A Day With My Love Bug

On Saturday, March 6, I spent the afternoon with my Katybug!  We met her sweet friend, Ella Grace, and her Mommy at Lilly's Bead Box. 

This was the first time that the girls had been there and they loved looking at all of the beads.  They both picked out pretty blue sparkly beads and the letters of their name.  We gave the girls a tray to line up their beads in the right order:

Then it was time to string them on the wire:

I think Katy and Ella Grace had the most fun coloring and "writing their names" with blue pens

They were so cute together and had fun singing and being silly.  Here is Katybug with her new bracelet on:

We included a special ladybug charm on both the girls bracelets to remember their special day: 

After bracelet making, we headed to "Chick a lay" for some yummy chicken and french fries and play time!  The girls played so well together.  Katybug just loves her friends.  Tonight before bed she thanked God for her "best friend, Ella Grace."  I am so grateful for all of our sweet friends that the LORD has blessed us with.  Thank you, Ella Grace and Amanda for a special day and for making my Katybug happy!

Every time I think of you, I thank my God.

And whenever I mention you in my prayers, it makes me happy.

Philippians 1:3-4

God's Little Princesses

For Valentine's Day this year, I really wanted to focus on God's amazing and neverending love for us.  The girls and I have been spending time every night before bed reading "Sweet Dreams Princess Bedtime Bible Stories, Devotions, & Prayers" by Sheila Walsh.  Most of you know that I was raised Catholic and never knew what it meant to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  I want so badly for my children to know how precious they are not only to me and Jonathan, but to their Father God who created them.  I love watching the girls' faces light up when I tell them that they are God's Little Princesses.  What girl doesn't want to be considered a princess to the King, especially the greatest King who created and rules over everything?  I wanted to design a shirt for the girls to wear for Valentine's Day that went along with what we have been learning at home.  Katy asks me all the time, "Mommy, Jesus loves me?" so I wanted to make sure to include that in my design.  Here is the front of the shirt: 

And the back: 

The girls were so excited to put them on and wear them to their favorite place, God's house!

I am praying that they will continue to learn just how special they are, that they are a gift to be treasured forever, and that they will learn to trust in the One who will never leave them.  I love you Lily, Maddy, and Katy, but there is One who loves you even more than I!  

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  

John 3:16 

Melt My Heart

We were so busy at home last week doing lots of fun things for Valentine's Day like crafts, baking, and studying Bible lessons on love.  I wanted to share a craft that I found in Family Fun magazine that I did with Maddy and Katy this week.  It is a favorite of mine and we did this same craft 2 years ago for Lily's Valentine's.  You don't need to buy anything special for this craft so it can be done anytime.  Maddy and Katy were so excited to get started: 

I preheated the oven to 250 degrees and got the girls busy looking through our crayon boxes for broken crayons and peeling the paper off:

Then they placed all of the broken pieces in the heart shaped muffin pan.  (You can use any shape pan and make sure to pile it high.):

Then place the muffin pan on a baking sheet to catch any spills.  Put the pan in the oven for about 15 minutes or until all of the crayons have completely melted.  Here is what it should look like about halfway through:

Then this is what it looks like when the crayons have finished melting:

Be careful taking it out of the oven because the wax is very runny, almost like water.  Let it cool completely and then pop the new crayons out of the muffin pan: 

Then we cut out heart shapes from paper and I wrote "You melt my heart." across the top. 

You could also write "You color my world," which is what Lily chose.  You can use double sided tape to attach the crayon to the paper heart, or we decided to have Maddy sign the heart with her name and used a ziploc bag and placed both in there for her to pass out to all of her friends.

Thanks for taking a peek at what we've been doing at home.  I love craft time with my girls! 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 

Mark 12:30

Home Sweet Home

On Sunday, December 20, we attempted our first Gingerbread house by ourselves this year and it was quite an experience.  My mixer finally gave out on me after 8 1/2 years of use, so Jonathan had to mix up the icing by hand.  The girls waited so patiently. 

You can tell Katy is saying, "Gingerbread..."

Parker was serious about eating the candy! 

The icing was very runny, so the house was barely holding together while the kids put the candy on.  They didn't mind at all though because they were having lots of fun!

Katy loved licking all of the icing that was getting all over her fingers!

Jonathan had to hold the house together so they could decorate it!

I love the look on Parker's face in this picture...he's ready to climb on the island and dig in!:

My sweeties were so proud of their Gingerbread House!:

But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. 

Joshua 24:15

Painting Her Heart Out

On Saturday, February 7th, Maddy was invited to a Birthday party by her best friend, Mollie Hawkins. They go to West Hills Baptist Preschool together. Mollie had her party at Liza Moz's Pottery at West Town Mall. When Maddy found out that they were going to be painting, she was so excited. Maddy LOVES arts and crafts like her Mommy! When we got there the kids were able to choose a ceramic piece to paint. Maddy chose a cute ladybug that can be used as a piggy bank! They got to choose a few colors of paint, and Maddy chose red and black so she could make the ladybug look real. She worked so hard making it just right:

Here is Maddy with her painted ladybug: We had to leave it for over a week so they could fire (bake) the pottery. We cannot wait to go back and get it to see how it turned out! (I will post a pic of the final product!) Here is Maddy with the Mollie, the Birthday girl: Thank you Mollie for such a fun party! We will definitely have to come back and paint again!

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

More Precious Than Silver...

I am starting something new at the Buhl Castle! I really want to build a special bond between the girls and I so that we have a good close Mother-daughter relationship. Things are so busy at our house all of the time and I want so badly for them to know how precious they are to me. I have decided to set aside time for each one of them individually and spend some good quality one-on-one time together. So starting this month I am going to take one girl a month and let them choose something for us to do together. This month I chose Maddy. I asked Maddy what she wanted to do for our special Mother-Daughter time together, and she chose to go to Lilly's Bead Box to make a bracelet. Her Grandma and Grandpa got her some pop beads for Christmas that she absolutely loves and has had so much fun with and she is really getting into accessories. She also has heard me talk about Lilly's Bead Box and knows that I have made her a bracelet there before. When we got to Lilly's Bead Box, Maddy couldn't believe how big the store was and how many beads there were. She was too short to really see all of the beads. Here she is trying to get a peek at some of the beads: Maddy is very independent, and she got a little too excited trying to find the perfect yellow beads. She pressed down on one of the trays to get a better look, and of course...beads went EVERYWHERE!!! So unfortunately before we got started on a bracelet, we had to clean up! After that, she decided on what beads she wanted, and she carefully picked them out and placed them in the dish:Her favorite part was stringing them on herself. She was very serious about it: She decided to make a bracelet with yellow beads and red hearts. Here is her finished bracelet: We had such a great time together, just the two of us. I love you Maddy Faith and can't wait until our next special day together. You are so precious to me!

"The silver is mine and the gold is mine," declares the LORD Almighty. Haggai 2:8