Please don't call on Mom for prayer.

Tonight Ian asked me to say family prayer. I was really feeling a lot of love for my little family and must have really been getting into it when Niev interrupted. "That's too much. MOMMY, that is just too much. Stop. I said,'STOOOOOP!'" I could barely close my prayer I was laughing so hard.

And so the tradition begins: Moms always say the longest prayers!

Paula Buh is a SAINT

Last night I was talking with a group of friends and the subject turned to in-laws. Many of the women were not close to their mother in-laws and often times it sounded as if their MIL were judgemental and quite nosy. They not only told them how to run a house, but how to raise their kids, how to talk to solve issues with their husbands and how to go about their spiritual growth. It broke my heart.

It also gave me a great sense of appreciation for Ian's mom. She doesn't pass judgement or seem to belittle me in her own sly way. Instead she loves me unconditionally and accepts me as a true daughter. I love when she comes to visit because not only can Ian and I get away for a bit, but it is great to chat with her. She is so easy to talk to and always seems to take my side (even if she really doesn't think that I am right). I admire her strength and the way that she has kept her family together through some very demanding and straining trials.
I love her for the son she raised. He truly attributes much of who he is to the wonderful mother he has. (He keeps the seat down on the toilet, takes the kids when I need a break which is about weekly now, and truly is smitten by his children and shows them the greatest love a father can give. This is all due to his mother.) She even forgives me for being a really bad blogger!

She is the most fabulous grandma that I could ever ask for. She eats up every minute she can with my kids while she is here. She calls Niev on a very regular basis and holds long, in-depth conversations about her day. She celebrates with Ian and I at every milestone of our girls and shares in our sorrows at their heartbreaks and sicknesses. She truly has mastered unconditional love. Honestly, what more could I ask for!

Paula, I love you and wish you lived closer (please move now!) You are so good to me. Thank you. We all love you dearly!Hope you enjoyed all the pictures!

Beautiful girls

I just wanted to brag about my girls for a bit. Isn't that why people blog? Come on, be honest. That IS why you blog. But really, they really are becoming so cute.

We got a dog several months ago (Rowan was 4 months old and YES we are insane for getting a dog when we just had a new baby. Blame Ian; it was his birthday gift.). He is a pug-chihuahua mix and is really such a good dog. Rowan and Bonzer are the best of friends. They play so cute together and he is very patient with her. She will smack him, just lay on him and roll around. He puts up with a lot.Doesn't that make you want a dog (hint, hint Smiths)?

We carved a pumpkin at the VERY beginning of this month. Niev was WAY more into the cookies than carving a pumpkin, but isn't that typical Niev! By the time Halloween rolled around, our pumpkin was rotting. Niev kept telling us that pumpkin was getting dirty and we needed to clean him off (mold was growing on the outside).

Rowan FINALLY got her first tooth about two weeks ago (maybe a bit longer). It was a top one. Weird, I know! She now has three teeth, two on top and one on bottom. She won't show them, but she still is pretty cute. How can you not want to just smother her with smooches!
She is trying to walk. She is taking a few steps at a time and then will (very controlled) go to the ground to begin crawling. She is fast little crawler. As soon as I open the dishwasher or the fridge you hear, "woosh, wooosh, woosh" as she is crawling as fast as she can to get into stuff. She is quick!

Niev is very much into pretend play. She will make anything into a doll and make it talk. It is really fun to be in her world right now. She is a great little artist and draws the most amazing people (glasses with a bridge, sleeping people with pillows and girls with long lashes). She recognizes her name (or any letters in her name, ie. she sees an N in Natural and says, "That is my name", while pointing to the N.) I love my smart, firey girl.

I swear we wear clothes in this house.

See, here they are wearing clothes. yes, we are getting ready for church, but they are STILL wearing clothes in the house. It counts.

House improvements

While I was away making applesauce at my mom's house, Ian was busy painting the girls' room. Isn't he fabulous! We had the paint for SEVERAL months, but it is really hard to paint a room where little ones have their quiet time, their nap time and their sleep time. What a saint he is! (Sorry no pictures, but imagine a really great greenish-gray color that is perfect. Yep, that is the one. Isn't it great!)

We recently wanted to update our light fixtures, but didn't have a lot of spare cash so we went a cheap route.

I don't have a before picture, but the original chandelier in our entry was about three feet too wide for our small entry. Ridiculous. We found this idea on line (wish I could remember where) , but improved it with varying the bulb sizes. We really LOVE the outcome. It gives a whimsical, bubbly feel rather than the heavy overdone feeling of our old gaudy chandelier. We are so pleased.Now we just need to pick a hallway color--any ideas???

We also wanted to update our dining room light. As you can see it was REALLY 60's and ugly. Gold is not in.

Spray paint does wonders! The blue really adds to the room.

Hope we inspired you to do something on the cheap that adds a bit of spunk to your house!

Grosgrain: Shabby Apple 'Dare to Design' Lawn Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Grosgrain: Shabby Apple 'Dare to Design' Lawn Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

A lucky girl would be able to win this dress. Please let me be that lucky girl!

Halloween is finally over!!!

I overheard Ian talking to his mom about how "everyone should just give up on Lora's blog". Well, you've asked for it so here it is. Good luck keeping up!

Normally I really love Halloween, but this year has been extremely chaotic with the Primary Presentation and then my volunteering for too many things for our Halloween Carnival. I have truly learned to just keep my mouth shut and NEVER show up to meetings.

Tonight we had a Halloween Carnival, Bake-off and Trunk-or-Treat. I have been thinking about the girls costumes since around Labor Day and then costumes took a backseat while we were preparing for the Primary Program this last Sunday. Once Sunday was over, I realized that that I really didn't have much time to get everything done that needed to get done (especially since Niev and Rowan's costumes were more in the design phase rather than the sewing and done phase!).

Last night at 11 p.m. Ian and I put the finishing touches on the girls' costumes. They really turned out so cute.


Niev kept jumping up and down so it was very hard to get a picture of her. She LOVED eating dinner with her friends (I can't get the underlining off of this part...sorry!)

Niev was so cute saying, "I'm an astronaut and Ronin is a rocket." When she was trick or treating, she would say, "Tick, trick or treat." I just couldn't correct her. She was trying so hard to say just the right thing that would get her candy.
She kept trying to see what the girl was painting on her face so she was being EXTREMELY wiggly for the poor young woman painting her face!

Today was busy spent preparing for the carnival (which I was in charge of!!!) and then baking a pie for the pie bake-off (which I proudly won second place! Sorry Derrick, my pie was still better than your whiny-story pie). I'm so glad that tomorrow, then only thing on our calendar is going trick-or-treating with the girls.

Monsters, Monsters everywhere!

Niev had her first monster encounter last night. She woke up at 4:30 and came into our room whining that there was a monster in her room. She went on to explain that he was going to get her so she swung her arms and the monster couldn't bite her. He kept trying to bite her, but she just kept swinging at him

Ian gave her a ratchet-type tool and told her it was a "Monster Blaster". He then preceded to throw all the monsters out of the house (great dad, huh!). She refused to go back in her room and cried for a while after Ian forced her to go back to bed (we've been having problems with her trying to sleep with us after about 5 a.m.). I just hope her "Monster Blaster" works tonight!