it. I'm happy with the bathroom now though!

Pulling to Stand....

Bennett finally did it this morning!!! Every morning when we come and get him we encourage him to pull up and lately it's just taken one little finger push on the butt to get him up but not today! He crawled right over, stretched to reach for the top of the crib, pulled his knees in close and popped up! I got all excited and that scared him a little so I got the pouty lip, naturally:)

Now of course I don't have it on tape but hopefully he won't keep this little skill a secret and will show others...we'll see.

Yay! We've been waiting for him to do this for a long time!!!!

Oh and Bennett has now learned the "thank you" sign and he'll do it if he hears someone say "thank you" but not say it himself or do it himself in the right context. So yesterday in church I came to pick him up in the nursery and there he was just doing the "thank you" sign like crazy to the nursery worker and they didn't really understand (he does it good but the worker didn't know sign language) and I just laughed because I guarantee he heard someone say "thank you" when they picked up their child and off he went with his signing! So funny!