Fun messy activity

I have a fun book that has a lot of fun ideas for toddlers. One of the ideas was to put shaving cream on a tray and color it with paint or food coloring. We did this with the girls. I found out the hard way that the food coloring I used kind of stained my hands as well as the girls. Nice!

I love it when the girls are sweet to one another.



They were so excited to do something new and fun.

Hannah is my super clean girl. She doesn't like to get her hands dirty, ever. It took some convincing to get her to stick her hands in the shaving cream. After quite some time she really started to have fun.


I think the best thing that we did was practice letters. I would draw a letter with a spatula (had to keep my hands clean so I could take pictures). Bekah really enjoyed getting to make letters.




The girls had a lot of fun playing in the shaving cream.


I put an art shirt on Hannah. I forgot to put one on Bekah. Not a good idea. She got food coloring on her sweater and it won't come out. Whoops! Lesson learned.

Trusting God When I Can't See Around the Corner

I have wanted to be a nurse since I was a child. My sister was in Children's Hospital of Philadelphia when she was a little girl. I loved visiting her there. The children's hospital was amazing. I remember seeing a little girl named Justine who was in the same room as Megan. She was 2 years old and was getting breathing treatments every few hours. One nurse came in to give her a breathing treatment. The little girl was scared and crying. The nurse had no compassion and held her still and made her breathe the medicine while she was screaming and scared. The next nurse that came in to give the breathing treatment was great. She saw that the little girl was scared and so played games and made it a fun thing for her. I loved seeing how a nurses approach made all the difference in the world to a child. That made such an impact on me. I chose at that moment to be a nurse when I grew up. No child should ever have to have a bad nurse and I wanted to be the best nurse I could be so that my patients would have a good experience.

I held onto that dream and made it a reality. Eight years ago in June I became a NICU nurse. Eight years ago I found the best job in the world. I love what I do and I love the people that I work with. Up until now I thought this is what I would be doing until I retired as a gray hair old lady. Up until now. Now I'm not sure whether or not I'll ever be able to work in the NICU again.

Awhile ago my nemesis, the NeoBlue Bili lights, entered our unit. For whatever reason, the lights hate me. And I hate them. Ok, it is mutual. . . We hate each other. Every time I see the lights I get sick with in 2-3 minutes. I get an instant migraine which causes my stomach to hurt, I get dizzy and I get a headache. The last time I worked with a baby under these bili lights I had to go home sick after four hours due to what felt like the worst food poisoning case in the world. The bili lights had caused me to throw up and feel like I was going to pass out. Not cool!! After 3 hours away from the lights I was totally fine.

I talked to my manager and she had me talk to the disability office to figure out what we could do. I filled out the paperwork and gave some ideas of ways to modify my work environment so that I could work in my unit without getting sick. Today I got a call from the disablilty manager. She told me that I was on work modification until we can figure out what can be done so that the demon lights (my words, not hers) would not affect me. Then the real blow. If a solution can not be found, I can never work in the NICU again. I tried to see if we could just forget the whole matter and have me just deal with the severe migraines. That was not going to happen. So now I am on modified duty and I can only go to work and do projects.

This was probably the worst news that I could have heard. I cried and Chris held me and told me that we would get through this. I cried some more and tried imagining my life with out my job as a NICU nurse. It was a pretty hard thing to do. I have been wrestling all day with my fears and trying desperately to give them to God and just fully trust in Him. He gave me my passion and my love for nursing. He gave me my job and the joy that I have in my job. I know that He can take it away just as quick as He gave it to me. I know that He is in full control. He can heal me of this affliction, help me find a way to deal with it or He can redirect my path. I know what I want. What I desperately want. But I also know that He has plans for my life that I can not fathom. There have been so many things in my life that have happened that I thought were horrible things and I wanted them to be different. Looking back, I can see that God orchestrated them in His own way and with His own timing to make me into the person that He wants. I am trying to fully submit to His will. Not with worry and fear and grumbling, but with joy and trust and hope. It is not an easy path to go down when I can't see the end. I'm sure that I will have to give this burden back to God at least a few more times. But one thing I know is this: God is Good. All the time!!


Here are some pictures of my sweet unit and a few of the nurses that I love dearly. This is a place I hold dear to my heart.
My own sweet baby in the NICU.

Daddy and Bekah

Bekah is definitely a daddy's girl. She adores her daddy. And he adores her. Bekah absolutely loves it when daddy takes the time to chase her around the house and tickle her. He wrestles with Bekah and she climbs all over daddy. Every night mommy puts Hannah to bed, but Bekah always wants her daddy to tuck her in. They share a special bond. I love to capture little moments like this between my sweet husband and my first born.






The other day mommy was making dinner while daddy watched the girls in the living room. I called them all to come in for dinner. Bekah told me I had to come see daddy first. This is what I saw! Of course I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures.


Bekah tucked daddy in and got him all comfortable.


Daddy was so comfortable that he didn't really want to get up and come to dinner

I love the little teddy bear tucked in daddy's arms.

What precious moments and special pictures. This is the best time of my life right now. I work 3 night shifts a week and Chris works at the radio station 2 times a week. That leaves a whole lot of time for both mommy and daddy to spend time with the girls. It is wonderful having the time to spend with each other and have both of us there to handle the kids and everything else. I love being able to tell Chris that I need a break and let him deal with the girls. God was so wise when he made families with a daddy and a mommy. Anyway, i am cherishing this time with my girls. My life does seem like a circus at times. Some times there are too many things on my plate or we have a bad day, but I just love my family and my life. God has blessed me above and beyond what I could have ever imagined. I am so thankful for my family and for just being able to fully enjoy them.

Easy Flower Headbands

A few months ago, my sweet sister sent me a link to a post on Shabby 2 Chic's blog. On her blog she showed step by step instructions on how to make head bands with flowers on them for kids and moms. I loved the idea and have been eager to get the time and the supplies together to be able to try this. Today I had everything ready to make them but I was unable to get back to the post on her blog. Fortunately I remembered how to make them from memory. I love how they turned out. Have fun making some for your selves and your little girls.


Start with elastic cord. I got several different widths of white and cream colored elastic. This is knit elastic by stretchrite: 3/8 in x2 yds. It can easily be dyed to match whatever flowers you have. Measure the childs (or mommy's) head and cut the length of elastic 1/2 inch shorter.


Pick out the flowers you want to use on the headband. I found several $1.99 stems at Micheal's that had enough small flowers to make 1-3 headbands. You want to get flowers with several layers of silk petals. Pull off the flowers and lay them out on the table.

Next cut a small piece of felt to use as a backing for the flowers. This piece was only 29 cents. Cut a strip of felt if you are going to put a few flowers in a row on the headband. If you are doing one big flower, then cut it into a circle a bit smaller than the flower.

I love to include my little ones in any project that I am working on. Here I let them hold the elastic in place. Put the ends of the elastic together, slightly overlapping. Then use a glue gun to adhere the felt to the elastic band.




Take apart the silk flower. It comes apart easily. Lay out each of the pieces of the flower.

Using your glue gun, put a smalll drop of glue where you would like to put the flower. Gently press the first petal down.

Add each layer of the silk flower onto the flower petal you have already glued down. Continue this until the flower is complete. Then glue the other flower petals down where you want them. I centered the largest flower in the middle and then put two smaller ones next to that.

I got a box of gems to place in the middle of the flowers just to make them look pretty.

I glued one gem into the middle of each flower.


Here is a gerber daisy that I was working on.


I laid out the petals of the flower so I could just grab them and glue them in order.


Here is the finished product. I just love how it turned out. I didn't have a gem big enough to glue onto the center so I just put the center of the flower back on it.






My little ones loved their new head bands.

Baby Pictures

I thought that it would be fun to compare my baby pictures with my children and with my Grandma Martha and her sister Punky. There is definitely a family resemblance.


This is my Great Aunt Patricia (Punky) and my Grandma Martha when they were little girls.




This is me and my sister Megan. I think that we are the same ages as Bekah and Hannah.


Hannah and Bekah: ages 2 and 4





Sarah: 2 years old


Hannah: 2 years old


Bekah: 4 years old.


Sarah: 5 years old. This is my kindergarten picture.