Sugar sugar sugar

Now that I'm pregnant I have to think about my previous pregnancies and remember my sugar problem with Sarah. I remember when I was told that I had to cut out sugar, I cried and cried. What this meant was NOT that I couldn't have sugar but that I would have to eat steak and cheese because not only does that mean sugar but all carbs because they all turn into sugar. When I was pregnant with Sarah I didn't have to do that until the very end, 9 weeks left in my pregnancy. This has become an issue again already and it's hard. I think snack time is the hardest. I was just trying to find a snack to eat and it was Kielbasa, nuts or cooked broccoli, I chose the kielbasa. Probably not the healthiest but it sounded like the better of three options. All I really wanted was the monkey munch sitting on the counter that no one else is eating and I can't, maybe it's time to just throw it away. One of my good friends just found out she is diabetic and is having to make lifestyle changes which has been difficult. I need to get some good snack options from her. Oh and by the way, so far I am not diabetic but I do have to watch it and check my blood sugar periodically to make sure I'm keeping it under control.

Anyways, with all this said, could you please pray for me and my sanity in these snack times? I know it will get easier but there is no changing this one for 6 months (hopefully long enough to make a lifestyle change). Thanks for listening to me vent.

To end this on a lighter note:
Emma opening her Christmas present with her American Girl books, probably her most favorite

Bring on 2009

Now that we are the beginning of 2009, I thought I would just say how excited I am about this upcoming year. I think it will be pretty exciting with a new baby coming along and maybe a new layout in the home. I don't think any real vacations are in store for this year but hopefully some short jaunts to OMSI, Gilbert House or the coast.

This last week I spent most of the week updating our bedroom. I have never had a "pretty" bedroom so this was very exciting to me. I am just in awe at how well it turned out, thanks to some wonderful friends. The pictures don't really show it very well, I guess I'll have to see if I can get a better picture to share.

This next week I think will be a difficult one. John is headed back to work after a week and a half off and now it's back to school time. We didn't do much school in between Thanksgiving and Christmas so now it's back to the real life and real schedule. It might prove to be a tough week. Lots of prayer and perseverance should get us through just fine.

For Christmas I got some new filters for my camera and I am so excited to start using them. Hopefully you'll see a neat difference in some of my pictures. I guess that's what you'll have to look forward to here is some more experimenting with the cam.

HAPPY 2009

PS I know I never posted the last two doctrinal questions here and maybe those will be in my projects for the next couple of weeks. Keep your eyes peeled.

This one is for you to clean up!!!!

Those are the words I heard from John while I was preparing lunch for the girls and their friends.

Here is the question of the day:

What happens when you get a 4 year old, a 6 year old and costume makeup together????










After an hour of clean up, they are all back to normal and I am frantically trying to get the clothes clean.

I hope everyone's Christmas was a joy. We started our newest tradition this Christmas Eve. For our dinner we had shrimp & pasta with alfredo sauce and crab. It was such a good dinner that we will be keeping it as our traditional Christmas Eve dinner every year.


Here are the girls getting ready to open up their traditional jammies on Christmas Eve.

Goodies

So I've been slacking on my blog again. Between Christmas, making goodies, parties, decorating the house, shopping, homeschooling, yada yada yada, who has time for blogging this season. I am exhausted already but I guess I do have an extra excuse. For those of you who don't know, we are expecting #4. We do have 3 girls already and we are praying for that boy (or for God to change our hearts and help us to be OK with His will). You can follow along with the ticker on my sidebar (which I don't think is accurate but we should be able to update it on Monday).

Here are the goodies we've been busy making. Well OK, I can't really take credit for these. My darling hubby made these ones, I wouldn't have the time, patience or energy for these but he does. He makes these every year for his goody day at work. I'm not sure how many this recipe makes but he doubles it and we have pastries all over the kitchen. They are so good and so worth all the work. He usually spends about 6-7 hours making these and even skipped church this time for them. Thankfully he makes enough for us to have some extra for ourselves and we even have enough to spread to the neighbors this year. See what I've been busy with, the bags of chex mix, (right behind those yummy pastries) they took me a whole 5 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes of baking. Well they probably took a little longer because I had 4 year old hands helping me this time. I love how this year holiday baking really has been pretty low stress this year. I might tackle some cookies for the kids to decorate but I will make the cookies and I will be frosting them when the kids aren't watching. They can sprinkle! Today will be toffee bars, YUMMMMM!

I don't know how much blogging I will be doing between now and Christmas, I'm just too tired! Enjoy this season to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior! Cherish this time with your kids! Love your family! Relax!!!! Read His Word!

The V Family

So I did another fun photo shoot the other day. This one was so fun to do. No pressure just get some cute Christmas Pictures. I asked permission to share and so here they are. Enjoy!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

We put up our Christmas tree yesterday and the girls had fun getting out all of the fun decorations and remembering all the fun memories of every year. It was fun to watch Emma tell us where everything was supposed to go based on years past and tell us everything that we normally do this time of year. A few of our traditions are..... drinking hot chocolate while we are putting up the tree, the girls always get new jammies on Christmas Eve, cutting our tree down in the woods, we always listen to "Thistlehair the Christmas Bear" by Alabama while we are decorating the tree, the girls always do the Advent calendar every morning, the red card hanger always goes where the black framed picture was, making gingerbread cookies, etc etc. All the things they remember from every year. I hope they always remember the things we do and start their own fun traditions with their kids.

After seeing Kim's tree, I really don't want to put a picture up of ours. It's not my favorite tree but we went and picked it out in the woods and that's another fun tradition and that's more important. What are your family traditions that your kids remember?


John's wrestling our tree out of it's old home

Here it is, ok, we did have to cut it a little. It wouldn't have fit into our house being that tall.

Deal of the Century

So here is the deal of the Century. I was just forwarded this link to artscow.com to receive a 8x8 photo book for $6.99 & free shipping. The really cool thing is that you also get 600 4x6 prints and 600 5x7 prints. Now that's a deal. I think you end up getting 50/month for 12 months. I don't know that I really want 1200 prints laying around my house but it's a good deal to have the opportunity to take advantage of if I so choose. I think that once you share your book on thier site to get ratings then you also get 2-3 more books in your account. I don't think there is an expiration date on it either, it's just for first time members. Anyways, if you follow this link I also receive referral credits for you joining. I think it sounds like a pretty sweet deal. Now, one thing, I have not done this yet, I can't say anything about their customer service or the quality but it looks good enough to try out. Sounds like great Christmas presents. ENJOY!!!