red and yellow, black and white

Remember that song?

Jesus loves the little children.

All the children of the world.

Red and yellow, black and white -

they are precious in His sight.

Jesus loves the little children of the world!

Today in Bible we sang this song and talked about how much Jesus loves all of the people He has created.

We talked about how these boxes are the same - they are all boxes, they are all made from the same type of paper, they were all made by the same person.

The only way they are different is their color.

Then we checked out what was on the inside...

"It's a heart!!!"

(They were actually more excited than they look...for some reason I just couldn't get their actual smiles on camera! :-p )

Next we discovered that the inside of each box was the same - a pretty "diamond" heart.

The point was that while Jesus may have chosen to give us different colors on the outside, just like these boxes, the real treasure was on the inside - the box was just a way to hold each heart and was not the part that mattered. Each one of us, no matter the color of our skin, has been created by God and has hearts on the inside that, whether we realize it or not, long to know and praise God. And oh, how wonderful and creative a God he is! to give us so many beautiful colors in our world! How much would we be missing if we lived in a world without color?? But instead, He painted our world - and our skin - so many beautiful colors! We just took a few minutes to talk about this today so that as they grow up my kids first instinct will hopefully be to look to someone's heart to see what kind of person they are.

Then, of course, we had to play with the "diamonds" for a few minutes. :)

They are precious in His sight! :)

(ecstatic is a fancy word for excited)

**Disclaimer: My camera is having issues...so I borrowed Wendy's camera for these pictures...so if they're not quite as clear as usual it's because I was using an unfamiliar camera...

Have you ever read a Fancy Nancy book? If you have a little boy or happen to have no more small children in your house...let me introduce you to her.

This is Fancy Nancy. She likes fancy things - clothes, people, animals, and words! She is her own self all the time with no fear of what other people might think. She is fun, happy, and pretty cute and reminds me of a few little girls i know...! :)

Sometimes she can't understand why not everyone wants to be fancy!

She even teaches vocabulary words by explaining "fancy" words - like unique.

She always dresses just however she likes - whatever makes her feel "fancy".

My girls love these books and a couple weeks ago late in the afternoon of a rainy day we were reading this particular story and my middle child commented on her beautiful outfit. :) I had a spur of the moment idea and asked my girls how they would like it if we declared the next day "Fancy Nancy Day"? They (of course!) loved the idea and it was settled.

The next morning after breakfast, we headed up to their room to find their "Fancy Nancy" clothes. I told them they could choose absolutely whatever they wanted to wear that made them feel fancy! The only rule was that they had to wear a long sleeved shirt underneath since it was fairly cold that day, but that they could choose that as well.

Later after getting some school done, I did their hair all fancy too.

So, here are my two "Fancy Nancy's"!

Love this pic! Haha! I did not tell her how to stand - this was the pose she wanted.

And while it looks like her outfit actually matches fairly well, I did NOT pick out ANY of it! She went through every single one of her shirts and narrowed them down into "no" piles and "maybe" piles before finally choosing this one! She and her sister both knew they wanted their pink fluffy skirts to begin with.

My baby said he wanted to be in a picture...and then covered his eyes and giggled at the last second. :} Then he wanted a picture on the "stripey background". This is as still as he would stand...... :}

ADORABLE...is a fancy word for cute!! :)

quik pik

I still have a few blog posts to catch up on...the past seven days have just been a blur! I will get around to it soon, I hope. In the meantime, here is one quick picture. I have more colors of tutus in my little shop and will be adding a few more in the near future. So, if you know any little girl who would like to be a ballerina, fairy, princess, etc. for Halloween, or just dress up in general, send them here: www.cre8tiveglory.etsy.com :)

indoor picnic

Just a quick picture from yesterday from my cell phone...thus the reason it's a bit blury. It was super rainy and my baby had been stolen from me for a while so the girls and I decided to have an indoor picnic for lunch. We spread out beach towels in the playroom and threw on "spaghetti shirts" (just white t-shirts that we use as "bibs"for the kids when the meal could be messy.). They thought it was a great idea and we had a blast just talking about girl stuff...you know...the important things...princesses, which ones they want to be for halloween, etc. :)

More pics coming soon from this past weekend...if I can ever catch my breath and get them up! :)

testing...

EEPS!! Look what I just figured out how to do!!!! I am SO excited!! I was on yet another blog I have discovered (do you realize how many awesome, encouraging blogs are out there in blogland??), and was scrolling down through some of this mom's previous posts and she had written one on how to enlarge a picture on blogger!! It was so stinkin' easy - and I NEVER would have figured it out on my own! :)

big...

BIGGER!! :)

You have to have the background setting on a particular one...so I've had to forfeit my cute background for bigger pictures...so bear with me while I figure out this whole color thing.... :) (I think it is possible to make your pictures slightly bigger than they are when you uplaod them on "large" and can keep your background...I just wanted really big pics! :)

Wanna experiment with bigger pictures on your own blog? Here's the link to the blog post I found... have fun! :)

http://memoriesoncloverlane.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-to-make-your-photos-appear-bigger.html

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!”

Just a little Dr. Seuss quote for you today. :)

I don't remember how, but I have come across a couple really neat blogs by moms who love to do their daughters' hair and while they're at it, take pics and provide info on just how they accomplished it. While I am not quite passionate enough about hair to devote an entire blog to it, nor do I have enough creativity in that area to think of so many cool ideas (thus the D.S. quote...) I do enjoy doing my girls' hair so I have been experimenting a little bit this week. I have one girlie with long hair and one with short so I've been able to try different things on each girl.

"Messy piggies"

"Smocking"

This works especially well to keep her hair off her face while we're trying to grow her bangs out! I also did a different version of this the other day, but forgot to take a picture. I'll have to remember next time I do it.

Side view.

Outside playing. I think she was being a teacher?

Driving while drawing on the Etch-a-Sketch....

We went outside so they could run and get some energy out, but they brought out the Etch-a-Sketch and a science book from last year and couldn't put them down! I told them to go run! and move! and my oldest, not even looking up from her book for a second, took of running...while still reading! Then she just stood there twirling around in circles...still reading! Ha! Oh well. I'm glad she is learning to love books so much!

Both my girls have beautiful, very straight hair, so today I decided to try a curly pigtail on my oldest. She squealed with delight when she saw the first ringlet! By the time we got outside this afternoon, some of the curls weren't quite as tight, but you get the idea. :)

This girlie slept in her smocked hair last night and wore it most of the day today.

On a side note, she told me this morning that she had a bad dream last night and woke up crying from it. I asked her what she had dreamed that had made her so sad and she said, "You were moving - to the beach! - and were never coming back!" :( Aww!! :}

Anyways, I took her hair out and it was a little bit scronchy (which is my new favorite word from a game of Balderdash last weekend...! lol) and I was trying to comb it down into some semblance of order. I tried flipping it this way and that and parting it in a couple different places and finally, she looked at me and said in all seriousness, "Kiki. Just put down the comb. It's hopeless!" Haha! I love her and I love how she makes me laugh! :) Oh, and the picture above is how I left her hair for the rest of the day - still a bit crazy, but at least out of her eyes... :)

And those are my thoughts on hair for the week. :)

Here are the links to a couple of the really cool hair blogs I've found:

http://www.cute2tryhairdos.blogspot.com/

http://shedoeshair.blogspot.com/

http://www.princesshairstyles.com/

just keepin' it real

Oh boy, I have been waiting to write this post for a while now! :) There's so much to share that I'm not even sure where to begin!

For my friends who have blogs themselves, why do you have a blog? To keep memories for yourself? To keep family and friends who live far away updated on your life and how your kids are growing? Because you like to write? Or is it something more? I think that in a sense, we all want our life to matter. I mean, of course it does because we are children of God and we matter to Him and ultimately that is all that really "matters". However, I think that we also enjoy knowing that there are people out there reading about our day, which, as a stay at home mom - or stay at home nanny as the case may be :) - makes our sometimes seemingly insignificant day, spent discussing life with people under three feet tall, suddenly significant and meaningful because someone out there is noticing, reading about our day to day lives, and hearing our hearts - even if it is somewhere out there in "blog land". Does that make sense?

Well, if it is an encouragement to you to know that there are other people - other mom's, other sisters-in-Christ, or even brother's in Christ - out there reading and in a way sharing your life with you, how many more moms are out there needing the same encouragement? If we can be an encouragement to one another simply by following each other's blog, how easy is that?? I know, I know, right about now you're saying "I hardly have enough time to sit down and write on my blog, let alone read everyone else's blog! And that's totally fair and valid! So, just check in every now and then - just whenever you can! I love when people leave comments on my blog - and I'm guessing you do to - it's...what's the word? ... oh yeah - encouraging! :) And by the way, even if you don't blog yourself, we still love getting comments from you too! ;)

Ok, so why all this talk about other people's blogs and being an encouragement to one another? In the weeks when my kiddos were sick with the flu last month, I discovered a new friend. At least, I hope she'll be my new friend! :) And I want to introduce you to her. I found her blog through the Cake Wrecks blog (which is listed on the right of this page...) when Cake Wrecks won the '09 BlogLuxe Awards for Funniest Blog. The writer of this blog listed all the other winners - including the winner of the Best Eye Candy Blog, written by my (hopefully) new friend, Meg Duerksen!

And let me tell you, she won Best Eye Candy Blog for a reason! Just wait till you see the pictures she puts up on each of her posts! But before I get to that, let me tell you what I've learned about her from having 3 weeks off of work in which to read through her entire blog like a book I just couldn't put down! :)

She is a wife and mom of five adorable (and beautiful...for the benefit of her 14 year old daughter ;) kids, Lauren (who reminds me SO MUCH of my own "little sister", Lauren!), Scott, Sean, Talby (is that not the cutest name ever??), and Annie, who lives in Kansas...a state I have to admit I usually only think about when I watch the Wizard of Oz...but now very much want to visit because her *gorgeous* pictures show off just how beautiful her state is! Oh yeah, and she has a dog. Named Waffle. (Meg, the "waffle cone" completely cracked me up! Haha!)

Ok, I could go on in paragraphs telling you all about Meg, but what would a post be without a few photos?? :) I am going to share just some of the things I realized that she and I have in common (like fall birthdays :) and maybe that will help me tell you about her. You may have seen a few of these pics before.... :)

We both love color and she totally understands what a happy thing it is in general and finds it simply everywhere!

Fall is her favorite season. Mine too. Mmm...hearing the leaves crunch under your feet, the BeAuTiFuL colors on the trees. Fall even has it's own smell! :) (Including leaves, bonfires, burnt marshmallows...)

She understands the need to be creative. Whether it's scrapbooking, sewing (ok, the one thing I don't do, but you know...), doing/baking fun things with her kids, decorating ridiculously cute bathrooms...etc.

Apple-tinis are a yummy treat.

Tea is ok.

Coffee is better.

Starbucks is the best!

(and sometimes necessary...!)

Meg is the only other girl I know of that would buy something (like this wallet - or a pack of rainbow colored twizzlers...;) just because it is colorful and happy!

She knows that 4 year olds say the best lines....and come up with the best outfits!

Chocolate is a necessity of life. In pretty much any form. For example...hot chocolate, as evidenced on my baby's face! :)

RED is one of the best colors ever.

She even used to be a nanny!

We both love photography...although she runs circles around me in that area! (Just wait...you'll see!) And can I also just admit how, ahem, jealous I am of the HUGENESS of the photos she can put on her blog??!

And also as far as photography goes, Meg understands that a picture doesn't have to have a perfectly smiling face (or any face sometimes!) to be beautiful. :)

Most of all, Meg is a sister in Christ. Her love for our Father is so evident in her blog. It is an encouragement to me to read her posts and I was rather sad when I realized I had caught myself up on all her posts and now have to wait each day or so for a new one! :}

She has already helped make my day on several occasions with the stories she tells of her kids, or just her photos. She has changed the way I think about blogging on my on blog...and how I think about my photos. Oh, one more thing about her that I appreciate. The title of this post. She says it a lot. :) For all the beautiful photos and words she writes on her blog, she plays fair and adds the not-so-pretty parts of her day every now and then..."just keepin' it real." :)

So, now that I have hopefully given you a glimpse of her, go check out her blog for yourself! Just click right here. She has photo albums on the left side of her blog too. Scroll down to the one titled Our House and let yourself enjoy a tour of her FANTASTIC and BEAUTIFUL home!! I want a playroom/guest room like hers. :) LOVE the colors in it!

Oh, and you know that ridiculously cute bathroom I mentioned? Yeah. Click here to see how she did it, and here to see the finished product. I totally want to let my kids to that someday! (My own kids...) :)

And after you explore her wonderful blog...leave her a comment! I know she'll appreciate the encouragement! ;)