2010 Recap!

I thought it would be fun to do a little recap of 2010! What a crazy/fun year! I can't believe how different our life looks at the end of every year! So! Without further ado...

January: We brought in the New Year with a trip to Springfield and Mountain Grove to visit Nick's family and welcome 2010 with our dear Springfield friends, The Jordan's and the Jenkins'. We also made a trip at the end of January to visit Nick's sister and celebrate our nephew Blake's birthday.

February: Gotta love February! I got to start off the month with a fun girl's weekend celebrating my friend Christina's birthday! We also of course celebrated my birthday! And of course enjoyed playing in the snow and time with family and friends.

March: Sophie got her new pink room in March! I had a few chances to get out with some girls for girl's nights! The kids and I got to go to the zoo on a warm day and the fun of being a little R continued!

April: April was a GREAT month! We had our big ultrasound and found out that our newest little R was going to be a boy!! We were beyond thrilled! We also celebrated Easter, Nick's birthday and spent time with friends. 

May: Playdates, Mom's Day Out, and all that fun continued! Nick and I got to go to a Cardinal's game and sit in the Centene box. Nick and I also got to go see Young Frankenstein at the Fox! My sister graduated from college (which we had to miss because I was sick, boo!) and we celebrated Mother's Day!

June: The fun continued! We tried to squeeze in as much as possible before going into "baby mode". I got a "day off" courtesy of my mom taking the kids for the day, we went to the Chris Tomlin and Toby Mac concert, saw Wicked at the Fox, and I got to go to the Beth Moore conference with some friends!

July: More time with friends! Emily and Simon had their birthdays! My sister and I went and saw Cats at the Muny! My wonderful girlfriends threw me a "Sprinkle" to get ready for Jack and my freind Christina suprised me with a visit and a day of shopping and talking!

August: Jack barely waited until August before making his grand enterance! He was 10 days early and pure perfection! We also got to celebrate our 5 year anniversary (4 days after having our 3rd baby!!) and our sweet Sophie's 2nd birthday! August is a BIG deal around our house!  

September: We adjusted to being  a family of 5! Got back into Friend2Friend, and we got to intoduce our precious new son to more of our family members!

October: Our sweet Max turned 4! We made a quick trip down to Mountain Grove so that Jack could meet his great grandparents. We also celebrated Halloween with 2 dinosaurs and a monkey!!

November: The playdates continued! We celebrated Thanksgiving with our dear friends, the Yevoli family, and we started getting ready for Christmas!

December: Was packed of course! We got to go to the Josh Wilson concert with our fabulous friends, The Luitjohans, I co-hosted a table for the Ladies' Dessert Gala at church, we went to a holiday coctail party at Nick's boss' home, celebrated Christmas with the Moore family, had a cookie baking day with my mom, went to Christmas Eve service at church and celebrated Chistmas Eve and Christmas day with my wonderful family. And of course... had playdates!! And tonight we will ring in the new year with our freinds The Scott's!

It was a wonderful year and I am eager to see what God has in store for all of us crazy R's. I am beyind thankful for the amazing opportunities God has blessed us with in 2010 and Nick and I absolutely give Him the glory for it all. Thank you for reading "Life With the Little R's" in 2010. See you next year!!



Master Bedroom Painted!

I am SO excited! We finally painted our master bedroom after living here for over a year. If you have known me for 5 minutes you know that one thing that I deem totally unacceptable is a white wall in my home! Well, mine were off white but still NOT okay! So, I had been eager to do this project for quite awhile but had a hard time deciding on a color. My mom painted her room a beautiful blue color that I just loved. Then when she ended up having an entire gallon of the paint left over that sealed the deal!

I used to decorate totally in warm bold colors; reds, golds, dark greens browns, etc. But, since moving into this house my style has started changing and I am finding myself totally drawn to cool/soft colors with lots of white accents! I am obsessed! So, without further ado, here is the before and after of my master bedroom paint job.

(Disclaimer: These are old before pics and the room was totally just put together with what I had while I was trying to decide what look I was going for. I know that yellow sheets, zebra throw pillows, and a floral print above the bed is not an acceptable combination!These were also before my mom generously donated her old headboard to a fabulous cause... me! Ha.)

Before

After

The 2 doors are my closet door and bathroom door

I have ordered a vinyl monogram decal to go over our bed and I need to find something to go over that little secretary desk but other than that I really like it!

Christmas Eve

Our family had a WONDERFUL Christmas Eve! The day started with our kids squealing with excitement that it was Christmas Eve and "smowing" (snowing)! The snow was beautiful and we had a great day. The kids got a chance to play in the snow!

Nick shoveling off our driveway so that our family wouldn't slip when they came for the evening! Thanks Baby!

The big kids (or BKs as we call them often!) ready to go to the Christmas Eve service at church.

The Little R's ready to go! Sophie loved her dress (borrowed from her friend Bella) and told everyone all evening that she was a princess. I also loved the boys in their vests! I still can't believe I have boys (plural!).

We went to church and then came back to our house. We had a Mexican theme for the night and it was delish! My mom even made homemade tortillas that were SO good. The kiddos then got to open their Christmas Eve present. They got Pillow Pets and loved those. Then the kiddos went to bed and we stayed up with my parents, and sister and her fiance and played the game "Things". It was fun! That game can easily get a little inappropriate so it was a challenge to keep it clean since we were playing with our parents! Ha! It was a great night!

Celebrating Christmas

Christmas is getting close! 4 days away! I can hardly believe it! I am finding myself in a combination of being head over heals in love with this season and hating it. Ha! I love seeing the Christmas season through the eyes of our children. So exciting! I am loving making our own traditions with the kiddos and also participating in our own favorite traditions. I hate the stress. The fact that there is so much going on can get overwhelming. I also truly believe Satan uses this time of year to steal focus from Jesus so I find myself more sensitive than usual and more prone to getting down about things.

This past weekend was BUSY! In fact, I am still recovering! HA! On Friday night we hung out with our wonderful friends, the Scott's. Then Saturday we spent the day running errands and getting ready to have my mom's side of the family over for a Christmas party. Sunday we went to church and then went straight to my parents house where we hung out and watch the Rams loose to the Chiefs (sad). It was awesome. The perfect weekend leading up to Christmas. But, yesterday was defintily a recovery day!

Today we are going to hang out with some friends for a little bit this morning. Then tomorrow the kids and I are headed out to moms for our first annual cookie making get together! I am super excited! My sister has the day off so it is going to be super fun! I imagine Thursday will be spent getting housework done and getting ready for the holiday. Christmas Eve Nick has the day off work and then we are going to church at 4. Then we are having my parents, sister and fiance, and grandma over. We decided to do Mexican food which will be a fun change of pace! We usually just eat, play games, and spend time together. Then on Christmas we will wake up (in our own house, lots of hearts!!!) and open presents with the kiddies then head out to mom and dads to celebrate with them.

Here are some pictures from our Moore family get together on Saturday night!

Here is our family on Saturday night, the kids didn't really want to take a picture because they wanted to be playing with their grandparents!

I love to "creep" in on pictures of my sister and her fiance. I tease her a lot that I will be doing that for her wedding pictures as well!

I heart my sissy!

Emily and Simon (or Pledge as we like to call him since he isn't an official family member yet)

The Farley Family (Blake, Aunt Teri, Uncle Bill and Lauren)

The Shepard Family (Uncle Ed, Sarah, Aunt Heidi and Jake)

Aunt Heidi, my mom, my Grandma June, Aunt Teri

me, my mom and my sister

Em's turn to be a creeper (actually, Nick and my sister have an awesome brother/sister relationship, I love it!)

my mom, sister, me, and my dad! It is so fun to see this picture since it is what all of our family pictures used to look like!

Grandma with her girls again

My parents!

It was a great time. And looking at the pictures makes me super excited for the Christmas fun over the next few days!!

Sleep finally!

So, the last two nights I have gotten lots of sleep and it has been AWESOME! My sweet little Jack has fallen into a routine of going to bed around 7:30 and then waking up once in the middle of the night at 3 and then sleeping until morning. I know some moms would be less than impressed with a baby who is 4 months old and not sleeping through the night. But, I am happy!

I did the Babywise method with Max and it honestly made me not enjoy being a mother. But, thinking it was the "only way" I tried it again with my second and when I realized it wasn't working for her and it was making me miserable yet again I threw it out the window and I have loved being a mommy to babies ever since! I don't have a problem with it really, it just wasn't for me!

So, my method with Jack-Jack basically followed my doctor's advice and my own intutution. Basically, for the first 4 months Jack was the boss. He decided when he ate, slept, etc. And although he wasn't the best sleeper he wasn't the worst either. Now I have been working on putting him on a routine/schedule and it has been working well. He is getting into the groove and it is working out well for both of us. I am finding it much easier to get a 4 month old into a routine than to try to do it with a newborn!

The only downside of this new routine is that it has gotten Jack sleeping wonderfully in his crib... but not really in his carseat or out and about. So, we are kind of stuck at home most of the time. But, honestly, with three little ones 4 years old and under staying home is easier anyway! So, we try to get out for playdates every once in awhile and once Friend2Friend starts up again next year we will do that. But, for now, if you are wondering where we are I can pretty much gurantee that the answer is, "at home"!

Menu Monday on Tuesday!

So, with the weather being SO cold I am having a very hard time venturing out of the house. I mean, by the time I get 3 kiddos bundled up and in their carseats it is hardly worth it. Plus, the last thing I need is a sick baby! So, our time out of the house is limited these days! And, when we do get out of the house I hardly want to spend that time at the grocery store! My sweet husband has made a few grocery runs for me, mostly for milk and produce! But, I am trying to use up what we have. So, here is our menu for the rest of the week...

Tonight- tacos with ground turkey (I really don't like ground turkey in much but we have it and I need to use it!)
Wednesday- Tortellini soup with fresh baked bread
Thursay- blackbeans and rice
Friday- kung pao chicken with chinese veggies over rice
Saturday- Moore Christmas Party, I am making a salad, cake balls, and spinach dip to contribute!

Joy

Last Sunday at church our wonderful pastor did a sermon on joy. It spoke to me so much! He talked about how the joy of the Lord is not dependent on our circumstances. Totally what I needed to hear! I am one of those people that REALLY lets things get to me. I often let little things (and big things) steal my joy and put me in a grumpy mood and take over my life. I want everything to always be peaceful and happy. But, we live in a fallen world and that is just not going to happen all that often! We will have trouble, in fact, God guarantees it!

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33


But, after learning all this I feel like I was really put to the test this week! I feel like situation after situation has come up and I have let things start to steal my joy. I let myself get down. But, I feel like because of this sermon I handled things better than I would have before! I have reminded myself of Truth and am really feeling joyful despite a really hard week.

I am so thankful that God met me in church last week and made sure that I received the lesson I would need for the coming week.

Speaking of having joy... my joy comes from knowing Jesus Christ as Lord... but, these little people make me feel pretty joyful too, even on hard days!

Wordless Wednesday

Night out!

Last night Nick and I had our first night out with no kids since Jack was born!! We have gotten out a few times with just Jack which is great too but this was just fabulous! Our good friends Heather and Brian ended up having extra tickets to the Josh Wilson concert and invited us to go. I had planned on taking Jack with us but when he had been really good the past few days I decided to leave him at home. The concert was awesome! Josh Wilson played lots of his songs that I knew from the radio and lots of Christmas songs. He is a very talented musician and the concert really got me into the Christmas spirit! And the kids did GREAT while we were gone which was even better. Thank you to my sweet Mom and Grandma June for watching the kiddos!

Today has been a good Saturday so far! Nick and Soph just ran to the store and Max and I are hanging out watching Veggie Tales while Jack is napping. I think in store for today is a little housework, making gingerbread cookies, watching Elf, and enjoying some good family time! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Pastor Mark on marriage

I am a huge fan of Mark Driscoll the pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Nick and I have listened to lots of his sermons and love reading his blog. We especially loved his "Song of Solomon" series. Good stuff! Even though Nick and I are not in full time ministry I really enjoyed listening to Pastor Mark's talk for church planters. I love his call to make marriage a priority and for men in the church to stand up and be leaders. I love how he isn't afraid to be politically incorrect and speak truth into people's lives. Here is his talk if you are interested in listening to it. It is long but I really enjoyed it!

http://blog.marshillchurch.org/2010/12/02/pastor-mark-on-marriage-ministry-and-mistakes/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mhcvision+%28The+Mars+Hill+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Bullet Points: Monday

• I have been up since 4:20 this morning and am still managing to feel pretty good! It was actually a fun/productive morning. I took care of Jack, worked out, showered, made breakfast for my honey, had some quiet time, etc. ALL before my kiddos woke up!
• Max and Sophie had Mom's Day Out today, good for all involved!
• I put up a few more Chrismtas decorations and am loving the way our house is looking!
• I got to go to lunch with my mom, dad, and sister today! Just like old times! I love my family!
• The calendar has filled up fast these past couple of days with the weeks leading up to Christmas! Why is the "season of peace" so busy??
• I am reading the book of Job right now during my quiet time and honestly I am struggling to get through it!
• It is a cold, rainy day here so I think we will be having breakfast for dinner!
• Not much on the agenda the rest of the week and I am very happy about that

Hope everyone else is having a good day!

Gratitude

Today our pastor preached a sermon on gratitude. It was awesome. Especially right after Thanksgiving. Our church is currently doing a sermon series called "Abandon" and the title of today's sermon was "Abandon Entitlement". It isn't up today but soon it should be so if you want to hear the sermon go here, http://www.calvaryonline.cc/page.asp?sid=1&page=554 . My absolute favorite quote from the sermon was "gratitude not expressed is percieved as ingratitude or entitlement". That totally hit home with me. I can totally relate to feeling unappreciated and it made me realize how often I forget to show gratitude to Christ. How often I feel entitled. I remember when we first moved to St. Louis and I didn't have any friends. I prayed and prayed for months that God would please give me just one friend! Soon, in His perfect timing God began putting some amazing women in my life and I now feel like I have several very good friends. But, I rarely thank God for blessing me. As soon as I had a few friends I began to feel entitled to having friends. I want to change this about myself. I want to have a grateful heart, not just during the month of Thanksgiving but all the time. I am so thankful for our church and our pastor. I guess maybe I should express that to them? Hmm...

Here are a few of the people I am most grateful for right now. And, today I am making sure to let them know it!

Black Friday

This post really doesn't have anything to do with shopping! But, everyone calls today Black Friday so I thought I would go with it. Actually, Nick and I kind of stay away from Black Friday sales. After hearing about people being killed in large crowds of shoppers we just decided that it wasn't something we wanted to be a part of. Plus for me, something just doesn't feel right about giving thanks all day one day and then waking up at the crack of dawn, standing in long lines in order to CONSUME the very next day. But, I totally get that people want to save money on Christmas gifts and score great deals. So, no judgment here! Just for me, I would rather spend the day cozy at home! Which is exactly what I have spent the day doing.

Thanksging yesterday was wonderful! I did most of my cooking on Wednesday so most of Thanksgiving morning was spent munching on cinnamon bread and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with my crew. We had lunch at noon and our friends joined us and we had a wonderful meal. Natalie brought several side dishes and the pies and it was all fabulous! We had a great time and are so glad they could join us! The rest of the day of course was spent napping, watching football, playing Wii, and having a great time together!

I am just loving that today is only Friday and my hubby will be home with us for the rest of the weekend! Daddy time is AWESOME! I am hoping to get a little of my Christmas shopping done online during the next few days and continue to relax as we get ready for the business leading up to Christmas! Even when trying to "keep it simple" I know that my days leading up to Christmas will be filled with our Ladies Dessert Gala at church (my friend Natalie and I are hosting and decorating a table), Paren't Night Out at church (praise Jesus!), family get togethers, wrapping presents, etc. I really go LOVE this time of year!

What I am thankful for!

I LOVE Thanksgiving so much! I have been posting what I am thankful for on Facebook everyday this month. It has been fun and a good practice to look for the joy in each day. I saw on a friend's blog that she listed 100 things she is thankful for! I was impressed! I could definitly think of 100 things! But, for times sake, I think I will list 15 things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving!

1. Jesus. He saved me and has blessed me when I didn't deserve any of it! Everything on this list is because of Him!
2. My husband. This Thanksgiving our marriage is stronger than it has ever been. Nick loves me sacraficially and I could not have asked for a better husband, best friend, and partner to raise a family with!

3. Max, my sweet first born. Max has been a challenge sometimes this year but he is growing up so much and has the best heart. He loves one on one time, animals, super heros, being loud, playing rough... he is all boy and I love him for it! He is also an amazing older brother and it has been neat to see him step up even more into that role over the past few months.

4. My Sophie Girl! I was never one of those people that had to have a daughter but God knew just what I needed. Sophie is girly, sassy, strong-willed, and makes us laugh everyday. We are so blessed to have her in our family.

5. Our little Jack. We just love him so much! He is the sweetest baby and our whole family is just head over heels for him. He truly is such a perfect addition to our family! I can't wait to see his personality form over this next year!

6. Our home. We have lived here a little over a year now and we love it so much! I believe this house was totally a gift from God and we are so thankful for it. I don't think a week goes by that either Nick or I don't say, "I love our house".
7. Our church. It took us a long time to find a church home here but now that we have we really feel at home! We are so blessed to be making new friends, learning, and worshipping in a place we love.
8. Living close to family. I can't say it enough but it is awesome! My kids get to see their grandparents at least once a week. They have amazing relationships with their grandparents, great grandma, and aunt and soon to be uncle and my extended family. Plus, free babysitting never hurt anyone either!
9. My sister moving to St. Louis this year. It is not only awesome to have our whole family living in the same area but getting to hang out and be friends with my sister is just awesome. And her fiance is pretty awesome too! We love getting together for dinners and game nights! And our kids love it too of course!
10. Our new friends here. Making friends was one of the absolute hardest parts about moving here and it took a long time. I now have some amazing girlfriends that I love and have so much in common with. I love living life with them and they have taught me so much since I have been here! What an answer to prayer they are!
11. Our friends from Springfield. Even though we aren't geographically close I love that I can still count on them and that they are still basically a part of our family! I love that we pick up where we left off whenever we see each other.
12. Friends from highschool. I love that I get to stay in touch with friends from high school because of the phone and of course Facebook! I also love getting to see people I knew in high school as mommys now! It really is a sort of sorority that just brings us all together.
13. Getting to stay at home full time. I feel beyond blessed that I get to stay at home with my kids and don't have to try to juggle a job too. I love that my husband encourages me to stay at home and doesn't want me to ever work unless I want to.

14. Friend2Friend. Our women's Bible study at our church is what really got me connected after we moved here and it still blesses me every week!
15. Coffee. Yep, can't leave that one out! I love it and it makes me happy everyday!

(Photos taken by Under Grace Photography)

Turkey Day is almost here!

It is almost Thanksgiving and I am starting to get REALLY excited! We invited our sweet friends, The Yevoli family to join us for dinner and I am so excited! Natalie, Deron, and Colin are such a wonderful family and we are so thankful to have them as our friends! So, I guess it makes sense to have Thanksgiving with them! Ha! Natalie and Deron's family is all in New Mexico and since our family is abandoning us traveling this Thanksgiving it will be great to celebrate together! Natalie and I kind of split up the menu. I am doing the turkey which makes me a little nervous! I made it last year and it was delicious but I feel the pressure! I just love Thanksgiving!

This past weekend was a really great one! My friend Christina, who recently started selling Premiere Jewelry came and had a little party for me and some of my friends and family! It was super fun! And I got lots of free jewelry! Even better! After the party Nick and I (and Jack!) got to go out to dinner with Christina and Wyatt and it was so fun! Since we have like a million kids between us we haven't gotten to go out as adults in forever! It was a WONDERFUL time! We are so blessed by the Jenkins!

Well, I better start dinner. Does anyone else find it hard to cook the days leading up to Thanksgiving? Ha!

It is Friday!

Good morning! And good morning to you Company Girls visiting me! I had so much fun visiting many of your blogs last week!

I am SO happy it is Friday! Sadly, sometimes I feel like I live for Fridays. Weekends mean Daddy is home and that is just priceless around these parts.

I think our little Max has recovered from his sinus infection and is back to sleeping again! He is acting like he feels better too which is fabulous for all of us. Unfortunatly, now our little Jack has a really bad rash that I haven't been able to get rid of so we are headed back to the doctor's later this morning to get that checked out! With three kiddos I feel like we go to the doctor all the time these days!

I am super excited for this weekend. On Saturday we are having family photographs taken. I have really admired Michelle Ross' (a woman from our church) photography from the first time I saw it. And I always dreamed about her taking our family pictures. And she is going to tomorrow! I am just praying it isn't too cold and that my kids cooperate!!

On Sunday we were invited to my Grandma Powell's up in Kirksville for that side of family's Thanksgiving/Christmas. But, it is about a 3 hour drive and I just know Jack would not handle 6 hours in the car in one day very well. It is just a lot for our little family right now! Plus, we would have to miss church Sunday morning to get there and our little Max is very serious about going to church every Sunday now that he has been promoted to the monkey room! Ha! Thankfully, I know everyone will understand! We have a great family! I am sure everyone will have a great time though!

So, Sunday at our house will probably be the usual; church, leftovers for lunch, and football. Gotta love it!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I will leave you with a new picture of my sweet little man giggling for his Mommy!

Happy Tuesday!

I think Max is on the mend! Praise Jesus! Nick took him to the doctor yesterday and our fabulous doctor said he has a sinus infection on top of his reactive airway disease (which I looked up and is basically every sickness going straight to his lungs). So, he is now on day two of antibiotics. Last night he actually slept through the night which was awesome! Unfortunatly, little Jack was stuffy last night so he was up a good part of the night needing to be held upright. Poor baby! Oh well, I will sleep someday. I really do cherish those night time snuggles when the rest of the house is quiet.

I think we are going to have a lounge around the house/Mommy gets lots of cleaning done kind of day here at our house. It is NEEDED!

Oh, and this morning I made my friend Stephanie's recipe for a "Dutch Baby" which is kind of like a fluffy/eggy pancake! She served me one with lemon juice and powdered sugar which was DIVINE! I am still dreaming about it actually... But, I served mine with syrup this morning because we didn't have any lemons and it was certainly nothing to sneeze at.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday!

Sick boy :-(

Our sweet Max is battling an icky respiratory infection right now. ICK! I feel so sorry for him. He gets them all winter long and they are just miserable. Our doc said it is super common in babies born early. So, basically any allergies or colds he gets go straight to his lungs. It is hard because he is fine during the day and then as soon as he lays down at night he starts coughing and coughing and can barely breathe. Thankfully we have a nebulizer machine and we give him breathing treatments which helps a lot but some nights it still isn't enough. Tonight is the third night in a row that he is up, unable to sleep. Please pray for him to get better soon! I hate seeing my little man not feeling well... and we could all use a little sleep!

Here is a sweet picture from this morning... Max and Daddy sleeping on the couch. (And yes, my husband is rocking a Snuggie in this picture!)