Today's Post….

Today's post was somehow published yesterday, so make sure you check it out here.

I was able to try Shakeology for a week, so you'll have to read the post to see how much I loved the product!

You may also want to check out the weekend wrap-up that was also published yesterday, in case you missed it!  

In other news, yesterday I was able to stay home with Adalyn and take her to the doctor so we could find out about her mysterious rash. She still has the rash, but it is looking better, and we still don't really know the cause of it, other than it's a viral infection, and will run it's course and the rash will eventually go away. 

This is how poor Addy looked at the doctor's office today. 

After Adalyn's appointment, I took lunch to Gretchen at school. She was suppose to buy her lunch for pizza day, but when she realized I'd be home, she begged me to bring her lunch because she sees other mommy's do it all the time! Thanks to her little guilt trip, she got McDonald's for lunch. 

This is Gretchen and her little BFF. They sit together every day.

Once Addy and I got home and I got her settled down for a nap, I went upstairs to work on a few projects:

I'm so excited that my girls are going to have matching Easter pajamas this year! I finished Megan's today, and wasn't able to start on the others since Addy woke up before I was done. 

This design can also be done on a shirt or a dress with a variety of fabric options! 

I also made this little bird for Adalyn. It's just so sweet and simple, and I decided to use lots of bright fun colors for spring!

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By: Unknown On 05.35

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Valentine Box & Winners

Some of you may remember my rant on Friday about making Gretchen's valentine's day box for school….Well, we accomplished the task this weekend!

Let me clear up my ranting first….  I'm not ranting that we actually had to do the project. I'm just ranting that I didn't have the interest to make the box Pinterest worthy. I feel like I have zero ounce of creativity for a decorative Valentine box… give me some ribbon, an appliqué design, some tulle- absolutely- I can go all out, but decorating a box. It's just not my forte. 

After surrendering to the fact that her box will likely not be the best in her class, I was more than happy to let her have full control. 

For some reason, I refuse to throw away boxes. I have a stack of shipping boxes underneath my sewing table, and I let her choose one of the boxes to use for her project.

Then, I decided that we would wrap her box in purple wrapping paper, because I had it left over from her birthday party. DJ helped by cutting a heart shaped hole in the box, so her friends will be able to put  their cards (or goody-bags for those over-achievers) in. (And y'all, before I get hate mail about the over-achievers- i'm totally kidding! We just didn't have the energy to make fun treats this year. Last year, her friends got handmade bookmarks, this year, they're getting $1.00 store Valentines!)

Anyway, once the box was wrapped, Gretchen set to work glueing on doilies and adding stickers. 

All of us working hard! Megan had to make a box too, so DJ wrapped her one and I cut out hearts out of glitter foam sheets. 

Megan working away on her box. See how happy she is that she's doing it herself! Makes it totally worth it!

We added Gretchen's name with little glitter foam stickers that we found at the Dollar Tree. 

I really do love how happy she was and how hard she worked on her box!

Megan didn't put her name on her box, she just put on her "A, B, D's" 

So, yay, her box is complete! Actually two boxes are complete since Megan had to make one too! Gretchen is so excited to take hers to school today and I'm glad that the girls had fun making their boxes! I'm also glad that my type-A didn't take over to try to "fix" things that I thought were wrong or could have been better. 

Sometimes God teaches us when we least expect it, and i'm thankful that in this little project, I learned to "let go".

And, before y'all go, I have THREE Winners to announce for the Beautiful AM Moisturizer giveaway!

Hannah Joy Burgett

Jennifer Brown

Jen Herold

Thanks ladies for entering! 

By: Unknown On 05.00

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Weekend Wrap-Up

Let's see if I can get back to the blogging world this week now that we are all back to normal and not very sick anymore! The last two weeks someone in our family has been sick, or we've all been sick, and this mama has had enough!

I finally went back to work last Thursday after taking five days off work!  I was able to catch up a bit at work and prepare for this week, and then it snowed, and school was cancelled. So, the girls and I are home today just hanging out in our pj's.

………………………………………………………………….

Last Friday, Gretchen received the Student of the Month award at school. DJ and I knew about it for maybe a week or two before Gretchen actually found out. I was so excited that my assistant principal, let me go to her little ceremony at school Friday morning! We didn't tell Gretchen, but I knew she would be so excited! Every month after their assembly, she would tell me that she was not the student of the month, and that she was going to be sure to ask the student who received the award what they did in order to get it. I guess she finally learned what she needed to do and how she needed to behave in order to be chosen.

She was super proud of her certificate!

Daddy and I were both there to cheer her on! 

Friday night, we went out to eat at Olive Garden to celebrate Gretchen's birthday. We take her every year to OG, because it's always been her favorite restaurant, and my cell phone wouldn't take any pictures because the memory was full. I assure you though, we had a great time and the girls each got a dessert. 

DJ went to football on Saturday and the girls and I stayed home and worked on laundry. I took a little nap and Gretchen and Megan watched The Sound of Music.

DJ came home around 3 and the girls and I made chocolate chip cookies. 

Gretchen had been begging me all morning for us to make cookies.

After dinner, DJ got out "Rock Band" and tried to teach Gretchen how to play. Unfortunately, Gretchen still isn't coordinated enough to play, but they did have fun singing and dancing.

We were planning on going to church Sunday morning, and just as we were waking up it started to snow.

Within 20 minutes, our front yard looked like this:

We decided to stay home because who knows what it would've been like in two hours when church was over. 

Since we decided to stay home, I did some sewing:

I completed Adalyn's Valentine shirt!

And when Addy woke up from her morning nap, I discovered the her first tooth had finally broken through!

Yay Addy!

Megan said, "I step on you!" and then tried walking on my legs. 

Then she wanted to hold her baby sister.

Gretchen put together one of the lego sets she received for her birthday.

DJ smoked ribs (in the snow) and we watched the Super Bowl Sunday night.

Our weekend was pretty lazy. We just enjoyed being together as a family. It was a good one!

Hope yours was too! 

By: Unknown On 06.15

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A Welte Family Christmas: Part 1

I have a lot of blog posting to catch up on! The middle of December was crazy busy wrapping up work, buying last minute presents, celebrating our anniversary, and so much more! I'll be blogging over the next several days about our holiday festivities and then i'll be ringing in the New Year with lots of fun posts planned! I really hope you will sit and stay a while! 

A few weekends ago, DJ and I decided to take the girls to see Frozen. I took this picture before we left the house. It was the first time taking all three girls to the theatre! I had planned to take them on a snow day, but then I talked myself out of it, and i'm glad I did! I had to hold Adalyn in the carrier the entire time, and it's difficult to hold her and keep Meggie still. Then, Addy got fussy at one point and I took her out for a bit.

Frozen was so good! Tangled is my favorite Disney movie, and I do think that Frozen tops Tangled. 

The next day, we found that Megan had colored on herself with magic marker. Apparently, she decided she needed "socks". 

It was "warm" that day, so we took the girls out for bike riding. I know that Gretchen rode her bike for a while, but I guess I don't have any of those pictures. I know I took Meggie's picture, because of how hilarious she looked in Gretchen's hat, her nightgown, and her shoes. 

The week went by and Friday rolled around. I had the most busy work week, and I was looking forward to trying to attend the girls Christmas events, but thanks to last minute meetings and re-scheduling of meetings, I wasn't able to attend anything.

Thankfully, DJ had the day off and he stepped in for me!

Gretchen's kindergarten class sang Christmas songs at their morning assembly.

This is Gretchen and her "boyfriend." I love how happy she is holding him! She talks about him every day and they play together at recess and sit at the same table in class. She's talked about having a sleep over with him, but I quickly told her that it is not an option!

Gretchen and her teacher.

After, Gretchen's performance, DJ went home to put our dinner in the crock pot, and then he went to Megan's class party.

Her daycare has a book exchange every year.

Daddy and Meggie.

DJ had to miss Gretchen's class party, but I had a sweet friend send me one picture on Facebook of Gretchen celebrating.

Once we all arrived home Friday evening, we had dinner and then got our pj's on to look at Christmas lights.

We drove through a neighborhood and the girls would yell, "Look at daddy's window!" "Look at mommy's window!" Then Meggie would yell, "Look out my window!"

Then we went to a church here in town that has a light display.

You can walk through the display, but we decided not to since it was freezing rain outside. Instead, we drove through one more neighborhood and came home to put the girls in bed.

Addy Pearl passed out!

By: Unknown On 16.24

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Thanksgiving Travels!

Hey y'all!!! I'm back.... sort of! I have lots of blog catching up to do, and I'm so ready to get back into a steady swing of blogging. I'm determined to play catch up this week and then get back to regular blog posts next week! I feel like i've left everyone just hanging around. Even though, my life isn't really that interesting!

 

Last Tuesday, Gretchen celebrated her Thanksgiving lunch at kindergarten. She made a little Indian vest, necklace, and headdress and was so excited to show it off! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to her lunch because of my full time work schedule, but DJ was able to go! He actually surprised Gretchen and she was so thrilled!

She has this little boyfriend, Conner, and the first thing she said when she saw her daddy walk in was, "Conner, you need to ask my daddy if you can marry me?!" Apparently, she yelled it loud enough for the entire class to hear, and it not only embarrassed my husband, but Conner's family as well. His dad told him not to talk to DJ for another 30 years.

Tuesday night I headed home to work on laundry and to pack for our trip. Let me tell you, it is a CHORE to pack for four girls for five days! I did get some cuddle time with Addy during the process though!

 

I woke up around 6:30 on Wednesday morning to finish packing. I had packed everyone's clothes but my own. Then I loaded everything into the car and we started our 4 hour journey to Gee's house.

I have so many people tell me that I'm brave to travel with all three girls by myself, but I do it all the time, and aside for maybe an hour total (when Megan decides to cry over a silly reason) the trip isn't bad at all. Adalyn sleeps the entire time. Gretchen watches a movie and plays quietly in the back seat, and Megan, well, she either plays, watches t.v, cries and screams, takes off her shoes, and looks out the window for cows.

 

We typically stop about two hours into the trip so we can take a bathroom break or get something to eat.

And sometimes, Meggie falls asleep.

 

Once she woke up, we finally stopped to eat!

Gretchen had been telling me for an hour that she was hungry, so I tossed her a package of fruit snacks to tie her over. I have a few exits that I try to stop at, and this was not one of them, but there was a McDonald's and the girls were starvin, so we stopped here. I took them to the bathroom and then we ordered Happy Meals and ate.

 

I realized that fast food with three girls is not fast at all. We were there for at least an hour.

Once we got back in the car, the girls watched a movie again, but toward the end Megan was becoming very frustrated that she could not get out of her seat! I sang Feliz Navidad at the top of my lungs to try to entertain her. Obviously, I failed.

 

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post and see what happened once we finally arrived!

 

By: Unknown On 10.01

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Tooth Fairy, Veteran's Day, & a Few More Pics

It's Monday, which means, it's my first day back to full time employment. I'm praying that I can handle this week! DJ is going to be going to work early and coming home late because TU plays a home game on Thursday. At this point, I'm still debating even going to the game, because that means a babysitter and a late night for me. On the bright side, it means that he could be home Saturday, which would be amazing!

Because we lost our game over the weekend, TU is not bowl eligible this year. It's bittersweet. I hate it for the coaches and players, but i'm also grateful because that means we have three more weeks of football and our December and Christmas can be "normal" for us this year. I am so, so ready to have DJ home!

Here's a few pics from last week:

I absolutely love that I have an embroidery machine. I found this cute little dress at Old Navy. It's pink and orange stripe, and then I found leggings that are orange with pink stripe. I bought it for Addy Pearl, and then monogrammed an "A" on the top of the dress. 

DJ made it home last Wednesday night before the girls went to bed and we watched a little bit of the CMA's together as a family. At one point, he had all the girls and they were happy, so we had to get a picture.

On Thursday, I made the girls wear their matching apron skirts and shirts that I made them, although getting a picture of the two of them both smiling and looking at the camera is next to impossible. Especially when they're figuring out which pumpkin to sit on. (Gretchen's idea.) 

Thursday night I came home and slipped on my pj's and this Ball State shirt. I thought to myself, that it was a good thing I wore this Thursday night, because it would've been bad to pack it for the wives trip over the weekend. Little did I know that BSU was also playing Thursday night. They're having a spectacular season.

Addy fell asleep on the floor one night, and Megan went over, lifted her head and put a pillow underneath, and then covered her up with a blanket. It was so sweet.

I picked the girls up from school on Thursday and we headed to Target. We got home and I sent Gretchen upstairs to clean her room when she yelled, "Mom, there's something wrong with my mouth!" I could tell that she was a little freaked out, so I had her come downstairs so I could see. Admittedly, I sometimes brush off her little concerns, but I could tell in her voice, that something was wrong. She came downstairs and I noticed that she was bleeding, so I took a look in her mouth and lo and behold, her tooth was missing!

When I told her she squealed with excitement and we went upstairs to look for the missing tooth. We couldn't find it. As I was looking for her tooth, she pulled her tooth box down from her chest of drawers and said that we could put her tooth in it until it was time for bed and time to put her tooth in her tooth fairy pillow. At that time, I had to explain the tooth was missing, and wouldn't be able to go in her pillow and she began to cry. I assured her that the tooth fairy would still come and visit her that night. She asked how I knew, and I just explained that the tooth fairy was magic and she just knew.

We were all shocked that the tooth went missing because we didn't even know it was loose. I had just checked her teeth a few weeks ago, and there was no wiggle to any of them. Later that night we learned that she had hit her mouth on the monkey bars at school, so I'm guessing that the monkey bars knocked her tooth loose and when we got home it finally fell out. My best guess is that she swallowed her tooth. She said that she felt that her tooth was crooked, and then I think that's when she yelled for me.

I remember loosing my first tooth and my dad pulling it at our kitchen table. I think it fell on the floor and I was scared to death. My mom has it video taped and it was such a tragic event for me. I'm kind of sad that we didn't get to experience the wiggle of the tooth or trying to pull it out, but I'm also glad that it was an easy experience, and she has a mouth full of baby teeth that will eventually fall out.

My mom also has my first tooth taped in my baby book, and i'm sad that I won't have Gretchen's first tooth.

That night, she wrote a letter to the tooth fairy, and went straight to bed.

She was just so excited!

Here she is pretending to sleep.

About 45 minutes after going to bed, she came downstairs and was disappointed that the tooth fairy hadn't visited. I told her she hadn't been asleep long enough.

I was totally unprepared for her to be loosing a tooth, so I had to call our neighbor, whose daughter is the same age as Gretchen and had just lost her first tooth a few weeks ago. Thankfully, she had sparkle hair spray to spray on the money, to make it look like fairy dust. I really wanted to sprinkle glitter around, but I didn't have any, and none of our neighbors did either. I also wanted to print out a little tooth certificate from Pinterest, but our printer was out of ink. I was totally unprepared.

Around 11:15 that night, Gretchen woke up and discovered that the tooth fairy had left her money and had written her a letter back.

Friday, was Gretchen's Veteran's day parade at school. She wore her 4th of July dress that I made her, and her 4th of July chunky necklace and a red hair bow.

She made the flag picture a few weeks ago.

Thank you to all of the veterans that have served our country. My father in law, my sister, and her husband, my grandfather….. thank you to every single one of you that has risked their life in order for our country to maintain it's freedom.

I hope you all have a blessed day!

Be sure to check out my Facebook page and enter the giveaway!

By: Unknown On 06.15

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