Caroline's Name In The Sand!

Its finally there!! Caroline's name has been written in the sand! It's just so breathtakingly beautiful that I almost can't stand it! I wish that I could post it here right now, but I need to order the jpeg for it then I will :).

Go and check out Carly Marie's website and scroll down under December 31st. She is there under Caroline Elizabeth Mueller. I just love the colors in the sky above her name. It brought some serious tears to my eyes... My first thought when I saw it was that it looks vaguely like there is heart-shaped sunlight coming through the clouds.

Carly Marie says that "We like to believe that the children themselves choose the time and the sunset that their names are written under. We believe the sunset you receive is the sunset your child has given you."

Sometimes I'm ridiculously desperate for a connection to her that is not of this world. Sometimes Heaven is just too long to wait and I long for a sign from her.

I can't believe that I'll now have something so beautiful that is a part of her to put out on display. So far we really have nothing that's not horribly sad or inappropriate for anyone other than Bobby or myself to look at. This is something for our friends, family, and children to enjoy!

Thanks be to God for such a gift! I feel so blessed this evening!

What The Heck Have I Done??

Ever since we had Griffin we knew that the day would come that we would need to switch over all the nursery furniture from Grady's room to Griffin's room. We didn't rush too much because we knew that Griffin would spend the first four months in our bedroom with us. Now that Griffin is 3 months old (sorry that post is coming soon...) it is time to start the moving over process.

Grady has already been transitioned to a toddler bed but still needs "big kid" furniture. We still have his changing table and armoire in his room that needs to get moved to Griffin's room. Problem is, we needed something to hold Grady's clothes. Bobby and I are of the opinion that we would like to only buy our kids furniture once. It needs to be very sturdy and most importantly big enough to still fit boys growing bodies. We don't want to end up with Grady being 250 lbs and 6' 5" and in a too small twin bed. :)

We ventured out finally today in search of a dresser to at least get the ball rolling on Grady's room. In a couple of months we'll head out to the same place and get him the matching full size bed frame.

We were super excited when we got there because all of the furniture was super solid wood and at amazing prices!! I debated for a while between two dressers before finally deciding  on the larger of the two. I kept thinking in my head that Grady would need something larger as his clothes got bigger and that would really be all that he would have since his closet isn't too big.

What the heck was I thinking?? It seriously goes from one wall to the other!! Bobby was laughing at me once we got it all the way upstairs and into place. I kept saying that it just didn't look this big in the store and he told me "that's what happens in a 10,000 square foot showroom". 

I seriously think that it may have to go back and get something smaller. The only problem is...

a.) I already put his clothes into it and they all.fit.perfectly. Anything smaller and I'll be back to the same problem.

and

b.) I might just break my hubby's heart if I tell him to lug it back downstairs, load it back up into his truck, back to the store and get a different one and repeat the process of getting it upstairs again.

I may give it a chance I think. I plan on painting Grady's walls a nice tan next weekend. Maybe once the dirty plain white walls are gone and some fun accessories (including a mirror) are added it will look better.

(Also, just to throw in, putting it in a different location in the room almost is not an option. With the way that the doors and windows in the room are situated this almost has to be the wall for it...)

What would you do??

Baby Bliss...

Baby bliss is...

A new toy at Christmas,

to kick,

to holler at,

to be fascinated with,

to love!

Thanks Aunt Melanie!

Caroline Has Made My Day!

So here it is, only 7:44 AM and my day has already been made! A while back I put Caroline's name on Carly Marie's wait list for the pictures she does of children's names in the sand on a beach in Australia. Her name is about to come up! When I checked this morning there was only one name in front of hers!!

Carly Marie does the most beautiful work and I can't wait to share Caroline's name with you all once we have it (hopefully in just a couple of days)!

I feel like Caroline is sending us a late Christmas gift because this is something that I have wanted for soo long and it's finally happening! Usually the wait is so long that you have to be really on top of things to even make it onto the waiting list.

I plan on checking her website every 30 minutes today to see if Caroline's name has come up. Once it does I'll post again so ya'll can go and see her too!

Thoughts of my sweet Caroline have been on my heart and mind soo much lately. It will be so wonderful to have something tangible of her for our very own!

A Project For Griffin!

So I've totally been hiding from all the Christmas mess that needs to be put up, toys to be sorted out, laundry that needs to be done, and bags that are still not unpacked... :)

A while back I saw some of the cutest decoupaged letters for children's rooms on Pinterest and I really wanted to try and make some for Griffin!

I headed out to my favorite store, Hobby Lobby, and grabbed all the supplies that I would need.

All you really need to do this is some craft paper, letters (the ones I chose were made out of MDF), Modpodge (I thinned out Elmer's glue with water), a paint brush, an exacto knife, and a pen or pencil.

Next, I traced the reverse of the letter onto the back of the scrapbook paper.

After all the letters had been traced and cut out I applied a thin layer of thinned glue onto the MDF letter and placed the paper on top. I applied a second coat of glue on top of the paper as well. Make sure to leave a glue-y mess on your kitchen table. :)

TA-DA! The finished product! This is a picture of the letter while it was still drying. There were some wrinkles in the paper that came up once the glue was applied and I could not get them out. Some websites that I checked before starting this project mentioned that they had wrinkles too but that they disappeared once it was completely dried. My wrinkles didn't go away :(. They still look pretty cute though!

I haven't decided yet if I'll just hang them on his wall on nails or hang them from ribbons. I'm leaning towards ribbons though!

I wish I had another reason to do more (but I'm pretty sure my older boys wouldn't want this in their rooms). I would like to try wooden letters and maybe different paper and glue to see if I could get just a little bit better of a result.

I can't wait to show you them once they are hung in Griffin's room! We should be finishing it up really soon!

Christmas ~ 2011

My goodness friends! It's been quite a while since I've posted anything but its been a whirlwind around here! We were soo blessed to have a wonderful Christmas with both sides of our families.

Before we headed up North to Dallas, I was able to take the boys to see Santa at Bass Pro Shops. We all had such a fun morning there. My MIL rode with me and we were able to meet my sweet SIL Melanie and her boys there.

Griffin was bundled up soo warm for our little venture out! He did so god though. I was one proud Momma!

My boys patiently waiting in line for the beautiful carousel.

Sweet Grady picked the moose to ride.

My Graham with his smiling cousin Colton looking on in the background :).

47 times of me saying "Ya'll look over here and smile". This was the best picture I got. HA!

We found lots of things to try out while we waited to see the big guy!

Ahhh... finally SANTA!

The boys were really good waiting to see Santa. We had to wait around 2 hours for him. Thankfully Bass Pro Shops offers you a pass to see Santa at a certain time so that you don't have to just endlessly stand in line. We were able to shop around the store and look at all they had to see! 

The next day was a massive packing day for me. Thank goodness we have a Suburban or else we would not fit with all the things that we have to haul around with us. :) I swear I packed all day and when Bobby got home that night he spent a TON of time trying to get it all positioned in car so it would all fit! 

The next day we woke up super early to head up to Dallas. The boys amazed me and all 3 did awesome in the car!! We only had to stop once to feed Griffin and let Grady use the restroom. We made it up to Dallas in record time and with very little traffic. It was a CHRISTMAS MIRACLE! :)

Christmas at Mimi's house! My mom and I stayed up pretty late wrapping last minute gifts and putting everything out under the tree for when everyone woke up. 

My sweet little niece Bess wanted to show off her new hat!

My sister in law Ann and my brother Winston. Ann was a sweet heart and held onto my precious sleeping baby for me :). 

Graham is opening up one of his favorite gifts from Christmas. It was a magic kit! 

My darling nieces Bess and Alice and myself.  I was looking really really rough this day. Griffin had been up most of the night. :(

My funny boys... I have no idea why they both had to lean in the same direction when I took their picture!

We had to drive back home on Christmas day because Bobby had to work on Monday :(. It ended up being ok though because then we had the chance to open our Santa gifts when we got back home to our house! 

The boys got even more stuff! Our house is now overflowing with toys!! I have a ton put back already to put up in the top of my closet to pull out in the coming months. :)

Monday night we went to Bobby's parents house (where I never got the camera out) :(. We had a great time eating and opening gifts with them! The boys got some really awesome gifts! Graham got an iTouch which he has just been dying for and Grady got a Leapfrog Explorer. We were so blessed this Christmas season! 

Thanks for hanging in there with me for this random mish mash of a Christmas post! I have soo many other things to blog about but I just had to get this Christmas one knocked out first. 

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!

Happy One Year Blogaversary!

Happy one year blogaversary to me! I can not believe that one year later I am still maintaining my blog! I loved reading back over my very first post ever! Its been tons of fun seeing how far I've come over the year.

Way back when, I started this blog with the lofty goal of blogging every single day. HA! I haven't done too bad though as I've been able to blog 238 (and 239!) times in the past 365 days. Not too shabby I'd say, especially for me :). I've had some tremendous highs with the birth of Griffin and some crazy someone commit me to the loony bin lows when I've talked about our sweet Caroline. Overall though I'd say that I've come a long way.

This blog has been my crutch, my tissue, and sometimes even my friend! I have liked to read back over some of my post when I wondered where my life would lead me. Would I have more children? Would I find happiness again? Just where was my life going to lead me?

I love that I'm able to see all these questions and more answered. And whats more I'm glad that I captured most of these moments and emotions with words and pictures!

I have to say that I'm super glad that I started this blog when I did. For me it has a very New Years resolution type feel to it that I can look back over the past year and see just how things have changed at such a pivotal time of year that is normally saved for times of reflection.

What kind of wife and mother have I been over that past year? Did I try my hardest to raise a loving family? Is there room for improvement this year? What things could I have done differently in my life to make positive changes for myself and my family? As difficult as these questions are to answer they sometimes are even harder to think about.

One thing that I have discovered (and am not terribly pleased at) is I find myself blogging for others reading pleasure and not for myself and my family. Some days I think of something to blog about and then tell myself "no one wants to read about that" or "how boring". Its my new goal to blog anyway!

Anyway, I can't wait to see what changes the year before me has in store for us! It will probably be one heck of a ride but I'm soo blessed and excited to share it all right here!

Merry Christmas From the Mueller Family!

A very Merry Christmas from the Mueller Family!

This is our card that we sent out this year (Aussie friends, yours will be on their way soon :). I just loved how it turned out!

We will be traveling today so I'm posting this early. We'll be home on Christmas day to open our Santa presents here but I know how busy the boys will be keeping us :).

Lots of love to you all!

Christmas Ornaments For Caroline ~ 2011

Last year I did a post about ornaments that I had started to collect for our sweet Caroline. That one simple post took me all day to write and I swear I cried buckets of tears. Looking back now at that post and re-reading it I realized how therapeutic it was. I needed to go out and find those ornaments, hang them on our tree, take the pictures, and post the words that my mothers heart told me to. All of it stung. All of it still felt like I was living in a nightmare. But, I still needed to do it. I'm soo thankful that I did. I was able to start a little something that is special just for her.

This year as it neared my Caroline's birthday (October 15th) I began to get that anxious, panic-y feel. On one particularly bad day I asked Graham if he was up for a little retail therapy (thank God my boy loves to shop!) and we headed out to Hobby Lobby. Despite the earliness of the season, I knew that Hobby Lobby would have most of their ornaments already out. I was right!

Graham and I went up and down each isle picking out ornaments for each family member. I loved the one above and picked one out for each of us. I ended up the crazy lady at the check-out with 3 identical "G" ones :). Of course Caroline had to have one to match ours. I was delighted to discover that out of all they had there they only had 1 "C" one and I got it!!

While Graham was picking out ones for himself and his little brothers I noticed an entire section of nothing but pink ornaments. For a brief moment I was drawn to those but then just couldn't do it. I could feel myself starting to get really choked up and I couldn't look at them with out really embarrassing myself and Graham. In that moment I realized that I wasn't quite ready yet to take that step. Funny how just one color can mean soo much.

Walking down the next isle I was drawn to the above ornament. It was perfect! It was brightly colored and had my favorite word on it!! This would be Caroline's other ornament for the year!  This shimmery ornament with the bright lime green ribbon just had to be for her. I decided then that every year I would get her several ornaments special just to her and that at least one of them would have to say "HOPE". It will forever be my word to remind me of just how lucky I am to be Caroline's Momma. It also reminds me of just how powerful our God is and the promise that he holds for each one of us.

A School Party, A Christmas Program, Dry Ice and Frozen Meat

(And a partridge in a pear tree...) :)

We have just had soo much stuff going on around here!

Poor Griffin just sounds soo horrible at night now. He coughs and gags and just generally sounds like he's having a very hard time breathing. It is still pretty much only during the night though. I seriously can't figure that out... Last night I tried several times to suction out his nose with one of those bulb-y things and nothing. What the heck?? Its there and I can hear it. Why won't it come out so my poor child will feel better! I plan on catching what it sounds like on my phone when I take him to the doctor in a couple of days so she can hear it too and tell me what the heck is going on. I ended up elevating his pack-n-play in the middle of the night last night per my SIL Melanie's suggestion. It did help some!

Graham had the funnest school Christmas play the other day! It was just for the 3rd graders and it was super cute. It was called The Reindeer Whisperer. The music teacher had simple little costumes for the kids to wear and they all did a great job!

My nephew Colton and Graham. They both did a really great job! Colton was Herbie the elf and got to keep saying "I want to be a dentist" which cracked everyone up!

The other day Bobby got a large box in the mail. I was super curious and he said that I could go ahead and open it for him. Guess what I found inside... his Christmas bonus!



Cash would have been better but I'll take free steak any day of the week!

It came packaged in this stuff...

Once I told the boys what it was and what we could do with it they were over the moon!

We didn't get too crazy with it though. I warned them like 400 times that dry ice was pretty dangerous despite the fun sounding name. We put the dry ice into a bowl of water and watched it bubble and fill part of the kitchen with "smoke". :) The boys were pretty impressed and we were all entertained for a while!

On Friday Graham had his class Christmas party and book exchange. The kids all got to eat pizza in their classroom and then decorate a cookie. I was pretty excited to be able to run up there and see Graham. We both had a lot of fun together.

Graham is front and center right in the middle. :)

Time for the book exchange!

Graham's super sweet teacher reading to the kids. Every time she said "Santa" while she read the book the kids had to pass the wrapped book in their hands to the kid on the right. She said "Santa" soo many times that it had the kids just about rolling on the floor with laughter! We are soo thankful for this wonderful lady!

Graham has off this week and next from school. I can't wait to see what all trouble fun we can get ourselves into!

Born Natural

Thank God he does this with some crazy ease so Momma can get dinner on the table!! I can not wait to see him as a Daddy!

Adventures in Mommahood

• Lefty is still killing me. This morning I was sooo tired and in pain that I would take a sip of my hot coffee and then press the side of the hot coffee mug up against Lefty to get a little relief... gross but true. Why oh why must one clogged gland make me feel like I have the flu!!

• Griffin (I think) is getting his first cold. Last night he woke up at 12:30, 2:30, and 4:30 crying and choking on what I'm guessing is mucous. I could hear it in his throat when I went to pick him up out of bed. Poor little guy he sounds miserable. It was a blessing in disguise I guess because I was able to nurse him on Lefty every time he woke up instead of him (and me) going all night without a feeding.





Sleeping on Daddy is just the best! He's so warm and soft! I sleep pretty dang good next to him too :).


• Graham has a school play tonight and I'm super excited! Bobby is actually taking off of work early to make it in time and we all can't wait for that! He will be elf in it and I can't wait to do a blog post to show off my boy!





Graham is the best baby holder! Also, I have to mention just for my own memories sake, the outfit that Griffin is wearing in this picture used to be Grahams! I love it!


• Speaking of Graham (and something that I've never divulged here before), his school testing is almost complete to find out if he has learning disabilities! We are 99.9 % sure that he does just not which ones. Any readers out there that have a kiddo with LD please leave me a comment! Even you lurkers... :) Oddly enough, this is also something that we are excited about because we have been begging his school district to test him since Kinder. GRRR...





Griffin says "Thanks for my soft, comfy outfit Kerry!"


• Griffin has learned how to bounce himself in his bouncy seat!! He finally figured out that if he kicked his legs up and down then it gets him bouncing. He loves it and entertains him soo well. My dishwasher that got unloaded thanks him. :)



And yet another random picture...my middle "baby" Grady. We had such a fun time the other day cutting snowflakes! (also another post coming up soon)



My Breast Friend

Good old lefty. She was always there when I needed her. She was the best producer of the two and I could always count on her to supply enough for my little ones whenever they were hungry. I was soo proud!

Not so much anymore.

Last night around 1 AM Lefty let me down in the most horrible way possible. Lefty got plugged up and then Lefty proceeded to get an infection. I went from waking up at 1 AM in a little bit of pain to getting into a hot hot shower by 2 AM, then onto the living room to try and pump (Griffin was sacked out cold and there was no way in HECK I was going to purposely wake him up). By 2:30 ish I was in pain past the point of me baring it. I took my temperature and it was 99.7. I knew that there was something bad going on in my chest. I woke Bobby up when I started shivering and sweating uncontrollably. When he took my temperature at 3 AM it was 102.1. Crap.

We decided that it was time to call my OB's office and see if we should head to the ER or wait it out for the next morning and call for an appointment. Thanks be to God that it was my OB, Dr. Womack, that was on call! She called me right back and I told her what was going on. She said that it was up to us as to if we should wait for an appointment or head to the ER. She pretty much said what I knew all along. Pump and breastfeed as.much.as.possible. She also asked if we had any leftover antibiotics from any family member floating around our house. Sadly we didn't so I couldn't start on anything earlier rather than later.

Bobby and I barely survived the rest of the night. My fever spiked at 103.2 around 4 AM. I was just soo shocked that I went to bed just fine and hours later I felt like death warmed over.

My sweet hubby took Griffin and myself to my OB's office for a quick check and a prescription for antibiotics. Ugg. I'm feeling a little bit better now. I still feel like I'm fighting the flu though. I can't wait for my hubby to get home tonight so I can head back off to bed!

Christmas Home Tour ~ 2011

 Welcome to the Mueller Family Christmas home tour!

This is my AB-solutely favorite time of year! With more time and more money I don't think that I would stop decorating until well after Christmas and maybe past New Years even! :)

I love to put decorations on anything that will stand still and I'm trying to slowly but surely build up a Christmas collection of all my favorite things!

I am in LOVE with collecting blue ornaments! Every year I try to buy 4 or 5 more to add to my collection. I hope that one day I can have a solid blue tree. Right now though, it is still a bit mish-mashy. I have 2 little helpers that love to decorate too so my "dream tree" plans are put on hold for just a few more years... :).

My other favorite thing to collect are Jim Shore Santa's. They are a bit on the pricey side so I only add 1 each year.



These are 4 of the 5 that I have so far. Isn't he a handsome gentleman? :)



We also love to keep little tubs of books around for the kids to grab and read. We must read one Christmas story or another 15 times a day now! That's ok though, I'm pretty in love with the magic of the season myself!

The only thing that I miss doing is having a lighted tree in our front window that can be enjoyed by others as they drive by. The way that our house is situated our dining room is the front room of the house and we don't like to keep our tree in there. We usually keep our tree in our family room area where it can be enjoyed the most. I'm thinking that this year I may need to make a run to Hobby Lobby after Christmas to see if I can pick up an artificial one for my dining room!



Our Family Room!



The front door and other little nooks and crannies I found to decorate!



This is one of the most precious places in our house to me! Its on the right hand side of our mantle. In the middle is our precious angel Caroline's little urn. I was super excited to find a pink "M" picture frame holder that I put my 3 boys Christmas picture in. I like to think that I have at least one place where all my babies are together!





Our downstairs bathroom was not safe from me either. Funnily enough, there is soo much more in this little tiny bathroom but I couldn't capture all of it with one camera shot!

Our dining room buffet area. I love to look at my Santas when I walk in the door!

Our dining room table. I found the Christmas tree centerpiece this year and love it but I still feel like the table needs more but can't figure out what!

I hope that you all enjoyed this year's Christmas time tour!