"If it's not a HELL YES, then it's a no"

So I just realized that I didn't post any blog posts in December. Nadda. Zero. Zilch. Oh well!

December was a great month for us. Just busy! The kids are at such fun ages and it made Christmas such a magical time this year! But since they're getting older now we've also added more activities to our plate during the holiday season. Isaiah had parties at school and a basketball performance at the half time show of a local basketball game. Eloise had her first ballet recital. We saw Santa at several events. We took one last trip to SeaWorld before our season passes expired (WOW!! SeaWorld at Christmas time was AMAZING! Even though we're not buying season passes again for 2016 we're still planning to try and make it there at Christmas time again. Truly magical!). We stayed up late looking at Christmas lights in different neighborhoods. We spent one evening at Adventure Landing for WinterFest. We crammed in as many Christmas movies as we could. We moved our Elf on the Shelf ("Elfis") around the house every night while the kids were asleep and tried to come up with something creative for him to be doing the next day (man that's stressful!!).

We hung Christmas lights on the outside of our house for the first time ever (and then (after hanging up 5 strands) realized we didn't' have enough to go all the way around the house so we tried to buy more... and then found out that they were out of stock at all the stores and were being discontinued (thanks Target!)... so, since we didn't want to buy 10 completely new sets (because just 5 new ones wouldn't match the 5 we already had) and since by this time it was just a week before Christmas, we just decided to get back up on the roof and take them all down. And...the story gets better. When we took them down we put them in a garbage bag and set them in the garage (why did we do that?!?)....and then a week later accidentally threw away the garbage bag full of 5 strands of perfectly good icicle lights (bangs head on table). Yea, that was one of our Christmas adventures I'd rather not remember!). We read the Christmas story several times and and sang to lots of Christmas music. Drew and his dad spent Christmas Eve (after our Christmas Eve service) setting up the new trampoline we bought the kids so they would be surprised on Christmas day. We made a gingerbread house, Christmas cookies, crafts, and decorated the house. Not to mention buying all the gifts for friends and family which rests pretty much solely on my shoulders. We had alot of late nights and early mornings. It was a busy month for sure!

And now I'm just focusing on rest. I usually don't add too much to my plate but this holiday season I feel like I did. I'm usually good about putting up boundaries. About saying no when I need to. About declining a play date or forgoing an event if it's just too much. But as 2016 is beginning I want to refocus on this. I want to make sure that I go all in on what GOD is calling me passionately to and weed out everything else that just creates busyness. If it's not an emphatic YES, then I want to say no. Of course ministry and serving sometimes need to be done whether we feel like it or not and, if God is calling me to it, it needs to go under the emphatic YES category. I'm talking about saying no to things that I add to my plate that are simply things I want to do or even feel compelled to do. I want to say no to those things so that I can have room to say yes to more important things.

Have you ever heard of Jen Hatmaker? Oh my gosh. If you haven't you totally need to look her up. Here is her blog. She is an amazing woman of God and an amazing speaker. I could really listen to her for hours. She is actually speaking at the IF Gathering (if you haven't heard of that it's so awesome too. Click the link!) in February and my mom and I are going to a broadcast of it at her church while we're in Indiana visiting them later this month. I'm so excited!

Anyways, Jen posted this on her Facebook a few days ago and it exactly put into words what I want my year 2016 to be. I'll just let you read this and I'll slip out the door because, really, what more could I say?

"As you move into 2016 hoping for a saner schedule that prioritizes your actual life and keeps you focused on the things that matter the most, let me share the decision-making filter my agent Curtis always gives me:

"If it's not a HELL YES, then it's a no."

So that medium yes, that I-feel-like-should yes, that guilty yes, that coerced yes, that I-actually-hate-this-thing yes, that I-guess-so yes, that who-else-will-do-it yes, that careless yes, that default yes, that resentful yes, that I-probably-shouldn't-but-struggle-with-boundaries yes?

NO. Nope.

No thank you. I am unable to commit to that this year. Thank you so much for asking, but any new yes I give right now means a no to my family and sanity. I am so flattered you asked and count on my prayers, but I am at my maximum bandwidth right now. I appreciate your work so much, but I've already committed my time and energy this year. I've loved being a part of this, but I am no longer able to continue. We are aggressively focused on x, y, and z this year, so as a family we've agreed on no new commitments. This is what I can give but won't be able to do more right now.

Now, the things that make your heart race, your blood pump, the fire in your belly burn, your gifts to leap to life, and keep your family and home healthy and strong...the hell yeses? ALL IN, BABY."

2015 Family Pictures

Well it's that time of year again. Time for our annual family pictures! This year the lighting was excellent, the photographer was great, our outfits came together perfectly, the setting was gorgeous.....everything was perfect. Except the kids!!

Each year I have to remind myself why I take family pictures. It's to remember how my children look and act in the current year, which is usually wild and crazy. We're not a perfect family so why should I expect my family pictures to be perfect, right!?

This year I got family pictures done to document how Olive still needs either two naps or one super long afternoon nap each day - neither of which she got that day. How this made her cranky and whiny. How her cautious personality means she doesn't often smile for strangers. And how she's at the age where she just. can't. sit. still.

I got pictures taken this year to document Eloise's cheesy smile. This girl has a beautiful smile with a mouth full of tiny, perfectly straight teeth and yet she smiled like she was an old woman trying to prevent her dentures from falling out. Are you kidding me?!?

I got these pictures taken to document that Isaiah is finally at the age where he understands how to sit still and smile a great smile for the camera. He can comprehend the reward at the end of the photo shoot (I promised mini marshmallows!) and is very motivated by the promise of rewards. He understands that when we tell him to smile he needs to smile AND look at the camera (something the other two have a hard time with). He is a sweet boy and loves to grab his sister's hand even during a photo shoot.

So, guys, this is my family as it is now. A perfectly beautiful mess. As the years go by I'm hoping (praying) that family photo shoots get easier and the kids look better but for now I'm going to treasure these photos (and maybe even laugh someday).

Photo Credit: Alyssa Renee Photography

Of my heart. If this was the only photo I got from the shoot I think I'd be happy! <3

I think this one is probably the one that I'll blow up and hang above the fireplace...... Haha. 

We may not have it all together. But together we have it all! 

Everything Was Awesome - How to Throw a Lego Birthday Party

Alright guys, I've been working on getting all the details together of how I made everything for Isaiah's 5th birthday party last week. I've included descriptions along with links where appropriate. This was probably the most fun to plan birthday party I've done for my kids so far. And it was easy and pretty cheap since I made much of the food and decorations myself! Hope this will help you throw an awesome Lego birthday party as well!

Lego Birthday Party Invitations

There are tons of cute Lego birthday party invites available on Etsy but I was looking for something I could get for free (people just throw away the invites anyways, right!?!?). After much searching, I finally landed on these invites. I printed them on heavy card stock in full color, filled them out with the details of the party and glued them onto a slightly larger piece of colored (red, yellow, blue or green) card stock for a cute invite. I was happy with how they turned out and happy that I had all the supplies on hand to make them which made them FREE!! (I even had envelopes and stamps on hand!)

You can print these same invites here. 

Lego Head Marshmallow Pops

These Lego head marshmallow pops were very time consuming but not necessarily hard to make. And they turned out so cute! If you're more artistically gifted than me you could definitely make faces that better resemble actual Lego men. ;)

Here's what you'll need to make them:

• Mini marshmallows
• Regular marshmallows 
• Yellow candy melts (you can buy these at Wal-Mart, Michaels, Amazon.... pretty much anywhere!) 
• Lollipop Sticks (I bought mine at Michael's) 

• Black decorating gel or Black Food Writer Marker (I bought mine at Wal-Mart)

Cut the mini marshmallows in half horizontally and attached them to the regular marshmallows with a drop of melted yellow candy melts. (When melting the candy melts make sure not to overheat the candy - it will become hard and unusable!)

Dip the lollipop stick in the melted candy melts and insert in to the bottom of the Lego head.

Dip the Lego heads into the candy melts and completely coat. I had to use a spoon in order to get the heads smooth with no drips.

Stick them in a piece of Styrofoam or a cookie cooler rack to dry and then add faces with the gel! Give yourself several hours (don't start at 9 at night the day before the party like me) to make these. They are very very time consuming!

To display them on party day Drew had the idea to wrap a shoebox and drill holes in the top. It worked PERFECT to keep them separated and upright!

They turned out cute AND yummy!!!

You can buy the candy melts to make these pops here. 

Shoe box Lego Decorations

The week before Isaiah's party I came across some awesome deals on kids shoes at Target and ended up with all these shoe-boxes I had no use for. I had them in the recycling bin for a day and then an idea dawned on me. I could make them into giant Legos and use them as decorations!! Thus inspired a super easy and cheap way to decorate for a Lego birthday party. Just buy some red, green, yellow, or blue wrapping paper (I got mine at the dollar store!) and print off these handy dandy circles that already have the Lego logo on them (best to print them on card stock if you can) and, wah-la! Cute, cheap, decorations!

You can print these Lego circles here. 

Lego Brick and Lego Men Chocolates

All you need to make your own Lego chocolates are primary colored bags of Wilton Candy Melts and Lego brick and/or Lego men molds. I bought these molds off of Amazon and was very happy with them!

Be VERY careful not to overheat the candy melts. I had a few batches overheat and become hard and lumpy and they ended up not looking so good. Spoon the melted candy melts into the molds and then {don't skip this part!} pick up and drop down the mold several times on the counter. You'll see 6 or more air bubbles come to the surface after a few bounces. This is the air that was trapped in the mold, not allowing the candy to completely fill it up. If you don't bounce it and shake it and get all the air bubbles out you will end up with chocolates that are not fully formed and have air pockets.

The candy melts only take about 15 minutes to harden up in the fridge then you can pop them out and start a new batch. I made red, green, blue, and yellow Lego bricks and Lego men over a period of several days. I set these out on the food table and also used them on top of the cupcakes on party day.

You can buy Wilton Candy Melts here. 

You can buy this Lego brick mold here.

Personalized Lego Happy Birthday Banner

I was so excited to find a cute, personalized Lego birthday banner on Pinterest for free! I used this free download to print the "Happy Birthday" and the Lego men. And I used this download to pick and choose the letters needed for Isaiah's name.

You can print this banner here and here. 

Over-sized Lego Door

Super easy and cute decoration alert!! All you need is a plastic rectangular tablecloth and some small paper plates and you can turn any door into an over-sized Lego. You could actually probably do it on a large bookcase or hutch as well. Or even just on the wall itself if you wanted!

Party Favor Bag Tags

I used these cute party favor bag tags to attach to snack size ziploc bags filled with candy Legos to give to the kids as party favors. I forgot to get a picture of the completed bags, though! =(

You can print your own party favor bag tags here. 

I filled the bags with these Lego candy bricks (they sell smaller bags too). Not only were they yummy but they actually stack so you can play with them too! They were a big hit!

You can buy these yummy but also stack-able Lego candies here. 

Lego Jello Jigglers

If the thought comes into your mind to make Lego shaped jello, please just try to push it out of your mind as soon as possible. Just kidding... but seriously I'm kind of not. Lego Jello jigglers are very cute and yummy but alot of work (especially if you are using used Legos and need to wash them all very well both before and after) and a little frustrating to get out of the molds. But, here is how I did it.

Start by CLEANING all the Legos you are planning to use (or buy new). I used the kids' MegaBlocks. Then make the Jello. Make sure you follow the recipe for JELLO JIGGLERS - NOT the regular jello recipe. I made the mistake of making my first batch the regular way and it was totally not firm enough to mold into the shape of a Lego. I used red, green, yellow, and blue jello but didn't end up with very many usable red ones since that is the color in which I didn't follow the jigglers recipe.

After a few hours in the fridge I used a knife to loosen the edges and then shook them out of the Legos. Don't worry about being gentle. You'll need to use some serious force to get them out! But they come out looking just fine!

Lego Themed Party Food

I made Lego cheese and crackers, Lego ham and pb&j sandwiches, and also had red, green, yellow, and blue fruit. Get creative. There are so many things you can make to resemble Legos or Lego themed colors!! The possibilities are endless!

Lego Face Plates

Instead of buying fancy Lego plates I opted to buy cheap square yellow plates ($1 for a pack of 16 at the dollar store!). My plan was to draw Lego men faces on them to make Lego heads out of all of them but it turned out to be difficult to find a stencil to use to draw the faces. Since I have very little artistic ability I just ended up free handing some faces on the dessert plates and leaving the rest plain yellow. If you have more artistic ability than me you could do all sorts of different faces and expressions! I just used a non-toxic permanent marker to make the faces.

Lego Cupcakes

Every year I buy a fancy cake or fancy cupcakes for my kids for their birthday. But this year I had adorable chocolate men and Lego bricks that I had made and I decided I could easily make some super cute cupcakes on my own. Make the cupcakes with some white frosting, pour on some primary colored sprinkles and top with a Lego chocolate. Tah-dah! Awesome looking cupcakes you made yourself. (And serving them on the Lego mat from our Lego table with a border of real Legos was the perfect final touch!)

Lego Men Head Confetti

Instead of buying fancy confetti I printed out some Lego men heads on white card stock, cut them out, and sprinkled them on the tables. It looked great and was super easy and cheap! I used some of these Lego circles as confetti too. 

You can print your own confetti here and here.

Isaiah's Lego birthday party was a ton of fun to do and I think this smile says it all. He enjoyed it too. =)