Dream wedding and Blessed Life

I've had my share of crazy, the ups and the downs and living on the roller coaster. My life has seen a lot of things happen, some good and some bad. The one thing I can take away from all of it is that I'm truly blessed to have the life I have. I'm blessed to have the things I have and the people that surround me. The people that surround me are way more important then the things that I have. The people that surround me, are what keep me going in this crazy life of the roller coaster and that bring me back to down to get off. After recently being married on October 9th 2016 these people that surround me are my LIFE! My hubby is what keeps me grounded and my kids are what keep me on my toes! I still can't believe that we are married and while it seems like just yesterday, life has made the time go by way to fast already! I still find myself looking at the wedding photos and remembering every little detail from that day. It was our dream wedding and something we always wanted!

                                                                   

 Our amazing wedding was a dream come true. To not only marry the love of my life, but to also have our fairly tale ending.  The words to have and to hold are words that are dear to my heart as the feeling of being held by my hubby makes me feel safe, secure and loved. To have and to hold isn't only for me it's for my kids. As I am to hold my sweet little babies in this walk of life and that Brandon will hold their hands as well and guide them through life. We are all in this life together and we will all take our turns on holding each other.  Looking back on the wedding and living through the memories of the photos always make me feel blessed, happy and so overwhelmed with joy for the life that I have.

Looking at these photos of Riley looking up at Brandon and Elise looking at me are more then precious. It's symbolic of how we are living our little lives. They look up to us and learn from us. We are to show them what Love is! We get the privilege to walk them through the crazy life and show them how to ride the roller coaster and when to get off.  Life isn't always easy but I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else then this crew right here. These are my people and i'm beyond blessed to have them in my life, doing life with me.

 My life is completely BLESSED! I'm in awe everyday that this is the life I was given to live! We have our days that make us feel lost, upset with the crazy day, sad when things don't go as planned and just confused but we are all human. We will all have those days but it's so important to hold onto the days that fill us with laughter, smiles and pure joy! To make the best with what life is handing us and to not let it slip away. Live the life you have always imagined for yourself. Be grateful for the little things and praise God for getting you through. Hold onto to the loved ones surrounding you, your people, as life is short and we should be thankful for every minute we have, to have and to hold, forever and ever.

This song we stumbled across when we searched for wedding songs. It wasn't our first dance song but we have all fallen in love with this song and every time I listen to it, it stills brings tears in my eyes. Perfect ending for my blog post so I hope you enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an4ySOlsUMY

Drowning in a Busy Life with Crazy Kids

Life is busy.....very busy! It is for everyone and that looks different for everyone too. I'm no expert on this subject as I too am still trying to find the balance in this crazy life! I'm trying to find the time to do the job (well job's) that I love and balance that with a family and all the things the kids do through out the week! I run a daycare out my home so that keeps me busy on a day to day basis and on my toes for sure (but not a lot of time to tackle any daily tasks of my own). Then I do Young Living Essential Oils so that includes classes, vendor events and following up with a lot of people! Plus add in the kids both doing gymnastics and then Elise has a dance class during the week (which Riley now wants to take up soccer again too). Oh my goodness, how do I make it through my week sometimes?! Well it's not always easy and some weeks are way more busier then others but in some weird way I kinda like it like that. I can remember the days before kids where I would have ample time to get whatever it was that I wanted to get done....DONE! The days of scrap booking while watching some TV and having a glass of wine, oh those were the days. Now, I'm lucky if I ever get a project done (on time). Most days there are loads of laundry to get done, dishes, cleaning, things I want to get done and oh yeah, the load of laundry that I left in the washer from the other day! With the amount of things that need to get done in a day I feel like some days I'm completely drowning! But aren't we all?! I'm slowly learning how to handle and manage my crazy life so that it works for everyone (which is the hardest part). We all have our own needs and figuring out what works best is proving to be difficult! I have to, those days that I feel like I can't keep up and that I'm drowning in a sea of things that I can't seem to catch up with. Balancing is for sure a thing I need to work on and everyday I learn something new on how to handle it. I have to balance out work, events that I'm doing and putting on, time with my husband, time with the kids and well just LIFE! Most days I carry that mom guilt that all us moms feel. The feeling of maybe I did something wrong, did I yell or get after them?, did I spend enough time with them? Those feelings can haunt us and pull us into the drowning feeling we all feel. As I learn to balance out my life I'm also learning that I need to just try my best everyday and that's all I can do. But the bottom line is my life will always be crazy in a variety of ways until I'm old (at least I hope at that point it's not crazy!) I just need to embrace life as it is thrown at me and go with the flow of things rather then spending my time worrying about what I did wrong that day or what I could've done different. Life is to short to be serious all the time and now is the time to have fun! As I'm also learning the balancing act with life I do feel like some organization needs to come with it! So therefore my house shall become organized!! It kinda already is but this is my goal over the next couple months (well would love for it to be before Christmas but that't pushing it!) I'm going to do a little task at a time and go from there, one thing at a time. With the plan of organization I also plan to redo the kids rooms and make it more like their playroom area with imagination and fun! As they have to share the play area we have now with the daycare kids it's becoming a top list priority for them to get a space that is for them (besides it just being their rooms). I have big plans for them and I really hope they like it! My overall goal with doing that is to bring me back up for air and reality. To enjoy the things in life with my kids and embrace it. To stop drowning in the sea of craziness and spend the quality time with them in their space of imagination! We will all get through our life and make the best out of what we were given. Reality is we will drown from time to time and that's ok. We will all be ok and come back up for air. Balance is key and once we all figure out what works for us, that's when you jump in and embrace it and don't ever let it go!

What do I feed my kids......Lunch Ideas!

What do I feed my kids??? A question I hear a lot and honestly a lot of people seem to get stuck in this area. It doesn't have to be fancy but it does need some variety, so that in hopes they eat better and more. So, I get a lot of questions on what I feed all my daycare babies.  And it can be a handful at times feeding 8 plus kids for breakfast, lunch and snack and I too, quickly run out of ideas! So I'm left to make it fun and interesting for the kids so they are hopefully a little less picky(which who doesn't have a picky eater!) So I've decided to share a weeks worth of lunch ideas to hopefully inspire you to make some fun meals and maybe find and try something new!

So I'm required to give my daycare babies a variety of foods with fruits, vegetables, protein and bread, which sometimes can make meal planning a little easier! I plan out all my meals from daycare to home (including Elise and Brandon's lunches). That way I have a game plan and options for the week and can stick to a shopping list. Plus it also helps me not over buy when it comes to the dreaded grocery store shopping, my least favorite chore! Although I've recently come to love of online shopping and that makes grocery shopping a little less of a pain!

So what do I feed these kids? I only pictures Monday's meal as you probably get the idea of what everything looks like! So here it is:

                                                                               Monday- This was Halloween so 

today was a little bit more special lunch

They had spider PB/J with pretzel legs

grapes kabobs, banana and blueberries

cheese stick and kettle corn.

Tuesday-

So this is a huge favorite and we make this several 

different way, but today it was simple.

Cheese and black bean quesadillas (sometimes we add in grilled chicken and kale and it's awesome!)

corn, pineapple, salsa and

tortilla chips for dipping. 

Wednesday-

So this is kinda a fancy lunch (sorta) but they all love it!

Their "fancy" consist's of:

Grilled Chicken (just with salt and pepper)

white rice, green beans, peaches and everyone's favorite

garlic bread!

Thursday-

So this is a complete "duh" meal, it's a meal that kids LOVE, 

you can probably guess what it is....my son asks for this all the time.....

If you said SPAGHETTI the your right!!!

Sometimes I will add tiny mushrooms and they never notice!

So with that they had apple slices, salad with ranch and

honey carrots! (these are awesome and sooooo yummy!)

Friday-

Chicken Enchilada's

(I make this in the crock pot and cheat and layer tortilla, sauce, shredded chicken and cheese and repeat) you can also add black beans and kale!

it takes only 3 hours so I can usually get this in in the morning and we are set!

I serve this with tortilla chips so they can scoop it up and ranch ( they usually eat anything with ranch!)

We also have corn, steamed broccoli and mandarin oranges

So obviously some of these ideas either you probably already try or do but it just gives you an idea what I do for my kids! I do give my kids breakfast and snack and those ideas I honestly usually just put on a rotation so that it makes planning a lot easier! But here are some ideas:

Breakfast ( we also have to give them a side of fruit with whatever is listed!):

Cinnamon Rolls

Pancakes

PB toast

Cereal

Egg tacos

Banana Bread

Blueberry Muffins

Biscuits and Gravy (everyone's favorite!)

Just to name a few

Snacks:

Trail mix (chex cereal, kettle corn, marshmallows, peanuts and pretzels)

Pumpkin muffins

Brocomole and tort chips (sooo yummy!)  

Pizza Bagels (homemade)

Rice cakes

Cottage Cheese and fruit

Pepperoni, cheese and crackers

granola bars and yogurt

So hopefully those give you some quick simple ideas when you are thinking of planning on what to feed the kids and family! I'm already looking at next week lunches and have the base planned and they are:

Monday-Chili Mac (great for fall weather!) and cornbread

Tuesday- Cinnamon french toast with eggs and sausage

Wednesday- Open face Chicken pot pies over biscuits

Thursday- Re fried bean (homemade) and salsa tortillas

Friday- Ham and cheese roll ups with broccoli salad

So that is what goes on at my house at lunch! It's a lot to make 8 plates and any given time and feed two babies! That means lots of dishes, cleaning and tons of messy chairs and floors! They are precious little tiny humans though and even though they are messy they are the best!

Enjoy!