Rowan turned 5-Batman Style~

 Rowan turned 5 on January 9 at 4:05 p.m.;-)  It was a school day, so we were up and at 'em early!   We did presents before school.  That night Rowan and Alex had church, so that was the extent of our celebrating!

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated with Alex's parents and sister on Saturday!  Alex had the camera, so we have no documentation of said relatives;-)  They helped us enjoy a Taco Bell dinner (Rowan's choice) and some Orange Leaf for dessert (also Rowan's choice)!  It was fun, and he got a really cool gun and Batman figure;-)

Then we were ready for the friend party on Sunday!  We had our neighbor boys and another friend over for Batman Training Camp!  I made each child a personalized cape and mask, so we were ready for training!

Ready to be superheroes!

The neighborhood gang (minus Hayden-he ran late) plus Isla!  I could tell our house was safe the moment they all came in;-)

The prettiest superhero!

We played games then in our costumes!  The first one up was "Vaporize the Villain!"  That is code for shoot the bad guys with silly string.  This was MESSY, but the kids had fun!

How many bad guys did you hit?

 Then we started to retrieve the anti-venom from the Bat Cave to help our friends.  Alex made an obstacle course that led into a tent.  We turned off all of the lights, and they were retrieving glow sticks.  It was fun, and this kept them entertained for a long time!

 Then we were on to Bat Planes.  The kids made paper airplanes, and we launched them to see whose Bat Plane could fly the farthest!  Colin's was hands down the best.  That thing flew!

They were so eager!

 Last on the list was cake! We sang, and then the kids dug in.  Rowan had requested  an ice cream cake, so we went with it!  It was delicious and stress free;-)

A great big wish made!

Eating our cake and drinking our Power Punch!

The party was fun, and I'm confident they had a good time!  Rowan was in bed at 6:20 tonight, so I know I wore him out;-)  We had a great time celebrating the blessing of our now 5 year old!

Big Girl Bed~

Sigh.  It happened.  My sweet Isla went from this-

To this.

We took the side of her crib off this week and made her a toddler bed.  She's amazing, and it hasn't changed her sleeping habits at all.  Big girl at this house~

A Little Bit Crafty~

Over winter break, I dug out my crafty materials and accomplished a couple of projects around the house!

This is a shower curtain I bought for the kids' bathroom almost a year ago. I loved it, but I couldn't find art to put on my bathroom walls to save my life.  I finally gave up and decided I would have to paint something myself.

So here is what I came up with!  It is simply a canvas with minimal acrylic paint.  It took me a couple of hours one afternoon to paint, and I am satisfied with it.  It looks good in the bathroom now, and I can stop looking for owl paintings;-)

 Materials-
Canvas size 16x20 (2 pack for $7.99)
Acrylic Paint (I already had)
Paint Brush ($.47)

Total: $4.46 and a couple hours of time~

I also had my kitchen painted grey over the break.  I had black curtains up, so I decided they needed a makeover.  I found this fantastic yellow chevron pattern at Hobby Lobby.  Alex actually whipped up the curtains since he is the seamstress in our house;-)  I love them!  They make our kitchen look much bigger, and they are a bit funky!

I also made the EAT sign on the left!  It adds some more color to the room as well.

Curtain Materials-
2 and 1/2 yards Chevron fabric ($12.47-I had a coupon)
4 packages of curtain clips (2@$4.97 and 2@$6.47)

Total:  $35.35

Sign Materials-
3 Cardboard Letters ($2.47 each)
Acrylic Paint (I already had)
Paint Brush ($.47)

Total: $7.88

I loved the letters so much I also did them in my laundry room.  It is painted a mustard yellow, so I painted grey letters to spell WASH.  I think they really fill in the empty space I had next to our door that leads to our garage.

Sign Materials
4 Cardboard Letters ($2.47 each)
Acrylic Paint (I already had)
Paint Brush (I already had)

Total: $9.88

I'm working on curtains for my purple living room as well!  Stay tuned~

Goals, Goals, Goals...

I haven't always set goals. There were days in my life when I just went with the flow and used the mantra, "What will be, will be." You can read how our life worked on this mantra here.:-)

 Goals help focus me in a direction. They give me a challenge to aspire to meet, but there is a problem. They stress me out:-) Goals not only give me something to work towards, but they also create an expectation within myself to meet said challenge. I'm competitive in nature, and I would rather not lose at my own game;-)

Here are last year's goals Alex and I set together. The last update is from September. 

1. Get PMI taken off of our Home Loan -Done in February!

 2. Pay off Alex's small student loan ($641.00 to be exact)-Done in June!

3. Save enough money to replace Jolie's car by November 1, 2013 in cash! I was able to add to this fund in September, and we are up to 47% of our target at the moment.  If I add in the value of our car, which we will either sell or trade in, I am up to 67% of our target.  Not bad!  Accountability sure helps the results;-)  Hopefully next month I'll have good news too~ 


 We conquered the first two pretty quickly, but the third goal was boisterous to say the least.  I got frustrated with it, and I just quit on it for a while. Life happened, I threw my hands up in the air, and I believe my exact words were, "Goals are stupid!"

It is not true.  Goals are not actually stupid.  They simply place the expectation in front of me, so I am more prompted to take actions to move myself in that direction.

So here we go for 2013!  I need a challenge, I guess;-)

1. Save enough money to replace Jolie's car by August 1, 2013 in cash!
Currently, this fund is at 59%.  If you look up above, you will notice it is actually 8% lower than in September.  Yep, that's right!  I borrowed from the car fund for various car repairs on both vehicles.  Life happens.  Sad face, but it is true. Only 41% to go!  We'll be positive~

2. Go on one family vacation for at least 5 days out of the state of Kansas paid for in cash!
We didn't go on a vacation last year, and Rowan noticed.  We're going-somewhere!  Anywhere but here would be fine by me:-)  

3. Read 23 books from January 1 until December 31!  
This is very attainable, and I love to read as long as I have something good on hand;-)
 
That's it!  I'll update monthly for accountability.  That helps me know I'm being monitored;-) 

Christmas 2012~

Christmas came!!  We had our little family Christmas on Christmas morning.  It was just us, and it was just perfect!  The kids had so much fun, and I love that they get to wake up in their own bed and see that Santa came to our house:-) 

Santa came!

Sweet boy~

Sassy and I waiting our turn~

Sassy loved her cradle that Santa brought her!

 Next we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Darby's house for lunch and Christmas #2!  We spent the afternoon there and had a yummy lunch that Grandma Darby made!  The kids were blessed again with many presents!

Rowan and Grandma cuddling!

Rowan got a real drill from Grandma and Grandpa.  He's excited to work:-)

Aunt Reesa reading Pete the Cat!

Rowan schooling Grandma on his Nabi tablet!

Cuddling up with Grandpa!

We had a couple of days playing with our new toys before my family came to our house on Friday for Christmas #3!  It was fantastic to have my parents and all of their kids and grandkids together!  We had fun, ate prime rib my brother made and played cards!  It was truly a fantastic day!                                                                                                                                                 

Sassy with her stack!

Dad, Tyler, and Kemper!

Heather and the kids with their piles;-)

This girl loves her Poppy!  It is so sweet!

Rowan stacks all of his presents.  Makes me laugh!

Uncle Tyler showing Rowan how to shoot his new bow and arrow!

All of the cousins!  Kemper, Rowan, Tayte, Isla, CJ, and Kynlee

Silly faces!!!

We are so blessed and fortunate to have our families close and to be able to see them for the holidays!  It was a fabulous holiday season at the Darby house!

Now on to 2013!  It's going to be a great year!!

Christmas Tradition~

It is 8:07 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and my heart is just at ease.  I absolutely adore the season of Christmas with the lights, the decorations, beautiful music, and most importantly the celebration of the birth of our Savior!

While I have memories of Christmas from my own childhood, these memories are often filled with fighting over who had to go milk the cows on Christmas morning, a house filled with smoke due to the wood-burning stove, or the disappointment that we couldn't travel anywhere for the holiday season yet again.  Santa was always good to us, but there just wasn't that magical feeling that I so think Christmas should bring.

I love creating tradition for my own kids, so they have no doubt in their mind this is how you celebrate Christmas!  We keep it simple and enjoy the blessings we have in each other.

Rowan and I made reindeer food for Santa's reindeer to snack on when they finally reach our house!

The recipe is:
1 cup of dry oats
1/2 cup of sugar
3 Tablespoons of brown sugar
Sprinkles for color

Sprinkle it all across your lawn on Christmas Eve for Santa's reindeer!

He did all of the measuring!

Looks so yummy, I just might eat it!

We have decided fondue is our Christmas Eve dinner of choice. It is delicious and certainly a special treat in our house. Rowan loves to dip things, and he actually requests this for special meals. We did the broth and cheese courses before we left for church! Rowan requested the shrimp cocktail as well, and he ate 8 shrimp before he was full!
 

Yummo!

Happy Heart!

Then it was off to get dressed up for church!  Christmas Eve service is by far my favorite service of the entire year.  I look forward to it, and I am always so uplifted by the joyous tone and the beautiful music.  It makes my heart happy to say the least! 

Each year I take a picture of the kids in front of the tree. Then I have an 8x10 printed to hang on my wall. It's my little bit of Christmas all year round. Isla was a challenge this year, but we got 2 good ones!

They really do love each other~

This one just melts my heart~

We sprinkled out our reindeer food for Santa's friends.

Then it was off to church.  The service was perfect and ended in candlelight.  My favorite~

Then we were home for our chocolate fondue. The kids loved it!

This kid would have preferred a spoon for the chocolate;-)  She must be my daughter!

Then it was off to bed for sleeps so Santa could make his rounds! Speaking of which, Santa had better make his rounds here soon!

Merry Christmas!!

Family Pictures~

We had our family pictures taken a few weeks ago. Monica Wells takes them for us, and they always turn out great. Here are a few of my favorites!