My Baby is 2 Today!

**Sigh** My "Baby" Lily is no long a baby. It's been a while since I've looked at her baby pictures. How far she's come! :)One of the rare moments Lily actually was sleeping peacefully

Happy in Alabama!
Modeling a sweater made by Mommy

One of the latest (in D.C.)

So, today we had cupcakes and ice cream. Saturday is the official party. Too bad she had a fever today. :(

It's amazing how fast the time flies. If you're a mom of littles, remember to treasure them! I'm already missing holding a baby in my arms. These precious gifts of God are only on loan for a short time and then they'll grow up and be on their own. I hope you remember to treasure your precious gifts this week!

Our Trip to D.C. (Part 3)

If you missed them, you can read part 1 and part 2 of our trip.

Relaxing after a hard day with some ice cream!

In front of the Supreme Court building

The National Botanical Garden. It was very beautiful and I highly recommend it!

Ok, this requires explaination. Our almost 2 year old has been throwing tantrums lately. Because I made her hold my hand, she layed down on the ground (sidewalk by a road) and screamed. At the time, it was so funny to me I was laughing and took a picture. It had been a long day and even longer week and she had reached her limit I guess. Bad parenting, I know, but I let it slide that time. :D

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

Our last full day in the city was spent with some family, the Botanical Garden and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (both of which are free!). I think that Air and Space is one of their best and most popular museums. It's an excellent place to go with children, but perhaps not very young children. Older children will really appreciate all the great exhibits and activities gear for their age group.

Our last day of the trip, we took the Metrorail into the city to visit the Smithsonian National Zoo. It was free and huge. We were too cheap to buy a $2 map and got lost and turned around a few times! We definitely didn't see everything and will have to go back sometime. :)

On Monday I'll post my tips for traveling with small children! Are you planning any trips or vacations this summer? Where are you going?

Our Trip to D.C. (Part 2)

You can read Part One of our trip here. After a good night's sleep, we were all up and ready to go early. On our second full day, we decided to hit all the outdoor memorials because it was going to be a beautiful day.

Two beautiful girls ready for a big day!

Our first stop was to find parking! We parked really far away, but at least it was free. Our first stop was the Jefferson Memorial. The girls were a huge hit with a group of Asian tourists. Many of them took their pictures and thought they were so sweet!

Next was the FDR Memorial. It was our first time seeing this one and I was very impressed. It was near the lake with a park and several beautiful waterfalls.


Of course, the Lincoln Memorial was on the list of sites to see. Unfortunately, Lily was getting very anxious to run around and we let her go. She made a beeline for the memorial and slipped under the chain around it. I had to sprint (in front of several people taking pictures) to grab her before she started climbing on it. :D

A picnic lunch, so much cheaper and more fun than eating out! The cooler was a little bulky, but the savings made up for it

Our stroller is great. It's seen a lot of different places!

Next, we went to the Washington Monument, where Lily went up to strangers, talked to them and even started rubbing one woman's leg, who was thankfully very understanding! Then, we walked a LONG way to the Smithsonian Art Museum. Lizzy hitched a ride in the back of the stroller. I wished I could too.

Lizzy said this was her favorite picture in the art museum :)

After that, we went through the Smithsonian American History Museum and Lily did a somersault over an exhibit bar and landed in it. Oy! After that, we finally walked back to the car which seemed to be miles away.

It was a fun, eventful day after which I was exhausted, sun burned and decidedly a day that needed to end with ice cream ice cream! :) I'll post about the final part of our trip tomorrow, along with my tips for traveling with small children.

Our Trip to D.C. (Part 1)

My husband and I recently took a trip to Washington D.C. with our two girls (3 and almost 2) and my brother and his girlfriend. I thought I'd share a little bit about our "vacation" and at the end, I'll discuss some ways I've found to make traveling with kids somewhat manageable. :)

We drove. It was looooong. But not too long. It took about 7 hours (t should have been 6). W got stuck in traffic and construction..... with a potty trained 3 year old. Guess what happened about 10 miles from our destination in bumper to bumper traffic? Yep. She started screaming she had to go potty. NOW! Long story short... we did what we had to do. And I throughly cleaned the plastic container out later. :P

It was wonderful when Lily finally fell asleep. By the time we got to te hotel, we ate dinner and relaxed.

The next day, we went to Arlington National Cemetery and Arlington House. We decided not to take a tour or bus. Instead we walked and walked and WALKED. And it was hot. But we saw pretty much the whole place, the changing of the guard, Arlington House and the gardens, an old ampitheater and JFK's gravesite. It was all beautiful and quite the experience.




We then drove into the city, parked in a valet garage (gag) and went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. Because we weren't far (and because we already had to pay to park) we walked to the White House and all around it.

The girls were wiped out!




In front of the white house

So sweet!!

By the end of the day, we were exhausted. We all went back to the hotel early and had crockpot chicken and veggies for dinner. Hopefully, tomorrow, I'll be able to continue this post. I'm having a lot of trouble with blogger lately. :( I think it's time for a move.....

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Toy

The kiddos checking out mommy's new Christmas toy. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Staycation 2010

Photo by Alicia Nijdam

There's nothing quite like a nice, quiet, peaceful weekend away. Especially if you can manage to make it a couple's only weekend. But with times being tough it can be difficult to arrange a weekend away and if you have small children it may seem like a far off distant fantasy. Don't dispair!

Your dream weekend may not be as far off as you think! My husband and I have very tight finances and two small children (3 and 1) but with some creativity we managed to pull off a very lovely weekend without the kids and without spending a ton of money.

Ditch the kids. Sounds mean, I know, but I firmly believe (from my own experience) that every couple needs some time alone together to recharge. Kids benefit from seeing their parents loving each other and spending time alone together is one of the best ways to reconnect and enjoy each other. A few hours, a night, a weekend, whatever. Find a way for at least some time to remember why you fell in love and hopefully rekindle some of the passion from those early days. :)

My husband and I are lucky enough to have family nearby. Our girls spent 2 nights with Grandma and Grandpa (which they loved!) and it only cost us one 45 minute trip to pick them up. Not everyone has family nearby, but I'm sure if you put your mind to it you can come up with a great idea. Some families trade off babysitting. Or maybe all the kids could be in camp at the same time. :)

We stayed at our own Bed and Breakfast. Sure, it was a little more work, but it was cozy, homey and just right! We woke up when we wanted, watched movies when we wanted, played games whenever we wanted and just plain did what ever we wanted! We didn't have to worry about check out times, extra fees and getting lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood.

We went out to eat with coupons. Here's where we choose to splurge. We decided to hit some wonderful restaurants we rarely get to go to (like a fun Japanese steakhouse) and we even made one fancy, very kid unfriendly meal at home, Shrimp Scampi Linguine. It was fabulous and definitely worth it. We had store bought ice cream while we watched a free rental movie and had other fun treats.

We visited local attractions. We live very close to Marketplace and Flea Market. For fun, we went shopping and bargain hunting after one of our lunches out. We ended up not buying anything, but it was fun just to be out together, walking and enjoying experiencing things together as a couple. Is there something in your town that you can never do with the kids? Maybe even going to a real movie theater to see a non-kid movie?

All in all, we probably spent around $100 or less for a 2 day, 2 night couple's getaway. That's including gas for the car, food money and other small expenses. It was a very memorable "trip" and made me appreciate being with my husband again. I was actually recharged and ready to be the best Mommy I could be again. I began to miss my girls even! What a fine thing!

Check out Frugal Friday for other great frugal tips and Finer Things Friday for other wonderful things!

Hooray for Daddies!

If you have a daddy in your life today, you should be very thankful and take the time to tell them just how special they are to you! It's so easy to take it for granted, but a present and loving father in today's world is a very special thing indeed. Happy Father's Day all you daddies, grand-daddies, great grand-daddies and soon to be's!!

Flowers: A Finer Thing

I adore flowers. All kinds of flowers, especially lilies, as my daughter's name indicates! While walking around our local zoo, I told my husband I wanted my yard to look like their garden someday. LoL. I was only half joking.


Whenever we take our family walks at night, I oh and ah over all the different types of flowers, pointing out what I like or don't like, imagining what I'd do with my own yard. Since we live in an apartment right now, it's not going to happen this year. I do have two little flower beds in the back, but the soil and lighting are poor. :(


Then my super sweet, amazing husband took me out the other night and bought me two beautiful hanging baskets. He, of course, let me pick them out. :) We don't have a lot of money right now and this was definitely a splurge, but one I felt was most definitely worth it. Not only are my new flowers a finer thing, but wouldn't you say I have a fine husband? I think he's great and so sweet!

What to do?

Hmmm.... As I mentioned yesterday, my baby is turning 1 this month. Her party is one week from today and I still haven't decided what kind of cake to make her. (If you're interested, you can see the two cakes I've made for my other daughter so far... )

Oh, what to do, what to do. I've put forth so much effort before that I just wouldn't feel right not coming up with something cute for my second daughter. I'm throwing around the idea of doing something Strawberry Shortcake themed since she loves that movie. She is going to dig into her cake, I think, unlike my first daughter who wouldn't touch it. They're so different. It's very funny.

Anyway... got any ideas or links for me? I'm getting tired of searching and might just wing it. But I'd love to hear your suggestions!

Finer Things Friday: Priorities

I haven't been around on the computer lately. I have very good reasons for that (as well as some not so good ones). I've been sharply convicted lately of my priorities. I've been losing sight of many things, including spiritual things.

God had to show me all over again just how important and noble the calling of wife and mother truly is. He had to give me His vision and perspective of mothers and children and it was extremely convicting. Oh, how easy it is to lose sight of God's heart and plans for us in today's culture. I've been influenced too much lately by temporal things and by looking at others and thinking I should be like them. There are some very wonderful Christians and mothers out there that I can learn a lot from. But I'm not them. I don't have their lives. I'm me. God gave my children to me with all my strengths, weaknesses and shortcomings and I should never forget that. For too long now have I struggled with defeat and feeling like a failure as a mother.

I've chosen now to live a life of victory because with the Holy Spirit's help, I can. God wants me to and I do too! As I work on this, I hope to share some of it with you, but please understand if I'm not around as much anymore. My children and family are my first priority and I need to work out some scheduling and timing things. I need more discipline in the things I do and it may include cutting back in some areas.

But you know, I'm very excited to be where I am right now. I feel on the brink of a huge step forward. A learning period. A growth opportunity. A chance to learn more about God and to walk more like Jesus. I can't wait and I hope to encourage you that He wants the same for you as well! I think all of these are Finer Things, including these adorable pictures of what I've been working on lately... appreciating the family and my circumstances that God's blessed me with for this season of my life!

Swimming!

Swimming and camping over Memorial Day weekend

Picnicking on our back patio

Growing up so fast! My baby will be 1 this month!

We went to the local zoo on Daddy's day off yesterday!

Share Yourself Saturday: Cooking

I love to cook. I love to eat the things I cook. I love to feed others. I love to cook! The year I got married, I decided I was going to cook the turkey we had for Easter dinner and I've been doing it since. I think this was our 4th celebration at our house and it was so much fun!

Usually, I over-do it. I usually want to make a bunch of fancy stuff to impress everyone or something like that. :) But this year, I kept it really simple (since I have two kids and all) and I was surprised at how great it was. I was sitting there, with dinner almost finished, shocked at how unstressed out I was. Normally when I cook the Easter dinner, I'm running around all day cooking, cleaning and stressing out. What a huge difference keeping it simple made!


And even though I didn't do anything really fancy, we had a great meal, great fellowship and over all a great day. Lesson learned. Don't stress out over making a huge, perfect, impressive meal. Just make good food and have good family and friends over. It'll be a day worth remembering!

Common Sense

LoL. I had to laugh when I read this. Commonsense.org. Sounds like a site that you can check the content of media (like movies and t.v. shows) to find out if they're safe for kids. Has anyone used this? I love the name! :)

Works for Me Wednesday: The Bunny House

I usually cook dinner every year at my house for Easter. It's a tradition I started in my first year of marriage and I love it. I was in Aldi's the week before Easter and saw a kit to build and decorate a bunny house for $7. It looked so cute and I immediately thought it'd be a great way for my daughter to stay busy while I cooked and cleaned.




I was right. She loved helping her Daddy decorate the bunny house. Sure, it wasn't the most beautiful work of art, but it made a great centerpiece at dinner and the family loved it! It was a nice touch and worked for me to keep her little hands busy while Mommy was busy!! I'm sure there's plenty of similar projects for kids at other holidays or you could make your own. Maybe it could help your little ones too!

Our Trip to Alabama

Whew! We're finally home after a LONG weekend! Our trip to Alabama was wonderful but it feels so good to be home, to rest and get back to a schedule. Being on a schedule makes everything go so much smoother with little ones. I also hope to get back on schedule with blogging, now that there are no more moving plans or long trips in the foreseeable future. :)

We went to Alabama with my dad to visit some of my family and while we were there we also went to an aquarium, the beach, an art festival and stopped in some new cities. Oh, and tons of food. TONS of great food. I come from a family of fabulous cooks, which explains why I'm on a never ending quest to lose weight. :)

20 hours each way (about 1000 miles) was a very long, tiring car ride. :) We all managed to stay sane with snacks, a portable DVD played and lots of toys and books. I think I'll do a Mom Monday topic on traveling with little ones. Here's some pictures of our trip: