Baby Sprinkle!

I told my small group ladies that I didn't want or need shower/sprinkle for this little guy.  I have all the clothes I need from Owen and really only had one or two items on my “must” buy list.  But they insisted and it was super fun to celebrate with the 3 (yes 4 total) pregnant ladies in our small group.   Christine had decorated adorably and made us feel so special.
This has been a little joke in our girl’s nights.  Christine has a love of “ranking” things and it progressed into this fun game for the night.  We each brought one or two flavors of M&M’s.  There are 12 flavors on that table and that’s not even all the flavors out there.  Then, we sat around the table and munched on chocolate!Christine had made this adorable ranking sheet and as we ate, we gave the flavors numbers 1-12.  Then we shared our rankings and answered fun ice-breaker type questions about ourselves that related to the flavor.  For example, the mega M&M’s question was “What’s your mega dream job?” 2 pink baskets and 2 blue!I just love these ladies.  They are so real and it’s wonderful knowing I have a group of ladies that I can weekly spill my guts to!  They spoiled us and now the closet is full of diapers ready for the little man. I made a few little bibs to tuck in with all the diapers and wipes! 2 of the babies have made their appearance as of publishing this.  One more down and then we’re up!!

Small Group Christmas Party!

Friday night was our small group's Christmas party!  It was such a fun evening with some great people!  We just adore our small group peeps this trimester.

my yummy "wreath" and cake

a few simple decorations

the white elephant gifts begin to arrive

enjoying good food and conversation

     

Ben got the cute bag, but a bad gift! :)

this is a long standing inside joke in our group - a box of wires

it's lights. . . no it's a scarf?

Ben trying to get his team to guess a word

Jim and Tiffany :)  Love them!

    

Curtis Orchard

Yesterday, we had a small group outing to Curtis Orchard.  Although I have no pictures of Holly and boys or Mike and Stephanie to prove it was a small group trip.  It was our first time there this season and Owen had a blast.  I love that this place is so close to us.  If you've never been, you really should! :)

my guys hamming it up

"cheese"

it was pretty chilly but at least it was sunny!

we sang "the wheels on the bus"

my cutie patootie

 

he braved walking over the bridge to the slide

 

we got to watch the goats walk over us

Nola feeding the goats - she was a little scared :)

 

playing on the "train"

Nola had no hear while I had to go down with Owen

time for a wagon ride

he loved the tractor ride!

self portrait time

enjoying the bumpy ride

love our little family

After the tractor ride, we all headed inside to warm up with donuts and cider.  A perfect way to spend a Saturday morning!

Tuesday recap

What an amazing, packed day we had yesterday!  We had our first adventure of getting 3 kids out of the house before 8:30!   We headed off for the first Mom2Mom of the new year.  This is a ministry at the Vineyard for moms with at least one child under 5th grade.   We meet on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month.  If you’re a C/U mom, who wants to make some new friends and get some awesome support as a mother, you should join us!
Ellie wore her red because the small group I lead is the red group.  :)  The boys did great walking in together and did awesome in class! It was an amazing first meeting!  The room was packed with moms and there was so much energy.  Louise and Christine have worked their tails off and wow did it pay off!  My small group which was picked randomly is an wonderful mix of ladies combined with a fabulous mentor mom, Cathy! 

And then after an afternoon of cleaning and baking, we kicked off our first small group!  I must say this is going to be an awesome trimester for group.  We have a wonderful mix of couples and the first group couldn’t have gone better.  We did some ice breakers just to get to know each other a bit more and also talked about what we wanted out of small group this year.  Each week, we are going to have someone share their life story in 5-7 minutes, so I shared mine to give an example.  We are really praying that this group is a place where our members are FREE to be who God’s called them to be, even with all their “junk.”  Maybe I’ll write that story out someday for the blog. :)

So crazy busy day, but one that made me so excited what God has in store for us this fall!

Pinned It, Did It Monday {cleaning edition}

Welcome to Pinned It, Did It Monday, where I try to actually do some of the pins I find on Pinterest.  This week’s pins are brought to you by small group.  Meaning I’m starting to lead/host small group this week which means my house needs to get clean, fast.  So all 3 pins are cleaning related today!I have a love/hate relationship with my floors.  I love when they are clean, but I hate actually cleaning them.  With a toddler and a cat, they are constantly in need of sweeping and mopping. For the quick mops, I love my Swiffer but the refills are pricy and I use at least 2 of the wet ones for my large kitchen.  Enter this pin.  Umm duh, why didn’t I think of this. Use an old towel and sew it into a reusable Swiffer pad?! 
Picture I Pinned:

Source: Swiffer Sweeper from Natural Nester
My Picture:
My Review:
This took about 3 minutes to sew, and my hand towel made 2 of them.  I just poured some bleach, dish soap, vinegar, and water in a bucket and dipped my “Swiffer” in to mop with.   Now be warned, the towel soaks up a ton of water, so you’ll have to “squeeze” it out a bit before you mop.  But it worked great.  Not as great as when I get on my hands and knees and scrub, but who has time to do that every week?  Love that it’s cheap, easy, and quick!  I have yet to find a glass stove top cleaner that really works to get it clean.  So I found this.
Picture I Pinned:

Source: How to Clean Your Glass Cooktop from Behind the Studio
My Pictures:  Do you know how hard it is to take pictures of a glass stovetop that reflects everything.  Well trust me, it’s hard.  Here’s my just cooked on, dirty stove.  Ok I lie.  It was cooked on the night before.  Yes, Anne A just gasped.  I leave my stove dirty overnight.
Here are my befores: Then you just generously pour on the baking soda:And cover with warm, soapy rags for about 15 minutes. And viola, a clean stove top.  Well, don’t look too close at the streaks on the back. Not bad for baking soda!My Review: Way cheaper and “greener” than other cleaners and I just let it soak while I was cleaning up all the other dishes.  This will definitely be the way I clean this baby from now on!
Is there anything I hate cleaning more than the bathroom?  Nope.  I mean how do the tubs and shower get so dirty when there’s so much soap being used? :)
Picture I Pinned:

Source: Pinterest Tested Tub Cleaner from The Craft Patch.  But I hate when things aren’t pinned properly.  So if you follow the links to the original source, it will get you HERE. (Tub and Shower Magic from Food.com)
My Pictures: I have no shame in posting pictures of how dirty my tubs are. :)
my shower:Owen’s tub:My Review:It worked!  I heated the vinegar, mixed in a equal amount of blue Dawn dish soap and put it in an old Windex bottle.  I sprayed it on, let it sit about an hour and wiped away.  My shower floor probably needs another application for some stubborn spots, but even my walls washed off clean.  Score!
And there you have it.  3 cheap(er) cleaning solutions that actually work!