A Week of Thanks!

First of all I have to say I am so thankful for the awesome family that God has blessed me with! I have a wonderful husband who is a great daddy to our 3 lil' girls. 

I am also thankful for pinterest.....I know sounds lame....but seriously I feel like it has made me a better mom because I have found so many cool ideas to do with the girls. One blog I found has a lot of great preschool ideas and this week we used their "thanksgiving theme" preschool packet.  http://www.http//homeschoolcreations.com/PrintablePacks.html

Both girls loved coloring turkey's this week. This was our color by numbers activity......

Then we sorted Turkey sizes..... 

Teagan working on her writing skills....she is so serious!!

Proud mom moment....Teagan colored me a turkey and then wrote my name....I didn't even have to tell her how to spell it!! I thought it was pretty cool....then she spent the rest of the week writing my name because she could see how excited I was...Too Cute :) 

Friday night we enjoyed the parade and courthouse lighting in Newton with my parents........

Blakely enjoyed plenty of desserts this week :)

And to finish off our week we cut down our Christmas tree and decorated it............WOW!!! What a busy week we had and that is just the start of the busy holiday season!! Love it though!! :) 

Just a Dream

Last night I had the weirdest dream and it hit me at like 4 am. I'm writing this post more for my own reminder and journal but it might help others too. 


Ok so in my dream I had this brilliant idea about teaching the girls about snowflakes and how each snowflake is created by God and has it's own design. My idea was to put all kinds of different white socks into a basket and show the girls how the socks have a lot of similarities but every sock has something different about it that makes it unique. In my dream I thought this would be so easy because Brandon's socks all have at least one hole in them. (Yes I'm willing to buy Brandon new socks, but he refuses to let me throw the old ones away and continues to wear the ones with holes...) Anyways in my dream I had it all planned out and I just thought that  it was one of my best ideas ever for the activity for today. So still in my dream I call my mom and I tell her all about my idea and how excited I was and I thought it was seriously the best idea ever and really I was calling my mom looking for her approval and for her to tell me just what a wonderful idea it was........and that's not what happened. My mom told me how stupid I was and it was the dumbest idea she had ever heard and that was not the best way to teach the girls about snowflakes. (Remember this is just a dream) I was so heartbroken that my mom didn't give me the praise that I wanted so bad.


This is when I woke up, I look at the clock and its 4 am and that's when I felt like I had this serious heart to heart with God.......
There are times when I know my girls come to me with these great ideas that they think are just the most wonderful ideas and what they want so bad is for me to praise them and give them the approval they are looking for on this wonderful idea.
I know that there are times especially in my busy day that I just respond to the girls as if their ideas are stupid or that they don't matter because they are young and don't know whats best. I need to practice patience with the girls, to not get annoyed when their ideas are different then my own. To let them know how much I love them and give them the approval and praise they are looking for from their mom. 


Anyways that's my seriousness for the day and something I will strive to be better at! I know I won't be the perfect mom but I hope I get better everyday!! 

Christmas tree hunt

One of my favorite family traditions growing up as a kid was going to the Christmas tree farm every year and picking out the perfect tree and then watch my dad cut it down. I have a lot of good memories taking the old station wagon and having the perfect tree on top :) I also remember times of my brother pushing me into trees and snow piles....like I said great memories! 

Brandon and I have choose to continue this tradition with our kids evidently minus the brother thing :) We have found a very cute tree farm just south of us that is little but perfect size for our family. This year we were able to go out early and tag our tree that we want and then we will go  back on a later date to cut it down. 

We found the perfect tree for Christmas!!

And look how much these two little girls love each other :)

After our hunt we went for a Sunday drive while all 3 girls slept in the truck and I got to spend time just looking around at the beautiful country and talking to my husband!

Blakely's 1st Birthday

Brandon's Family was here to celebrate Blakely's 1st birthday! It is hard to believe that she is already 1, it really does go fast. Blakely's official birthday is Friday, November 25th but she got to have her birthday cake early :)

Can I really eat this mom??.........

Look at all those rolls :)........

Hey I think I will even use my foot......

I can even sit on my cake!!!!!!!!

The finished product.....YUMMY who wants some cake??

Blakely or "Blake" as we call her at one already shows a lot of determination. She will not put up with her sisters taking anything from her and she can hold her own!! She is a total mommy's girl, loves to be held (and of course it has to be a certain way), and while the first 3-4 months were rough she is now a pretty happy little girl. 


A special thanks to a few special people.....


Marissa: You are an amazing friend thank you so much for helping clean and get ready for the big day!! 


Andrea: Thank you so much again for making the cake it was amazing!!


Butch and Brenda A.K.A Grandpa and Grandma Sowers: Thank you for all the food you brought up for the Thanksgiving dinner. 


And thank you to everyone who came to help celebrate the big day. It turned out to be a wonderful party and it was so fun to see all 5 of the sowers granddaughters play :) 

 Friday was major cleaning day since we had Brandon's family coming for Thanksgiving dinner and Blakely's 1st birthday party! So I tried to find an activity that would not only keep the girls occupied but would be easy to clean up....I have learned over the last few weeks some activities don't fall into that category :) 


So Friday I put a few items into a zip lock bag which included: Straws, small pieces of yarn, toilet paper rolls, popsicle sticks, paper hearts, paper plate and some glue. The girls then created their own works of art using the items provided.


Teagan got right to buisness and was very serious about her project.....

 Harper on the other hand just sat at the table wrapped in her blanket making silly faces :)  ....

I love how both girls have totally different personalities and they are so unique. God made them just who he planned for them to be :)

Jeremiah 1:5 - I knew you before I formed you in your Mothers womb. Before you were born I set you apart!!

Wow pretty amazing huh??!!

Sensory Bins

As an ER nurse when I think of sensory bins I instantly get scared and think potential foreign body in nose or choking hazard!! I never really used these ideas until last year when we filled our sand table with corn kernels for the winter.....And sure enough we ended up with Teagan having a corn kernel stuck in her nose. Luckily we were able to get it out at home with a little trick I learned from an ER doctor. 

However, Today I did decided to pull out another sensory bin idea and this time I used Lima Beans, pinato beans, and kidney beans. The girls really seemed to enjoy this activity! 

Of course sensory items never really stay in the sensory bin.........

 And Harper would be the one to try to climb into the small bin...........

 But Blakely had a lot of fun going through the beans and feeling all the different textures.......

Teagan is a little on the older side I think for sensory bins and wasn't all that interested in playing in the bin like the younger two so she worked on categorizing, counting, and making patterns out of the beans.....

This is her don't take a picture face :) 

And then to top the day off we played in a big box!!! 

Sometimes its the simple things that make It a Sweet Life in a Sowers Home :)

Teagan got to start dance this fall. Two times a year the parents get to go watch. Teagan was very excited to have us come watch her at dance class and Harper was beyond excited to go watch and wear her ballet shoes too! 

To start it off the day got away from me and I wasn't paying attention to the time so when I realized we needed to be leaving for dance we were running late and I forgot to do Teagan's hair which is suppose to be all pulled back...opps bad parent moment! 

Here is Teagan doing some of her ballet moves.....

Teagan doing her tap dance......

I was impressed by the dance class it does seem like they are learning. I was kind of wondering because every time I ask Teagan what the did the only thing she shows me is the "crab walk". 


As for Teagan I saw a lot of myself in her yesterday. It was like watching a mini me from 25 years ago. For those of you that know me well this may not be such a good thing.....and what my mom would say "Paybacks!!" 
Teagan was the little "Show off" the "class clown" and pretty much hilarious but as a parent it was a little bit embarrassing. The teacher did do a good job going over and talking to Teagan and getting her to straighten up. 


The teacher did tell me that she was only like that because she had an audience and is not normally like that. I sure hope so but Teagan and I did have a little "Chat" on appropriate behavior in the classroom......sure it won't be the last time. 

Good Morning!! November 9th and we already have our first snow :( Ugh I was not excited this morning but the joy and excitement in my girls put a smile on my face. They were dressed and out the door in record time this morning to play in the snow!! 

Blakely got to enjoy being outside this morning for a little while too :)

Teagan is so funny to watch, she was by far the most excited about the snow! 

Have a GREAT DAY!! Hope everyone enjoys the snow as much as these girls did :)

Even when it snows....It's a Sweet life in a Sowers Home.

Indoor Fun

Brandon and I have been talking lately about whether or not to home school our girls. One of our biggest concerns is the governments role in the education system right now, however we are blessed to live in a very good school district so we have not made any decisions. Also we still have 1-2 years before we have to decide. We do know that Teagan will not attend preschool. So I have been working on a "curriculum" or more like fun activities to get the girls interested in learning and learning at home. The internet has made this so much easier and I can't imagine if I would have tried to do it 20 years ago. My biggest addiction.....Pinterest!!! 

Here is one of the fun activities we have been doing this week........

SHAVING CREAM PAINT!!!

Even Blakely got involved tonight and obviously LOVED it

So nicely playing and painting together :)......

And then This..........

Yep that's my Harper.....One of a Kind!! :)

I know you may be wondering about the clean up and the mess......

Even the cleaning is fun :)

And it wasn't long Harper cheered right up....I just love those CURLS and SMILE!! 

As you can see it's a Sweet Life in Sowers Home!!