Relocating to www.hannahsredshoes.com

As I mentioned in a previous post, my husband as built me another website where I can blog and post my little pleasures to sell. It is now finished. So this is the last post on this blog. To continue following my and my family and our stories, please visit hannahsredshoes.com  I hope to see you there!

New Year Goals

I don't like the word resolution because it sounds like something that I won't do. But if it is a goal, then that sounds more positive! So my goals for this year are:
 1. Finish the many books that I have started. Which are North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mission of Motherhood, to name a few. I have a habat of starting a book with the intention of finishing it, but since I am such a slow reader, I don't finish in in a timely fashion, and then another book comes along. I have been reading North and South since before I was pregnant! I remember trying to make headway in it in the spring of 2009 before Israel was born! I MUST finish it this year.

2. I would like to play the piano more. I teach piano, but don't play much myself. I would like Israel to grow up seeing the piano played and not just used as decoration most of the time.

3. Finish my piano certification. I have to have everything turned in By May 2nd. So this in not an option. But it is still something that I have dragged on for the past 5 going on 6 years, that I just need to get done. Then I will have the burden lifted.

4. I would like to go to Boston in the Fall. I have a friend that just moved up there, but she is only there for a year. So if we are going to go to Boston and have a place to stay, this would be the time to do it. So hopefully that will work out.

Those are all the ones I can think of right now. What are your goals this year???

Magic Mommy Kisses

I absolutely love it when Izzy comes up to me with an "ouchy" and wants me to kiss it. After I do it is all-of-a-sudden all better! Magic!!! Once mommy and daddy kiss it, it no longer calls for any attention. It makes me feel like a super hero, and I am so glad that one little act can put his little mind at ease. Izzy, I will kiss your little "ouchies" as long as you want me to. Hope that you will always come to me when you are hurting, even when it turns from physical pain, to spiritual and emotional. I love you!

Growing up

Yesterday afternoon we took away Paci. The thought has been in my head for awhile now, but wasn't sure when to do it. Izzy loves his paci and it broke my heart to think of taking it away, but it was also wearing me out hearing him whine for it all the time. We have tried really hard from the very beginning to not let him have it unless it was absolutely necessary, or it was bed time. Then he got older and got sick, and then he started asking for it. Not that gave in all the time, but sometimes (I will confess) I got so tired of hearing him whine, that I gave it to him for a few min. Yesterday I let him have it for nap time, but after he got up, I told him it was time to put paci nigh-night, which he did with a very good attitude. He was great all afternoon and only asked for it a couple times. I had talked to my mom about it, and of course Joel, so all afternoon I was praying that the Lord would give me wisdom to know how and when to do this. Yes I pray about how to take pacies away! We played, ate dinner, got ready for bed...all without paci. I read to him, and then decided to see what would happen if I didn't give it to him to sleep. He of course asked for it, and started looking for it in bed. When we couldn't find it, I told him to lay down with diti, and he did. He fussed for a little bit and then was mad when I told him that they were all gone, but calmed down realy quickly and went to sleep. Today he has been so good, and excepting that they are all gone, but nap time was a little rough...for me. I hate hearing him cry. But it wasn't even five minutes and he was out. Hopefully this goes well, and we can be rid of these wonderful but addicting things.

Hide Heart

I know that I have mentioned the Hide'm In Your Heart DVDs and how wonderful they are. My son, 1 1/2, LOVES them! And when I say Loves them, that is probably an understatement. This past week he has figured out how to say it. It surprised me when I heard him ask for Hide Heart. The only thing that keeps me from letting him watch it all day everyday, is because well, he needs to do something other than sit in front of the tv with his diti and paci (diti being his blanket). But other than that, I am THRILLED that he loves these because it is just scripture put to song. I he quotes the scripture and the reference before each song. Joel and I have the songs memorized and the order in which they come. But my prayer is that as he gets older, these songs will penetrate his heart. The scriptures says that God's word will NOT return void. These are great songs/verses and I am so grateful that he is going to have these hidden in his heart. Friday afternoon I realized that he had a low temperature, and Saturday in climbed to 103 degrees. We lost track of how many times he watched Hide Heart Saturday and today. It is the only movie he asks for. We have definitely gotten our moneys worth. Now...if we can just figure out how to get them on our iphones!

Winter, doggie hats, and lots of errands!

It is cold out there! And...my little Izzy has lost his hat. It was a little doggie one that he looked absolutely adorable in, as you can imagine. Today I decided that I needed to just get out and start looking for another one. I thought that I would for sure find one at Target, so that is the first place I went....nothing. Then I went to Old Navy...nothing, only girl ones, and a few boy ones, but the selection was scarce and some were on sale...in January. By the end of today I had been to 4 stores with a toddler! He was so good though. He would follow me around and play right near me (which usually doesn't happen). The last store I finally found one, but had to pay an arm and a leg for it. My last resort is Gap...tomorrow, and we will see if they deliver. I thought about getting a cute one from someone on Etsy, but I don't want to spend that much. I am pretty shocked that stores are already replacing their winter garb for spring and summer. It is JANUARY PEOPLE!!!!! If you know of any good places that might still have their winter merchandise...especially hats, let me know.

Reconnecting

My husband set me up to recieve stats on my blog every week, so that I can see how many times people upload my page and read about my little life. So for the past few weeks I have been pretty amazed at how many people have gotten on considering that I haven't written anything for awhile! So here I am, reconnecting.

December was a whirl wind, but a very fun one! This year, Izzy and I had company starting early in December and thouroughly enjoyed the visit from Hannah and Ava. Izzy was a little scared off by Ava's abundance of huggs and kisses, but by the end of the three days, he left her give him one. They were so cute! Ava snacks a lot much to Izzy's delight...so we had lots of new foods like dried fruit and veggies! Christmas this year was devided over two days, instead of rushing and getting it all in in one day. We LOVED it that way. We were able to spend a whole day with each side of the family, so we hope that this happens next year too.

Joel had several days off before Christmas and after Christmas so it helped soften the blow of everything being over all at once. I HATE that! I hate it that we have a whole month of preparing and parties and social stuff, and then Christmas day comes and goes and then it is all over! My family likes to get together a lot over that next week before school starts, so that always helps too, but then cold, blue January comes along and nothing exciting is going on and it is just cold!

I have decided that I really just don't like cold weather. I love what it brings....Pumkins, Thanksgiving, Christmas, blankets, fires (even though we don't have a fire place) but I really don't like being cold, and having to bundle up. But I guess I wouldn't appreciate the warmer weather as much if I didn't experience the cold.

I have been doing a lot of crafting lately and am having so much fun. I will have to upload some pics of those things later.

I have realized that I am just not good at meal planning. My creativity just shuts down and I can't think. So, I have decided to work around this weakness and try out an online meal planning service. This is the first week, and so far it hasn't lowered the stress level, considering that I had to go to 4 grocery stores to try and get what I needed at the best price. I may have to resort to the same exact thing every week...but how boring is that?

My little Izzy is growing up so fast. I can hardly keep up with him. He is not a little baby anymore. He is my buddy. We laugh, and play and run errands together and read books and take naps. He still doesn't eat very well, unless it is sweet things, so we are still battling that. He has gotten several cold this winter (just like last winter) so I really don't like that, and am not sure what to do about it.  I love watching him do new things daily. It amazes me how much he picks up just watching and listening to us, and it makes me want to strive to be a better example in every way. We love having a little boy.

Joel got a raise this year and we are excited to hopefully pay off all our credit card debt by the end of the summer. Yes, we have credit card debt, and we are NOT proud of it. After that we are planning on getting me a new car!!!! I super pumped about that and am already keeping my eyes out for ones that I like. The list is LONG!!!!

Everyday I am trying to be a better wife and mom, and child of God. Right now the Lord is taking me through a testing period, where I think He just wants to be sit at his feet and learn of Him, and be content with my life as it is, no matter what is changing around me. It is REALLY hard! When everyone is getting new things, moving to new cities, starting round 2 of babies, I have to be in a constant state of resiting promises to myself that God is good, and everything he does is good, and for MY good. I am thankful though that I can have a good cry now and then, and still be trusting. I think we all need a good cry.

Anyway, that is what has been going on lately in the Kelley family. Looking forward to a full and exciting year!

"How could they?"

Tonight was our "looking at lights, Utica Square" night. So we packed up dinner and headed out to Happy Land! It was beautiful! We went to all our favorite stores including our newest favorite...Anthropology...and bought this years Christmas ornament there. We made a few other stops then headed to Starbucks. We got our stuff, and I sat down to pour Izzy's chocolate milk in his sippy cup, and we left. Once across the street I realized I didn't have the Anthroplogy bag anymore, that I had left it at Starbucks. Joel went back to get it and Izzy and I went on to Pier1. Joel was taking longer than it should have taken, and so I started to worry that something was wrong. I figured someone had stolen the bag (and ornament) and that Joel was saving the day by buying another one. I called him, and that is exactly what had happened! I was (and am) furious!!!! I couldn't believe that someone would do that at Christmas time and at Utica Square. If you can't be classy, and respectable, then you shouldn't be at Utica Square! I am still trying to calm down over it all. It was an expensive ornament AND it was even on sale!

Well, I have to forgive him/her/they, because I have been forgiven much (and because Joel said I couldn't blog about it unless I publicly said I had forgiven).

Thank you Joel for making it right and getting another one. This will forever stay in our memory and someday we will laugh about it. Here is the twice paid for beautiful ornament.

Petunia perfection

I love bags! They are my weakness. Bags/purses/shoes, those are the things that I could make any excuse to buy, or at least try very hard to find an excuse. I am very picky about my bags. They have to be perfect, and easy to get into, and just the right size for just the right thing, and I HATE it when the lining is not attached very well, so that it moves around and you can't find anything! Last year I got my Vera Bradely purse and I love it. No lining to deal with, lots of pockets, and it slung over my shoulder for easy carrying with a new born. Then I got my Vera Bradely "diaper bag". It wasn't the official diaper bag that Vera Bradley makes but it worked beautifully for me. Again, lots of pockets and no lining, and big enough for everything that I needed to tote around with me. Plus...it looked cute! Well, as Israel has gotten older, I have not needed as much space so the hunt for another perfect bag began. I searched for another Vera Bradley, but couldn't settle on one, and couldn't afford another one at the time. So I made one. It has worked fine, but I gained a high respect for Vera Bradley while making it, and understood why hers were so dang expensive! They are HARD to make! Well, at least for me, and hers have all the pockets, and the different fabrics and...well...wow. But I have been using this other one for a few weeks now, until I went into Gap Body yesterday. I was looking around and looked up to behold some of the most adorable diaper bag in the world. It was a Petunia Pickle Bottom bag, and the more I looked it over I saw that it was Petunia Perfect for me! It was the right size, it still had several pockets, even a mommy pocket where I could keep my cell phone and wallet, a key clip, changing mat and wipe box. AND it was 45% off!!! I called Joel and told him that I knew where we could spend our credit card reward money...to which he laughed, and told me to get it and we would talk about it later. We did talk about it, and he had different ideas of where that money could go (imagine that!) and so I was told to hang onto it until the end of this month and then we would reconsider. But I wasn't holding my breath. Then my mom was over and told me that my sister hadn't found a Christmas present for me, and that she could go in on this with me so I could keep it. My sister was a little bummed that she hadn't thought of it, and that I was telling her exactly what I wanted, and that I would know what I was getting, but she came around. Am I silly???? I don't know. I love my bags, and I use a diaper bag almost like a purse too, so why wouldn't I want something cute and adorable? I would even use this after I was done having kids just for a little bag. Anyway. I figure Christmas presents are for getting something you wouldn't get yourself...and this is a splurge for me anyway, so why not!

Wonderful, Wonderful Day!

Today I felt like one of those rich spoiled Beverly Hills people that they do tv shows about. I woke up this morning to two happy babies...yes two. Joel and I got to keep Izzy's friend Melody while her mommy and daddy had a night to themselves before they move far away...away from everyone they know. We fed two happy babies and then cleaned up the house. In a few minutes I was going to leave my filthy house with dust an inch thick on my ceiling fans, and be gone all day, just to come back to a very clean house. A few days ago, a groupon came through for 82% off Mommy Maid cleaning service. For 40.00 I could get a 200.00 package! I told Joel that I was so tempted to get it since my good friend was coming to visit, and since Izzy had been sick and I hadn't had time to do anything. When I picked Joel up from work that day, he handed me the PURCHASED groupon!!! I was in for a treat! So at 9:30 this morning a sweet lady came to my house, and we left it. First stop...Starbucks. We have made it a family tradition to drink coffee there on Saturday mornings. Then Izzy and I headed out to my moms for Baking day while Joel stayed behind to put up Christmas lights!

Christmas baking day is very special. All growing up we had a special day of baking our favorite holiday cookies while listening to Captain Kangaroo. Even after all these years, and after 3 of us have gotten married, we have still managed to all get together, and all bring our ingredients and have a messy but fun filled day. Our dear friend Val has joined us for the last several years and it wouldn't be the same without her now either.

(left to right): Val, Becky, and Abbie! Wearing aprons is a must too!

Mom and Wade and Ella always make the snowman cookies

Fun times!

 

 

 

Israel and Michael are cooking up their own special recipe!

It was so much fun! We came home to a house so clean that the floors squeak! Thanks babe for spoiling me, and thanks mom and sisters for some wonderful memories!

Twinkle Lights

I love Christmas time. I love that everyone gets in the mood. I know that one could argue it has been over commercialized, but I still love it! I love going to the mall and seeing the decoratations and knowing that all of us, or most of us are there for one purpose...gifts! I love all the festivities, and parties. I love the twinkle lights, and the house decorating and the cookie baking. And I love love LOVE, the smell of Christmas trees! We got started a little early this year because I was worried that this season would pass us by in the wink of an eye. Every other month as, so I decorated a couple days before December and we went shopping for our tree on Monday night. We waited though to put it up last night (December 1st). Oh! How wonderful my house smells! I smile every time I walk in to the living room. My house is so small that the smell fills up most of the house so I don't have to go far to get a wif of the pine. Last night it was so fun to see Izzy see a tree coming inside our house. He was so excited. He kept yelling "tree, tree"! We kept him up a little longer so that he could see the lights go on, and then help put an ornament up, but we stopped after going around the tree twice because he was getting tired. But it was already too late because he had no desire to hang something on a tree. So we settled with him sittle on my lap and ME hanging the first ornament. To bed he went and Joel and I finished the decorating. We then sat down to admire our work with some Egg Nog and an episode of The Closer. This morning Izzy woke up and when I showed him the tree, all he saw where the many 'balls' all over the tree. Hopefully he will remember that those all not balls we can play with.

I am so excited about this years Christmas and I hope you are too. Put up some lights, and turn on some music, and have a Holly Jolly time!

special Memories

I love to hear my dad sing and play the guitar. Growing up he would pull it out and we had our favoirtes: Grandma's Feather Bed, You can a Line, I'll Get a Pole, Lady, etc. I always wanted to marry a guy that could play the guitar, and have my children grow up with the same memories. Well, I did, and Izzy loves to hear Joel play. We sing Suggle Puppy, Jesus loves Me, and any others. Tuesday night we were out at my parents, and we were getting ready to leave, but before we did, I asked dad to play some guitar for Izzy. It was so precious to me to see my dad playing songs that I grew up on and my son enjoying them, and dancing to them. It almost made me cry. We have a CD of my dad singing, which I try to play for Izzy so that he will grow up knowing and loving not only the voice that I love but the man behind it. I love you dad.

The Dish Ordeal

And let me tell you, it was an ordeal. I didn't mean for it to be an ordeal but it turned into one. I have been wanting to sell my set of dishes for awhile now, and have tried to sell them on Craigslist for awhile with no takers. We had one bite, that just turned into a little nibble, but nothing came of it. That was really disappointing, but I am glad now that it didn't happen. I decided to keep most of my dishes and just go back to Pottery Barn and get the "salad" plate that is the size of a regular dinner plate. (That is what I didn't like about my dishes...that the dinner plate was so huge!) We had some extra money that we were using for household stuff and for any extra dishes that we might need, and so it worked out perfectly for me to be able to get the smaller plate. We are now just going  to sell 11 - 4 piece place settings. But the reason why it turned into such an ordeal is because I asked Joel's opinion. Usually that helps, but this time his opinion was different than what I wanted, so after buying some different dishes...that Joel wanted, I went back and exchanged them for the ones that actually matched my set. But not without hashing it out and making sure that he wasn't going to be mad at me. Anyway, it ended last night with many tears and me balling about how I was trying to make the best decision and keep everyone happy. I flet like a fool, and was convicted about making such a big deal about earthly stuff. Anyway, the ordeal is over, I have the dishes...now I just need some red cerel bowls, and sell my other dishes!!!

Goodnight Moon

I am sure that all of you have heard of the book Goodnight Moon. It is one of my favorites especially since my mom read it to us. So now I get to read it to my son. But...there is a special way to read it. There are certain voice inflections that must be followed while reading the list of things to say goodnight to. The first time Joel read it, it just didn't sound right. It almost ruined the book for me. So now I am teaching him how to read it the right way, and he is being such a good sport. I am so gald that he understand or at least humors me in this area. Tonight he was reading it to Israel, and he looked up and asked "am I doing it right?" I told him he was getting better. I know it sounds silly, but I am sure that all of you have something like this, whether it is a book that needs to be read a certain way or something else. What is one of your peculiar or special request?

Enjoying life

I am enjoying my life very much right now. I tend to live my life always for the next thing. It makes for a pretty frustrating, and discontent life. I try to say I am content, but if I am truthful with myself, I am not. Recently the Lord was so sweet to me and told me that what I want is not necessarily bad, or bad for me, but that I needed to just wait and trust Him, and enjoy my life as it is right now. I have been so happy since I resigned myself to the Lord's will. I am excited to see where He leads us as I wait for Him.

Nothing is as simple as it may first appear. We first learned that when we first bought our house and realized that what we thought would be an easy updating task, was quite a bit more involved than that. Two years later we decided to fix up the bathroom just a little bit more. The toilet paper roll was in a retarted place and we weren't using it anyway. There was an old gas hearter on the wall that we weren't using either and both of these things were just collecting dust and looking ugly. So I decided that they must come out and to simplify the covering up process I thought we could just put up some beadboard and...Tada!!!

It kind of went like that but then the painting started. I had some trim paint left over from when we did the rest of our trim so I pulled that out and started painting. Not soon after, I realized that this paint was turning out a lot brighter white than what was all over the house. Then I realized that this was a different brand of white paint than what we had origanally started with. And since I had all the window trim to paint all of the house and our new front door, I was going to have to paint all of the trim again. You might say "YOU ARE CRAZY!!" No one will notice and you are just being picky. Well, maybe, but this is my house, I can notice the difference. It seems like a daunting task, and I hope that I will never have to do this again, even though I know probably in 5 years I will, but we will not think about that right now. Right now, I am trying to just finish this "little" project so that I can move on!

We'll see!

Today Joel and I got our Baltic Amber bead necklaces. Go here to read about them. We have seen the wonders that it has done for our son, and so now we are going to try them. We are hoping that they will help with our allergies so that we don't have to spend the big bucks every month getting suppliments. I will keep you posted!

Standing Ovation

I love standing ovations. There is something about them that gives me chills. I think it is because the only reason you give a standing ovation is when someone as performed in a superb way that calls for more than just clapping. When I was performing in operas when I was younger It thrilled me to look out into the audience and see them all standing. I could barely hold it in. I am sure we all felt honored. When I stand for the Hallelujah chorus I get all choked up and can feel the excitment and joy swelling up inside of me.

Last week I was doing my bible study and this chapter was on joy. I was really enjoying it (haha) because I feel like I need a little more joy in my life especially through the trials God sends my way. I can to the second day and the passage in Philipians was being talked about and how Paul counted everything as rubbish for the joy of know Christ. Then we looked at Stephen, another man who responded to earthly circumstances with a heavenly response. in Acts 7:56 it says " I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." If you will remember, when Chirst ascended into heaven he SAT down at the right hand of God. Here Stephen was being stoned for his belief in Christ, and as he looked to heaven he saw Christ STANDING at the right hand of God. OOOH, it gave me chills! Christ was giving him a standing ovation for how Stephen was responding and the example that he was setting for the many that would follow in their footsteps.

I want to live my life in such a way that Christ is so please that he cannot but stand to his feet because he is swelling with pride! Lord may I life my life worthy of the gospel of Christ. I hope that you who read this blog know that you are precious in the sight of God and that He loved you so much as to send His son to earth to die on the cross, bearing your shame and sin so that you can have a personal relationship with Him and one day spend eternity with Him. We must deny ourselves, repent from our sins and follow Him!

"Dance"

Today Izzy danced! And oh it was soooooo cute! I don't know how to do a video link on my blog so I will just have to describe it to you. We were listening to some music and I asked if you could dance like I normally do. Usually he just smiles and laughes. But today he started moving his feet really fast in place and then twirled! I quickly got the video camera to catch it for Joel and thankfully he kept doing it. Now he will do it just periodically for the fun of it. Probably because we laugh so hard and clap!

Also, I cut his hair today. He did very well. I tried this once before and had to call my mom to come fix it, then the next time I decided to pay to have it done and then this time I decided to try again. It turned out really good! We went through 1sweettarts pkg, and 2 suckers! I know, I am a horrible mom, but hey, he sat still!

And then the last Izzy tidbit, is that he can say his name! If you ask him his name he has no idea what you are talking about, but if you say "Say Izzy" he will say it! now he is on the floor putting duplo legos in his mouth and blowing them out right along with silly daddy.  I love my boys!

Nice Change

Tonight I dyed my hair. This is the first time I have dyed all of my hair. My dear friend did highlights on my hair (that is a story in itself) one time, but never have I dyed my entire head of hair! But I decided that I wanted to try a little darker shade. I found a hairstyle that I am trying to achieve, and the hair was a darker brown. So I decided to branch out and be adventurous and try it. I felt scandalous and wondered what my mother would say! But my husband was all for it, so I did it.

This is the before!

This is the process

 

 

 

At Starbucks Saturday morning with my new hair fixed!

 

 

I did have a picture in the same place right after I did it, but I can't get it to upload. If you can't tell, it is a shade or two darker than what I had. The lighting is not very good, but you can definitely notice it in person!

I love it! I think that it is a richer color and brings out my eyes more!