the yearly photos

Every year we have family photos. I spend way too much time picking out what we will wear, praying for good weather, and really hoping that our kids will cooperate.

Thankfully we have an amazing photographer who will get our kids to smile even when it means making silly noises, faces, and games. Trust me, she earns her money :)

photo slacker

Maybe it's this whole three kids thing. Maybe it's having one really "difficult" three year old. Maybe it's just plain ol' laziness. But I have not been taking pictures lately. I just forget. And when I do remember, I don't feel like going all the way upstairs to get the camera. Yep, that's just laziness.

But I do have a few pictures of my sweet, crazy kids.

Pater Pan and Tinkerbell (they are flying here in case you were wondering).

Playing in the rain and SUPER excited about it. There was also some serious signing going on. 

Zeke getting smothered loved on.

My beautiful baby girl loving the water.

Noah giving me his best smile. He's a keeper for sure. 

Brotherly love. 

Love her. 

Well, that is better than no pictures. But I do need to make a much better effort to take pictures. Let's see if that happens or not...

homemade summer favorites

Today is the day. My essential oils and glass bottles were all ordered and have made their way to my house. Our day is wide open and I have no excuses.

I have been wanting to make homemade sunscreen, insect repellent, and hand sanitizer for a while now. Given my extreme tendency to procrastinate, it has been on the "to do" list for quite some time. It's actually sort of sad considering that it took me a little less than 10 minutes to make all three.

 Note: all items are easier to tackle when a cute assistant is involved.

First on the list...sunblock. This one was super easy. There are 2 ingredients; coconut oil and Helichrysum.

To make sunblock:
Mix about 2 oz of coconut oil (other options are olive oil or sesame oil) with 12 drops of Helichrysum into a glass spray bottle. Apply every 2 hours and after getting wet.

Another recipe you may want to try is found here.


Next up, bug spray.

I had fun with this one. There are several great oils that can be used as an insect repellent. I used four that I knew would not only keep the bugs away, but would also smell yummy.

To make bug spray:
Mix about 2 oz coconut oil (or water) and 10 drops each of Lavender, Lemongrass, Peppermint, and TerraShield into a glass spray bottle. 
For a list of different oils and what insects they repel, click here.


And finally, hand sanitizer.

To make hand sanitizer:
Fill a 2oz glass spray bottle half way with water. Add 1t aloe vera gel, 4-5 drops of vitamin E oil, and 15 drops of OnGuard essential oil. Fill the remaining bottle with water and shake. Spray away! 
(recipe source)
  

A few notes:

• I use and recommend Doterra oils.  They are AMAZING! We have had wonderful success using them for everything from headaches to diaper rash and from sunburn to colds and flu.  
• Always use glass bottles. The essential oils cause plastics to break down...great for your body, not so great when put in plastic containers. 
• I used OnGuard for the hand sanitizer because it has anti-fungal, antiviral, and antibacterial properties. Click here to read other ways it can be used. OnGuard is one of my absolute favorite essential oils!

My sweet girl and me

My lovely and extremely talented friend, Tiffany Sharp took these sweet pictures of my little girl and me. I was so excited when she told me about this mother/daughter session. I will treasure these forever :)

poop in the tub

I am sure you already know what this post is about. I made is fairly clear by the title, but let me induldge you anyway.

At the beginning of every month, Mark has his busy time at work. One of these nights he has to work super late. Tonight is that night.

I was making dinner and thought it would be great to get a couple things done at once. So I brought Zeke's tub down to the sink, filled it up, and stuck him in. Multitasking, right?
One minute later, the tub was filled with poop. I wisk him out onto a towel (now also covered with poop) so that I can clean out the tub. I unplug the drain in his tub only to realize it was not all the way over the sink. Yay...poopy water all over the floor!

I finally finished cleaning the poop filled tub and the poopy floor. Wait, oh what's that warm stuff? Awesome, that's Zeke peeing everywhere. I guess I should have covered that up while I cleaned?

Good thing you are cute Z, good thing.

And to finish off my evening alone, I found Sophie's (our dog) throw up all over our room and the living room.

It's probably best that I go shower now. 

Tay turns 5!

It is unbelievable to me that I have a 5 year old. Taylor is beautiful and brilliant. She is such an amazing little girl. She loves well, is always ready to help and has such a kind heart. She has a joy of life and is completely a people person.

Yesterday we were able to celebrate Taylor with all things sweet. If you know our girl, she has quite the sweet tooth (the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree if you know what I'm sayin'). We don't eat lots of sweets around here, but yesterday we did not hold back. She was giddy with excitement all day!

Taylor's Ice Cream Shoppe

The birthday girl

Ice Cream Bar

Cousins :)

We went to a friend's birthday party a few years ago and played this game. It was hilarious! I am all about making people do embarrassing things, so here ya go. The goal is to eat the donut without using your hands. First the kids, then the dads.

I know there are a lot of dad pictures, but I just can't help it. They each make me laugh out loud for different reasons.
Here you can see my brother pushing Mark out of the way (cheater). 

Wonderful facial expressions. 

These are just amazing.

 Friends!

And to top off the crazy sugar filled children, a candy filled pinata!

My beautiful birthday girl!

the Z man got his first hair cut

All of our kids started to need a little trim work around 3 or 4 months old. They each have had a killer mullet and Zeke had a few over the ear pieces that needed to be chopped.
Nothing too crazy, I let the professionals do that.

Don't worry...I won't quit my day job. But I do think he is cute enough to pull it off.