Father's Day Weekend

Yesterday was Fathers Day and what an amazing day we had. We got to spend the entire day with Kevin and had great quality family time. For the first time we as a family went out on the boat and got to see where Kevin and his dad like to fish and just get away. It. Was. Beautiful. Here's a look at our view.

Amazing? Oh yes.

Kevin is such an amazing daddy and we are beyond blessed to have him. He works so hard in a job that doesn't appreciate what he does and then comes home and puts aside the mess from the day and spends time with me and the kids. I appreciate him more that he will ever know and thank God every single day for blessing us with each other. He makes me strong, supports me through everything and all around makes me a better person.

I love this man more than words can say.

My beautiful little family.

Happy Fathers Day to the daddy's reading this and to the mommas who have to be both. God bless you all.

Photos from our trip to the lake. 

Learning to Love Myself and My Curves

Hello beautiful people. I am not feeling too hot today but there was something I wanted to blog about, so here I am.
As some of you know, I have been dieting lately and working out and eating clean. I have lost 9 pounds this past month and as happy as I am about that, it was a rough month that involved a lot of self doubt. I am so hard on myself all of the time. In my mind I am never good enough and will never be good enough. I know a lot of that comes from the way you're raised and I really was never good enough growing up, I was told many times. I hate that it still affects my way of thinking as a grown adult and can't seem to push past it.
Anyway, I have come to the conclusion that I will learn to love myself if it's the last thing I do. I am tired of waking up every morning and weighing and allowing that to determine what kind of day I will have. I am tired of getting a shower at night and crying because I ate or drank something that I shouldn't have. It sucks the life out of me. I just want to enjoy life and my kids without thinking I have to look like society thinks I should. I see so many big beautiful women every single day who know they are gorgeous and aren't ashamed of the body God gave them. They rock their curves and don't care what anyone else thinks. I want that. I want to love the body that God made especially for me. The body that God loves me in.
I am still going to go for walks with my kids, because we enjoy it. And continue to eat healthy and drink my water because it makes me feel good. But I refuse to let it run my life. Losing weight is not why God put me here. The days of weighing every morning are over and the days of feeling like a failure because I ate something awful, are over.  I have got to figure out how to love myself. And I will.

God bless.

Crafty Sorta Day

Meh. What is up with this icky weather the past few days? I don't know about y'all but it makes my body ache and sucks out every bit of energy I have. So because of impending yucky weather K and I decided today would be a crafty sorta day. Sooooo, we made a stepping stone for the garden, K painted a mini birdhouse and then we played a ladybug alphabet game to teach K which baby letter belongs to which mommy letter. I think she really enjoyed herself.
I had my own craft night lastnight while the kids were sleeping because it was storming and I was having to deal with FuzzCakes and her storm phobia. Why not be productive, right? So, I was sorting the kids room and going through photos and  picture frames and I noticed that K has SO MANY personalized photo frames and girly frames from people from our past and Baby I has NONE! Because according to a certain person from our past they were not excited about Baby I. (Yeah, they really said that...You understand why they are people from our past now right?) Anyway, I looked online and absolutely could not afford the personalized frames on there! They are so expensive! So, I got the bright idea to make him one when I saw the plain wooden frames at Hobby Lobby. I thought it would be much easier than it was, but I am still pretty proud of the way it turned out. Here it is.

And here are the rest of today's pictures from craft time. Have a safe and happy day. God bless.

Painting a mini birdhouse

So pretty ;)

The most beautiful mini birdhouse in the world.

Can you see her hand and foot in her stepping stone?

Learning lower case letters

When baby I smiles, he SMILES! Hard cheesin'. :D

Handsome fella.

Mommas sweet baby boy. So happy.

The Mom Life

Alright Moms, how many times a day do you feel unappreciated? Unloved? Unnoticed? Forgotten? Or simply, "just a mom"? If you're anything like me, multiple times a day...at least. I have felt like that a lot here lately for some reason. So bad actually it puts me in a bad mood. What happens when Mommas not happy? Ain't nobody happy......as the lovely saying goes. I really had to pray about it lastnight because the bad moods, outbursts and all around negative energy was a bit too much. I prayed to God to please bless me with something, anything to help me to 1. Not feel so alone in this,  it's totally normal and 2. tips on how to feel better about the job I am doing as Mommy and 3.how to feel appreciated.
So today K and baby I and myself were out lollygaggin' around town and I decided to make a stop at Lifeway Christian bookstore to look around because we had not been in there in quite a while. While looking around I found myself holding a book called, "Be the Mom" by Tracey Lanter Eyster. Turned it over and in big blue letters it reads, "Do you ever feel like motherhood is a cycle of never-ending tasks that go unnoticed and unappreciated?" And I am like, Uh YEAH! What mother isn't? With that simple question I knew this was the book God wanted me to buy and read.
I got home and immediately started to read it. And no joke, it's like reading about my life. So relateable! It is amazing. I am almost finished with it, yes, already,  and I highly recommend it to any mother that has the desire for appreciation.
In this blog I am going include some of my very favorite parts of her book, things that will really make you think and things that I just really feel the need to share with some of you.

*The ability to truly understand the pressures of motherhood cannot be understood unless you are a mother. You are not alone in this. Your value as a mother is unsurpassed. You haven't lost yourself; you've found who you were destined to become.

*There is nothing "just a mom" about you!

*The way you train up and teach your children affects the way they react to you-and the world around them. 

*Don't be too hard on yourself. We all have those moments of regret, but God's grace can cover them. 

*I will mess up as a mom at times, but I will not ruin my children in the process. 

*It's my job to teach my children with encouragement and patience.

*God called me to be a mother. He blessed me with motherhood.

*Moms are the thermometers of their households. (Think about it)

Scripture to read:
*Proverbs 31:28

*Colossians 3:21

*Ephesians 6:4

*Proverbs 15:13-15

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day. Hug and kiss your babies. Make sure they know how much you love them.
As always,  God bless!

Kensley-0 Geese-2

Today was too funny not to share with those of you who are actually reading this. So, K, Isaac and I went to the park for me to get my walk on and afterwards we decided to go to Oxford Lake and feed the ducks since Golden Springs was over run with 100 kids from the day camp. We get to Oxford Lake and are immediately met by a gaggle of geese! Running after us, wanting our bread and hissing the entire time. K took a hotdog bun and was trying to break it off to toss it to the obviously starving geese. And then it happened! One impatient goose took the bread from her hand and bit her at the same time! She screams and so I try throwing more further away hoping they would back up. Uh yeah, no such luck. K is still crying and screaming and I am trying to console her and didn't see she was still holding bread and got bit AGAIN! This time she literally climbs up me and so I am holding Isaac and K along with the bag of bread with a gaggle of hungry geese staring at me and hissing. I dumped the bread and got out of there while laughing so hard I had tears. There was an elderly couple laughing as hard as I was. Poor K though. She is scarred. Told me repeatedly on the way home that she doesn't like "ducksies" and never wants to do that ever again! 

Oh my word. What a day. I felt so bad for K but at the same time, it was pretty funny. I hope you have all had a great day. God Bless

Weekend Fun

I love weekends with my family. Having Kevin home after hardly seeing him through the week and all of us together playing is what I look forward to throughout each week. This weekend was just what I needed. Spending lots of time playing together and Kensley and I baking cookies and playing outside in the kiddie pool and water table. Seeing the smiles on my kids faces makes for a good day, no matter what else is happening in life.

Isaac also started eating big boy snacks this past week. Yes, I cried. It was just a reminder that he is growing up and won't be my little baby much longer.  Thankfully though,for right now, he still nurses like a newborn and would still rather have boobie over puffs so I am still cherishing those moments when I nurse him. Reminds me of the Darius Rucker song, "It Won't be Like This for Long". How true those words are. 

I am so thankful for my little family and so blessed to have them. God is Good ALL of the time. Will post again in a few days.....or sooner, who knows. :) Enjoy your day and cherish every second. As always, God Bless.

Kensley and Daddy were the tower builders and Isaac was the demolition man

Making delicious sugar cookies with Mommy. 

My kids have got some long fingers haha!

First time with big boy snacks

Playing with Sissy. (can I just say how terrible iPhone cameras are?)

Waiting for daddy. #selfieswithmommy ;)

My beautiful baby girl

He'd much rather eat the block than play with it

Playing in Mommy's shoes.