My loves

 I don't deserve you three.

You see my worst yet you love me the most.

I want to be a better woman for all of you and I thank you for always seeing past my weakness and loving me so well.

Happy Tuesday. 

A few of our favorite toys

With Sawyer and I both being at home ALL the time, toys have become pretty important to me. Every mom can relate to those toys that your kids are excited about for about two seconds and then they are added to your stash of toys that are never touched again. I feel like that has happened way to often in this household. That is why I felt impelled to pass along a few of our favorite toys right now that we have actually gotten hours of playtime out of. The kicker.. a few of these toys I actually really enjoy playing with too. Since I have a toddler who isn't the best at playing independently it helps when I actually enjoy the toy too. 

Wedgits

I love playing with these wedgits. You can build a million different things with wedgits. In my opinion, they are kind of like a cooler version of legos. 

Design and Drill

Sawyer loves his design and drill. It comes with an electric drill that electronically drills the screws into this box. 

Konstruk Tubes

This is another one I find pretty fun. I would say this toy has gotten the most attention from Sawyer. It's easy enough for a 2 year old to build and you can design all sorts of fun things with them. 

Thomas the Train wooden puzzles

We are both obsessed with puzzles right now and this set comes with 4 puzzles in one box. We do these about three times a day and I actually enjoy doing them too. 

Mickey Mouse Scooter

Lastly his Mickey Mouse Scooter that Santa brought. We have hardwoods throughout the entire house so we have let him ride in the house. He rides it everywhere. It's only 33$ and it has lights and sounds and seems really sturdy so far. 

 If you have 2-4 year old boys I hope this provided some helpful hints on some fun new toys. I would love to hear if you have any other toys that your boys love! 

Happy Thursday! 

Rainy Wednesday..

When we woke up this morning it was dark and pouring down rain, so instead of our usual once a day outing I declared it a pajama, lazy, stay at home day. It has been perfect.


We all three laid down in my big bed to watch a movie and next thing I knew both kiddos were sound asleep on my shoulder. I would of paid mucho money to have someone take a picture of the rare scene. I did snap a few pictures from our lazy day at home. We have snuggled, painted, cooked, I watched Sawyer play on the floor with his sister for a long time.... It's been a good day :).  

 I hope that you all are having a lazy, perfect day too!

Real Life

What does my life look like during the week? Well, Here you go..... snuggles, bottles, nerf guns, puzzles, cleaning, laundry, laundry more laundry, sleepy babies, cartoons, silliness, happy baby girls, errands, dishes, books, more cartoons, potty, diapers, more snuggles, more potty, time outs, tickles, and LOTS of Lovin!


Love my days at home with these kiddos. Love that these are the things that make up my life right now. Love that day in and day out I get to wake up to two babies who unconditionally love me no matter how much I screw up the day before. Love that I get to take care of these precious lives. Our real life might seem boring to a lot of people but believe it or not, we have a ton of fun!

Happy Tuesday from our house to yours!

Yummy Monday: Crockpot Honey Chicken

This is one of our favorites right now. It's an awesome recipe that is SUPER easy and the ingredients are probably ones that you already have in your pantry. I am always looking for good crockpot recipes and this one is amazing. I know you'll enjoy this recipe!

Crockpot Honey Chicken

3/4 pound chicken (of your choice)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/8 cup chopped onion (or 1/16 cup onion flakes)

1/8 cup ketchup

1 Tbs. vegetable oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper, put into crock pot. In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic and pepper flakes. Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 3 hours or on high 1 1/2 hours. Chicken into bite size pieces, then return to pot and toss with sauce. Serve over rice or noodles.

Recipe from: mmm..Cafe

Ya'll have a good Monday!! 

Howdy Partner!

Rachel with Dinner Bells always does such a FABULOUS job with her parties. She always pays attention to the details that make a party special. I love it. 

Rachel and her husband recently adopted the most adorable little boy, Seth and they have inspired me with their obedience to this calling. It is so neat to see the Lord work through situations like this. Here is their incredible adoption story.

 Seth turned 2 a few weeks ago and they threw him a Cowboy themed party that was ADORABLE. I loved everything about it. Take a look at the precious party she put together for Seth. 

How precious is Seth?? 

It looks like Seth loved every minute of this party. Thanks so much for letting me share your party Rachel! 

For more details about this party visit Rachel's blog, Here.

What REALLY is coming first?.....

I couldn't really think of a clever title like I wanted to for this post, but oh well, you'll get my point hopefully.


I was cleaning up around the house the other day and I walked by this (See picture below) and it totally represented where I am spiritually ALOT of days. (In case you don't know that is my "stuck" bible study that I'm doing right now that is underneath the gossip magazines)

I have been a believer for most of my life. I have Loved the Lord for most of my life and yet here I am.. a mother of 2 kids, wife of 6 1/2 years, a 27 year old woman who STILL chooses so many things over my God that I adore. I STILL put so many other things right on top of my bible. Why do I do this?! 


This got me thinking. What if I took a picture of every single thing that I put before God over and over? What if I took a picture of the things in my life that really could be considered "Idols" and that I choose over spending time with Him. It would probably be embarassing and there would probably be way too many pictures to even count..


In Romans 1:22-23, 25, Paul says, "Although you claim to be wise, you became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles (in my life, I exchange the glory of the immortal God for material things, a clean house, more sleep, laziness, etc..). You exchanged the truth of God for a LIE, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator- who is forever praised."


Ouch.. Can you say conviction? How many times do we do this? How many times do we choose the things that are on this earth over our Heavenly Father? I choose even earthly relationships over my relationship with my Creator over and over.


So I decided I would take a picture of as many things that I could tangibly take a picture of to represent the idols in my life. The things that on my selfish days I choose before God. (obviously there are a lot more than what I document here)


I choose..

facebook, blogging, pintrest, etsy, pictures, online shopping over Him

 I choose laziness and trashy t.v. over Him

 I even put my kids and husband over my Creator

I put my housework and my desire to keep a "put together" house over my time with Him

I choose material possessions and shopping time and time again.

(that is a pillow on top of the Bible.. Ha! Hard to tell)
I choose to sleep in to the very last minute instead of waking up to spend quality time with Him


There you have it.. My little spiritual exercise that really helped me put my walk with the Lord in perspective. It's now documented in pictures and on my blog so I can't hide from the real truth ;). I am human, I mess up ALL the time, I give in to my selfish flesh time and time again.


The good news.. I have a God that is bigger than all of this and He loves me no matter what. He always welcomes me back with open arms every time I screw up and don't pick Him first. He is a good and gracious God. Like Paul says, "what a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-Through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Romans 7:24


For those of you who know the same God I do, I hope you found this post relatable and I encourage you to do the same exercise. It really helped me put things in perspective and get my priorities straightened out. 

3 Months!

Another month has passed and we are in disbelief at how fast life is moving. In my opinion things start getting really fun after 3 months, so I'm looking forward to the changes we are going to see in these next few months. She is growing into such a fun baby girl. Here is a what little B is up to these days.. 


- She is still HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY. She smiles at whoever will look at her and she has started giggling a ton. It's adorable. 


- She still sleeps a ton but is starting to be awake more and more. I have been putting her down around 7:30 in the evening and she sleeps until about 4:00 in the morning, eats, and then sleeps until 8:00. Some mornings she wakes up earlier. I am deciding on whether or not to let her cry out that feeding at 4:00 so she might start sleeping straight through the night but I still think there is a good chance she really is hungry after that 8 hour stretch. Any opinions?? She has about 1 hour wake times before she falls back asleep for naps. 


- She eats 5 ounce bottles every 3-4 hours. Some days she has 6 bottles and on hungrier days she'll have 7. 


- She is rolling from back to front like a champ. She actually enjoys tummy time which is new to me. Sawyer never liked tummy time which is why it took him forever to crawl. I have a feeling she is going to be early on everything. I left her in her room the other day for thirty minutes on her playmat and she somehow turned herself all the way around. I think she is going to be a mover. 


-She has started grabbing on to her toys and actually trying to play with them. 


- She is turning into a TALL baby girl. She is already in 6 month clothes because of her length. She still wears all of her 3-6 month stuff but most of it is too short. Who knows maybe she didn't get the Stowers curse with shortness. At her 2 month appointment she was 97th percentile for length and 60th for weight and 5th for head circumference. She does have the tiniest little head. She still wears all of her newborn headbands. 


She is a joy and we are truly enjoying every second with this girl. Happy 3 Months baby girl! We love you!

Weekend in Pictures

Besides the fact that we were CONSTANTLY talking about poopy in the potty and tee tee in the potty we actually ended up having a fun family weekend. Andrew and I had a date night and enjoyed a yummy quiet meal alone, I got to run errands all day by myself on Saturday while Andrew kept the kids and then Saturday night we went to the Razorback game with both kids. Sawyer LOVED it and it was fun to do something different. 

 Precious boys, love this picture of them

She stayed awake way past her bed time and quietly enjoyed the entire game. 

Getting a Razorback painted for the big game

Someone LOVES her daddy

And one more just because she is cute.