Some Recent Favs

So there has been so much going on lately, but I wanted to share some of my favorite pics from the past few weeks, months. Enjoy!

Make it Monday

Okay so today is Monday! Happy Monday to you all! I am going to try to post something either I make or give an idea to make on Mondays! So today I want to start with this calendar. It's your typical baby year calendar that records the milestones that your child has... waving, smiling, standing, eating, etc... So I have purchased the same one for each of my children and have done as quick and simple scrap job to spice it up a bit. So each month I try to take a picture of the baby, in this case Jaylin each month and put a quick creative touch to it to make it fun. I enjoy recording their growth and now Tre and Aaliyah love looking at it and hearing stories of when they were babies. It's so fun to see how fast they grow and what gifts from the Lord they truly are! It's a great reminder to enjoy the days the Lord gives us together! Here are a few of Jaylin's months for her Cal so far...

Girly Seat

So you know you have a girl on your hands when she is sooooooooo excited about a PINK car seat! Sis got her big girl seat and she wanted it to be as girly as possible! She got it.... It really is so cute to see her in it. A simple thing... but one I don't want to forget! She is so excited to tell everyone and show whoever possible her "PINK car seat"

She's just our adorable, fun, joyful, and full of life little girly girl!

Back it on up....

Okay I want to take a minute to back it on up....

The TIME that is!

Because these past months have gone way too fast for me to keep up I wanted to rewind and reminisce on some of the highlights This sweet angel is definitely a highlight!

Tre's 4th birthday was so much fun! He is so full of joy and at an age where he really takes in all the details of an event. We are greatly enjoying Tre at 4! He was so excited about his special day! You may remember a while back I shared about our date when I took him to pick out his b-day decorations. From the moment we started discussing his birthday he knew what he wanted and requested details including... red and blue streamer, mickey mouse plates, cups, etc., chocolate cup cakes with chocolate sprinkles (this boy LOVES him some chocolate), and his dinner request was hot dogs and sweet potato fries (nice and healthy) :), huh! It was so much fun and brought us so much joy to watch the excitement he experienced at 4! What a fun age! We praise our sweet Jesus for blessing us with Tre! He is a true gift to us!

~So excited about his cup cakes~

~Birthday Love from his sisters~

~daddy love~

~Breakfast with the family and his dino pancake~

~His sweet Mimi blessed him with a new bike~

~He was blessed to celebrate with friends~

~His bday trip to Sea World from Dad brown and Nana~

It was such a blessing and we praise the Lord for an opportunity to celebrate our precious son's life! WE love him so much! Thank you Jesus for 4 wonderful years with Tre!

~Thanks for stopping by~

Athletic Buzz "Tu's Days"

~Tu's Days with Tu! ~

Tu was asked by his dear friend Mark (founder of Athletic Buzz) to be a contributor of the new website for Athletic administrators called ATHLETIC BUZZ! The site is a great resource for those in athletics, coaching, player, leader, athletic administration or other! Tu will be sharing each Tuesday which will be called, "Tu's Day" so Tuesdays with Tu! Catchy :) I loved it and it's a wonderful website and very inspiring even if your not in athletics!

Tu is a excellent and hardworking man and has been given wisdom from the Lord. One of his qualities that I admire is his ability to "share" his ideas and successes with others. He does not withhold information in order to be the "only original one" he would rather share it so that more people would be able to grow and thrive! It's a true gift! The Lord has given him a desire for excellence and a platform to share the power behind his success... JESUS! It's awesome and I am very blessed to watch him use his gifting for the Lord's glory!

Check it out or pass it on... or both! http://athleticbuzz.com/archives/

Many blessings to you all!

Bruschetta Bites

Hope you are all having a terrific Wednesday! What is up on your Wednesday? Feel free to leave a comment and tell us what's up with your Wednesday!

What's up this Wednesday is a yummy treat that my best friend Sara shared with me. This is a fantastic little treat and it's delicious! Sara's Auntie Ann passed this recipe down and Sara was so sweet to share it with me. It's easy and makes for a great little snack when having a friend over, a appetizer before a dinner, or even a snack for you and the hubby to enjoy when the kids go down! :) Whatever the occasion... these Bruschetta Bites are delicious!

Here is what you do...

* cut sourdough bread into little bite size pieces

*place them on a cookie sheet and put them in the broiler to lightly toast them (if making a smaller batch you can us a toaster oven)

*after cooled lightly spread cream cheese (use low fat cream cheese for healthier option)

*add diced sun dried tomatoes

(I buy the tomatoes in the jar preserved with olive oil and garlic)

*add a fresh piece of basil

and ENJOY!!

Hope you enjoy this fun little treat!

~Jewels~

Summer Smores

Hey there! So here is some summer fun for the whole family! We even had some of our sweet friends join us and it was so much fun! Click here to check out details on Little Joyful Moments

http://littlejoyfulmoments.blogspot.com/

~~~

This is our new found fun! Tu and I even sit by the fire for some time together after the kids go to sleep. Making Smores and time by the fire is great for the whole family or even a little one on one time for Tu and I! Thank you Lord for a little thing that brings us together!

Sweet Kollene, Hanah, and Haley stopped by for a visit for a quick smores before our week away (more to come on that). It was so much fun and the kids loved it!

She can do it all by her self...

Our sweet little Jaylin is sitting up all by her self! The simple task of sitting up, something we all take for granite daily has blessed us all as we watched Jaylin do this for the first time! Man it's amazing how the Lord has given us the ability to develop and live! He is so good! Fun times as she grows and shows us some of her personality! What a blessing she is! Thank you Lord for this little Joy! :) We love her so!

This is a sweet moment in our life and in Jaylin's little life! Thanks for sharing! Blessings to you all!

~Jewels~

My Cup Runs Over!

Truly my cup is runnin over with joy, love, and thankfulness! What a true blessing the Lord gives us in family and especially the role of being a Mommy.

If someone would have asked me if I would have been a stay at home mom I probably would have said no. But the last four years that the Lord and Tu have allowed me to be at home with our children have been a true blessing and I am thankful for each day even the tough and crazy ones! Thank you sweet Jesus and thank you my sweetheart Tu. God is so good and I am overflowing from the joy that each of them bring to me in their own little ways! This Mother's Day was such a special time! I felt so loved, appreciated, and special! Thank you Jesus for my amazing family! Thank you Tu, my amazing man, Tre, Aaliyah, and Jaylin for loving on Mommy! What an amazing memory! Here are a few of the special ways they showed their love...

So on Friday Tre asked Tu (unprompted by anyone) when he got home from work if they could go to the store so Tre could pick out a special treat for Mommy for mother's day. It was just precious that he asked Tu as soon as he got home from work (such a gift) . So... Saturday Tu took the kids to the store and let Jaylin and I take a nap (such a gift)! Later that day Tu had me come out and sit on the couch so the kids could bring me their gifts. In came Tre with these "red" flowers...

And Aaliyah was estatic to give me these "Pink" Flowers...

And they both wrote signed this giant card for me... so fun! This one from Aaliyah...

This one from Tre...

The spoiling continued with special drinks for mommy and some bananas. Okay, so the bananas were Tre's idea because he has watched a cartoon where the monkey's were giving their mommy a giant banana for Mother's day! So he wanted to do the same for me! :) SO funny! So cute! I loved it all!

Sunday morning continued the sweet celebration with a treat to a French Cafe for breakfast. Upon waking up we tossed some comfy clothes on and headed out for breakfast. We had crepes and fresh OJ and omelets. It was all so yummy! The kids were just getting over colds so they were little crabby,

but over all it was a sweet time! Here is Sis and I...

Daddy feeding Jaylin and letting Mommy eat a hot bite :) Sweetie! p.s.

Jaylin's first time in a restaurant high chair!

So this picture is probably my favorite and it's so funny! It made me laugh so hard when I saw it I had to share it! Jaylin and Aaliyah (why are girls so much drama... although I love it all) are in rare form and I am just trying to enjoy even the grouchy moments of the meal! Truly the Lord was protecting me because it was great even with the craziness of taking these three little ones out to eat! Classic mommy moment! :) Gotta love it!

I Loved every minute of my Mother's Day weekend! Every detail of their thoughtfulness was a true blessing and filled my heart to overflow! Thank you Jesus for such a sweet day! My cup is running over!

~jewels~

Canvas Wall Art

Happy Monday to you all! It's been a while! Every time I went to upload or post to blogger there was a blogger problem! So hope your day is going well! Wanted to share what we are doing over at Little Joyful Moments come check out more details...

This week's idea for letting your kids make wall art for your home comes from a idea I had last year (you can see ithere ) to have the kids paint canvas with their hand print and hang them in our house. So we did it again except we added pictures (that they picked out) and some embellishments too! This is so much fun to do together and you can hang it in their rooms or around the house too! Love it! The kids took such pride in their work and we had a blast!

Many blessings!

Jewels

Mommy's Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who are Mommy's! This is my tribute in pictures to the beautiful, wonderful, and God fearing mom that the Lord has blessed me with! This woman is truly amazing! Just look at the beauty and the Joy of the LORD that radiates from her! She is full of JESUS and gladly lives for Him!

I am reading an awesome book by Jackie Kendall called the mentoring Mom. In it she talks about the images you stamp on your children's mind by your actions and the power that our actions have as a mommy to mentor our children. Oh... it's great stuff! Well, my Mommy has taught me so very much about life, love, and the Lord. She has stamped many images that I pray I will pass on to my children as we strive to leave a legacy for Christ. I am truly grateful for a Mommy who was not perfect, but persevering and loving and a passionate follower of Jesus! I love her with all my heart and want to share a few of the impacting images she has stamped on my life! I love you Mom! Your amazing!

She is a wonderful Wife who supports, loves, and prays deeply for her husband! The rightous prayers of this wondeful woman have availed MUCH! Truly amazing!

She's an amazing Mom who has instructed us through some repetitive, tiring, emotional, joyful, glorious, and trying times. She has modeled what it means to place others before self while raising us. She gave up her life to raise us and I am so thankful for her training us...to say thank you, to write thank you notes, to encourage, to clean our rooms, make our beds, take care of our things with pride, to do things the right way (even if that means re-doing something), to love others, love family, to be generous, to be thoughtful, to make others feel special, to know how to have fun, teaching us to celebrate, to be bold, to PRAY, to read the Bible, to make church a priority, to tithe, to cry, to laugh, to have fun, to fight for what is right, to believe! I could seriously go on and on! She has taught us (me) so much! She is full of wisdom because she draws from the Lord and I am blessed to hear Him speak through her. She's just amazing!

She's a WONDERFUL Nana (grandma). She loves on kids and gives of her time and money to spend time with them. She serves and helps with the kids! She loves them, laughs with them, spoils them, and teaches them about the Lord! Amazing!

She loves us to all be together and works hard to make it happen.

She plans and preps to make it happen and we all love it when it does!

What she does is amazing!

She is gentle and kind... loving and encouraging. She makes a hard time better with her sweet hugs and heart felt prayers! Have I mentioned that she's AMAZING!!!

Mom, I love you with all my heart! I praise Jesus for the images you have stamped for us to follow! I pray that we (your kids) will pass on the awesome legacy you have leave for us as we strive to follow our Lord! Your an amazing MOMMY! Thank you for inspiring me to be a Mommy who does the same for my children!!! You are treasured! You are AMAZING!

~Jewels~