There's no place like home

I am so thankful to be back to our "normal" routine again.  After 10 days of little to no naps and being on the go nonstop, I am worn out.  I thoroughly enjoy the day to day schedule the boys and I have.

With that being said, we did have a blast visiting all of our friends and family in Memphis. I will do several post throughout the day with pics of some of the events/activities from our trip.  

Rise and Shine

Last night was hard on this momma.  I went to bed late last night and got to sleep one full hour before the first kid woke up crying.  For the next FIVE hours, at least one (at some points all three) kiddo was awake.  I then got to sleep 2 continuous hours before waking up with Beau yet again. At that point, it was time to get up and moving. It's usually a long day when you wake up tired but today that wasn't the case.

Today has been another wonderful day!  I got up this morning, got everyone dressed and out the door for church by 8:30, ate a yummy breakfast at church (like we used to do every Sunday when we lived here), worshipped our Lord and was reminded to pass down our thanks giving to our children, had lunch with my dear friend Christi, then drove to Searcy, AR to pick up daddy and back.  Today has been go, go, go, but it's been full of blessings.  We are thankful to have Daddy with us as we visit more family and friends over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Homemade Mixes in a Jar

Sorry I haven't posted for two days.  Traveling w/ 3 kids 4 years old and under is tough.  So thankful to see the hubby after picking him up this afternoon in Searcy.  He has been greatly missed!!!

While we've been home, the boys and I have visited with a few friends, done a little shopping, and worked on homemade Christmas jar gifts. Yesterday, Brett , Beau and I went to our sweet friend, Mrs. Terri's, house while Eli went to another friend's house to play.  He had a great afternoon with 14 month old Cayden (or as he calls her...Cayd).  He even got to play in the bounce house the neighbor had.  Brett spend the day at Mrs. Terri's playing with Luka, the dog and building cool Duplo Lego creations. Beau enjoyed some snuggle time with Robert.  My mom, Aunt Jannie, Mrs. Terri, and I spend the afternoon in the kitchen making homemade hot chocolate and brownie mixes in jars for Christmas gifts. We had a great time visiting.  We usually do a ton of baking and candy making, but us getting together is one tradition we have done almost every year for as long as I can remember. it's a tradition I truly cherish!

Here is a pic of Mrs. Terri and Aunt Jannie working hard. 

Here is one of my mom and Mrs. Terri working on the brownie mix jars. 

And here is one of my mom, Aunt Jannie, and me.

To-do is now To-DONE

Whew...what a busy day!  Woke up late this morning, which is never a good thing, but managed to get most everything done.  Finished almost all the laundry, picked up the playroom, packed our bags for Thanksgiving back home, loaded the car, went to MOPS for sanity purposes, did last minute cleaning and picked up things I forgot to pack, gased up the van, did preschool pick up, drive-thru lunch, hit the road by myself with all three boys for 6 hours, met MiMi for dinner, and then went to see the 10 pm showing of Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (which is AMAZING) with a dear friend.  I am exhausted!  Somehow, I didn't panic, get up set, or freak out due to the overwhelming list of "to-do's" today. We made it safe and sound to our destination with 2 stops, 3 movies, 2 kids that napped, and only a little crying (mostly from Baby Beau who got hungry)...overall, I count this as a very successful road trip.

Little funny from today's car ride: we were driving through some construction and a lady swerved over into our lane unexpectedly to avoid something in the road. As I slam on the breaks, I hear from the back seat, "bumper cars, bumper cars" being sung by my 4 year old.  Made that moment of would-be panic into a moment of laughter.  Love that he is so silly!

Here is a pic of the older boys in the backseat holding hands as we traveled. so sweet!

The Mischevious Middle

Today was quite a day!  I started my morning going to my weekly bible study called "The Significant Woman".  Every week the devil tries his best to keep me from attending.  Today was probably one of the worst schemes he (the Devil) has used so far.  Here's what happened:  I got to the church campus a little early so I allowed Eli, the middle child, to get out of his car seat and play in the van while we waited.  We put Toy Story 3 in the DVD player.  Everyone was happy.  After a few minutes, I smelled a little present from Eli.  I got out of the van and went around to change the "shoo-shoo" diaper. I closed the doors so Eli wouldn't jump out into the parking lot while I walked maybe 10 feet to the nearest trash can.  As soon as the doors closed, Eli hit the power locks!!!!!  The keys, Baby Beau, and Eli were now all locked in the van which was still running!  I tried for 15 minutes from outside the van to coach Eli on how to unlock the door.  I was in tears!  I could hear Beau screaming inside.  Eli was having a hay day pressing EVERY button on the dash other than the unlock button!  He turned the windshield wipers on numerous times, the DVD off, the radio on, turned the volume all the way up to where I could hear the words to Taylor Swift's Never Ever song, and all I could do was cry and say "no-no". I called the hubs and he called a lock-smith.  Just then, the Lord sent a lady who worked at our church.  She saw me and my panicked attempt to get Eli to unlock the doors.  She says, "Are you locked out?". Through my tears, I cry out, "yes ma'am, and my kids are in there!".  she replies, "Ok, let me call and get the number to our locksmith on campus."  What do you know, our amazing church has someone who was able to quickly come to my rescue.  I called the hubs back and told him we didn't need the locksmith afterall.  The hubs still came to console me as I calmed down.  After my kids were safely out of the van, I dropped Eli off to his class and wiped my mascara covered face as I walked to my bible study.  Every week something crazy happens...I burn the casserole for our brunch, my van gets stuck in park before class and has to be towed, etc.  The Devil seriously doesn't want me to hear what the Lord has for me in this study.  But thankfully I have friends who encourage me to come back every week.  The Lord is teaching me about more than just how to be a Significant Woman and embrace who God created me to be; He is teaching me how to deal with the unexpected craziness, the bumps in the road, that I WILL encounter as I go through life. I need to lean on Him in times like these and find the lessons He is teaching me.  I'm so glad days like today don't happen every day!

Here are a few pics of Eli in the locked van.  You can see he wasn't too upset.  The kid just kept smiling.

Blogging Beginning

Today begins my journey into the blogging world. I'm very new to this so please bear with me as I learn all the ins-and-outs. If you are a fellow blogger, please help me...any tips/advice you can give would be much appreciated.  With that being said, here goes.

I'm creating this blog as a way to capture my crazy life with 3 boys (aka my 3 monsters) in words and pictures. So who are my monsters?  The first monster is Brett.  He's 4 and full of silliness!  The second monster is Eli.  He is 22 months and the mischievous one. Then there is Beau, who is my 4 months old cuddle monster.  I plan to share things that happen in our daily lives whether it be funny, sad, crazy, encouraging, annoying, silly, or just what happened that day.

I will also use this to share pics of renovations we do to our 80's style house, as well as, different crafts I create (vinyl lettering/wreaths/pinterest inspired creations).  The Lord has given me the gift of craftsmanship so I try to use this in everything I do.

Here's a pic of the three little monsters...aren't they innocent looking!

P.S. I am going to try my best to post daily.