Steals of the day!

Today was the MOTHER of all garage sales for our area, and I had a grand time searching for deals, not only for myself, but for my friend and her sisters!  I was out the door by 6:15am. Yikes, early for a Saturday, but so worth it!!!

$2.00
My solo item for Mr. Steady- a Quicksilver jacket, fits perfect and he loves it!  I should have bought a few more things for my man at this sale, but the guy wouldn't budge on the price... well and that is no fun : )

$.25
StarWars Puzzle for H.   He was super excited for a new 100 piece puzzle (his current level)

$2.00
Hooked on Spanish-  I have been looking for some kind of spanish program to do with H this summer and next year as part of his school time.  It is a computer program, which H will love as that boy can't get enough "screen time."

$5.50
5 pairs of kids shoes, but all in perfect condition!  $2.00 for the black/ flame All Stars (Converse) , $1.00 for the brown All Stars, $.50 for the gray All Stars. $1.00 for the Puma, and $1.00 for Quicksilver flips!

$6.00
Scooter for my sweet Bug (and gender neutral, so someday for B-man).  I saw this at one garage sale early in the morning for $20.00.  And I seriously considered it, but decided that was too much.  Patience paid off, I found it at another sale for so much less!  Bug LOVED it!!

$3.00
Helmet for B-man, though, Bug thought it was pretty cool and wanted to wear it on her scooter ride.

$10.00
Pottery Barn Full/ Queen Car quilt!  It was marked at such a great price, that I didn't even negotiate at all!  This will be perfect for one of the boys!

$3.00
Booster seat for Bug at the table!  I have been on the look out for one of these for the last few years!  And a black one non-the-less, which matches our table!  (Retails for $36- $43) 

$10.00
Table and 4 chairs.  I might someday change the color, but I love the shape, size and sturdiness of the set!  Great space for puzzles, crafts or even school work!

My personal favorite deals of the day... 

$50.00
Sounds like a lot for a garage sale purchase.... 5 pairs of designer jeans (2 pair of Sevens, 3 pairs of Joes)... for just TEN bucks each!  Steal, I am telling you : )  Each one retails for well over $100!  And not only were they a great deal, but they are the PERFECT fit, short little legs and all!  I couldn't have bought these jeans off the rack that would fit me so well!  Woooo Hooo!

FREE
An awesome, cozy Banana Republic sweater.  The lady that sold me the jeans threw it in for free : )

**********

There were a few other purchases made today, some for friends... so give me your wish list for next time.  I can be your personal shopper, or garage sale assistant if you want to go together : )

Garage Sale Season is HERE!!

My loot... $5.50!!!

 Large Aquadoodle Mat: $0.50- retails for $41

 Puzzle Map of the US-$0.50- retails for $16.10

 Books $2.50-  retails for way more than $50

Shorts for H $2.00- worth at least $35

Tomorrow is a HUGE neighborhood garage sale... ohhhh, I can't wait!!  Last year I seriously made out like a bandit!!

Mom of the year... not me!

Here is my humble and embarrassing moment from last weekend...  bear with me, you need a little background before I can divulge the details of my escapade.

My dear friend Kathy invited our family to join her family for an Easter Egg hunt that her community was putting on.  We met them early for lunch, then walked over to the park where the festivities were being held.  The kids started out with a pony ride, egg hunt for the littlest peeps, then off to bounce houses, and more.  H, decided that he wanted to do the sack race, so our little family went over to cheer H on!

As soon as the sack races were over we went to find Kathy and her family.  The middle of the park was getting really quite crowded, so we decided to walk around the back side of some of the bounce houses up on a little hill (mistake #1).  Then we spotted Kathy frantically pushing her stroller around with just her son, eyes pacing the crowd, looking for her 3 year old.  In an attempt to help I offered to watch her son, and that Mr. Steady would help look for her little girl.

Mr. Steady parked our jogging stroller (not the double), placing the hand break and making sure it wouldn't roll anywhere (mistake #2).  Kathy handed me her stroller; I was going to watch her baby and my 3 while everyone was on the search for her little girl.  We were doing great the first few minutes of me and the 4 little ones.  H and Bug were staying right by me, B was content in his stroller, and Kathy's baby was happy as long as I was pushing him back and forth... really up and down on this little hill (mistake #3).

Bug turned to me and said, "Mama, I'm thirsty!"  So I pointed to the top of our stroller to where her water was (mistake #4).  Bug walked over and reached up as high as she could to try to get her water out of the cup holder on the stroller, and in the process pushed on the stroller.

"Bug, NOOOOOOOOOOO."  Before I could do a darn thing, B-man's stroller tipped over down the little hill.  It was like it happened in slow motion and I couldn't get there fast enough.  All the contents of the stroller spilled all over the hill.  B was startled, but not hurt at all.  I quickly un-strapped B, and a sweet stranger helped me get the stroller up-right and picked up all of my spilled items. 

By the time I snuggled my little man and made sure he was ok, Kathy was back.  And she said to me, "Did you realize that you let my stroller go and it rolled down the hill with my baby in it???  A stranger had to stop it."  (mistake #5) AHHHH, what in the world!  In all of  the CHAOS around my kids I had let Kathy's baby cruise down the hill and DID NOT even realize it at all!  Mortified, I was way embarassed by this point in time.  Kathy laughed at me, and was so sweet in forgiving me for being so careless. 

Again, I had to take a few deep breaths, the anxiety in my chest was seriously making it hard to breath!  I was so thankful that both baby boys were okay!  B was now calm and happy, I decided not to put him back into the stroller (thought that might be a little tramatic), so I pulled out my Becco (baby carrier) and started strapping it on me to put him in.  I couldn't do up the last strap while holding him, so I set him down on the grass at my feet (mistake #6).  As soon as he was sitting, his little top-heavy self flipped forward and started rolling down the hill.  By this time, I am feeling completely incompetent to do the simplest of mothering duties,  and completely embarrased, swetting from the stress!  It is almost comical how out of control the last 5 minutes have been.  I scoop up my little man, put him in the carrier, apologizing to him over again that he could have been hurt and that he was scared!

I was ready for this craziness to be over... and I thought it was over... Well until, H walked up to the jogging stroller, hardly leaned against it and it tipped over again! (thankfully, without baby this time).  At that moment I decided that it was time to get the heck out of dodge.  What else could possibly go wrong on the tiny little hill???  I am sure we provided some great comic relief for some on-lookers, some may have even deemed me worst mom of the year!

I guess it just proved the point of the stranger from Costco last week... I better not have another.  4 kids might tip me over the edge... at least it did momentarily on that grassy hillside at the park!

10 Months Old!

Little Bro is 10 months and a few days old {this mama is running a little behind}

Some of B's latest skills and realities...

Walking around furniture

Speed crawling

Climbing stairs

Drinking formula, and starting to hold his own bottle (Seems late to some of ya, I know)

Goes limp (in protest) arms above his head when you pick him up when he doesn't want you to... or when laying him down for the change pad

Loves the dishwasher and Tupperware cupboard, even though they are both off limits... throws fit when I move him away

 

Knows his name, will stop and look at you

Mr. Smiles

Loving cheese and yogurt, doing well with dairy

Loves music and will dance along

Loves to put ALL things in his mouth... as you could see on the Easter Photos.

Plays Peek-a-Boo

Has 3 teeth, and a 4th ready to poke through any day

Loves to be tickled

Loves to eat, especially bread

And my favorite picture from this month of B...  

If one is good, two must be better!!

Happy Easter!!

 don't you just love B's determination to get the whole egg in his mouth?!?

 

Praying it was a blessed day for you and yours!

Oh happy day, happy day
You washed my sin away
Oh happy day, happy day
I'll never be the same
Forever I am changed

strangers comments

So today, I had a first, that I had to tell ya'll about...

I was at Costco with my 3 little peeps, it was 1:45 by the time we were checking out... (15 minutes into what should be naptime).  Everyone was happy and doing great.  H was sitting in the back part of the cart, Bug was in the front, I had just pulled B-man out from sitting next to Bug.  He was in my arms, facing forward and holding on to the cart (like he was trying to help me push).  {do you have a visual}

Anyway, an older gentleman said to me "Please don't have another!" chuckle, chuckle!  Then he added in something about me needing another arm.

Seriously, he made it sound like we were the walking freak-show or something. Yes, it was hard to steer the cart, yes, I probably looked a little funny, trying to push with one arm and holding B with the other.  But really, everyone was happy and behaving so that has to count for A LOT!  Maybe I look more frazzled in public than I think.  Who knows!

I walked away thinking, "did he really say that out loud?"  Where is his wife, he needs his filter checked...

Maybe I need to get this book!  One arm for each of my kiddos!

My friend Dena always says, that a mom should grow a new arm for each child she has.  Guess this little old man subscribes to the same school of thought : )

Threats / Warnings

Do you find yourself counting??  Warning? Threatening? Raising your voice?
When you ask your kids to do something, do they obey right-away or do they wait for YOUR cue?  What is the cue you give your kids to finally listen to you?  We all train our kids to listen (or not listen) to us.  They learn to know when we mean business, when we are serious, when we are about to loose it...

I am totally convinced that we are all training our kids, even when we don't realize it.  If you ask your child to do something and they don't do it, do you start counting?  If so you are training your child to obey after you have said "two", but before you say "three!"  If you are one that is apt to raise your voice, you child may not see the importance in listening to you until you reach the right decibel they have grown accustom to.  If you are the parent that gives out threats {dare I say, idle threats} you are teaching your child that your word can't be trusted, that you lack follow-through.  And if you are warning your child over and over again, they are learning that you don't really mean what you say, and that they don't have to listen to you at all.

One of our dear friend's husbands described to Mr. Steady and I once why he hates warnings so much because of what it does to him.  "The first time I give an instruction I am calm. If the instruction is ignored. I warn again, this time still calm, but getting a tiny bit frustrated.  By the third, forth or tenth time I have to ask, I am completely frustrated!  I don't like to respond to my kids when I am frustrated."  Isn't that so true?!  That the frustration in us builds each time we have to repeat our instruction.  Or is it just me that feels that way?

A few years ago I had a friend over and her child kept disobeying her.  She said to her son, "If you do that again, you are going to get a time-out."  Two minutes later my friend said "If you do that again, your going to get a time-out." This happened over and over (at least, no joke 8 times), with NO time-outs given.  I was biting my tongue {literally} - all I wanted to say to her was, "If you threaten a time-out one more time and don't follow-through, I'm going to put you both in time-out!"

You see, {in my opinion} she was training her child that he didn't have to listen to her; that she wouldn't follow through and that what she said didn't matter.  And to be honest, it is really a dis-service to our kids to give more than one warning, and especially idle threats, becuase our poor kiddos never know when you are actually going to follow through... any consequence will feel like a surprise to them.... because you have threatened before and not followed through, so why now????

I am so guilty of this!  This is just one of many examples, but I have found my self saying, "if you do that again we are going to leave." Then I didn't leave when they did it again.... becuase it was inconvenient for me.  Uggh, it is so hard!  There are so many areas in parenting where we need to die to self, to put our child's heart (and heart-training) above our agenda, conversations and convenience!

Here are a few things to consider...

• It is better to say nothing than to threaten something and not follow through!  
• Remember that you are the one giving your kid the cues for when they really have to obey.  Consciously decide it you are okay with your current cues or if you need to regain some self-control and consistency.
• Remember the more warnings, the more likely you are to get frustrated.  Keep your heart, actions and tone of voice in check.
• Kids rise to the expectations put on them.  It will never be perfect.  We have kids with sinful hearts, and we as parents have sinful hearts.  But I promise that if you expect sass, you will get sass.  If you expect (and therefore condone) arguing, you better believe that your child is becoming an expert debater.  Don't be afraid to expect obedience the first time you ask something.
• If/when you decide that you are going to change things up in this regard... Start by talking with your child about it.  Let them know that how you have been doing things is going to change.  Apologize, and tell them that how you handled this in the past was not the best way, that your job as a mommy or daddy is hard and that you are sorry that you did not do it right from the start.  Then tell your child what is now expected of them, and how you will follow through.

Parenting is a hard job, no need to make it harder on yourself or your child by being inconsistent with your expectations and follow-through.  Kids thrive on consistency, it gives them security, even when the consistency entails consequences!

"Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from evil."

Matthew 5:37

life update

Whew life has been busy, it has been so fun, and it has left me little time for blogging...

Here are some random thoughts and updates...

We have had lots of company (which we love)!!!  One of my friends here said to me, "you guys are sure popular!"  I assured her that really we just live in a popular place to visit : ) 

Little Miss Bug is talking up a storm!  Funny things she says... "Ooopsi gazie," or "Busyland" instead of Disneyland.  She calls my friend's son Levi, "Why why."

H-man has an increasing passion for all-things math.  He is working on Sudoku puzzles and Numbrix.  What am I going to do to keep this little math-mind stimulated???

H and Bug are incredible at getting B to smile and laugh (a true belly-laugh).  So fun!!

We just completed a 14 week parenting class.  You would think that we should be "expert" level parents after that intense of a class.  But more than anything we realized how many areas of parenting we desire to grow in.  We loved the class.  It was a lot of work, but well worth the time we put into it.  If you are in the SoCal area and would like more information, let me know.

My friend Jenn, said to me today, "Kel, it sure seems like you have your grove down of having 3 kids!"  Ha, glad she saw me on a good day : )

We are looking at houses in our area... we love the house we are renting, but trying to decide if it is time to buy. 

We are still a little up in the air for school decisions for H for next year.  Do I homeschool full-time or be a part of a homeschool hybrid where I would homeschool a few days and he would go to school the other days?  Would love prayers for wisdom!

Working on a project with our Christmas Cards from last year.  If you sent us one, could you email me some areas where we can be praying for your family?  I will post on this more later.

Gas is SO expensive here!  It was $4.11 a gallon the other day at Costco.  It cost me $85.00 to fill up my car... seriously makes me sick to think about!  It really makes me question, where I am driving and if it is worth the cost!

I have almost finished sewing the binding on Bug's baby quilt... only 2 years late!

I have loved and been challenged by Bible-study.  If you haven't read 1st, 2nd or 3rd John or 1st and 2nd Peter lately.  I challenge you to dig into these books of the Bible!

This weekend has felt like summer!  Warm evenings, lots of beach time, swimming in the pool, ice-cream cones in the back yard, garage sales, lemonade, shorts and flips.  Ah, so thankful for a beautiful weekend!

Life should slow down a little and I'll be more consistent with blogging, I promise!

Resurrection Eggs

 

Today we started the Resurrection Eggs (I think I was supposed to start yesterday, but it will work)!!  It's not too late to start if you want to create your own, I found two tutorials for you.  Click here or here.

It is so fun to go through this with the kids.  H of course loved it and I was surprised at how well Bug listened to the story. 

I love this Easter tradition!

Stay-cation

The last 2+ weeks have been full of...
company
tourist things
fun and laughter
yummy meals
enjoying all that SoCal has to offer

This very well has been one of my favorite at-home vacations, or as we like to call it stay-cations : )

Here are some fun pics of all that we have been up to...

 Fun times with cousins at SeaWorld

My mom and step-dad

 Spent time with my mom and sister

 Celebrated Mr. Steady's Birthday

Beach time with Kaitlyn

Legoland with Utah friends

 

sweet Hally

Bug decided that the designer of this character didn't make him colorful enough... she had to add some more legos : )

 H&H (best buddies since birth) and a random lego boy

 Time with our dear friends!!!
 Love all 6 of these little people : )

Fishing excursion... caught a brown rockfish

Whew, life has been busy and oh, so fun! 

Giveaway Winner

#6 Mrs. Dana!  Benjamin's Box is coming your way!

More blogging to come soon!  We have been delighted to have company for the last 16 days!  I haven't had much time to blog, but lots of fun pictures to come!

Easter Giveaway

**** Contest Closed****

Wow, it is already only 3 weeks until Easter!  Time to start getting ready for one VERY special day!
In an effort to help your family prepare I wanted to host a special giveaway. 

Last year to help us prepare for Easter we used some amazing tools; The Resurrection Eggs and the book Benjamin's Box.  I HIGHLY recommend both!  I would love to give the book Benjamin's Box away to one of you faithful (or new) readers!  The book and eggs are 12 days of preparing for Easter... yikes that is coming up soon!

Here is how you can enter to win:

1. Leave a comment with your favorite Easter tradition.
2.  Become a follower of my blog (and leave a comment telling me  you have done so)
3.  Post on your blog or your facebook status the link to this contest on my blog (leave a comment with a link to your blog or facebook wall).

You can enter one time for each category above. 
Contest will be closed on Tuesday the 5th at 5pm.