fathers day tshirts and gifts

After some thought and searching I came up with another Father's Day shirt  idea. The idea came from a printable gift tag that Lindsey from Inspiring Creations shared on Tatertots and Jello. I found the golf tee logo on google...and then added the kids first initials in photoshop and added the text. Printed it on iron-on transfer paper and called it good!! I also printed the label that Lindsey made and added it to some golf tees for Greg and my dad.



I do have a photo of the kids with Greg but it's still on my camera. The kids also filled out some surveys about Greg and they were so cute...Micah used the superhero one from Little Miss Glamour Toes and I had the girls fill out the one from Kinzie's Kreations. I also made a "back rub" shirt from The Blue Basket. I'll get a photo of that in action later too. Just wanted to document our Father's Day gifts.

Greg spent most of his father's day in a quiet house since after lunch the kids and I along with my parents drove to Sevierville, TN for a little vacation with my dads brothers and their families. We are enjoying our time away, although we miss Greg and it's raining! Blah! Oh well, we will continue to have fun spending time with family and try and get in as much swimming, mini golf and cards as possible!! Have a great week!!

Father's Day was also my dads birthday this year (it happens quite often) so for my dad's birthday I enrolled him in the "dessert of the month club". He picks the dessert and I make it! So excited to bake some new things too!! Feel free to share your favorite recipes with me!!

micah

I love having three girls but there is something a little extra special about my relationship with my son. This little guy has me wrapped around his finger. He is such a sweet little boy and adds so much to our family. He is five now and tells just about anyone he meets. He really enjoyed his first year of school. He went to pre-school three days a week and I'm pretty sure he wished he could have gone seven days a week. We dreaded Wednesday nights because we had to break it to him once again that he wouldn't be going to school for 4 days. He is so excited to go to kindergarten and I'm pretty sure he thinks he's supposed to go tomorrow. He made some great friends at school and I am so excited to see him and his little buddies grow up together...they're going to be such good husbands, fathers, etc. 

He loves to play outside and has a great imagination. He loves to play baseball and with his cars and trains. He is a little boy to the core. But he has three sisters and since one of them is older he does have his fair share of playing "family" and Barbies. But I'm okay with that and I think it will help him become a great husband and father. He loves to play with Naomi most of the time but he's also great at playing by himself for a little while. He's a GREAT big brother to Hannah and Abi and LOVES those little girls. Greg is doing a great job of teaching him to protect the girls. I am so excited to see what this little guy does in the future but I am not looking forward to him growing up so fast. He's such a great little boy and I'm so excited that God blessed our family with him.

This kid is hilarious and keeps us laughing. He's probably not even sure what he says that makes him so funny. He just has great delivery more than anything. I try to post his funny sayings on facebook so I don't forget them. I'll post a few here because I know that not everyone is on facebook...

Micah made a keen observation tonight: "Mom, Veggie Tales don't have arms...well they do have arms but they're invisible arms."

Micah: "how long will the snow stay? Inly God knows because He made it. Why did God make it snow? Maybe because he wanted me to play in it." Can't argue with that...if only we had some boots.

Micah and Naomi are playing family, Micah says, "mom, pretend you're my mom." He then asks me to babysit his kids like I babysit him all day long. Then he was typing on his cell phone and tells me the address of where they are going and says "I zipped it into your phone". Love these kids!

Micah quote of the day: "mommy i heard the cardinals are winning. Zero to nothing"

I was singing along with Nichole Nordeman and Micah says: "did you write this song mom? You sound just like 

her."

sweet spunky hannah

It's been a while since I've done a kiddo update...so here we go.

Sweet little spunky Hannah is now 2 and a half years old. She's our little parrot, copying anything she hears like she's saying it for the first time. She loves to follow her big brother and sister around and play with them but she also likes to do her own thing from time to time. She loves baby Abi...and sometimes she loves her too much! She is definitely a two year old and likes to do many things all by herself...she'll let you know what those things are, pretty much everything. She's not too proud to ask for help though if she really needs it. She loves to ask where people and things are that are in plain sight. She doesn't quite have a grasp on pronouns and it's super cute. "Where is you? Where is he?" are common phrases by Hannah. I couldn't tell you what her favorite things to do are because she just loves to hang out with Naomi and Micah and be a big girl. She'll play with trucks, dolls, cars, barbies, color, sing, dance and swim. She will try anything once and most things a hundred times. She still loves to climb and has recently discovered her love of jumping off things. She is such a beautiful girl with a heart that is aimed at pleasing those around her while maintaining her independence. We're so blessed that God has put sweet spunky Hannah in our family. We'd really be missing a lot without her great sense of humor, her love of cuddling and her shrill shrieks! 

I had Hannah in this dress and had just given her a bath and did her hair before we were going to leave for VBS. I asked her to get her shoes on and when she put her purple shoes on without me telling her which pair I knew I needed to capture some photos of this beauty before she grew up anymore. These following photos are the result of ten minutes outside before we left for Vacation Bible School!!

 She saw Micah behind me and this was her reaction! She loves her brother so much!!

 A classic Hannah face!

fathers day shirt ideas

5 years ago when Micah was merely 3 months old I started a tradition that at the time I didn't know was a tradition. But the tradition continues...and it's something I love to do. I have been creating shirts for the kids to wear on Father's Day, for 5 years! So let's take a trip down memory lane (maybe giving you some ideas!) Each shirt is linked to my original blog post so you can see additional photos!

2008 Following in Daddy's footsteps

2008 - My dad is a perfect 10

 

2009 - My dad rocks

 

2010 - My dad is the bomb

 

 2011 - My dad is my hero

2012 - I've got an AWesome dad

I'm still not sure what the shirts will be like this year but I do have one idea cooking...but if you have an idea I'd LOVE to hear it!!! Please! I need some help. It's hard to come up with something new and fun every year!!

And if you need some more ideas, head over to my pinterest Mother's Day and Father's Day board to see what I've pinned. I'll be sure to share photos of what we ended up doing for Greg's gifts in a week or so. I just wanted to get these shirt photos up in case you're still looking for ideas!
 

peanut butter oreo brownies

Warning: this post contains junk food. no real food...well, except for...well, no real food really. So just forgive me and enjoy the sweets! I've had a huge sweet tooth lately. I made some peach cobbler for Greg the other day because I know he loves fruit-filled desserts but then I needed something for me...CHOCOLATE is more my speed. So when I saw a certain pin on pinterest that included oreos, peanut butter and brownies that I thought I'd give it a try. The pin doesn't go anywhere it's just a photo but have no fear the photo had enough information in it for me to give it a go.

Put some muffin/cupcake liners in a muffin tin (spray them or use parchment liners). You first make an oreo peanut butter sandwich (and don't use double stuff oreos or they won't fit) then put more peanut butter on top of the top oreo. Then pour some brownie batter right over the top of the cookies so it covers them. I usually use this homemade brownie batter  and it is pretty thick so it didn't exactly "pour" but I just put a spoonful on top of the cookie and then it "melted" down the sides when it was in the oven. Bake it according to the brownie directions but a little less time since they aren't as thick as they would be in the pan. So, I baked mine at 350 for 20minutes. They came out perfect and are SOOOO delicious! Healthy...not a chance. But sometimes that's okay!!

What looks like an unsuspecting brownie...

Is really something much more delicious than a plain brownie...

This was when it was warm out of the oven. I really feel the taste is better once they were cooled off a bit.
Let me know if you make these...you won't be disappointed. But please share some with your friends, otherwise you may end up eating them all by yourself and that's probably not a good idea! Enjoy!!

seven months old

My computer screensaver shows pictures that are on my hard drive. The kids love to sit on my chair and watch the photos pop up, they then name whomever is in the photo and try to tell the story of the photo (if they know it). It's been fun lately to see Hannah get in on the "game". She loves to sit there and tell us who everyone is. However, Hannah's not very good at the game. Sure, she knows mommy and daddy, Naomi and Micah and the 2 year old Hannah. But if she sees photos of herself or Naomi as a baby she automatically says "dat Abi" So I thought it would be fun to go back and look at some photos of the kids at seven months to see how much they look like each other and what makes them each different. Because it's hard for me to say "Oh Naomi looks just like ____" and "Micah is the spitting image of _____" Although people fill in those blanks a lot it's hard for me to see it sometimes. I will say that each kid is a pretty good combination of both Greg and I and sometimes it depends on their expression as to whom they look like. I do think that Hannah looks a LOT like Naomi and Abi favors Micah more but other than that it's hard to say  who exactly they look like. They are all a good mix. Here are some photos of the kids at seven months old. What do you think? Who do they look like to you?

Hannah

Abi

Naomi

Hannah at seven months old

Micah at seven months old

Abi at seven months old