Some tears and thoughts

The other night at dinner Sarah and Dave were telling me about their day at school. The entire school had a lock-down drill. As Sarah was describing what her class has to do I started crying. I just can't believe we live in a time when our children have to know to hide in a closet so the "bad guys" don't find them. Seriously, my heart just breaks. Sarah didn't think much of it, I'm sure her teacher does a great job at keeping it simple with not many details.
What will it be like in another five years?

On a totally unrelated topic, I'm thinking about banning t.v. from our family a couple nights a week. We already don't have cable, we do the antenna and Netflix thing, but I feel like it's on way too much. A lot of the time we're not even watching it, it's just on as background noise and causes us to be distracted for a minute while we're doing something else. I want to make an effort to read more and show that example to my kids. Plus, we need more games in our routine. It's kind of hard to play games with Sarah while Katie is awake, she's know as Godzilla when we're trying to do something :) But, I think we need to schedule a game night starting after the monster goes to bed.
What do you think? Do you do anything like this with your family?

So precious. I'm so over the snow this winter season but seeing this photo makes it seem a little sweeter. Sarah loves shoveling with her dad and Katie loves watching from inside the warm house.

This kid and I get to spend a lot of time together. She is feisty and stubborn and hilarious all in one

We bought Sarah a guitar for her birthday. We're going to start instituting some mandatory practice time during her week. She and Dave are two peas in a pod when it comes to music

Sarah and I got a little crafty this weekend. Our mantel is now adorned with homemade valentine hearts created by this mother-daughter duo

Here's to a happy Wednesday

Cheers

Baby boy

I'm getting to the exhausted stage of this pregnancy. You know what I'm talking about...I take naps when I can, I don't sleep at night, I'm never physically comfortable and I can't "go to the bathroom" to save my life. I love my babies but with each pregnancy I become more and more over the dreaminess of it all. I do have a lot to get done before his arrival, such as move a crib into our closet. Yes, you heard me right. Baby boy Moser will spend the first year or so in our closet. In our defense, our closet is quite large. It was actually a bedroom that the previous owners turned into a walk in closet. I think Dave's going to miss it more than I am, he loves all the space he has to get dressed. We also need to start stocking up on boy clothes and diapers. I thought it might be a good idea to start buying diapers here and there that way it won't be so bad (financially) once he gets here.

I've also come up with a pretty great idea for his name. I will be debuting it to Dave and the girls as soon as I get the crafting part of it done, but I think I may wait to tell the rest of the family until his arrival. Have you done that? Waiting until the baby's birth to share his/her name? We've never. I had the girls names lined up fairly early in my pregnancy so this will be interesting. Think I can hold out??

I had my last 4-week appointment yesterday, I am measuring a week ahead so that kind of excites me. That would give him a due date of 4/14. Now we start to see the dr every two weeks. This should make me happy because this means the end is in sight but, when I go to the office it's usually a 2 hour ordeal. So, babysitters be prepared for a phone call to watch Katie during these times :)

Wouldn't trade these two for all the ice cream they had at Friendly's!

Playing with Zadie's cat Ben, Katie wanted to pet him so bad but was too scared

Cheers!

Birthday weekend

This past weekend we celebrated one fabulous 6 year old! Sarah will be six tomorrow so we had a friend party on Saturday. It was a great day and lots of love for the birthday girl. I can't believe she'll have to use two hands when showing people how old she is. 

She is so amazing in all her maturity, drama, questioning self.

Lots of nice gifts from her friends

Craft time! Turned into quiet time...note to self, always have a craft at a birthday party

Katie sneaking in the corner checking out all of her sisters lute

Sarah has requested for her dad and I to take her out to dinner on her actual birthday. We'll be heading to "Potle" (Chipotle!). 

Lots of love and kisses for this birthday girl

Cheers!

Freedom

It's probably been within the last year or so that I've given up on IT...that dreaded "P" word that most women hate...perfection.
I think it first started to be noticeable in my cleaning. When Sarah was an only child, I used to wake up and hop out of bed just to get started on my cleaning...I know, fun right?! Now, I clean when I can. I let Katie roam the house with crackers in hand which lends to crumbs on the floor. I just don't find it that important anymore.

Another area I've noticed since we've purchased our home is in my decorating. It doesn't have to be "perfect" for me to hang it on the wall, arrange it in that corner, or paint it that color. I have found freedom from reading so many blogs about crafting and creating your own kind of beauty (you may see a canvas with a similar quote in my bathroom in the coming months). Blogs like hers, which inspires me to decorate without having to have my house look like a Pottery Barn catalog. I love my new found sense of style and freedom.

And probably one of the biggest areas for me that I'm letting go of the perfection is in my hair. I cut my hair super short over a year ago, the shortest I've ever worn it, and I loved it. I loved that it didn't take long to style. I loved that it could be "messy" but look like that's how I wanted it. Well, I've been growing it out since about October. I know growing your hair out can be like dying a slow death. Yesterday it dawned on me that I don't want to grow my hair out, not because of how painful the process has been, but because my new style is forcing me to maintain perfection with each strand. I was thinking how down the road, in a few months, I'll be spending more time in front of the mirror making sure my part is correct, the hair is curled under just so, and the back is not looking like a hot mess. So, today I am calling "my girl" and asking her to chop it all off again. Again, I love the sense of freedom I have in my short hair. IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE PERFECT. Dave may not be too thrilled about the idea but I have to think of myself in this situation...could result in a lower dose of Zoloft :)

Here's a shot of my kitchen wall. Random? Yes! Perfect? To me, Yes! Each piece up there has had a personal touch added to it except the white clock that has the glare on it. Sarah made that watercolor picture in the frame when she was 3. I am still impressed with how beautiful it is. I made the "You are my sunshine" canvas while I was pregnant with Katie, thinking it would go in the girls room but I have become attached to it. The 5 was decorated in some bling to represent our soon-to-be family of 5. And the "M" is for Moser, the personal touch is the hot glue job I had to do after one of the legs broke off. 

Hope this will inspire some anti-perfection change in your life.

Cheers!

Friday

It's Friday, It's Friday!! Katie and I are staying in today, especially after I saw the dusting of snow on the ground and the 10 degree temp on the weather channel. Sarah has her first sleepover tonight, she's excited and I'm nervous. I think she'll do fine, she's so social and independent. Turning 6 and she's already leaving the house :) Yesterday we had a fantastic lunch with a new friend and then had dinner with my MIL, it was a nice day spending time with people.

Nothing else exciting here. Looking forward to our long weekend at home, don't tell Dave but I have a growing to-do list for him...again :)

Thought I'd snap a picture of this little cutie, guess she wasn't as excited

I treated myself to a mini Keurig and I love it!

Hope you have a great Friday!

Cheers

Goals...do you have any?

Good Morning! I'm hoping today's blog post will motivate me to continue posting daily or something close to it. I'm always eager to share my thoughts and fun photos but by day's end I'm fried. So I guess we'll see where things go...
A few weeks ago I wrote our 2013 goals out on our cool chalkboard we have in our kitchen :) Here's what it looks like for us in 2013 and maybe you'll share yours with me.
1. Read the Bible--I've been reading a one year bible to help me get through reading the entire bible. The book is quite huge but I'm taking it one day at a time. It's actually exciting to me this time around to tackle this goal, I'm eager to learn from God's word, not just do it because "it's the right thing to do".
2. Focus on our 5--I noticed late last year that I need to spend more of my energy/thoughts/time on our family. Currently there's four of us in the Moser household but soon we'll have 5 (3 more months to be exact). I've already started working on this goal by staying at home during the day more with Katie so we have time to play rather than running around doing fifty errands every day. I also find myself thinking of what I can do today for Sarah and/or Dave, even when that means buying her favorite ice cream or making his favorite dessert.
3. Make more art--This was actually Sarah's goal but I totally want it to be one of mine too. I think she's getting to the age where she needs more than just going into the playroom and playing with babies. We've made a few purchases for some crafty things and started working on them.
4. Give back--This may be my most favorite goal! We were so blessed last year that I can't imagine not giving back in some way. I read the other day that a gift is no longer a gift if it's not being given. I look forward to blessing people with food, money, sweets, conversation and friendship.

And there you have it, our 2013 goals. I can't wait to see how the year unfolds.

I discovered this recipe from Ms. Paula Deen for cinnamon rolls and they are AMAZING! No, lie! You have to try them.

During one of my sleepless nights I had the thought to make Sarah's birthday invitations edible. So, I made some sugar cookies, frosted the details onto them and Sarah hand delivered them. It was so much fun, just hoping everyone wrote down the date/time before they ate them :)

 Poor Katie bug. I had my dr visit on what turned out to be a very busy Friday afternoon. After 2 1/2 hours in the waiting room, Katie just had to lie down. Thank goodness Dave gets out at 3:00 and was able to pick her up.

My blinged-out #5. This kinda goes along with two of my goals. Sarah and I were able to get crafty with these awesome jewels from Hobby Lobby and I wanted a 5 to hang on our kitchen wall to represent our family. Score!

Miss Sarah has become quite the reader. I'm so proud of her, she doesn't give up when she comes to a tricky word and she keeps on going even when the page has "too many words" on it. Can't believe she's reading on her own!

And this is one of my faves! Sarah helped me in the kitchen the other night. Looking back on the photo I just can't get over how much personality she has and is finally allowing it to come out AND how old she looks. I love her, she's becoming one of my best friends.

Hope you'll keep coming back for more

Cheers!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my peeps! We had such an amazing holiday experience with lots of family and food to go around. I have been in awe of the real meaning of Christmas all season long. What a miracle we have been given! Dave mentioned that he's happy I don't go all nuts over buying gifts for the girls. I want them to know the true meaning of Christmas as well, it's not all about getting lots and lots of toys that eventually end up at Goodwill. I did the 4 gift thing for Sarah; a want, need, wear and read. And little Katie Rose got one little 'ol gift from Santa...shhh don't tell her that there should have been more I don't think she noticed.
I loved Christmas this year with our family of four and to think this time next year there will be 5!!

Moser family Christmas dinner at our home

McIntyre Christmas Eve celebration with a surprise visit from the CT gang

Leone family Christmas breakfast fun

Mamah visit

Hoping you and yours had as much fun and love as we did! 

Cheers!!