Turtle Turtle Turtle

While on our week getaway, Faith was getting a bit stir crazy, so my mom and I went on the hunt for a park... we found a pretty good one if I do say so myself. Faith had a blast !! There was a cool zip line thing, I remember those when I was little and went to parks. It seems that parks these days just aren't built the way they use to be. Parks around here at least are built with the typical slide, bridge, monkey bars and climbing stuff. I'm just really excited that I got to ... I mean Faith got to experience the zip line thingy ma jig :)

Later in the week we decided it was time to Color Easter EGGS !! Faith was so excited, we decided to use the old school food coloring drops, vinegar and hot water. We had so much fun mixing colors and dipping the eggs. Faith got a little drop crazy :) squeezing the droppers... She has the patience of her mother, letting one drop out at a time just wasn't going to happen !!

In the mean time... Felicity has been rolling over like crazy and doing the turtle turtle turtle head thing and believe it or not, she is scooting !! At 3.5 months this little girl is ready to Rumble ...

On our adventure we also managed to spend some time with my grandparents. We were so excited to see them and it was SO nice to be able to have the girls around them. My grandma realized that little Miss Felicity has my grandpa's upper lip, it's kind of hard to see in the pics lol however, she is totally right !! It is so amazing to me that God creates us to be so unique, however some traits carryover to generations... my children seem to have traits of their grandparents and great grandparents, it truly is amazing !!

When I was visiting my grandparent's my grandma gave me an amazing compliment that I was so thankful for, "Birdie I have seen many many mothers, but I think you really are the BEST mother I have ever seen, your girls are very well behaved and the way you talk to Faith is Amazing." I could have melted, I love both my grandma and grandpa so very much !! I treasure the time I get to spend with them :)


We ended our adventure with some Easter Egg hunts and celebrating Easter at Donald's grandparents house. It was so nice to be around family, I missed my parent's and family... but part of being married is to spend time with the my husband's family as well, as hard as it is to accept I think I'm starting to relax a bit and accept that fact.

 

Hope you all had a fabulous Easter and enjoyed celebrating the rising of Christ !!

**Mommy With Faith

The Duck Affair

I feel awful for not blogging while I was on vacation, but the husband needed my computer and the next few posts should make up for it :)


Last weekend we took a drive down to Northern San Diego to visit my family. In the mean time, we had a bit of fun. We decided to go to the Wild Animal Park to celebrate my dad's birthday and because it's been such a long time since we have been. I will say it's not as "Wild" as I remember, it has become more of a "Zoo" ... however it was still a bunch of fun and we got to see a lot.

When we first arrived we were being all touristy (if that's a word) studying the park map and you wouldn't believe what decided to walk past us ...

That IS a cheetah... crazy right? it was being accompanied by 2 zoo keepers and a large black dog (I guess they transport with buddies to keep them comfortable.)

Next on the agenda came feeding the Lorikeet Birdies ... Faith had a blast... I must put out a warning... when going to see these birds be prepared to see poop and be pooped on... mostly nectar but still, my dad can preach about it ;)

To get out of the heat we managed to get on the African Safari tram ride, we saw giraffes, zebras, rhinos, and their babies !! SO CUTE !! It was a lot of fun to see all the animals in there some what natural habitats. I think it was too hot to take pics or something... so moving on to the GORILLAS !!

 
I will wrap up with how our trip ended, we were resting in the shade around a pond that had a few ducks in it. However we weren't prepared to be entertained...

Female duck #1 had a not so pretty nest, as she tried so hard to get the sticks to stay down and neat she couldn't help it, after all her so called "nest" ended up being a  fallen tree branch that was not so nest like. Male Duck however thought it could work, so he hopped up to check it out and after plucking at her a few times realized it wasn't what he wanted. In the mean time, Female Duck #2 was about 3 feet away in a much better put together beautiful nest, she started to puff herself up and do some weird throat thing (apparently it was a turn on) and you guessed it, Male Duck flew right over and and started showing off for her. I wasn't prepared to watch this Duck affair happen before my eyes, but thankfully a tall white crane looking bird was there to be the mediator as he stood down between the two nests shaking his head back and forth.

This is a pic of Female Duck #1 ...

Not sure how that all ended, but we had to get going... and yet we still had a successful Wild Animal Park Trip

Before ....

After...

** Mommy With Faith

Faith goes to the Dentist

This morning Faith had her first visit to the dentist. It was quite the adventure.

Let me rewind to two weeks ago when she was first scheduled for her appointment. After prepping Faith for an entire week about her first dentist appointment and loading up both kids and hauling them up a flight of stairs. We ended up having a 30 minute insurance fiasco... I found out for some reason Faith's insurance card was inactive, this is the SAME card she has had since birth and apparently the issue date was wrong ?!?! SO they had to send me a new card and in the mean time I couldn't get an approval over the phone yada yada yada and so on... So I left with a very upset Faith and headed to McDonald's to make everything better and the end we had to reschedule her appointment for today. Well God had that one all figured out as usual because Faith went with me to my dentist appointment last week and got to see it all done on me, so it worked out well.

Faith did such an AWESOME job !! She had NO cavities :) and she even let them do x-rays (my least favorite part personally) so here is a before picture...

I'm not sure why, but she was really excited and such a good patient (much better than me) she even got to wear some really cool shades.

In the end it was a successful trip and her pearly whites are all clean and ready to be brushed and flossed EVERY DAY !! so they say...

We got to the car and as we were driving away she asked me in a very disappointed voice, "mommy what about Mr. Sun?" I told her that Mr. Sun (the giant light they shine in your mouth) had to stay there to look at the other children's mouths too. She said, "okay I guess... bye Dentist Doctor." And that concludes Faith goes to the Dentist.

When we arrived at our humble home ;) something amazing was sitting on my doorstep... It was a brown box !!
I have been researching baby carriers for a month now and finally realized I needed to bite the bullet and get an ERGO carrier, I tried one at our awesome MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) class last Monday thanks to Veronica :) and I loved it. Well I got mine today and decided to try it out. Felicity loved it :) She even fell asleep in it (hard to see in this picture) but give me a break it's hard to take pictures of yourself.

Today was a successful day and now I'm preparing a Chicken Pot Pie for a friend who was in the hospital and I'm going to attempt to make some "pigs in a blanket" for our Pot Luck for our final Financial Peace University class yay :) In the mean time, Faith is building away and Felicity for the very FIRST TIME is asleep in HER own bed...

That's all for now !! Have a Blessed Day


**MommyWithFaith

Rolling Over !!

So last week I had another sinus infection, every time I get sick it goes straight to my sinuses... it's kind of miserable. On top of it, I got my teeth cleaned and I'm not sure what they did, but my mouth was sore for 2 days. It was a rough week to say the least so let me catch you up...

Towards the end of the week I was getting cranky after being cooped up for a few days and so was Faith. I decided to go to the grocery store and get some missing items for Italian Meatball Soup (recipe will be posted soon). I get to Albertson's and I'm wearing some baggy grey sweatpants, blue slipper socks with tennis shoes, a beanie and my huge snow jacket. I looked like a hobbo and I added to my fabulous look by putting my diaper backpack on. I put Felicity's car seat in the cart and Faith was hanging off the sides...

My main mission... Go in,  get the missing few items and get out. Well between Felcitiy needing a diaper change, Faith needing to try the samples and me needing to stop every few seconds to blow my nose it didn't happen that way. However, we finally get to the check out and while in line I start searching for my wallet, (yup you guessed right) I didn't have it on me. I pull the cart aside, grab Felicity's car seat in one hand, Faith in the other hand and walk out to the car, the entire way I'm explaining to my 3 year old... why we left the groceries inside... "Mommy is someone going to take them, can't they come with us? Why are they there still? Why... Why... Why..." ... I could have lost it then, but I contained myself. We reached the car and I searched for my wallet, and yes it was NOT there. I thought to myself, how fabulous.

So we went back inside to our cart and I started to push it around aimlessly and when I reached for my phone in my back pocket to call my husband I realized I had left it at home on the couch. Now I was ready to cry... no wallet and no phone...I held it together and managed to ask some random person if I could borrow their phone. I got the look and all I could think is... he probably thinks I'm homeless... as if it wasn't bad enough I couldn't figure out how to use the dang phone, so the guy dialed the number for me and finally I got a hold of my husband who came to save the day. When he arrived I took Felicity and left him with my cart of groceries and Faith and said, "I need to go home."

I would post a picture here... however, I wasn't in the mood to take one at the time... but it would be funny now ... Glad I can laugh about it now :)

Yesterday was a HUGE day for little miss Felicity. Since being sick I wasn't sure how much Felciity was eating, she has been drinking some formula from a bottle here and there, but not much and I haven't been able to pump. I tried the rice cereal in the bottle to give her a little bit of bulk, but she didn't take it. So I decided to try and spoon feed... This is what we got :

Well soon after she was done eating, I put her on her back on her play mat so she could get a little exercise. As I was messing around on my computer (probably checking craigslist) I hear her whining a little bit and I turn around and she was on her tummy !! My little girl rolled over and I missed it ... She did it again later and again I missed it !! So, finally I watched her and gave her some encouragement and she did it :)

** I barely got to see it otherwise I would post a pic :)

To top off her Amazing day ... Felicity let out her very FIRST giggle... I was playing with her while she was in her crib and she was giving me her huge smiles as usual and then all the sudden ... a little giggle came out and a few after that to follow. What a growing girl !! She makes her sister proud :)

**MommyWithFaith

What A Work Out

Just when I thought I was free and clear of all the sickies that have been spread around, I finally got something. Thankfully it didn't hit the rest of the family; but of course it hit me and turned it to a not so fabulous sinus infection. So if you are wondering where I have been this week, I have been in bed. I managed to take a 3 hour nap yesterday with both girls (Praise God) I definitely needed it. I'm still feeling like a Zombie today, however I felt the need to blog and let it all out. :)

I'm still flowering away, I have many more styles and colors to choose from now. I'm so excited and it is very therapeutic to do as well. The more flowers I create the more creative I get. Which reminds me, you should all put your orders in now... Easter is right around the corner and these make cute hair, bag and hat accessories for both mommies and kiddos. The photo below is my lovely friend Becky sporting a Royal Flower Clip :)

Felicity hit a huge milestone 2 days ago. She is starting to coo and talk so much. This little girl is full of smiles and giggles and is really good at telling you ALL about it. She turned 3 months on the 1st and I can't believe how big she is getting. Faith is being such a cute BIG sister. Anytime Felicity starts crying Faith goes into immediate mommy mode saying things like, "Oh baby it's okay, is it horrible? It's okay I'm here little sister" ... She is SO CUTE !!

Okay this is the last thing... I have been slightly obsessed with the online bargain sites lately; babysteals.com and babyhalfoff.com... Both very DANGEROUS !! They have half off popular items every day at certain times. Well yesterday morning they had Mommy Necklaces on one of the sites.

If you aren't familiar with Mommy Necklaces, they are great to keep babies hands busy while nursing and can even be teethed on. They are totally and completely baby friendly, they can be pulled and tugged and drooled on too.

They are SO popular that the site had to shut down due to all the activity overwhelming the site. For the rest of the day I was checking every 2 minutes from my iPhone, I got so wrapped up in the drama and excitement of these necklaces (I don't have one) that I felt the NEED to own one since everyone was ranting and raving about these dang things.

Later that evening we went out for a quick bit and while on our way home (Donald was driving) I checked my phone and the site was back up ! I quickly started processing an order; putting things in my cart, entering shipping and billing info and finally checking out. (On these sites things can become SOLD OUT while in your Cart) I'm not sure what I got or if I even got what I wanted all I know is after a very intense 3 minutes and almost $40 later...  I turned to Donald and said, "I seriously feel like I just worked out."

Faith and Felicity Flowers

For the past 3 months Donald and I have been taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. I can honestly say it has been a life changing experience. We have learned to manage  our money and although we aren't completely out of debt, over the past 3 months we have been able to payoff a large chunk and have canceled and cut up all of our credit cards.I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are living like no one else so later we can LIVE like no one else.



However, just when we thought we were ahead of the game, a storm blew in (literally) part of our fence in the backyard blew down, we got a roof leak that came in behind the fireplace wall and now I have to get an oral procedure done that my health insurance doesn't cover. I thought, well there goes our emergency fund and then some...


Well, last week at our "gospel community bible study" we started talking about tithing. Donald and I decided to get a lot better at tithing and we came to an agreement to start automatic payments to our church twice a month. Seriously two days later we get a call from our home owners insurance and they are going to cover ALL of the house repairs. We are so blessed and cannot be more thankful for what God has provided for us.


With all that said, I still feel the need to bring in a little extra income to help cover bills and what not. So I started thinking, what could I possibly do that doesn't involve leaving my girls? Flower clips seemed to be the answer. 

Flower hair clips seem to be the "thing" right now. However, I was never impressed with the ones I saw. They weren't really my style. So, I decided to make my own and I think I have created a monster within myself, because not only do I love to create new flower designs but now I'm beginning to enjoy the marketing process of it all as well. I have named my little flower business boutique... Faith and Felicity Flowers. So take a look at the pictures below and put in your order today :) Thank you for all the support !!