yes

Just a couple quick pics from last week.  Check out this totally stylin' little guy!  :)  I might love sunglasses.  Especially from The Children's Place.  They are the cheapest ones I've found aside from the dollar store...and usually a little bit cooler and don't brake as easily.  ;)

I first saw this short video on Linny's blog and absolutely had to share!  Just say yes!

                                              

creative glory photography

While I am NOT a professional photographer, I do love photography.  :)  I have started my own photography blog so that all my photo sessions are in one spot instead of spread throughout this blog.  I will still post one picture here and let you know that a new session is up for your viewing pleasure if you wish to see it.  :)  

So, to check out the new blog and eli's 5 month session, look to the right  --------------->
and click on the link to my new photography blog!  :) Most of the sessions you have seen before, but I will hopefully be adding more soon.  And if you ever want a session yourself, just ask!   :)

Guess who! :)

**So have you seen my cute little fishies over here?  --------------->

That is a fun new little gadget you can add to your page on blogger so I decided to try it out just for fun.  If you hover your mouse over it, the fish will come to you!  Click anywhere on the water and you can feed them!  :}  Just thought I'd explain!  What should I name them??**

happy heart day :)

I love spending Valentine's day with children.  :)  It makes it such a fun day!  Not to mention all the decorations are two of my favorite colors -red and pink!  Perfect. :)  Here's a little bit of how our day went this week:

I started out by introducing Big Brother to something I used to do all the time with my kids - colored scrambled eggs!  It's so stinkin' easy and just fun!  With my kids, we started out by reading Green Eggs and Ham and of course did green eggs but since Valentine's day was this week, we went with pink eggs.  Big Brother thought they were pretty cool and actually ate more of the pink eggs than last week when I gave him "regular" yellow ones!  Ha!

Then while the baby was sleeping, we made a heart tree (found the idea on Pinterest of course :).  Working with felt heart stickers was a good sensory experience and good for fine motor skills as well!  Sometimes it's tricky to get that sticker from your fingers on to the paper!  :)

Then Big Brother took a nap and Little Man woke up and played with me.  We didn't do anything Valentine-ish...just practiced being cute.  :)

Next was lunch time with a heart shaped sandwich.  Plus other stuff of course. :)

That afternoon we made cupcakes  (also found on Pinterest.)  This recipe I just had to try!  It called for one cake mix (I used the Funfetti one.) and one can of soda.  That's it!!  And it worked!  The cupcakes were really moist.  I used some strawberry Mountain Dew I think it was so that the cupcakes would be pink.  It was an interesting experiment!

 Finally, it was time for one of my favorite things I used to do with my girls when Mr. Happy was tiny and slept all the time...the sensory tub!  With my girls, I used rice as the base, and I'm sure I'll do that later again too.  For this day though, I made a Valentine theme of course.  :)  Fake rose petals for the base with all kinds of hearts, etc. mixed in.  There were little white buckets that B.B. had a blast filling with the rose petals.  There were small foam hearts, little plastic heart boxes, plastic red and purple turtles (yeah, that was random, but there was a pack of them as I was wandering through the $ Tree so I figured why not!), and...

 Funny straws that whistled when you blew through them!  There are so many ideas out there for sensory tubs and I can't wait to create some new ones for different months...I already have several ideas...and you know there will be a green one for St. Patrick's Day!  :)  And they are great to pull out on rainy days when you are stuck inside all day!  Anyways, go check....you got it!...Pinterest! for more ideas!  :)

Happy Valentine's Day!  :)

Hmm...am I addicted to exclamation points??  :}

one puzzle piece

Most of you know that I was a nanny for five and a half years until this past August when all three of my kids went to school.  Since then I have been trusting that God would provide me the right job at the right time.  I registered on care.com and applied to every nanny position that looked like it would fit my schedule and location.  The problem was that for every nanny job posted there are bunches of nannies also applying for that same job!  I got a little frustrated that I most of the time never even would hear back from a family because even if I applied right away, so would lots of other people and my email would get shoved to the bottom of the list and someone would get the job before my email was read.  So I had my two faithful prayer warriors :) pray that my name would appear closer to the top of the emails for the family that God had for me.  

Finally, in November, I heard from back from two moms on the same day.  

This was the note from the first mom:

Please send me some references and I would like to ask you more questions. Call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx 
Thanks,
B.

This was from the other mom:

Hello Kathryn,
Thank you for contacting us! We read through your profile and are interested in getting to know you better. I was especially impressed that you were with your last family for 5 years and helped with homeschooling the children. Could you tell us a little more about your day to day responsibilities with this family? Would they be open to speaking with us by phone or email as a reference for you?
Thank you so much! We would also like to set up a time sometime to meet in person
Have a blessed day!
Best,
A.

Which one would have made you more excited to write back to??  :)

As I wrote back and forth to A., answering her questions and setting up a time to meet, I later realized that my normal first questions hadn't even entered my mind to ask - like how much the job would pay.  Kind of important when so many of the jobs posted offer $5 an hour!  But God took care of that detail without me having to even worry about it!

I gave her a link to my blog and told her she could see some of the kinds of things I had done with my kids and get to know me a little better.  She wrote back to say that she had gone to my blog to click on the "my kids" link...seen the word "adoption" and clicked and read all the posts under that label instead! She said she and her husband have had a desire to adopt since before they were married!  Another area in which our hearts match up!

We set up a time to meet over lunch and A told me to feel free to bring someone with me. So sweet!  So I asked my friend, Deanna, if she would join me and she agreed to go.  I had both the advantage and disadvantage in the fact that this family knew way more about me, having read through some of my blog, than I knew about them!  :)  Lunch went really well and of course, their children are precious.  :)


So, long story short, I am now a part time nanny (two days a week) for this family!  I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is where God wants me right now and am waiting to see where He wants me the other three days a week.  :)


Introducing...


Big Brother
(better nick names later as I get to know them better :)

He is so very sweet and already comes and wants me to pick him up and hold him - and doesn't like it when I leave.  :)  He made me all teary last week when he put his little arms around my neck, just like Mr. Happy likes to do, and gave me a hug!  :}

Hard to get a clear pic of a very busy 20 month old! But I still like this one! lol  :)

and

Little Man

Little Man is about a month younger than Eli and is sweet and smiley...when he's awake of course.  :)  He loves to have books read to him and also likes to have great "conversations" with you!  :)

(This pic is from my cell phone...thus the smaller size...)


I'm so thankful for this family and job God has provided!  It's one piece to the puzzle of my life after leaving my kids.  Now, just one more job and a place of my own to live...those would be my next puzzle piece prayer requests!  :)

hospital recap

Like I said, Eli was in the hospital with RSV.  For eleven days!  Poor baby!  Catrina stayed with him the entire time except for one night when daddy stayed with him so mommy could get a whole night's rest.  We kept her well supplied with SB and food and company to keep her from going completely insane!

The RSV hit Eli pretty hard.  He was one sick little guy there for a long time!  I tended to go hang out in the late evenings, since both Catrina and I are night owls.  The first night we were there, Saturday,  Eli was getting way dehydrated and they had to start an IV.  The problem was that they should have started one earlier in the day because by that time he was so dehydrated that they couldn't get the IV in.  They stuck him twice in each leg and once in each hand before calling in a different nurse - who thankfully got it in on his first try!  Hearing sweet baby screaming for 30 minutes down the hallway in the procedure room was not easy! And he's not even my baby!  :-p  He was having a hard time breathing and they finally had to start him on some oxygen.  He kept going downhill day after day! Finally on day 6, Thursday, he started perking up and I got a smile out of him and a couple little giggles. The problem was he just couldn't get his oxygen levels back up to where they needed to be.  And had to stay a few extra days...until the next Tuesday! recovering and getting stronger.  

He is finally home and happy and healthy and we are so thankful for those of you who saw our various status updates and prayed for him!  :)

rsv

Wow!  It has been a while since I posted anything!  The last two weeks baby Eli has been in the hospital trying to get over RSV so life has been a little crazy around here.  

More about that later.  Just wanted to check in and say I'm still around!  :)