Party like a Time Lord!

G man is 5 and for the last 6 months he has wanted A Doctor Who party.  I wanted him to have one just as much as he wanted it!  We are so wrapped into this wonderful show.  If you don't know what it is check it out here... you won't regret it!  You can also catch up on the seasons on Netflix.  Any who putting on a Doctor Who party was much harder then I thought although this show has caught on in the US there are no party supplies to be found in the US.  I ordered a TON of items from Europe but no typical party supplies (plates, napkins, table cloths, etc.) so I turned to Pinterest.  I found some awesome ideas and came up with some of my own and here is the result!

G man as the 11th Doctor. (his favorite) His suit is from Rugged Butts and I got very lucky and found a nice dress shirt from a thrift store and I made his bow tie myself.  The sonic screwdriver is his daddy's but G man has taken it over!

Love this one!!

Jammie Dodgers or Tardis self destruct buttons!!

Adipose (marshmallows)... the fat just walks away!! 

Edible ball bearings... Sixlets on cookies. 

Puh puh puh pizza!  Got to love plastic Mickey!

Celery of course!

Care for a Jelly Baby?

I also laid out some Vote Saxon signs and there were pictures to accompany all the food since we had some non Whovians in attendance.

The cake is my FAVORITE!!!! We had "Dalektable" cupcakes and the best cake topper ever from this fun Ebay Shop.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship PINATA!!!! Um yes please!!!!

Tardis goody bags... I had good intentions of making these look better but address label stickers on blue bags did the trick! They had candy, silly straws (the Doctor is always silly), glittery bouncy balls (planets), homemade bowties made by my awesome sister-in-law, and 3D glasses (in honor of my favorite David Tennant!)

Happy with his Whovian gifts and all the fun!!!

He also received a Whovian inspired surprise pack in the mail!!!  This made his day! I suggest you check out Boho Bear and all the fun she has!

We had a good time and one happy boy when it was all said and done!

Koo koo kachoo Little miss is 2!

 Little miss has changed so much but one thing has stayed true she likes to boss people around!  I love this rotten girl with my whole heart.  Little miss was God's answer to our hurting hearts after suffering a loss and then getting pregnant when we least expected it.  We have a tradition G man and I started about the Birthday Fairy.  I keep saying him and I will write a book about her one day and we will.  The birthday fairy comes and leaves balloons, confetti, and a couple cheap toys (dollar tree) for us in our bedroom floors for us to wake up to.  This is the first time the Birthday Fairy has visited Little Miss.  She got a fun Minnie Mouse puzzle and some lovely necklaces.

 For her 2nd birthday we went with a Beatles theme and I love how it came out!  I had so much fun planning and pinning all kinds of fun Beatles ideas.  We had a yummy Beatles themed lunch spread with help from my mom!

I am the "deviled" egg man and Here comes the sun "chips"

You say it's your birthday... cake!

Sgt. Dr. Pepper and for the benefit of Mr. Sprite!

Let it B-L-Ts and Yellow submarine sandwiches.

My little loves at the party!!  G man who is currently obsessed with Doctor Who is wearing a whovian inspired Beatles shirt and Little miss is driving around in her groovy VW Bug that our friend gave us!

The amazing Jessica at Two Sticks Photography took Little Miss' 2 year pictures and I love love love how they came out!!

At the party we had Check Photography capturing so many fun memories!

Fun with cousins!!

We also had a groovy photo booth set up!!

Kissing Daddy!

This is such a fun shot!!!!

We had some tears and some very 2 year old attitude but all in all we had a blast!!

Thank you to everyone who helped make this special girl feel loved on her special day!!

Tabitha and the sappy, emotional, no good day....

Last night around 11pm I hear Little miss coughing and breathing real hard... I wait for a minute to see if she can clear it on her own and when she continues coughing and began to cry I went to get her.  We stayed on the couch til nearly 2:30am I had to adjust her every time she coughed so that she could regain her breath!  She wheezed and coughed all night!  I finally decided to drag out the nebulizer only to realize we have no medication for it that are in date!  I cried all night listening to her breathe.  (I may have missed out on some shut eye but Little miss slept through the whole thing!  She woke up maybe twice crying but that was it.  I moved her around, made sure her head was elevated, even did the percussion on her back, and she didn't wake up.)

All morning I was pretty emotional.  I kept thinking of Little miss on the oxygen helmet at the hospital and seeing her little body struggle and fight for every breath.  I thought about how many times we have used her little penguin nebulizer.  I cried because we can't use the little pacifier attachment on the nebulizer anymore because she is too big for a pacifier now.  She will be 2 in 10 days!  Where did the time go!  It seemed as if G man was my baby for a long time and she is just growing up quick.

Her picture for her 2nd birthday invitation!

Well I had it all together by lunch time.  Cory was coming home early due to a dentist trip and I couldn't wait to just sit and laugh as a family together.  I watched a video on youtube that made me cry for about an hour over how lucky I am to have a father that loves me and was able to walk me down the isle!  Then the phone rang and zapped me back into reality and it was the boutique calling to say her birthday shirt was ready!!  Cried some more!  G man didn't talk to me for awhile because he didn't know what to say and the idea that someone would cry because someone else s' body is growing was beyond him.  I finally pulled myself together and went to pick up the shirt.  It is so perfect!  I can't wait to celebrate with this crazy little girl!

Spoiler...her birthday shirt says "Koo Koo Ka-choo Lennon is 2."

What is the reason everything happens for??

In light of some horrible tragedies that have been in the news lately I started hearing, "everything happens for a reason."  This was being said as a way to comfort those morning.  I then started thinking about the just God that I serve and decided to do some investigating.  Is this term biblical?

Lets go back to what first got me thinking this way.  As some of you know I work for a religious organization (group home for children and for single mothers and their children.) where my family and I reside at.  We go through a lot of training throughout the year so that we can better help the families we work with. During one of these training sessions I heard the speaker say that he doesn't believe in that 'everything happens for a reason mumbo.' I had never heard that before, that someone didn't believe it.  Everything happens for a reason had become one of those things that we say and we aren't sure why or what it means.  Like Don't throw the baby out with the bath water I mean really has this happened?!?!  (I did actually search the meaning behind this turn of phrase when I was in college but still REALLY?!?!) So is it biblical?

It seems as though the verse that some are relying on to support this is Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  (This is the ESV translation so yours may look a little different.) I read the verses surrounding this verse(Romans 8:18-30) and decided that the first thing we must look at is who these verses are speaking to. Well right there in the beginning of verse 28 we see it "FOR THOSE WHO LOVE GOD.  I am a lover of God, I desire to be closer to him, I await my homecoming into Glory, my soul longs to praise Him, my mouth has confessed His love for me.  So the verse it speaking to me and hopefully you as well.  So for the previous verses we are talking about future glory and how the current sufferings are nothing compared to the glory and splendor of Heaven.  Okay, so if we look back at this one verse in Romans and we know that we are talking about future glory and we are talking to believers in Christ Jesus; then we see that all things work together for good according to His purpose.  The struggles that I go through, that I come out of with a stronger belief and understanding of God, is an example of God working all things together for good.  Lets take a piece of my life (hey this blog is about me after all LOL)  that was a tragedy.  My 4th pregnancy that resulted in a second trimester miscarriage and I had to go into full labor and deliver.  I had no idea how strong I had to be because I had never gone through this before.  I didn't expect to be shown love in the way I was by my doctor.  I couldn't be comforted by earthly words or love but by His messages and prayers I found peace in my grief.  I didn't know my marriage was strong enough to stand with grief and brokenness.  All of the horrible empty feelings God turned around and strengthened me.  BUT to say that God made me miscarry and planned this horrible loss and pain for his loved creation is crazy.  The God I know and love is a God of LOVE.  Evil and sin entered this world through man and God comes up and shows us His love and mercy through brokenness and sorrow.  

So I say no, this statement is not biblical.  Although God works through the evil and brings forth blessings to those who know Him, He did not will the evil upon us.  So God did not take my son away before he was able to live outside of my womb just so I would lean upon Him more or learn about real love.  My son died because of a sickness in my body brought into the world by sin.  Through that pain I have learned more about love then I knew before.  


Another verse is James 1:2-3 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.
(NLT)  I believe this verse also helps me prove my point that in our trials we can grow and become more then what we were but God is not the author of evil.


So the end of Romans 8 is AMAZING and I think we should end with that.

³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Wow!!  Who can be against us!  Not death, life, angels, rulers, the present, the future, power, height, depth, or ANYTHING else will separate God's love for me!  

Some other interesting blogs on this topic click here and here.

Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed!!

Be my "dye free" Valentine?!?!

As you may know G man has an intolerance to red dye.  It makes him act as if he has ADHD and he becomes very uncontrollable and is easily agitated.   We found this out last spring after talking with a friend and then consulting our Pediatrician. G man cannot have foods or drinks that are dyed artificially (easy enough to check in the ingredients) which includes red, pink, orange, and purple.  I say all that so that you understand my fear and nervousness for the upcoming holiday... Valentine's Day.  All the goodies that are given during this time are red, pink, and purple.  Halloween didn't bring me this much anxiety because we could clear out his treat bucket of the dyed candy and he still had quite a bit of chocolate and other candy that he could eat.

So what am I doing to prepare for this??  I have made up about 6 bags of dye free treats (rice krispies, real fruit roll ups, honey grahms  and granola bars.) to carry with us to church and other fun gatherings so that he has an alternative.  I have also asked our homeschool group not to put red dyed candy in his Valentine bucket at our party. Even though I requested this not to happen it would be unreasonable to expect others to watch out for him as much as I do. I will also make him up an "alternate" bag with suckers that are blue and orange to trade out any of the cute valentines with red candy attached to it.

Although I am nervous about this red dyed holiday I am not nervous about how G man will handle it.  During Halloween G man was very understanding.  When he was given a piece of candy he knew he couldn't have he didn't gripe or complain, he said, thank you and moved on.  When we got home and his dad and I took all the dyed candy out G man was still so excited about what he had left!  We had one mishap when a lady held out a large bucket for the kids to chose from and G man dug through it for longer then he probably should have looking for a piece of candy that he knew he could eat.  The woman accused him of being ungrateful and greedy.  Momma bear quickly jumped in and explained that he was not able to eat red dyed foods.  The woman was still grumpy about the situation so we left.  When G man asked why he couldn't have the candy I explained that sometimes the right thing to do is to just walk away.  I think the reason why he is so good about not eating the things with red in them is that he hates the affect red dye has on him as much as we do.  He is in trouble and spends most of his time in time out not playing!

While I know red dye intolerance is an inconvenience and not a life threatening allergy I also know that I want to enjoy my son and the time we have together and not spend that time with him mad and in trouble.  Below are some awesome alternatives (except for 10 and 15) to red dyed treats that I got from http://www.thedatingdivas.com/holidays/valentines-day/valentines-day-round-up-food/ and plan on making some of it.

Super Hero Cubbies

Super Hero room transformation stage 1
G-man wanted some cool cubbies to hold up his Superhero dress up stuff so that each hero had it's own cubbie.  Well after doing some research my budget just wasn't going to be able to meet his desire.  Not only were they high in price most cubbie units came in a set with 4 cubbies.  Well he has WAY more than 4 super  hero suits plus his other dress up!! (Train conductor, Captain Hook, construction, etc.)  After getting with my Mom... which is what I do after I talk to Cory I immediately go to my mom!!  She had a suggestion of using milk crates.  I will admit at first I thought, "Uhhh NO!  That will look so tacky!!" Then I did it and Oh My Goodness it is AMAZING!!!  We got all of his dress up in the cubbies, I was able to put them at a height that we wanted, I didn't  have to but any hardware because his capes could all just Velcro around the handles of the crates!!  We could also if needed to put more then one super hero per cubbie and still be able to see/have enough room for each!  G-man is one happy boy!!

Super Hero room transformation stage 1= success!!