Happy Home Challenge

This week, I joined up with Mrs.CFH2 at My Happy House and her Express Happy House Challenge. I know this seems dorky to some of you. And maybe it is. But this dorkiness, it's kind of my job. My main job is this:

 But the rest of it, is this:

Super old picture. The bushes in front are SOOOO huge now. In kind of a bad way. Next project....

It is hard to keep it looking nice, especially with the two little ones, but it is important! It makes me feel useful and happy to keep things clean, and attempt to cook nice meals (sometimes). So that said, here are my before and after pictures! I have to say, I didn't get to all of the things on the list, but I feel like I made a good dent :)

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

I had a helper :)

I chose to tackle only the worst cabinets. I did wipe them all down though, and clean out the fridge, as well as do the window stuff. There are other cabinets that need help, but hey, I had a sick baby for a week in the middle of this! And a 3 year old, being herself....

Oh How Pinteresting

I got sucked in. It was inevitable. But I swear I may be a better mom because of it. It's Pinterest. It's amazing. My favorite things to "do" on there. Arrange the girls' Christmas lists. Arrange mine.... Look for crafty toddler ideas. New recipes. Crafty/home stuff. Fun Christmas ideas. That is my main thing so far. Oh, and Ava's birthday party planning. Cause you know, she's 8 months old, and the party is like, practically tomorrow.

So here are some things I have done. I have done more, but not taken pictures of it all.

 

Buffalo Chicken slow cooker thing. It was good, but spicy! I need to reduce tha amount of wing sauce next time, for sure!

 Some idea to keep the toddler busy for a while. It worked pretty well!

 "Arm" fall trees. Super cute!

 Stinking adorable idea <3 Taking a picture of your girls in your wedding dress. Perhaps replicating it with their own wedding! Like this one, of me and Olivia. Pretty sure we will have that same picture taken at her wedding. In 45 years.....

So time sucker though it is, I love it!

Wordless Wednesday- Pumpkin Patch~

An Awesome Tradition

I have a handmade cross-stich quilt for each girl. My husband's family has apparently been doing this for quite some time now, and I LOVE the tradition! Members of the family, mom and dad's side, cross stitch a square, then it is sewn into a quilt. Here are the girls'!

This is just part of it, hers is double what is showing here.

Big Sis is just fake sleeping :) "Look Mommy, picture me asleep!"

In all seriousness, what an amazing memory! We now have Matt's from when he was a baby!! I have done a square for one other baby in the family so far also, and though it took me 876 years to complete it, I was happy to do it :)

How Lucky Are We?!

A

Redneck Playpen

 A friend of ours, Mindy, has horses in a nearby town. It has never worked out that we have been able to go out there, until the other day. I threw caution to the wind, and decided to forgo Ava's morning nap ( I NEVER do this!), so that we could go out and let Olivia ride. I just knew she would love it. On the way there, I finally told her where we were going, and she was so excited!

And yes, it was worth it! All of the kids had a blast, and I even got on one of the horses for a few minutes, thus reliving my childhood fantasy of becoming some amazing horse rider-person. Yep, that's what they call it.

Brushing Wendy

Olivia' ride!

She was in heaven

Double riding with Lillie

Well, there's Ava- in case you couldn't tell...

Anyways, can't wait to go out there again!!

Life These Days With Two Kids

Seriously, it's like this, all.day.long. I love it. But it's exhausting. O is always trying to carry A somewhere. A loves it about 30% of the time, screams the rest of the time. I am always yelling no to O to prevent her from yanking the baby's arm out of socket. She seriously seems to not have a clue that this could actually be painful to her sister. On that note:

We are clashing a lot lately, the 3 year old and I. She is testing her limits so bad, and we are both such emotional people, it is not always pretty. I never thought I would be that mom. The one that yells at her kid. But I have done it a few times lately. And every time I open my mouth, I know good and well that it doesn't work. But I am SOOOOO frustrated at the sheer disobedience. She is the kid that I tell no once, nicely, in my really sweet mommy voice, then she will look at me with this "hahahaha" look in her eyes and do it again. On purpose. Again, and again. Time out is my method of choice, but she isn't seeming to get it lately. Afterwards, I will ask her why she went to time out, and she will (crying) say "because I don't like time out! I don't want to go to time out, and you say go to time out Olivia." Um, no, it's because you yanked a toy out of your sister's hand for the 4574th time today, thus making her cry, and then laughing at her, and I couldn't take it anymore.

She has never been a tantrum kid, until the last few days. All the sudden, she is the kicking, screaming, being hauled out of a store by me kid. I cannot even fathom that she would do this if she Daddy was with us. She has never acted like this while he was around. Something is different about being with me. What is it? Sister is 8 months old. This behavior from big sis is new. I am sure it is related to little sis, but I can't imagine it would have come on this fast. What has changed? Someone help!

Does anyone have any good toddler discipline ideas? I have no clue what to do with her right now.