Exciting Changes!!!

It's been a few months since I posted any thing but I have some blog worthy news!!! About 3 and a half weeks ago, we found out we are expecting our third little one! We feel so blessed and can't wait to meet our baby next July! Shortly before we saw two lines, ;) my little brother proposed to his girlfriend, Sarah! They are planning to tie the knot in May! As if all of this wasn't quite exciting enough, I found out yesterday that my brother, Josh and sis-in-law, Amanda are also expecting their third!!! Our due dates are only a couple of weeks apart! It will be so fun to be pregnant together! 2014 is going to be a BIG and exciting year for our family! :) A wedding and 2 babies! How much more exciting can you get than that?! 

I will keep you posted. This blog is going to need a name change, too! "Me and My 4 Men?!" or some thing else? ;) 

Michelle 

Let the Adventure Begin!

Wow, I'm surprised my blog is still here and didn't shrivel up and die from severe neglect!!!

Mmm... I love the smell of brand new books! Jameson's have arrived! I can't believe it's almost time for him to start Kindergarten. I've always known that I wanted to homeschool. My parents felt led of the Lord to pull me and my siblings out of public school right before I entered middle school. I'll never know the extent of what homeschooling kept me from and I'm so thankful for their decision. It was around that time that I got saved and being home with my Christian family was such an added joy! No negative influences around me, no peer pressure to do what's wrong, no worldly views on the things I learned. I knew that some day I wanted to give my children that same, precious gift. I didn't know how quickly that day would sneak up on me!

A little about the curriculum: We chose to go with BJU Press (Bob Jones University) Distance Learning online. I love the books and will do a review on the DLO (Distance Learning Online) after we've used it for a while! The samples we've watched are wonderful and Jameson enjoyed them.

Our Church has a wonderful support group and I'm excited to join in on the field trips and fun! :)

I'll get back to sniffing books and crayons now! ;) Pray for us as we begin this exciting and long (lol) journey ahead!

Michelle

Super Birthday!

Landon had so much fun at the park tonight for his 3rd birthday party! It was Super Grover themed and our friend Angela did an amazing job on his cake. The kids had a blast riding the power wheels vehicles, racing their bikes and playing Landon's new tee ball set. We had pasta, salad, and of course the cake and I also made punch for the first time! It was a "super" fun evening! I'm sad that my baby is growing up but also proud of the little boy he is becoming!

Landon's First Time in Sunday School!

My "baby" will be three on Tuesday so today he went to Sunday school for the very first time. He absolutely loved every minute of it! He gave in a prayer request, prayed with all of his little heart, (cute photo below to prove it) took his turn at leading a song, ("Jesus Loves Me") made his puppet sing, listened to the story about Lot's wife and made his craft to go along with the lesson. His teacher is pretty awesome ;) and it was a joy to watch him take it all in!

He's also potty trained now!!!!! Today was our 6th day at it and he was accident free all day long. He even tells us when he has to go. I'm super excited about that and we think he's the cutest in his little undies!!!

Amateur Fishermen

Spring has finally sprung and we couldn't be happier! Jameson caught the first fish from our pond this year and he did it all by himself. Anthony wasn't here so I had to do the unhooking/releasing part. I'm glad it wasn't one of the mega catfish or it might have laid on the shore until he got back! Ha! Jameson was so excited and I was proud of him. Landon didn't catch any thing but he loves to cast and reel any way. We are loving this gorgeous weather and can't wait for Landon's outdoor birthday party next week.

Spring Pictures (Yay, Melissa! I posted!!!)

Hey ya'll, 

So it seems like I'm down to posting about once a month on here now. Since Instagram entered my life, it's instant posting makes this blogging thing seem a little more time consuming. LOL! I have little excuse, though, especially since I can blog from my iPhone and iPad. I need to get back to doing it more often!  

There's not much going on with the Young family lately. Just enjoying this "Spring" weather (On the days when it isn't snowing, that is! Ha!) We're looking forward to Easter and Landon's 3rd Birthday! I usually get the boys pictures taken twice a year, in the Spring and Fall. I took them to Portrait Innovations this past week to get their huge cheap package like I always do. But my naughty sons had to be all adorable and photogenic and take awesome pictures, thus making their Mother spend more money than she planned. (Um, WAY more. LOL!) I actually had money left from my consignment sale check, though. So I didn't feel too bad about my little splurge. I'm sure you can see why I had to buy! (Below;) You'd never know it, but Landon started the session with being shy, pouty and uncooperative. He actually ended up doing better than his big brother! Lol! Jameson gave a few good smiles in the beginning but then they started looking fake and forced. In the end, the photographer captured his hilarious personality any way! FYI, his name was Darryl and he was fantastic with them. There were so many good pictures, I had a hard time choosing my favorites!

HAPPY EASTER, YA'LL!

Michelle

First post from our new toy!

My parents were right. These Apple products are both awesome AND addicting. My iPhone has a big brother now. His name is iPad mini. I love them both but the new guy has reeeally captured my attention this week. The boys were thrilled to pieces with the surprise on Sunday and are thoroughly enjoying their new apps. We bought a good protective case for it since they use it so much. I think it will be pretty cool to enter my KKCS items on it! Well, the first few will be any way.... Now if only I could find an app that would do my ironing and tagging for me! ; )

Happy 5th Birthday, Jameson!

I can't believe he's already five. A school-ager who will soon be reading, writing and losing teeth!!! Where has the time gone??? I've been looking through old pictures from the day he was born and those precious memories wash over me. They also make me want to hold a chunky newborn. Any body got one handy? LOL! He was 9 pounds and 4 ounces, had a head full of black hair, the cutest little dimples and the biggest appetite. He was such a content and happy baby. He's grown into an amazing little man with a big heart. I can honestly say, as weird as it sounds, he's my friend. If I'm bothered about some thing or a little bit down, it's hard for me to hide it from him. He picks up on it right away and some times prays for me on the spot! He is a sweetheart. He has one BIG imagination and is just hilarious at times. If he went to public school, he'd be the class clown- I'm sure of it! He loves to to make people laugh. He's very outgoing and has sang with me in Church a couple of times, which he is loving. I want to instill a love for glorifying God through music in him. I can't wait for the day to come when he sings from his heart to his Savior and he KNOWS the Jesus that he's singing about! Speaking of that, we believe the Lord has started to knock on his heart. He's gotten quiet and teary and told me several times that he wants to be saved. I can't tell you how thankful I am for that!!! Please help us pray that God will save him at a young age. That is our desire for our children. 

We had a little party with family at Fazolis and Blazers on Saturday to celebrate. Every one had a great time and the birthday boy wants to go back. I'll try to post pictures soon, with Christmas pictures to follow in backward order. LOL. I'm not too great at this blogging thing these days.

Here are some older pictures!

Michelle

 

Me and My 3 Weeks!

For the past three weeks, sickness has invaded my home. Nothing major, but isn't it amazing how much some thing like a cold can affect you? During this time, I've had aches, chills, earache, headache, laryngitis (my least favorite part because I love to sing!) cough, runny nose, stuffy nose....You name it! Poor little Landon has been very sick too and TERRIBLY whiny and attached to me. His diagnosis at Care First was an ear infection and pharyngitis (I had never heard of that before!) and getting his antibiotics down him has proved to be one of the greater parenting challenges we've encountered. LOL. Jameson seemed to sail through it all amazingly UNTIL about 2 days ago when we woke up very sick with a fever, horrible cough and laryngitis. He was pitiful. Tears were dripping off of his face while he tried to tell me his voice was gone. That's when I caved and drove us BACK to Care First where they diagnosed me and Jameson with "SinoBronchial Infections." I've missed two nights of our Revival going on this week :( but I'm excited that it's going on through tomorrow so I can make up for not being there! I'm happy to say that I think we're FINALLY on the mend. We still have a couple of days left of antibiotics and I'm hoping we'll be completely well by Christmas! Landon is acting more like his old self again, thank God! Jameson is taking his medicine like a champ and I'm on the third day of my Z-pack. Anthony also caught it but seems to handle it better than the three of us. (which is good since he's the bread winner!) I am SO thankful for our good health. I realize how precious it is and don't want to ever take it for granted. 

Here's an "amazing" picture taken at our Church Christmas dinner. (They are both smiling and looking in the same direction, their eyes are open all the way, their clothes are still clean after they ate and they're not doing weird things with their hands.) LOL! You Mothers know how amazing this is.

Count down to Christmas- 17 DAYS!!! Who has their shopping done??? I'm done with most of mine. The majority of what I have left to buy is gift cards. Jameson is extremely excited and reminds Mom every time he sees her that she has Christmas gifts for him. LOL. We went Black Friday shopping as a family this year. (Disclaimer: This was my husband's idea! lol) We got $30 in gift cards at Belk so we were pumped about that! Then they had men's dress clothes buy one get TWO free so we ended up getting THREE dress shirts for Anthony for $10 plus tax out of our pocket! I also got Leapsters for $20 and PJ's for $4 at Wal-Mart for the boys. I'm super excited about their "big" gift we put on Lay-a-way at a toy store in our mall. It's a huge 27 piece wooden fire/police station that Jameson has been drooling over in the "One Step Ahead" catalogs but thinks they aren't getting it due to the price. LOL! I cannot wait to see his face on Christmas!

Stay healthy, ya'll! 

I'm going to fill out Christmas cards,

Michelle

Spontaneous Shopping Spree! (Thanks, Mom! :)

Last Saturday while hanging around the house, I got an iMessage from my Mom that said, "You need to go to Crazy 8 today." They had 25% off the entire store and that included all their clearance. Lilianna was in dire need of clothing and she RACKED up! Mom bought her 18 adorable items that day and got awesome deals on all of it! Anthony had been in the woods deer hunting all day so I called him to see if he wanted to go to Bowlingreen with us. He whispered back that he didn't want to go :( but told me to go on without him. So the boys and I hit the road at about 6:00 pm. It seems like a late start, but since it takes an hour to get there AND they are an hour behind us, we arrived at around 6:00 pm their time. That gave us three hours to eat dinner and shop- plenty of time! We ate pizza and pasta from Sbarro in the food court and then the boys had a blast riding the big carousel. Then, with full tummies and the carousel ride out of the way, we went into Crazy 8, where we spent the remaining hour and a half. The boys sat on the little bench in the back of the store and watched the Crazy 8 kid's TV the entire time (and boy am I thankful for that thing!!! LOL) except for when I was trying clothes on them. The girls that work there were wonderful. I was thrilled with my little haul and got great deals. I was especially excited to find Jameson a nice dress coat (which he needed) for 47% off! I went a little crazy when I found Landon's owl shirt, too. lol:) Here's what I left with:

Grey pea coat for Jameson: $23.60 (reg. $44.95)
Jeans for Jameson: $9.74
Jeans for Landon: $9.75
Tie shirts for J&L: $4.49 each  (I'm super excited about these for Christmas!:)
Button-up plaid shirts for J&L: $8.99 each
Owl shirt for Landon: $5.24
Polo for Jameson: $5.24
Fish shirt for Landon: $5.24  

 Sorry the picture of Landon is blurry! I didn't want to leave him out so I included it any way.

It's Been A While!

It's been too long since I posted any thing! Since I've fallen in love with my new BFF, the iPhone, my laptop is often neglected along with my blog. I don't have too much to blog about but I never posted pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch (a MONTH ago) and I better do that while it's still Fall and before there's snow on the ground!

I was very discouraged with the outcome of the election and for a couple of days, dwelt too long on it and let fear start to creep in. It's scary to think of what we and especially our children will face in these final days! But coming into God's house the Friday evening after the election and feeling His wonderful spirit from the very first song gave me that encouragement and comfort I needed. I don't have to fear the future when the one who holds it is also holding ME! 

My brother and his wife were married 9 years ago today but they are spending their anniversary apart. Josh is a supervisor for Vectren, a natural gas company. He's been in New York helping Hurricane Sandy victims for a week now and is supposed to return home Sunday. My Uncle Scott is also in New York with his Church group helping to feed victims and do what they can for the needy. (Amazingly, ten weeks after his kidney transplant!) He feels so grateful for what he's been given and wants to give back! Please pray for Josh and Scott's protection and for God to use them.

I'm excited about the approaching holidays but baffled by how fast another year has flown by! I'm looking forward to that delicious Thanksgiving meal, precious time with family, and those Black Friday sales!!! : ) I've bought a few Christmas gifts already but still have quite a few people to cross of my list. I was peeking at Wal-Mart's ad today along with a few others online. I've thought about getting a new pre-lit tree this year. I've really enjoyed decorating the house for Fall and I'm equally excited to put it all away and replace it with CHRISTMAS decor!!!! 

Five paragraphs later, I'm realizing that I had more to blog about than I thought! Ha! Hope it wasn't too boring for you. Here are a few pictures of a fun trip to Mink & Walters Pumpkin Patch. It's a wonderful place and best of all, FREE! (Thanks to my friend Angie for posting the idea!) The boys had SO much fun that we went back again another day with Mom & Lili. 

Happy Thanksgiving, Ya'll,

Michelle

 

Simple Fall Craft

The boys and I took a walk around our yard today and collected leaves in Ziplock baggies. At one point during our hike around the pond, Jameson asks me out of the blue, "Are you nuts?" Ha Ha! Landon would pick up an ordinary, brown crunchy leaf and exclaim, "Look at this!!" before putting it in his bag. Then we came inside where they dumped their leaves out on the table (yikes!) then glued them to their color choice of construction paper. I had to help Landon but Jameson made his on his own. It was super fun and Mom had to make one too. ; ) I love the Fall and I'm taking in all of her beautiful colors while she's still here!

Michelle

Family Pictures by "Pop's Potos"

So, last week I picked out all of our outfits for Dad to take pictures of us in after Church (even though I knew the forecast for outdoor pictures wasn't good.) I was wearing a favorite black and white dress of mine, Anthony was wearing a brand new black plaid shirt, and the boys had black plaid western shirts, jeans and boots on. However, the weather really didn't care about all of that! Just as predicted, it was extremely windy and rainy and "non-picturey".... Ha Ha! We got a few snapshots on the porch but that's it.

Yesterday the weather decided to be absolutely perfect and gorgeous. We were all wearing the same color, so I figured, "Why not?" It just took a few minutes for my Dad to get these! (He's pretty awesome like that;)  Thanks, Pop! I love them. =)

 

Fall Photographs by Pop

Here are a couple of pictures that Dad took of the boys today! 

I love them and I'm looking forward to getting some family shots soon!

Autumn Days Gone By....

Pictures are so precious to me! I love looking at them and seeing how much the boys have changed and grown. These were taken two years ago, Fall 2010.

And this one is from last year, Fall 2011.

This is from our family vacation to TN last year, Fall 2011. We had so much fun!

Dad is going to be taking some Fall pictures of us soon and I can't wait! 

I'll post them after they're taken and edited!

Peering in....

J & L feeding our fish! 

~ Fall 2012 ~

Easier way to show you my KKCS buys...

Hey ya'll,

I wanted to show you what I bought for the boys from the Fall consignment sale but didn't want to take, edit and post over 35 pictures! lol! So I put my iPhone to work and recorded a video clip instead. This is new for me and I feel a little silly doing it but it's WAY easier! I hope it isn't too much of a bore for ya and I don't get made fun of! lol
 
The consignment sales are where we buy the majority of our sons' wardrobes and I usually find a lot more in the Fall than I do in the Spring. This sale I spent A LOT of money, however- I made over $560! My earning far exceeded my spending so we were good! In this clip, I show you most of the clothes I bought but some of them were in the laundry baskets or their pajama drawers! One particular Mossy Oak camo outfit (not in the video) I found for Jameson has become a favorite of his.....I think he'd choose to wear it every day if he could! I also forgot to show you Jameson's Rescue Heroes fire truck that he actually prayed I would find! It was under a table and only $2! He was one happy little boy when he saw me bring it home that evening along with his first bike! It looks like a dirt bike and was just $15! Then of course, the John Deere Gator was our big purchase for $140. They have spent HOURS riding that thing already....No regrets getting it! 

I love saving money!!!

Michelle : )   

 

That moment....

You've been there, too. You know, that moment when your "baby" takes on a different look! An older look. A less babyish look. He starts to slim down, grow a bit taller. Those legs are looking longer and start to run faster. His hands are less chubby and his fingers can navigate around your Iphone like nobody's business. Those baby cheeks start to lose some of that oh-so-kissable chub. It feels sort of deja vu and I'm not ready for it to happen to this one too. He's just as kissable and snuggly as ever but his appearance is changing and it makes a Mama's heart sigh and whisper, "Please stay little!" We're entering a new phase. One in which our "baby" is 2 and a half years old. I hope that I'm soaking in all of these moments with my boys adequately enough!  : )

Owl Kitchen!

Some of you know that I've been wanting to paint and redecorate around here and I'm THRILLED to say that one room is checked off the list! My Kentucky Kids Consignment Sale money helped me get the things I wanted for my kitchen and I'm super excited to have a change! I wish I would've taken some "before" pictures but to help give you a mental picture, the walls were yellow and I had pineapple/fruit decorations in it. (It was starting to look a little "Granny" to me and I wanted a new look!) I had been spying this owl stuff in town and mentally drooling over it. I got it all from Kirklands and Burkes and I still want to get the canister set. (Hopefully, Kirklands will mark it down lower than $39!) I picked out "Cozy Cottage" paint color and inspite of our inexperience as painters, it turned out fine. Saturday was an extremely busy day for us and painting probably should've waited but my new things had been sitting for a week and a half and I was ready to go for it! Anthony had already put a new alternator in his truck, fixed the lawn mower, mowed/weed-eated, and cleaned the gutters out. I helped him clean out the gutters then I ran to town to get the paint while he got the kitchen completely ready. Ya'll know that pulling out appliances requires cleaning behind them, (which hadn't been done in a LONG time around here) so my fingers scrubbed until they hurt! I also fell in my bathroom while changing clothes (funny story I won't post here...lol) during the wait for the first coat to dry. Needless to say, we were pretty wore out that night and very sore the next morning at Church! My leg is still sore and the bruise from my fall has actually gotten bigger....weird! But it was worth it all! lol! I'm already planning what I want to do with the other rooms and looking forward to more changes! =) 

Michelle

I'm thinking about ordering some thing from "Stitch Me Primitives" (my talented friend, Angela) for that empty wall by the refrigerator!

 

 

 

 

 

My sweet hubby jumped right in and helped me put the kitchen back together. He hung the valances right out of the packages (which I wanted to iron or fluff in the dryer) but they don't look too bad the way he hung them! =)