18 Months

So, I was going to do a sweet and heartfelt post about how my middle baby turned 18 months old yesterday. Complete with a cute picture of her, funny things that she says, and maybe a list of her favorite things.

However, this tragedy happened:



And gues who was the little culprit.

The fact that she uses the dog as a step-stool - entirely her own idea I might add - does nothing to soften my heart.



Happy one-and-a-half years, baby girl! : )

Crazy, Crazy

• That's what our schedule is like.
• It's really nuts.
• Let me tell you about it. (I'm so glad you asked.) : )
• Tomorrow night I have a baby shower to attend.
• Wednesday night is the last session in the women's Philippians study that I've been doing this summer.
• Oh, and I need to make a snack for that.
• And I'm keeping my neice and nephew on Wednesday.
• Thursday, my husband has music team rehearsal.
• Friday, we celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary.
• In celebration of that, I'm going to try and do two marriage memes this week.
• One is compliments of a tag from Stephanie!
• I'm singing special music at church on Sunday.
• Must find time to practice...
• So really, it's just this week that is uber-crazy.
• But the next several weekends ... oy vey.
• Next week, N1 has been invited to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.
• Sometimes she calls it "Chucky Jesus." :giggle, without being sacriligious:
• Then I'm going to be up to my eyeballs in a baby shower that I'm helping throw in a couple weeks.
• Other major events coming up: a kindred-spirit's/best friend's 40th party which I and another friend are helping with.
• A girls' weekend trip to Gatlinburg with only one little one in tow!
• A 4th birthday celebration for the oldest!
• Not to mention regular things like housework, plaing with munchkins, and so on.
• Life is good.
• Busy, but good.

Menu Plan Monday - 7.30

Monday: Sweet & Tangy Chicken (crockpot) served with rice, green beans
Tuesday: Beef or Chicken Quesadillas, fruit
Wednesday: Chili Chicken Strips, corn...
Thursday: Breakfast dinner - eggs, biscuits, fruit
Friday: pizza
Saturday: pork kebabs with pineaple and rice

Head over to Org Junkie's for more inspiring menus!

Yet Another

Love Shak, Baby is giving away a $250 Gymboree gift certificate!!

Very cool ... we could definitely put this to good use around here! : )

Pick me!!

5 Minutes for Mom is giving away a 37″ Flat-Panel LCD HDTV!!! The ultra slim, lightweight Insignia® 37″ Flat-Panel LCD HDTV (Model: NS-LCD37) features 1366×768 Resolution, with 16:9 widescreen ratio for cinema-quality viewing. We would be enjoying picture perfect quality from every angle and not missing any details with its built in high definition capabilities.

Along with a ton of other features - you can read all about them over at Best Buy - this model is equipped with a V-Chip for parent control and is Energy Star compliant. And - for extra fun - the TV can double as a PC monitor so that you can download and watch HD movies. (Cool!!)

Head on over to 5MfM to sign up!!

Friday Felicities - 7.27

~ a husband that brings me a Sonic diet coke before going to work
~ trips to the zoo
~ giraffes, freaky awkward looking creatures that make me smile
~ "wet like an egg" kinda hot*
~ making fun things with paper and glue
~ a new-to-me sewing machine!
~ celebrating five years with my husband one week from today
~ learning about having the mindset of Christ and desiring that for myself

*A quote from yesterday's trip to the zoo, where it was very, very, VERY hot:

N1: Mama, I'm like an egg.

Mama: Okay. How are you like an egg?

N1: I'm all wet.

She cracks. me. up. (I'm guessing she is remembering to when she and I made cookies last week and we managed to drop an egg on the floor - there was "wet" everywhere!) Whatever it was, I laughed. : )

Dog Days Winner!!

This has been a wild and crazy week! Thank you all so much for your entries and comments on my little goodies. I've enjoyed each and every email that's come in. All 344 of them ... and I had a comment from a long ago college choir friend who found my blog! : )

A couple questions were asked in the comments through the week about my prizes so hopefully this will catch everyone that asked ... if not, leave me a note or email me.

~ if you don't win and would still like a set of personalized notepads for your family, the price for these is $12. That gets you two (2) 50 sheet notepads, 8.5 x 5.5 size. Shipping (priority mail) is additional. If you are interested in having some made for your family, leave me a comment WITH AN EMAIL and I'll be happy to make you some.

~ I had a couple questions about the altered binder. While I would love to make these for sale and custom make them, I'm afraid I would be setting myself up (and others) for disappointment if I do that right now. (Three littles, three and under ... I know you understand!) However, I will occasionally premake them and post a picture here and they will be available on a first-come basis. And for those of you that are crafty and want to try this on your own, the instructions I used are here. So bookmark me, because you may see them turn up occasionally. : )

~ Lastly, someone asked me where I found the binder size that I used (8.5 x 5.5). This particular binder I bought at Walmart, but I know you can also find them at Office Depot and Staples.

And now, the winners! And a photo-documentary of the judging!

First, the entries!


The assistant! (Please disregard the doghair on the floor ... we have two siberian huskies that are summer-time shedding and since 3/5ths of the house is still asleep, I haven't done the morning vacuum run yet). : )



And, the moment you've all been waiting for ... the winner of the notepad is PlaidHearts/Dawn!!



And, the winner of the binder was PastorMac's Ann!



Congratulations, ladies! I'll be sending you an email, but if you see this before I get to it (kids wanting breakfast and all) shoot me an email!

And, always, thanks to Shannon for hosting this fun giveaway!

11 Weeks Old

11 Weeks Old
Originally uploaded by stephaniedshepherd

So, who looks like who? They are all approximately 11 weeks in these pictures and I'm not sure I see much resemblance anywhere!

Five Questions

I'm playing along with Lauren at Baseballs and Bows ... she's emailed me a list of five questions which I'm going to answer. Here goes!

1. What is your favorite holiday?
Christmas, and even more now that I'm a Mama. : ) The excitement of putting up the tree, wrapping presents, designing and addressing Christmas cards for friends and family, Christmas Eve service at church, the carols, and the Christmas story ... I love it all. This year I'm looking forward to doing an Advent calendar for the first time with my girls ... N1 will be four and is already asking when we're going to put up the Christmas tree.

2. What are your strengths as a mom?
Wow. Tough question. Probably my organization and creativity in organizing ... fitting five people (happily) in a two bedroom/one bath can be tricky at times. I think I'm pretty good at being "in tune" with the little signals the girls give off ... it doesn't take me long to pick up that they aren't feeling 100% or one is about to cut a tooth. And, I think I'm willing to change. If I find that one of the girls is having problems in a certain area (i.e., right now it's N2 and afternoon naps), I experiment with new schedules for a few days or week to try and figure out what's going on with her and what I can do to help her. Note: this doesn't mean I like change necessarily, but I do like trying new things and this helps me be flexible. Clear. As. Mud. : )

3. Do you have a favorite Bible verse?
My blog is titled after my favorite Scripture. Psalm 52.8-9 reads:

But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever. I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints.

I discovered this verse while doing Beth Moore's study on David, A Heart Like His (and personally, my favorite study of her's ever). Not long after that I went through a very, very rough time of depression and about wore this verse out meditating on it.

I'm going to cheat and mention one other verse(s) that are near and dear to me. Lamentations 3.23-26 & 32 reads:

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."
The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."
The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.

Once again, these verses have walked alongside me through a recent difficult season. They are exceptionally special to me. : )

4. What is your favorite place to go for a date night?
We don't get lots of date nights, so I'm very easy to please. (At least I think I am). : ) I love it when we go to a bookstore and wander around drinking coffee. Dinner out is always fun - time to talk without having to also feed small people at the same time is a luxury round these parts. (Not to mention the perk of not having to wash the dishes and free drink refills).

5. What do you picture yourself doing 10 years from now?
Let's see ... N1 will be a teen (yikes!) and E and N2 will be 9 and 10, respectively. I would love to have had a few more little ones, but in all likelihood I would be completely out of the diaper phase by then. Hard to imagine. : ) Best guess, I will probably be homeschooling some of my girls and possibly be preparing others to enter public school as middle school students. Another possibility, if my husband ever chooses to enter seminary full-time, might see us moving. Who knows? But it's exciting to think about!

Want to play along? Leave me a comment (and your email) and I'll send you some questions to answer. Thanks Lauren! This was fun. : )

Goodness Gracious

This doggy days giveaway is INSANE! I'm over 230 comments on my giveaway post ... safe to say, yesterday I spent a lot of time going through emails! : ) And I've definitely not made it through all the contest posts myself.

Whew. I'm tired thinking about it.

Today's agenda ... a little of this and that around the house, some church work that HAS TO get done today, and some planning for the next couple months. But now, time for some time in the Scriptures before I kick it all off (or as best as I will be able to do with two little girls who decided to get up at 5:45 a.m. this morning!)

Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaway - It's Here!

Happy Monday! If you are new to my blog (here via the Bloggy Giveaway hosted by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer), welcome. : ) I'm Stephanie, stay-at-home-mama of three girls, child of King ... oh, and I like to make things! : ) In what little spare time I have, I enjoy creating invitations, notepads, notecards, and scrapbook. I love me some paper and pens.

So, without further ado, the goodies. : )

I've got two goodies to give away this week. The first is a personalized notepad for you and your family. You can see a sample here:



It is 8.5 x 5.5 and can be lined or unlined (50 sheets per pad). We'll personalize it with your family name at the top ... the bottom will have your husband, you, and then children. (If you are single and win this post, we'll talk and can fix you up as well). : ) I love making these for friends ... they work well for thank you notes or notes to your child's teacher at school. You can see some more samples of these (and other projects I've done) at my Punkin' Press website if you are interested.

Second, I'm giving away an altered binder! I made one of these a few weeks ago and it was so fun I'm giving one away. Size is 8.5 x 5.5 and you can use it for all sorts of fun things. (This is my favorite size of notebook and paper).



You can click any of these pictures/graphics to see them larger in Flickr.

Now the important stuff.

TO ENTER:

Leave me a comment by Thursday night, July 26 at midnight (CST) and let me know if you want to be entered into a drawing for the binder, the notepad or both. (Just a note, I'll be able to ship the notepads internationally, but not the binder). Anonymous comments will not be entered so please leave an email address.

Happy commenting! I look forward to travelling around to others' blogs and seeing the other goodies that are up for give-aways this week. And, feel free to look around here. I'd love to have you visit.