Loving Our Family

Category: Misc

  • Love you to pieces…

    Love you to pieces…

    I found this quote and it really spoke to me, it is very powerful and meaningful.

    “Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them.”

    *ps her hair is getting long & curly! Something she gets from her mom, finally!*

    We strive to be the best parents we can by providing her with unconditional love, nurturing, support, encouragement, teaching and as always fun! We try to cherish every moment we have with her, even in the challenging times, for it is then that we are building a foundation for her.

    We can only hope that as she grows and learns that she knows just how much she is loved and cherished.

    Our hearts swell with love for her! To see the smile in these two pictures really is like no other feeling in the world. Well except for her big hugs, now that is amazing!

    Plus how could you resist this face! And those cute pigtails?!

  • Proud Parents Moment!!

    Proud Parents Moment!!

    As many of you know, Lauri (where Sophia’s daycare provider) enrolled Sophia in the preschool curriculum at an earlier age then she does for most of her kids. One of the things that Sophia has been learning is her name, spelling it, what letters are in it and most recently writing her name. Well when Nate picked her up from Lauri’s on Tuesday, this was included in her take home paperwork.

    We had a HUGE proud parent moment! She is SOO smart! For 2 1/2 its pretty awesome she can write her name like this so well! Plus if you ask her how to spell her name, she will say ” S, O, P, H, I J – she can spell it all except the last letter, which Nate I think is because she knows J comes after I in the alphabet. Again, that’s pretty awesome we think!

  • Alive…

    Alive…

    Winter can be so gloomy, boring and leaving you left feeling tired and blah. In March the weather typically in MN is still cold, some what slushy from snow melting and dreary. However, this March has been incredibly awesome and mother nature is delivering some spectacular weather! SO much so that last weekend we came alive and broke free from the doors of our house and went outside and had some fun!

    We headed to the park and even though it was still drowning in water, Sophia got to play on some of the slides and swings and she laughed the entire time.

    When we got home from the park no one was ready to go inside, so we stayed outside. Sophia rode her bike as we helped teach her how to pedal and steer at the same time. She is getting better and better!

    The fresh air was much needed for all of us!

  • Weird Weather in MN..

    Weird Weather in MN..

    The weather this year in MN has been uncharacteristically odd. We have had next to no snow, which i am NOT complaining about and have had mild temperatures. The one big snow storm we did have was at the end of February, like winters last hoo-rah! The kids at Lauri’s were able to play outside in the snow and build a pretty awesome snow man.

    Some of the Sophia’s daycare friends
    Cole & Soph

    I think they all had a great time being able to play in the snow, hopefully one last time! Here is keeping our fingers crossed the snow stays away!

  • Happy Birthday to Mommy!

    Happy Birthday to Mommy!

    Today is my birthday, what a bittersweet day for many reasons, but that is for a different post. Today we celebrate my birthday and i woke up to a wonderful start! I walked downstairs and this is what I saw:

    Nate  & Sophia were making me “sparkle” (funfetti) pancakes for my birthday breakfast. It melted my heart!! And they were delicious!

    For lunch I went and met my parents and brother at Crave for some sushi lunch. Its always a good time spending time with family, and being my brother is always very busy being a teen and all it was nice to have him with for the company. After that my mom and I went to DSW and she bought me a pair of tall boots, something I have always wanted- really!

    It was a perfect birthday filled with love from family and friends and I feel SO very blessed to feel so loved!

    This is my Birthday/Valentines Day gift from Nate. It is so very meaningful, and I LOVE, LOVE the quote on it.

    Thank you to all those who sent love to me on my birthday!

  • Enjoying the Small Things..

    Enjoying the Small Things..

    Things we are currently loving right now!

    1. When I ask Sophia to say “cheese” for a picture, this is what i get:

     

    ** Her smile can light up a room!! Its what I look forward to everyday!**

    2. Sophia is excelling in her artwork and preschool curriculum at Lauri’s:

     

     

    3. The fact that Sophia and I can be goofy together, laugh together and be our fun silly selves!

    4. How old is Sophia??

    “2”

    **she is so proud when she does this!**

    5. When she gives me this face:

    **She has a little spunk, ok maybe a lot.. It cracks me up and I LOVE it!**

    6. This precious little girl we are blessed with! My heart swells with love and joy!

    We love her more then words can describe! We are enjoying everything as we know how fast Soph grows and changes!

  • A day in the life of Couponing..

    I have watched those “Extreme Couponing” shows and was always that person that thought how can someone have that much time to sit and coupon ALL day! Well recently I have been converted! But let me clarify, I don’t have an extra 40 hours in a week to be a coupon maniac, like on those shows and frankly most stores in MN don’t allow all the couponing that goes on like it does on that show. I do, however get a few Sunday papers, clip coupons from there and online. I also have many websites that I view, that gives me “deals” on a daily basis. One that is my favorite is: www.pocketyourdollars.com. This website is AMAZING! I have saved so much money by viewing deals on this website, going to Rainbow for double coupon days and going to other stores I normally didn’t, just to get deals on products we use! I have saved our family over half the amount on groceries, household items and health/beauty items we were spending, PLUS our fridge and pantry are filled with foods and we have more cleaning supplies and health/beauty supplies then we ever did before as well! I also must admit, saving money is addicting! My biggest transaction yet was at Walgreen’s, I spent $3.94 and saved $54!!

    If you haven’t started couponing, I suggest you read up on that website, start clipping and saving! Sophia has even started helping me “clip” coupons every Sunday! I love it! Starting her early 🙂

    Here is a day in the life of Couponing- I should say week!

    Sunday: Get Sunday paper, go through coupons clipping away! Go to the store and get extra papers if necessary to get more coupons, for those good deals that are FREE!!

    Monday: Go over emails, coupon sites and pocket your dollars. Making lists and notes of all the deals, especially the ones that are FREE!

    Tuesday-Wednesday: Continue to check pocket your dollars as deals are updated daily throughout the day. Make list of groceries for Rainbow couponing trip. Double check all coupons and pricing. Head to Rainbow and SAVE, SAVE, SAVE!!

    Thursday-Friday: check coupon sites for new coupons, print coupons, go through coupon binder to organize and toss out expired coupons. Make lists for any other deals at store.

    Saturday: Break from couponing or shopping to get the deals of the week before the end.

    Sunday: It starts all over again.

    **can you see how those ladies on Extreme Couponing can spend over 40 hours couponing??**

  • Prayer..

    In church on Sunday when everyone was praying I turned around and saw this..

    Sophia had her hands folded, eyes closed praying with everyone. This melted my heart. For Nate and I it is very important to us to install God in Sophia’s life and heart, and this picture to me is so profound. Sophia prays every night for dinner, and is starting to learn the prayer we say every night before bed. If you ask her where is Jesus, she will point to her heart and say that’s where he is. We are very blessed!

  • FIRST haircut… well trim!

    As most everyone knows, Sophia’s hair doesn’t exceed in the growing department. Its long enough to fit in pigtails, other then that there isnt much left. However, I have noticed lately that her few “baby” hairs go down to her nose and she was constantly pushing them to the side or wanting to wear a barrette- which didnt stay in long due to not enough hair. So we decided to take her to kids cuts and get her first hair cut, well bang trim. I was beyond excited about this new milestone, and i was completly let down! The service was POOR, the lady forcefully strapped Soph in her seat and while Soph was screaming.

    She then cut her hair and walked away. Leaving Nate and I to take off the drape and me trying to find a piece of hair to keep! Mind you I did let them know prior this was her first hair cut, and they didn’t seem to mind. I was so disappointed, and I will not be going back there for her first actual haircut, when she is 15 probably! (haha, kidding)

    Nate and I did take it upon ourselves as well to offer Sophia a sucker for getting her first haircut, because again they never offered this! Once she had the sucker she was beyond happy with her new haircut.

    She no longer looks like a little girl, she looks so grown up. And she loves her bangs!

  • Girls Day..

    Today was a much needed girls day! My good friend E and her daughters came over and spent time with Soph and I. Its not to often in the daily chaos of life that either of us moms get an entire day to relax, enjoy each others company and spend time with our girls.

    To start the day off we headed to Rainbow to do some couponing! E is my coupon partner in crime!! After this E headed home to unpack her groceries, pick up some Starbucks and lunch and then they headed back over. In the meantime Soph and I went home unpacked our groceries, at lunch and Soph went down for what was supposed to be her nap- however it never happened! Instead we just hung out playing with baby T and soon to be Miss teenager T. Soph just had an absolute blast playing with big T! She would follow her everywhere wanting to do everything she did. It was so fun to watch them interact with each other.

    One of my favorite pictures EVER!

    ** This picture really captures the day. Sophia’s laugh and T laughing as well. I truly love this picture!!**

    playing with dolls

    Cute baby T!

    I love that Soph gets to play and spend time with E’s kids, it warms my heart! I know we all had so much fun this day! I cant wait for another girls day!!