And he had just had a bath....

I was on the phone this morning (talking to a reporter from our local newspaper...more on that in a few weeks) and I was trying to ignore my children and all their interruptions. Then I heard a splashing sound and look who I found playing in the toilet. Thankfully someone had remembered to flush...that doesn't always happen around here. Of course, I let him continue playing while I ran and grabbed the camera to get a picture. He's the third child. By the time I have my fifth child I'll probably put them in the bathroom on purpose just to keep them entertained. Okay...kidding!! There will be no fifth child. I can assure you of that.

He looks a little surprised to see me, doesn't he?

On Top of the World

 We went on a family hike at a place by our house called "High Rock." I love this picture, but you also better believe I only let them stand there for about one second.

 I was there, although that fact is not documented in pictures. I think I was too busy hyperventilating and making sure everyone was holding an adults hand so they did not plunge to an early death. I'm not kidding, this place was a tad bit dangerous!

Will was such a good sport. He started throwing up in the middle of our hike. Poor baby. And that officially kicked off our 3rd stomach bug of 2012. Thankfully we all survived and everyone is perfectly healthy again.

My kids thought the graffiti was pretty. That's just because they don't have any idea what those words are actually saying :)   It was a fun day. I can't wait to go back when no one is throwing up!!

My Easter Plan

I might just have to give up on the idea of real time blogging. I just can't keep up with it.  I love, love, love blogging as a way to document our family memories. I love looking back and seeing how far the Lord has brought us. I love all of you and how you bring encouragement to me through your comments and prayers and just the fact that you silently check-in with us. If you're reading this....I love you and I mean it.

But back to the point...real time blogging is just going to have to take a back seat for awhile. I think you're just going to have to hear about our lives "after the fact" since I still have a bunch of stuff from February that I haven't blogged about. But that's okay, I'll get to it one of these days.

Today I just need to share my heart. Whew...it's been a crazy couple of days. Heavy, heavy stuff on my heart that I just can NOT let go and I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I can't let it go because the Lord doesn't want me to. This is when an audible voice from God would be helpful. But it's times like these that bring about such growth in my life. It's helped me to refocus my attention on the eternal and worth while things that I need to be accomplishing in my own life. And I feel reinvigorated to be more intentional in my parenting.

Easter is right around the corner, so I wanted to share a few things that we're going to be doing around here to prepare our hearts. I find that I'm a lot more likely to actually do something if I come up with a specific plan.  I just wanted to share in case you need a few ideas yourself.

#1. Memorize Romans 10: 9
 "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
At first this seems like a long verse for kids to memorize, but it's really not that hard for them. You'd be surprised. If you're a follower of Jesus it is a KEY passage to have memorized and it's perfect for Easter!!!  We're actually going to start working on this one next week (we are still working on Eph. 6:1 and James 1:19). Each of my kids have their own recipe card box that we keep on the kitchen table with their scripture cards in them. Every time we eat a meal, we pull out a card and say a verse. If it's a new verse, I say it and then they repeat after me. We work on the same verse over and over for weeks and weeks. Even if they really, really know it...we continue to practice it so that it really gets "hidden in their hearts."


#2. Resurrection Eggs

Click here to see the Amazon.com link to this product. You can find them in your local Christian book store or even at Walmart in the Easter section. We're going to do these at dinner time each night, instead of at bedtime. We're just going to try something different to see if it works better with our little one year old (he was a bit of a distraction when we did the Jesse Tree at Christmas time).  

 #3. Resurrection Rolls

I am sooooo excited to try these this year. Click the link here to see exactly how to make them and what passages of scripture to read as you're making them with your kids. I seriously can't wait to make these the Saturday before Easter morning!! Do you see how the roll is "empty" just like the empty tomb. What a great visual for kids.







#4 Some fun crafts with McKenna:

 (source)

 

(source)

#5 A Fun Family Treat:

Such a cute idea!!! I love it.  (Source)

#6: Classroom Snack:

Making these for Christian's kindergarten class next week!!


So that's my Easter plan!!! What are you doing to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus???

House Help!

Okay, I need your opinion here .... for real. I really want you to leave me a comment and give me some advice. The shutters on our house are currently 3 different colors thanks to the fading of the sun. I've been thinking about repainting the shutters and doors for 2 years now and this might be the year to just do it. It's not an expensive project, it's just labor intensive.

Before/After

Here is the first option of what I could do. I could just repaint everything the navy blue that they originally were. This would not be a big change. It would just freshen up the look we already have. This would be the easy route because even our shed had blue shutters and our basement door is also blue so I wouldn't necessarily have to repaint everything.

Before/After

Okay, before you freak out...I know that the color of that red door is awful. I was using some editing software and since I don't really know what I'm doing, that's the best I could do. It just gives you an idea.

So this would be a bigger change. I would paint all the shutters black and paint the front door a burgundy red (not a Dr. Seuss hat red). This would involve painting my garage door (not the big one the car drives thru, the little one on the side). I'd also have to paint the shutters on my shed and my basement door.

What should I do??? Which do you like better???

William Turns One!!! The Mickey Party Recap!!!

 We just loved celebrating this cute blue eyed boy!!! Will loves Mickey. It's probably the only show or character that he pays any attention to at all. So the big kids voted to have a Mickey Party!!!

 Here's a look at a few of the decorations!!!

A Mickey Banner I made with his name on it!

 The dining room all ready for the party guests!!!

 I loved the polka dot theme!! Here's one of the kids place settings. The strawberry Crush was not a hit. Yuck! But it looked cute!

 

 Super easy Mickey cupcakes. Those are just Oreo cookies in two different sizes!!!

 Here's the birthday boy with his cake. He wouldn't touch the cake or even a cupcake for that matter. He ended up having some pears.

 All the cousins from my side of the family were there to celebrate Will. That blessed my heart so much that they all came. I mean...hello....gas is almost $4 a gallon. When I hugged my sister-in-law Erin goodbye I started crying because it just meant so much to me that they made the effort to be there to celebrate Will.

The cousins were all so into Will. Several different times I caught them all laying on the floor with him playing.

I've got a million pictures from the weekend, so I'll be back with more when I get around to it!

Patience

McKenna is not very patient. Not even a little bit. It's something I need to be very purposeful in working on with her. So today when we got in the car to drive 20 minutes to Will's well visit check up, I told her we were going to practice being patient.

To start things off I asked her what she thought patience was.

McKenna's definition of patience: It's when your mom is on the phone and you're not allowed to talk!

So apparently I tell her to be patient a lot when I'm on the phone. ha! That girl is always interrupting me.

So I explained that patience is when you have to wait or take your time and you're happy and not fussy about it.

Then I whipped out a package of marshmallow peeps. Oh my word she wanted them. I promised her that I would absolutely give her one, but that she was going to have to wait AND BE PATIENT for 2 minutes. During that 2 minutes she could not ask for one or ask me if the 2 minutes was up yet. At the end of 2 minutes, if she didn't mention the peep I would give one to her.

She failed in under a minute. So we had to start over again. The second time she made it the whole 2 minutes without asking or mentioning the game and she was rewarded with her precious peep. I think this might be our new car game. She is always wanting something in the car ...a song, a toy, a snack and it's the perfect time to practice patience.

Next time I tell her to be patient, I think she'll have a better idea of what I'm expecting her to do! Let's hope.

I pretty much adore everything about this picture...

Hair"cute"

It was time to get Will looking sharp for his big birthday. So he got his first REAL haircut. He was not a fan of the whole experience, but he didn't have a melt down. He held it together for the most part and look at what a handsome little man he is!

William Ryland Chatterton 3/10/11

It's been a year since this precious boy joined our family.

What a sweet year it's been.

Getting ready for ONE

Will is getting really excited about turning one. He's been practicing lots of grown up tricks in preparation for his big day. He's been reading a few books. He's been practicing his walking. He decided that chores are really his thing. He loves to help me load and unload the dishwasher. And of course... in true boy fashion...he tries to scare me to death by climbing up the stairs. He also says two words now "Dada" and "Chrish."

I've got to share the story behind "Chrish" just so I don't forget. 

Christian had just gotten home from school and I went upstairs to get Will up from his nap. I was carrying Will down the stairs talking to him about how Christian was home and he could go play with Christian. Will spotted Christian in the playroom and I pointed to him and said "Do you see Christian?" and Will said "Chrish." I about fell over. So I repeated "Christian" and he said "Chrish." And we did that over and over again. Christian was so thrilled!!!  Will has also started to mimic different sounds. If you quack like a duck, most of the time he will do it too. This is such a fun age...except for the biting. I've never had a biter before, but I sure do right now.

My Baby

In less than 48 hours my baby is going to be 1. 

What a sweet year it's been.

I am so in love with this adorable little person that the Lord blessed our family with.

It's hard for me to remember what life was like before Will.

He has been the best thing that's ever happened to our family.

We're gearing up for an all "Will Weekend" around here. All the Brinkley cousins are coming to town. 

That's right...all of them. 

What a treat!

I feel so blessed that they love Will enough to make the trip to come celebrate with us.

Stay tuned!

Just a few "things"

Clearly, Christian was beyond thrilled to be dressing up today. He does not like dressing up, but he knew that most of the other kids would be dressing up like a Dr. Seuss character, so he felt like he "had" to. So we kept it pretty simple. McKenna on the other hand just had to dress up because Christian was. She decided that Will should be "Thing 1" because he's about to turn one :)

And this is the snack I'm taking Christian's class. There's a resemblance right???

It's Dr. Seuss' Birthday!

Kids just love to celebrate EVERYTHING!!!! 

So make sure you read your favorite Dr. Seuss book today!!!!  

Your kids can go HERE to play some cute Dr. Seuss online games.

HERE's a cute coloring page!

You can print a super easy addition worksheet for preschool/kindergarten HERE!!

A Cat in the Hat wordfind (Found HERE) would be great for any school aged child.

More printable coloring pages HERE.

And here's a FREE printable unit on the LORAX for preschoolers!!

This generous mom created Dr. Seuss cupcake topper printables that you can download for FREE!!

 

 Check out this adorable green eggs and bacon snack!!

Or this Cat in the Hat ice cream Sundae.

This super creative mom, packed her kids lunches with a green eggs and ham theme.

A very simple way to make Cat in the Hat snacks!

My personal favorite are these Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes!!

And if you're not in a crafty mood, just pop some popcorn and read Hop on Pop!!!!

Have a Seuss-filled day!!!!
I'll have to post a picture later of my own little "Thing 2" that I sent off to Kindergarten this morning. He absolutely refused to have blue hair...I don't blame him, but he still looked cute and was excited about the day.