Liv's Month in Review! June 8 - July 18, 2014

I got severely behind on my Weeks in Review, so I am going to settle with a Month in Review.

 Sean turned 9 June 22nd.  We had a party for him while we were visiting family in Missouri and then again when we got home.  Sean got a guitar from his papa and grandma and has been enjoying his guitar lessons! :)

 While visiting family in Missouri I took pictures of the kids.  My In-Laws have a nice, big yard!  Fun for pictures :)

Chloe Avanelle 5 years old

Sean Donovan 9 years old

Lilyana Mary 3 years old

 Eleanor Olivia 7 years old

  On July 3rd we took a little family trip to the zoo.  It was such a nice day!  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day :)

 July 4th I made some pies, hot fudge sauce, and homemade ice cream.  My parents came over that evening and brought some yummy snacks.  It was a nice night.  We watched fireworks from our back deck :)

 I recently got my hair cut.  Here is a before and after.

 The girls and I had fun painting our nails with some SinfulColors nail polish that we got from Influenster for me to review :)

 Here are my Ruth bumps from weeks 22 - 27.  In Baby news I had an anatomy scan at 24 weeks.  Ruth was measuring about a week behind, but otherwise looks good and healthy.  My due date remains the same because we are sure on dates and I have a history of carrying small and having small babies.  I had my glucose test at 26 weeks and that came back normal with no concerns.

We chose to have an elective 3D/4D scan on Tuesday.  It was pretty cool to see her! :)  I think she is beautiful!  She weighs about 1 pound 14 ounces and still measuring about a week behind.  Both her foot and her femur measure almost 2 inches long.  We got to see her do some practice breathing.  She also stuck out her tongue, smiled slightly, wrinkled her forehead and frowned, and put her cord on her face!  Looks like she is going to have some hair and might be a thumb or finger sucker since she had her hands and arms by her face the whole time!  We got a stack of printed pictures, a CD of all 80+ pictures, and a DVD of the scan that is about 30 minutes long.  Here are my favorites out of all the pictures.

 Wednesday we officially started school back up.  It was nice to take a break, but my plan is to try to do school all year and take a little time off in the summer.  I'm also wanting to get a head start so we can take some time off in October when Ruth is born.  Sean and Eleanor are doing Heart of Dakota again this year.  Bigger Hearts for His Glory.  They are doing a lot of it together, but of course have different math and reading.  Sean is also doing cursive, but we are continuing to work on Eleanor's handwriting before rushing into cursive as I don't feel she is quite ready yet.  They are both using the same English/language arts this year.  I love that they are close enough in age that we can combine some things.  I don't think any of it is "too easy" or "too hard" for either child and extra review never hurts.  Here is what we are doing so far.  This is our little school bookshelf in the dining room so we don't have to constantly run up and down the stairs.

 Sean and Eleanor both have a Poetry notebook for copying poems and rhymes that we read throughout the year.

 They also each have an English notebook to use for writing, language arts, spelling, and copying Bible verses.

 We are using sketch books for their science notebooking.

 Index cards will be used for keeping vocabulary words in alphabetical order.  They will be learning new words and writing their definitions.

  Paper folders are going to be used for our timelines this year.  I love that they can be folded up when not in use rather than taking up extra space on the walls.

 Chloe and Lily are also working on school this year in a more full time fashion!  They are really enjoying it so far.  We are doing Heart of Dakota with them as well.  Little Hands to Heaven.  I am also using some My Father's World Kindergarten for a little extra if/when I feel it's needed.  We will be using some of our own books and educational toys, puzzles, and games as well as borrowing books, educational DVD's, and toys from the library to supplement if/when I feel it's necessary.  The main focus this year is alphabet, counting, shapes, colors, patterns, and writing letters and numbers and learning to draw basic shapes.

 These are the educational toys, puzzles, and games that we have at home.  Plenty to keep them busy and so many ways to play with the counting bears, stringing beads, and shapes stacker board.

  We also have some flash cards and a counting flip book that are really handy and they seem to enjoy.  I especially like the Same or Different cards because they really have to use their critical thinking skills!  There are so many answers and reasons the pictures can be the same or different, so it's neat to me to see what they think is the same or different and why they think that.

Not Your Mother's influenster review

I received this Not Your Mother's Beach Babe shampoo and conditioner #NYMBeachBabe from influenster in my #SurfsUpVoxBox.

It smells so good!  I don't feel like it moisturizes as well as I'd hoped, but it does make my hair feel clean and smell wonderful!  It also motivated me to get a much needed hair cut! :)  I don't know if it's because I have such thick hair, but I did have to use a lot of it to get it all through my hair, but it rinsed out well, so that is great!

Special K Moments Review

I was chosen for another BzzAgent review! This time it was for Special K Moments indulgent 70 calorie snack bites.

I found these to be a great option for those times when I'm a little hungry and a little snacky, but not really sure what to eat.  Or when I'm just wanting something kind of sweet.  These satisfy my cravings and hunger without the guilt.

The caramel pretzel bliss is a great combo of sweet and salty, which I love!

The dreamy coconut reminded me of a Mounds bar, but without the extra calories of course!  So yummy and I love dark chocolate! :)

I was even nice and shared with my family lol ;)  I do believe everyone enjoyed these little snack bites!

@SpecialKUS #GotItFree #3BiteMoment

Liv's Week(s) In Review 5/25/14 - 6/7/14

Hello again, neglected blog! ;)

May 25th was week 20 of my pregnancy and tomorrow will be week 22.  It's going so fast!  As you know from my last post, we are having a girl! :) Most of this week in review will be about her room unless I think of something else to share.

Here is my 20 weeks 2 days bump picture collage -

Here is 21 weeks 3 days bump collage.  I actually think I look smaller in this one -

 Here's a cute picture of Sean and Lily playing a racing game on the Wii together.  They were racing daddy and Chloe.  I just thought this was too cute not to share ♥

Okay, so pretty much as soon as I found out we are having another girl I really wanted to go and buy some things for her.  I had a Walmart gift card to use and then we also did some garage sale and thrift store shopping.  Baby Ruth has quite a bit in her drawers and closet already now :)  This is what the kids picked out at Walmart with the gift card -

And this blanket was one of my favorite garage sale finds!  I was originally wanting to do her room in elephants and/or birds, but it kind of changed after a trip to Target and I am completely okay with that.  I still want to frame this elephant card to hang in her room -

Here is what her room looks like now.  Pretty much done after a trip to Target!  I saw this "You Are Beauty Full" picture and it reminded me of my grandma and how she always said "beautyful" and I knew I had to have it for Ruth's room!  It was perfect and everything came together.  We got the two smaller canvas wall hangings to go with the big one, plus the rug and the night light lamp.  I love it!  Since Ruth is my rainbow baby it really does make her my beautyful, sunshiny baby ♥ Plus the rug has a rainbow feel to it with the colorful stripes.  The little globe lamp kind of reminded me of a glittery disco ball, which also reminded me of my grandma and how much she loved her "bling" -

Last, but certainly not least, I got this candle in the mail from my dear friend, Apryl! :)  So exciting!  It smells great and the ring was close to the top so I didn't have to wait too long ;)

So pretty and sparkly! :)

So that is pretty much all I have to share.  We are still working on school over the summer and trying to get our house organized some more and get rid of some things.  Seems like we are getting a lot done, but at the same time it is a slow process and I don't feel like I have much else to share even though it seems like we've been keeping busy.  Just nothing terribly exciting going on at the moment.

I've gotten a little lazy with healthy eating and exercising, so I am really trying to step it up.  I want a healthy baby and a healthy pregnancy!  So that is a goal of mine over the next 18 or so weeks till she is here!  Of course I still want to be healthy after she is here lol ;)

It's A...

If you are on facebook then this post won't be a surprise lol, but it's a girl! :D  Here are some pictures and a video of our reveal to the kids and my parents -

 My parent's gift to Baby Ruth!  They did a great job and didn't even know the gender yet!  I was wanting to do elephant decorations if it's a girl and look at this!  Elephants! :D  I am going to frame the card and hang it in Ruth's room ♥

Week In Review Catch up from 5/4/14 - 5/24/14

I don't know where the time went, but I got behind on my weekly updates.  So I will do my best to keep this short and sweet.

May 4th I was 17 weeks pregnant and I have been feeling a lot more movement and even feel baby taps on the outside now :)  I've felt the baby have some hiccups too!  I will be 20 weeks on Sunday and we are finding out Tuesday if we are having a Milo or a Ruth!  Here is 18 week baby bump -

Here is 19 weeks -



Sean and I have slacked off on our morning walks...  We had some cold weather, rainy weather, and just some late nights.  Hoping to get back to doing that again soon though.

May 6th Eleanor had an orthodontist appointment.  Looks like she might be needing some space maintainers and Sean might as well...  Still trying to figure out how we are going to do all that...  After her appointment we went to a small, free zoo at a park and then to Target where I got a little goodie bag with freebies and coupons for creating a baby registry :)

I made kale chips one day for the first time and they were really good!  The kids even liked them despite the "greeness" of them ;)  They are so crisp and yummy!  What's not to like!?

The night of Mother's Day we ended up in the basement for a while with tornado sirens going off.  Thankfully no damage and we were safe!  I'm sure that was the first of many storms to come this spring and summer.

Lily did this puzzle all by herself one morning!  So proud of her :)

I gave all three girls a new summer hair cut.  It's not perfect, but good enough lol ;)

That is pretty much the gist of it for now.  We got busy helping my parents with their move and we are in the process of getting our house rearranged and reorganized to make room for baby.  We got some furniture from my parents during their move, so our house is currently a little messy and disorganized, but I will update once it's all done and looking nice so I can take pictures.

I will also update Wednesday or Thursday after our baby gender reveal!  Pretty excited about that!  This is the box we are going to put pink or blue balloons in for the kids to open -