3 little Miracles

3 little Miracles

Thursday, February 24, 2011

What I have been busy doing

Why I havent been posting as much . . . . .
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Prior to kids this process seemed so much easier and always got done by late January early February.  BUT each year it seems to get more difficult to find the time to gather all the materials to do our TAXES when I don't have kids pulling at me or messing with my stacks of organized papers.  This year was even tougher because I no longer have the office to spread my paperwork out in, so I had to work on the dinning table which was very vulnerable to little hands and had to be packed up each time I was done for the day.  The biggest headache seems to be organizing and going through all the medical to see if it is worth itemizing . . . . . for sure this past year was worth reporting.  I am also trying to determine if it will be worth reporting my business information since I didn't really do much with it this past year due to the difficulty of my pregnancy, gathering that paperwork will be another headache but probably worth it in the end.  
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Hopefully today will be the day I get it finished and I can move forward with other projects around the house.

Things I do to try and be a little organized for tax season each year:
1.  A good file system for medical records for each family member and records I normally report on our taxes (Property taxes, Car info, Utility bills (for business), and College loans/funds) so that it is a quick grab each tax season.
2.  Keep a tax workbook in Excel and TRY to update it each quarter so the end of year entry goes faster.
3.  A multi section accordian file to put each group of paperwork after I have entered it in my tax spreadsheet or tax program.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Rachel: 4 months old

Rachel today you are 4 months and 2 days. 
You have become a very chatty little girl and you talk all the time, I took this video today during your well checkup to send to Daddy at work. 

 (the video isn't great because I took it with my phone, but you can hear our little girl talk)
You have become much more physically active and moved to your room full time on Thursday February 17th to give you more room.  I miss you in our room, but know you will be happier in your crib where you can move around more.  You now wiggle around until you are laying a different way and you love to kick your feet up into the air until you can see them or grab the chain of toys hanging above you with your feet, you are also reaching more for toys hanging above you, YEAH!
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Your stroller finally arrived this past month and so you and I have been enjoying walking to the bus stop in the afternoon to meet your big brother David, you seem to really enjoy the view along the walk.  We still have not taken you too far away from home, but we are already planning a trip for early summer to Greensboro to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa Haynes's 50th anniversary and a trip in the fall to visit your Dad's family in New York.  For now we are sticking close to home and enjoying our daily routine as you grow.
You weigh: 10 lbs 13 oz.
Length:  24"
You wear size 3 Month clothes, you are still wearing a size 1 diaper and I hope you will be for a couple more months because I have a huge case I got at a great deal from Amazon, HA.  You are still wearing NB shoes because your have such tiny feet, you have a couple of size 1 shoes I can put on you because they have Velcro straps that I can adjust tighter around your ankle to hold them on.

Happy 4 months Rachel!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Goodbye sweet LuLu

Today was a sad day for me, we had to have our outdoor kitty LuLu put down.
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Lulu was named after the famous actress Lucille Ball
I bought Lulu for my husband at a local pet shop hoping she would turn out to be the Big Orange Fat cat he always dreamed of having, (Lucille Ball was not fat, but she had a personality bigger then life and that was what we hoped of Lulu and obviously they had a COLOR in common) the kind of kitty that would climb up around your neck and sleep. Lulu never ended up being the big fat orange cat OR even the curl up in your lap cat.  Lulu turned out to be a feral cat, she only hung around enough to get food, she loved to hang out with our dogs and lay in the sun with them.  BUT as soon as you reached out to try and pet her she would run about 10-15 feet away from you.  We did try making Lulu and indoor kitty for about a year, but she always found some place to hide most of the time and we finally decided to give her the freedom she wanted. 

Lulu and I had a good relationship until about a year ago when she decided to move around to my parents garage instead of hanging out on our patio.  (I was actually happy with this move, because it was a safer environment for her and the dogs couldn't get to her food, in addition during bad weather she was in a warmer space).  She used to let me pet her when I feed her, but once she made the move to the garage she no longer had a need for me or anyone because my dad keeps a automatic feeder in the garage.  However, over the past week we noticed that little Lulu was not really moving around a lot and would even allow us to pet her and hand feed her.  So today my parents took her to the vet and although the doctor couldn't find anything specifically wrong, Dad asked for her to be tested for feline leukemia.  Much to our surprise the doctor called back and said she didn't have feline leukemia, she had feline aids. 

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So with great sadness, we agreed it was best for Lulu's quality of life and the safety of the other cats we have, that Lulu be put down.  Although she was not an affectionate kitty, she was still our beautiful outdoor kitty and if you could get her alone for a few minutes she managed to purr with a good rub, she will be missed.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Potty training

Jon is 3 1/2 years old and up until this past month he was not potty trained. . . . . not because we haven't been trying, but because our little Jon is a very strong willed little boy.  James Dobson missed a chapter to cover Jon's level of strong willed behavior.  There are things we KNOW Jon can do, but because we want him to do it, he refuses.  CONTROL is the name of his game, he wants it and he is determined to take it away from us.

Just like with Davey, our first step of potty training was putting him on the potty before bath time each night, and each and every time he peed.  Jon has been able to do this first step of potty training for over a year and a half.  However, he had a really great day one time and actually went poop in the potty and when he saw it he said it was "disgusting".  From that day forward he refused all of our efforts to move along the potty training efforts . . . . . he didn't want to see "it".  So we stopped trying. 

Although we felt the oncoming pressure of two children in diapers, we decided to take some friends advice and allow Jon to let us know when he was ready to potty train.  We kept encouraging him to go potty before bath time, but never pushed for more then that.  When he started the three year olds preschool class he was supposed to be potty trained in order to attend.  BUT, with all we had going on with the pregnancy and upcoming arrival of Rachel, the preschool said they would work with us.  We decided we would make an effort again after Rachel arrived if he hadn't made any progress on his own.

So in November we started pushing again for him to gain this step of independance.  Jon was showing us signs of wanting to potty train because we often found him stripping out of his wet pullup and going into a corner to hide and do his poop and then asking right away for it to be cleaned up. 

I tried putting him on a 30 minute schedule one weekend . . . . . it worked until mid day when he decided he was boored with it.
I tried a sticker chart . . . . . it worked until he decided had enough with stickers
I tried M&M's . . . . . it worked until he decided I wasn't giving him enough M&M's and I didn't want to give him more because I didn't want a child hopped up on sugar all day.
We decided to take him to Walmart and let him pick out a bike, and told him he would get his big boy bike when he was successful with NO accidents for a week . . . . .
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he sat on it, happy as a lark and then said, "I want to save it for later".

Can you believe it, he was willfully deciding to keep using the bathroom in his pants and save a BIG BOY BIKE for LATER???????

We were frustrated to say the least, sadly I have to admit we even got to the point of yelling at him and even popping his little butt.  Then one night while I was out with some friends for church a friend suggested Naked Day.  I was flabbergasted at the suggestion, but at this point I was willing to try anything.  So that weekend we tried Naked Day and to my surprise it actually worked . . . . . for that day.  But the next day he decided to not do it anymore unless he could go naked all the time, which isn't really possible when your going to church. 

So I put on my big girl panties and I decided to do a four point effort to bring Jon's way of thinking over to our side.  I used the Sticker, M&M, partial Naked Day, and Big Boy Bike reward system.  For two whole weeks we allowed Jon to go naked from the waiste down while he was at home and gave him 1 sticker + 2 M&M's for pee and 2 stickers + 3 M&M's for poo with the ultimate goal being no accidents to earn his big boy bike.

Finally on February 18th we rolled Jon out of Walmart with his new big boy bike.  It has been a very long journey, but I am so proud of Jon and us for working at it until we found the formula of encouragement that finally worked to get him to success.
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And off he went . . . .
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fall down and get back up again . . . .
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Jon is a Big Boy NOW!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Show Us Your Life - Alma Mater

I am a graduate of the College of Architecture at UNC Charlotte 2001 and a proud 49er Miner! 
Prior to UNC Charlotte, I had gotten my two year associates degree in Interior Design and had prayed for God to direct my path from there.  I struggled with whether to follow my life dream of a career in architecture or to get my Bach. in Interior Design.  I heard of an opportunity for non-traditional students at UNCC and submitted my application, I was admitted, but not directly into the COA.  So I took a year of general classes and went through the admissions interview again for the COA and was admitted the following year doing their 4 year track program.
Architecture school was amazing, difficult, and not what I had expected.  I truly enjoyed the studio setting and the push that the professors gave for us to expand our thinking outside the box of the way we normally processed a space or idea.  However, I found that my design process from ID school was very challenged and I felt like the COA didn't take practical, daily design into consideration as much I felt they should.  I felt like they were always trying to produce the next Frank Owen Gehry, instead of teaching the things "normal" architects would be dealing with such as a space furniture can actually fit into, handicap accessibility, and code issues that effect design.
My favorite time in studio was at night (there where a LOT of late nights) when the building was quiet (most of the time) and work was uninterrupted by classes and professors.  Although I appreciate my education from the COA, after I graduated I found that my desire was to have a career in ID (of course I have now put that career off due to 3 little Miracles, and I pray to one day return to it). 

While on campus I worked as a Resident Advisor for four of the five years I was there.  It was a bit unusual for me to live on campus as a non-traditional student, but I really enjoyed my experience.  My final year I was an RA in the newly built Laurel Hall, it was a challenging year because the first year in a new building means you experience working out all of the kinks, but of all my years on campus it was my favorite (of course that might be because I was getting ready to graduate and planning my wedding).  In fact my dorm room is still pictured on the campus website, HA.
 

UNC Charlotte is an amazing school and in an amazing city "the Queen City".  I have only been back to the campus once and already it has changed so much, I hope to go  back again sometime soon and see the new buildings and plans for the future.  I know they are already working on a football team for UNC and when they are up and running (no pun intended) I will be one of their biggest cheerleaders.


New place to sleep

Our little Rachel finally graduated last night from THIS
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to THIS
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She had already been napping in her bedroom in her big bed, but I was not comfortable with her being away from us at night.  We decided it was time to move her because when Rachel was awake, she was really thumping around within the small "walls" of her bassinet, and when she is in her crib for nap time she always ends up moving around a lot.  So, it was time for her to have more space to sleep in.  Rachel has been sleeping through the nights for a couple of months now, but her first night in her crib . . . . . she was very unsettled, HA go figure.  Normally she sleeps from around 9PM - 5:30AM but last night she woke up an hour after I went to bed, around 12:15AM and then again at 4:30AM.  I know she will adjust and so will we, but it was sad to move her to her room because I know she is the last baby to sleep in our room and moving her means she is already starting to grow up.   

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Craving Spring

So many are screaming for spring to arrive and I am not any different.  Spring is literally my favorite season, followed by an Indian summer flowing gently into a mild fall.  BUT right now I need SPRING!  I need to see flowers, the beginning of hope with green buds, feel the warmer air, to open my windows to freshen the house, and gently push my boys out the door to play.  I need spring!
I crave the renewed energy that comes with spring, to feel the desire to get out and DO.  I know that usually people get their "fresh start"with the turn of the year and New Years resolutions, but not me, my fresh start comes with spring.  I can't wait for the days to be consistently warmer so I can put Rachel in the stroller and go for a walk, or put her in the bouncer while I kneel over the flower bed and clean it from dead leaves and replace it with new life.

Ahhhh Spring you can't come soon enough!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Wordless Wednesday - Potty Training's Hidden Treasures

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*these are all dry, they were placed in these hidden places in favor of pullups with a better pictures.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Friday, February 11, 2011

Show Us Your Life - Beauty Secrets at 42

Kelly is hosting Show Us your Life - Beauty Secrets today and although I feel I really don't have anything to offer in the area of BEAUTY these days (I am still feeling the after pregnancy UGLY).  AND even though I am not happy with my "beauty" at this moment in my life, I thought I would still join in with what little "cents" I have in the area of beauty tips.

MakeUp:
I have never  been much for wearing makeup all day long, in fact I don't really care for the feel of makeup on my face.  However, about a year ago I was introduced to Bare Essentials by a friend of mine, and I love it because it is very light.  I use a 3 part system.  I feel like the key thing to wearing makeup as a 42 year old mother of 3 little Miracles, is that I apply makeup for where my skin is at this point in life (laugh lines (sounds much better then wrinkles)) sags, bags, and shadows. 

A.  L"Oreal Age Perfect under my eyes to cover up shadows and morning baggage
B.  Bare Essentials for the rest of my face.  I love how light weight it is, and I don't even know it is on even on hot days and if I purposely don't  forget to wash it off at night, I don't feel like my pours are clogged up all night long.

C.  Finish with Mascara and a Simple lip gloss with very little color to it.
Skin Care:
I am lucky enough that my skin is fairly free of blemishes.  I don't do a regular skin care regime every morning and evening, I only use skin cleansers on really humid days (in other words most summer days when I have been outside) or when I just feel like an extra fresh feeling to my skin before bed.  These are the products I use when I am in the mood ;-)

Olay Daily Facial cloths for a quick face wash
Arbonne NutriminC Antiaging, for deeper cleaning

Moisturizer:
The final key to my "Beauty" secrets are these two moisturizers.  I WOULD NOT live without my BeautiControl moisturizer products.  One is a moisturizer for my face, Skinlogics, I HATE the feel of a heavy moisturizer on my face and really worked with the consultant to find the right one for me.  Skinlogics is perfect and light on my face before bed.  Finally, I use this other product pretty much all day, the Extreme Hand Repair Cream.  My hands get very dry and cracked especially this time of season and this saves me so much literal pain.

So that is it, at 42 years of age, I am mistaken for a woman in her 30's often and some really bad age guessers even go so far as to card me, HA.  I don't do a lot of special routines, I have tried several times to change my beauty habits, but fall back into skipped nights of not washing my face.  So I guess I am just lucky to not have skin problem for my sometimes lazy skin regime.

Blog Hop Friday


AND

Join the Friday Blog Hop hosted by Melissa at Home Grown Families and Nicole at Mama to 4 Blessings! They invite you to join them every Friday to make more blog friends!
It's very easy to join in on the fun!

AND

Smart and Trendy Moms
Social Parade Follow on Friday Blog-Hop is a weekly link-up hosted by Smart and Trendy Moms . They created it for socializing and to get new followers, subscribers, readers without feeling overwhelmed. Every week will be a new link-up that will focus on following blogs.
AND FINALLY!

Welcome to Fun Follow Friday hosted by Simply Stacie and My Wee View. The goal of this hop is to get new Google Friend Connect Followers for your blog and be introduced to new blogs to follow!

Fill in the Blank Friday


1.   The TV show/website that I watch/read that I would be embarrassed to tell anyone about is       Real Housewives of New Jersey, Beverly Hills, Atlanta, and Orange County.  Truly I find nothing REAL about most of these woman, I feel like so many of them are putting on an act in order to gain fame with the exception of a handful.  But Real or not, I find myself sucked into watching their DRAMA all the time, oh well.

2.  An item of clothing that is worn and torn but that I love far to much to throw away is    Not really, I too am a purger of clothing and don't hold onto my stained or hole filled clothing.  The one exception to the rule is a PINK winter dress shirt of my husbands that I kinds took over for my own lounging around.

3.  My grocery store impulse buy is     Walkers Pure Butter Shortbread cookies, they remind me of the time we lived in England for a year when I was a pre-teen, and I love having them with tea or cocoa.
4.  Something I do at work to pass time that I wouldn't want my co-workers to know about is   I am a SAHM so the only thing I do to "pass time" between loads of laundry, making beds, feeding kids, and changing diapers, is watch TV and spend some time on the Internet.

5.  One thing in my life that I could give up, but never will is    TV and Internet, I will not say NEVER because you don't know what the Lord will ask you to do, but I would have a hard time giving them up.

6.  A little indulgence that I have is     I can't really think of anything that I indulge in other then a candy bar from the check out line every once in a while .

7.  The junk drawer/area in my house is       in the kitchen and sadly also my desk area in our bedroom .

What guilty pleasures are you indulging in this weekend?
Answer the questions in your own post and link up at

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Changing my address

When I started this blog, I had 2 little Boys and now our beautiful little family has added another miracle and we are now 3 little Miracles.  So, in preparation of a makeover this spring, I am updating my blog address to lauras3littleMiracles.  I have no idea if this will effect my readers or if it will automatically redirect you to my new address.

But if you have trouble with the connection, please hop over to http://lauras3littlemiracles.blogspot.com/

Hope you will keep following!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

No Sew Valentine Shirt for Rachel

Sadly I will have to admit, that although I own a beautiful sewing machine, I am afraid of it and have yet to use it even once in the 4 years I have owned it.  What I really need is someone to teach me how to use it, because although I have looked at my directions, I still can't figure out how to even prepare a bobbin.  I do know how to sew and use a machine, I used to use my mother's Singer machine all of the time.  But mom's machine is older and much more user friendly, but it met with a large project and my mother burnt out the moter and hasn't gotten it fixed.  (Of course part of my problem with using my machine besides not knowing how to use it, is also the fact that I have no where to set up without kiddo's getting all up in my sewing business.)

So when I was looking for a cute shirt that fit Rachel NOW to do our Valentine shoot the other day, I didn't have one to fit her.  I have an adorable red shirt with a pink owl, with heart button eyes that says, "I only have eyes for you" that I had planned to use.  Unfortunately, even though Rachel is almost 4 months old and the shirt is a 3-6 month, it doesn't fit her and is way too big.

So instead I pulled out this red long sleeve onesie (size 0-3) that she never got to wear because she was still in NB. . . . .
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and went to Kinder Cuts on Etsy to purchase some adorable iron on applique's . . . . .




and ironed these adorable hearts over the words to create a quick and cute Valentine shirt.
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Now I will fully admit that this shirt would be so much cuter if I knew how to use my machine to embroider the edges and put Rachel's name on across the hearts, but for a quickie DIY I think it is cute.
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Wordless Wednesday - Tag your IT

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