do not fear change...

"Do not fear change, for I am making you a new creation, with old things passing away and new things continually on the horizon. When you cling to old ways and sameness you resist My work within you. I want you to embrace all that I am doing in your life, finding your security in Me alone. It is easy to make an idol of routine..."
Jesus Calling (Feb 17th)

not sure what the future holds, but thankful that God does and that it is for our good. praying he will prepare our hearts for whatever change may lie ahead in the next few months.

{love this picture on rebeccas blog from here}

ps. if you don't own the book Jesus Calling... go buy it right now!! {HERE} soooo incredible.

buh.buh.buh.mommy

The other day Reese, Mark and I were just playing and coloring and reading books together and talking about letters and I asked Reese, "What letter does Reese start with?" I started saying Ruh ruh ruh rrrrrreeese. Rrrreese starts with R. ruh ruh" (you know, just normal teacher talk ha) and she just stared at me {like she does when she's really thinking about something and taking it all in} Then I said, "what does mommy start with? mmmmmm mommy. It starts with M mmmmmommy. What about Daddy. Duh duh duh daddy. D." Then she looked at us with a huge smile and said "buh buh buh daddy!!! buh buh buh mommy! duh duh duh weeeese" :) too cute. she was close. now she does this ALL the time. She'll say a word then say, buh buh buh or duh duh duh and then say a random word. In the car a second ago we were saying "ssssss Sam" and she'd say buh buh buh sam. buh buh buh Kara :) too cute. I'm sure not trying to push her too hard, but I do want to challenge at least a little bit! I really believe that these muchkins little brains are capable of so much more than we give them credit for! I LOVE those moments when I see the wheels turning in her head and she learns something new. so priceless.

On that note, anyone have favorite educational iPad apps?? 

XOXO

xoxo

 We had a happy valentines day at our house filled with chocolate and veggie tales and lots of coloring hearts. Mark had to work a normal long day until 7pm so we made a surprise visit to see him at work and give him a valentines hug - actually this was Reese's idea... we were in the car running a few errands and stopped at the light where we sometimes turn if we're going to see daddy at the hospital. Reeser realized where we were and starting saying very very excitedly "see daddy!!?? see daddy?!! big big hug!!??! kisses and big big hug?! see daddy?!!" over and over. How could I say no to that?! I quickly turned and headed to the hospital. I texted Mark and we were so excited that he was available at that moment. As we walked down the hall to the back door of the ER she was saying to every dr or nurse that we passed "see daddy! ohhhh daddy?? where are you daddy??" Sweet reesieboo. She truly did give him a big big hug when we found him. Don't think I'll ever forget that sight. So cute. I don't know if there is anything sweeter than watching the love between daughter and daddy. He's just the greatest daddy. He brought home some choc covered strawberries& a pretty rose for me and a heart shaped balloon & minnie mouse heart stickers for R. He sure knows the way to both of our hearts :) haha. The strawberries were gone in a second and R is still carrying her balloon around every second of the day. Tonight my man is taking me on a valentines date! Can't wait to go out with him without R for the first time in way too long. so blessed that he's my forever valentine ;)

Both of Reeser's grandparents sent fun valentines presents in the mail - Gigi sent the cutest valentines outfit for R and pjs for all of us and Honey sent the highlight of them all - a veggie tales DVD. I think we've already watched it 72 times. 

then she got her first valentine from her BFF Sam and gave him one too :) 

 

How adorable is this:

Cutest valentine EVER!! made by kara and sam. I LOVE it! sorry it's kinda hard to read (so here it is below) it's hilarious!! I can't believe Kara made that. So creative!

Reese, sup babe? My boy, Sam, and I want you to know that you rock! Yes dear, it's true. I'm sure glad that U R mine this Valentine's. No way we could find another BFF like you. You're awesome and our little sweet pea. So glad that you're my girl and my first kiss (don't tell your parents). Yes, there's just one soul mate for me so be mine and I'll be URS 4EVR. LOL. Ok, let's get real...we're only babies. But you really are so fine, MI AMOR. I 'heart' U lots so I dare ya to be my hero and be true. See ya later. XOXO, Sam & Kara

......

reese faces :) 

clockwise- surprise face, silly face, sad face, fishy face, princess face

you'll always be our little valentine.

heart strawberry cookies

I saw these fun cookies on Pinterest and made them last weekend just because I thought they were so cute for Valentine's Day. I might not have worked hard enough on making them heart shaped though because they didn't turn out in great heart shapes but if you don't have a little one running around at your feet you might have more luck making cuter hearts. Regardless, they still tasted really yummy... and they're pink :) I'm making them again today for a big cookie giveaway they're doing at our church. The Crossing will be delivering 1,500 cookies to different outreach organizations around the community for valentines day :) so awesome. I love to bake things for people and pray for them as I bake... I have visions of doing this with my kiddos when they get a little older. praying these sweet pink cookies bless someone this week. maybe you might want to make them and give them away to someone in your community too? just a thought. happy weekend.

MORE RECIPE DETAILS HERE

Strawberry Heart Oreo Cookies

Print

Recipe type: dessert

Author: Mique Provost- 30days blog

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 8 mins

Total time: 18 mins

Heart shaped strawberry flavored oreo cookies- perfect for Valentine’s day!

Ingredients

• 1 package of strawberry cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup of shortening
• Frosting:
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1/2 stick of butter, softened
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 4 c. powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Mix together. (The dough will be pretty stiff)
2. Roll into balls.
3. Place two next to each other.
4. Pinch the bottom to create a heart.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.
6. Immediately transfer to a cooling rack.
7. Mix frosting ingredients together.
8. When cookies are cool, frost them and then sandwich them like an Oreo.
9. This will only make about 12-15 cookies total depending on how big you make them. ( i made them really small and it actually made bunch. I also didn't 'oreo' all of them together and just frosted the tops because they're super rich and huge when they're 'oreod'

diy play kitchen

So we knew we wanted to get Reese a play kitchen for Christmas, because she loves to play and pretend to make dinner. She especially likes to wash her hands (her Dr. daddy is so proud) when she finds little kitchens other places. We started searching for kitchens online and the ones we really wanted that we thought would stand the test of time with all the kiddos were just way too expensive and out of our small residency budget. (I mean have you seen this and this from pbkids? adorable!!) Anyway.... I saw THE cutest little kitchen ever on Pinterest and when I clicked on it, I found that they had made it themselves and had an awesome tutorial on how to do it. I ran this by my hubs and he LOVED the idea of building a special gift for his little princess. So we planned out the timeline of how he could actually do it with basically NO free time, except like one Saturday and when he gets home from work at 7pm after working a 12 hour day. I thought it was pretty insane and that maybe we should make it another time in our lives, like maybe for our grandkids when the Dr. finally has some time off.... but he was determined to build it.  And once he has set his mind to doing something there is no going back.  So.... he did it, and he did a GREAT job! 

HERE's the link to the tutorial we used to build it and here's more details from the awesome mom who actually built it at CraftingChicks.com (this was really helpful!!) They also have a little fridge that we decided we didn't have time (or a place to put it), but we'll probably build it at some point in the future. 

So we followed the materials list on the tutorial and bought pretty much everything at this store here called Menards (have you ever heard of it?... it's hilarious. They sell EVERYTHING from mattresses to lumber to groceries to toys to hardwood floors to paint. so funny. seriously a one stop shop) Since we were very crunched on time, I didn't really search that hard to find deals on many of the parts. We just went with whatever we could find, so I'm sure you could make this for even cheaper than we did if you found parts on sale or at thrift stores or even on craigslist like I had originally planned.

So, here we go.... 

Thanks to our dear friends who let us borrow some of their tools that we didn't have and thanks to Menards for having a sander on major sale so we could get one for ourselves. I just had to take a picture of Mark working in the garage at midnight still in his scrubs...what an awesome daddy. Reese, I don't think you'll ever know how much he loves you and would do anything for you!

starting to come together :) 

And the sink and the oven are both built! (on a side note, if you use the measurement from the websites mentioned earlier, the bottom shelf, middle shelf and top are TOO SHORT.  We had to take another trip for lumbar because Mark did all his cuts exactly as they say to on the '"cut list"and they were too short. The oven door gets a little tricky too and you should make sure to check your cuts and math about 10 times and be ready to sand and trim edges again just to get it to fit perfectly.)

So then it was my turn. I filled in all the nail holes (ps. you can make this without a nail gun but i'm pretty sure it would take FOREVER and would be much harder so if you plan to make one... get a nail gun or at least borrow one) then I sanded it all down (that was fun! i love our new sander, haha).

The next day my sweet friend, Kara, came over to watch Reese and Sam play while I painted in the garage with 35 degree weather. Reese, this was worth it for you, but otherwise I think I would have waited for a warmer day. My hands have never been so cold. I think I ended up doing two coats of primer and two coats of paint (and we only used half of a quart container). The paint color I picked was tropical holiday and I LOVE how it turned out.

the finished product on christmas eve:

more details:

SINK- We bought a small dog bowl from Petsmart for the sink ($4)

FAUCET: I wanted to find a used one or a cheap one somewhere but ran out of time so we ended up just buying a small one on sale at Menards for about $20

CURTAIN: used THIS tutorial - scroll down to where she talks about the curtain. I really loved the original one from the Crafting Chicks kitchen so I went to hobby lobby with a picture of it on my phone (and without Reese, I might add).  I literally laid out about 42 different fabrics and spent forever mixing and matching them to decide which ones went together best. Finally a sweet lady walked by and gave me some affirmation on the three I liked the best and that was all I needed to actually make a decision. Again, I originally planned to get fabric on clearance or use some I already had... but when it came down to it I decided to just get something I would really love looking at all day. So the fabric & trim probably cost around $18 (of course the ones I picked out were from the 'new spring fabric' and weren't on sale) and then we bought a mini tension rod for $3 (again from Menard's, did I already say that I love that place?)

BURNERS: 2 for $1 at hobby lobby. I got two small ones and two bigger ones and alternated them on top of the stove. I spray painted them silver. In retrospect I probably should have used a spray sealer or something over the spray paint because they've already gotten pretty scratched... but who's stove is actually clean and perfect looking... just makes it look more authentic, right :) We glued them on with epoxy glue.

KNOBS: Hobby Lobby $2 each. 

OVEN PULL: I think Mark found ours from Lowe's for $9.

SIDE HOOK: $3 from Hobby Lobby.

OVEN TRAY: $1 from Dollar Tree. It was the perfect size and I couldn't pass it up

POTS & PANS: Mark's sister, Anne Marie, got these for us from IKEA in Dallas and mailed them to us along with some of the play food. I wish we had one here because they have some awesome play food and kitchen tools for super cheap! spoons&utensils-$3.99, 4piece pots&pans-$9.99, play food breakfast set-$7.99

PLAY FOOD - Melissa and Doug. we got her a few little sets of play food that we actually found at Kohls for about 75% off.

TEA SET- disney princess set from a toy store at the mall.

I think the total cost to build the kitchen was around $130 and then we added a few little extras with the food and utensils, etc. I really think we could have easily done it for less than $100 if I would have tried harder though. In the end... the extra bit of money we spent was totally worth it because R loves her kitchen and plays with it everyday! Most importantly, it's such a special gift that she can always say 'my daddy built this for me' :) 

21 months

We went in for Reese's 21 month 'weigh in' last week and we're so proud of our peanut because she has finally entered the 10th percentile :) yippee! haha. She weighs 22.1 lbs and was 31.5 inches tall. We've somehow gotten into a really great routine of her drinking a whole zippy cup of milk right when she wakes up and before she goes to bed and sometimes after lunch/before nap. I contribute weight gain to that. oh and we switched to the organic whole milk yogurt. That could be helping too. She loves the tubes of yogurt... but only if I squeeze it onto a spoon and she feeds it to herself. She does eat meals and lots of different foods... she just eats like a bird. about three bites of each thing and then she's full, i guess. or just too busy with coloring or too worried about her stickers or her trains to sit in one place and eat for more than three minutes. I also think she's just about over her high chair. It's beginning to be a constant struggle to get her to sit in it and she just wants to be in the "big girl" chair. so we got her a cool booster seat that she loves and I think its making meal time a little less stressful for all of us!

Most everyone who meets her immediately says "she sure does talk a lot... how old is she??" I think mostly because she just looks so little compared to other kids her age... so its always surprising for people to see such a munchkin saying "mommy hold you" "mommy, reese turn big slide!" "swing fun!" "mon' on' (come on)mommy!" or just bursting out in song - like right now its pretty much always her favorite song "1, 2, 3, 4 chickens just back from the shore...." over and over (this song from sesame street) or winnie the pooh or jesus loves me (melts my heart every time) or she also likes this version of jesus loves the little children that says "red and yellow, black and white" over and over. She's really good at screaming that one when we go through the grocery store :) I've got to get that on video haha

Things I don't want to forget...

- she can jump on two feet!!! She just figured this out a few weeks ago and truly is so proud of herself

- can count to 12 on her own and sometimes even one-to-one correspondence to about 6

- can sing the whole abc song

- can recognize the numbers 4 (thanks to the song) and 7 (this was crazy to me... she saw a twisty tie on the floor at the grocery store that was bent in half and she looked down and pointed to it and said, 'number seven!' it did look exactly like a 7)

- she can recognize the letters: A, B, E, F, M, S(sometimes), R(sometimes), U

- she loves to cheer for baylor! every time any basketball game comes on she starts her cheer 'lets go baylor! lets go baylor' and she has learned how to do a real sic em :) love it!

- she can really focus on a task and will not move onto something else until that is finished... even if i try to bribe her haha. 

- she loves to color and is getting pretty good at trying to color a certain object 

- she can sort of draw a picture of a fish... weird. i guess she has just really studied the way i move my hand when I draw it and she copied it the other day and did it a few more times on the wall in the bathtub

- she can recognize a triangle, circle and square -thanks to the puzzle aimee gave her for christmas :)

- truly attached to her 'soft dd' (her blanket) we got her a new blankie for christmas that is made of bamboo so its a little (actually a lot) softer than her others (if that was possible) and she is now glued to it. she can't sleep with the other ones anymore... it has to be soft dd. oh brother.

- i have recently introduced her to veggie tales and she now loves this too!

- while shopping at the grocery store reese was 'driving' us in the big car shopping cart and i heard her all of a sudden start singing 'praise him praise him all you little children, God is love. God is love" oh my word. melt my heart.

- the child is OBSESSED with coloring. did i already say that?

- we have some full blown maaaajor temper tantrums going on these days. Lord please teach me how to disciple. gosh, this is hard. usually it is caused because i won't let her play on our bed and hide behind the pillows or because we have to put a diaper back on (is this a sign to start potty training?) or because we have to come inside or because she wants to drink apple juice and not water.

- loves to play pretend with her kitchen or with her Mater(from cars) plastic toys that sam gave her for christmas.

- favorite movies/tv shows: Cars, Bee Movie, Pooh, Elmo, Little Einsteins, WordWorld, Sid the Science Kid, Dora

I already wrote some of her favorite phrases but other things she says lately...

- "mommy, what happened?" 

- "oh weeese...." when she does something silly and then she'll laugh at herself

- "dat noise?" when she hears something loud or out of the ordinary (shout out to avery drake :)

- when we're in the car and she is ready to go home she just starts saying "home!!"

- it is just the most adorable thing how excited she gets when daddy gets home from work. she hears his car horn that goes off when he locks the car and immediately jumps up from what she was doing and RUNS to the door. then she tries to act all cool and show him EVERY single thing she's been doing and tells him about her day - hilarious. wish we could have an interpreter to figure out what she's says.. she talks a mile a minute and just keeps saying "hi daddy. daddy home!!"

- she tells me now when she has a dirty diaper and says "boopy biaper" in the cutest little whiny voice haha {in other news we may start thinking about potty training soon... in the next few weeks? maybe months... yikes. this scares me. please give me advice!!}

- when she wakes up she says "oh mommy...oh mommy... oh mommy" over and over and over until I go get her (if you've ever watched mickey mouse clubhouse she is saying it like they say 'oh toddles' haha so funny!! this morning she was saying 'oh mommy... wake up! oh mommy..... wake up!"
- she LOVES pooh bear. obsessed. she has coloring books, the movie (which is adorable and we watch it practically every day), lots of books, and of course the stuffed animal. its so cute how she says, 'hi pooh bear'
- she now says "mmhmm" like when you respond to something and instead of saying yes or ok she says 'mmmhmm' got to video that because its doesn't make sense to type
- she also still says "ohtay" in response too. pretty sure she has learned how to manipulate to get her way... a typical conversation goes like this:
     R: "reese watch pooh bear teebee (tv)"
     Me: to clarify what she's asking "you want to watch pooh?"
     R: "ohhhtay!!!!!! yay!!! bun!!!! (fun) " and now it seems that it was my idea to let her watch pooh and that I've already agreed to it. how does she already know how to do that? haha.

- she can sing the whole jesus loves me song and i about melt to the floor every time. sweetest little voice I've ever heard.

love you so much reesie boo. i couldn't feel more honored to be your mommy and have the awesome (and tiring) job of playing with you all day!

hide and seek

We've started trying to teach R how to play hide and seek with hiding her animals and then trying to find them. It is so adorable! We finally got part of it on video :) my favorite is how she "closes" her eyes!

has anybody seen reese?? :)