If it's quiet, you know Josiah's up to something...

James came into my room to let me know that Josiah was doing something bad, and this is what he looked like when I found him.  He had gotten into my lipstick, and knew just what to do with it.  I don't think it's his color though... :)

He knows I can't stay upset when I see this face

When I took a picture of Josiah, Anna Ruth wanted to join in on the picture.

 My 2 blue-eyed beauties!  Can you tell they're related?! 

Then James joined in as well.  He knows I get frustrated with him squinting his eyes in every picture, so he did it just to get a rise out of me.  Then, he asked to see the picture, and laughed hysterically at his silly face!

I just adore these little cuties--they're growing up way too fast!!

Josiah's Words--18 months old

Happenings...

Just wanted to get something on here to update about what's been going on...

Anna Ruth:

Anna Ruth's hair is in a headband braid

She is getting so tall and grown-up.  Everyone keeps saying it wherever we go.  I can't believe she's going to be seven years old in December.

She is a voracious reader, and is already reading American girl books and other small chapter books.  Because of the AG books, she has gotten into dolls, and we have joined an American Girl club with our homeschooling support group.  It meets once a month (with a different doll theme each time), and the girls bring their dolls, they learn about the time period from the stories, do a craft, and have snacks.  This month the doll is Molly, whose story is set during World War II.  She has read 3 of the Molly books, watched the Molly movie, and has gotten a doll to bring to the club.  It is not an AG doll, since they are so expensive, but it is the same size and style of them.  Hers has blonde hair, blue eyes, and is named Lily Anna.
I love doing her hair, and she usually has good ideas of how she wants it done.  Now that she has a doll, she usually requests for me to make her doll's hair match hers.
Anna Ruth likes to put on music while she works on her handwriting in the morning.  Lately, she does not want to choose "kid music", so she has been looking through my CD case and putting on Indelible Grace music.  It takes me back to RUF days!  She's so funny about wanting to be like an adult now.

James:

James loves to fight off all the bad guys

He is a big fan of Anna Ruth, although he might not admit it.  He copies everything she says and does, and they actually play together pretty well, because he's willing to listen to her and do what she says.
He is quite the climber.
He was running around the train table the other day saying, "I'm a race car!"
James stood on the toybox and performed the Doxology for us.  It went like this: "Praise God from whom all blessings flow! (a step higher) "Praise God from whom all blessings flow!" (a step higher) "Praise God from whom all blessings flow!" (a step higher) "A-men!"
He is doing really well with school.  We are learning the sounds of the letters, and practicing writing the letters.  He is pretty close to being able to write his name.
He also has begun to draw stick figures; they even have details like eyes, noses, mouths, hair, and tummies.  And he stays in the lines on coloring pages if he wants to.
He is still into dinosaurs, and is requesting a T-Rex birthday party when he turns four, which is not far away--November 14th!

Josiah:

Josiah posing in his new Mexican shirt

This boy is into EVERYTHING!  I never had to put cabinet locks on for the other kids, but they've been oh-so-necessary for him.  He gets into drawers, plays in the toilets, grabs whatever may be slightly hanging off the side of the counter, rips up paper, finds pens and writes on walls and couches, etc.  You get the idea!
He is extremely active and likes to climb.  If I had a nickel for every time I got him down from some place he shouldn't be up on, I'd be a rich woman.
He is a pincher and biter.  Ouch!
He is a sweet boy, though, and is a little talker.  He jabbers on about all sorts of things, especially getting excited when Daddy gets home.  He runs to the door, shouting, "Dah!  Dah!"  Rich loves it!




Liv and Rich:
I am enjoying homeschooling this year.  I am re-learning things I had forgotten about history, singing songs about nouns that I still remember from the 1st grade, and even learning lots of new things!  It is so fun to have this time with my children.  It is hard, and there's not much down time, and I'm usually exhausted by the end of the day, but I really do feel fulfillment in doing what God has called me to do right now.
I am about to start Women's Bible Study next week, and we are reading a book called The Praying Life.  I think it is a timely study, from which I will profit much.
Rich has been reading a lot more lately.  After we started listening to The Chronicles of Narnia with the kids, he got excited about fiction again, and read ahead in those books as well as reading some fiction by G.K. Chesterton.
Rich is happy about at least one of his teams doing well this football season.  The Citadel is having a great start to their season, and we are going to our first football game as a family on Saturday.  He has been practicing the CI-TA-DEL...Goooooo BULLDOGS!!! cheer with the kids so that we can spur our team on to victory.

New Beginnings

Sometimes updating the blog helps me get back into the habit of writing more.  That's what I'm trying to do this time.  Do you like the new look and theme?  We'll see if I can be a bit more faithful in posting this time around.  There is much to write about, but very little time.  But I think it is important to write these things down so that I can remember them later.  So, here's to a new beginning with the blog.  The story of our life moves on, and hopefully, I can write it down.  I will post updates and pictures about the children--cute quotes, milestones, achievements, activities, etc.
Another new beginning is the school year!  On Monday, King's Dominion Academy (what we named our homeschool) will be starting it's second year.  Anna Ruth will be in 1st grade, and James will be in K-4.  I am excited to watch them learn so many new things, and I'm glad I can spend all this time with them.  I am having to make a pretty tight schedule for our day, but I think it's a good thing to be more purposeful with the way we use our time.  I may post about what we're doing and learning in school, and maybe some cool science experiments, too!
A third new beginning is our plan to get out of debt.  The only debt we have at the moment is Rich's student loan and the house, so we are trying to really attack the student loan debt in order to get that paid off in the next couple years.  I am having to be more careful with the budget and cut back on unnecessary expenses for a while, so I may post about good deals I find or thrifty projects and gifts I'm able to make.
I hope that you will check back often to keep up with our story, and please write a little something to encourage me to continue the updates.  You know I need it! ;)

3

As you can tell, 3 kids has been a big adjustment for me.  Two seemed so manageable, I figured 3 wouldn't be that hard, but oh, was I wrong.  Rich and I are now outnumbered.  And the 2 older ones are in the stage where they need lots of training.  I guess it didn't help that Josiah had reflux and was very fussy for the first couple months.  He didn't like to be put down ever.  He is just now starting to feel better, and so he's happy sitting in a bouncy seat for a while.  He is also starting to sleep through the night now.  But even with that help, it's still hard to meet all their needs.  Anna Ruth is a talker, and craves interaction.  She wants to help, but many times it's more work to let her help.  James is all boy, and I can't take my eyes off him for long.  The other day he opened the front door and was out in the street watching the garbage truck before I even realized what was going on.  He also likes to get a rise out of Anna Ruth by taking her toys or messing up something she set up.  Anna Ruth is a drama queen and reacts loudly to James' pestering.  Josiah just wants to be looked at and talked to while he is awake. (which I would love to do, if I didn't have a thousand other things on my plate!)  Since he spits up all the time, he also makes a huge amount of laundry for being so small!  So 3 kids has been pretty overwhelming, and I don't know how I would survive without parents helping out.  I have a brand new appreciation for my mom who had her first 3 closer together than I had mine.  Every day is an adventure and a chance to be more sanctified.  But sometimes it's discouraging as I see I am not nearly as patient as I thought I was, not as self-sacrificing as I need to be, and not a good manager of my time.  Having children sure does bring out the worst in me.  I know it is God's way of showing me who I really am in order to bring about change in me.  Maybe by the end of this, I will look a little more like Christ.  If that's the case, it is so worth it. 
Don't get me wrong; I love my kids.  I love hearing their little voices say "I love you Mommy" and feel their sweet kisses on my lips.  I love seeing them do the happy dance when I tell them they can have dessert.  I love hearing their squeals of laughter when they get tickled.  I love hearing Anna Ruth talk about her understanding of a Bible story and hear both of their prayer requests during family worship.  I love watching them dance in the living room with Daddy after dinner.  I love seeing Josiah's huge smiles and first little laughs when I kiss his neck.  They are all precious gifts from God.   I love them so much, it's hard to believe that my Heavenly Father loves me even more than that.  It gives me hope because I know he will keep forgiving me and working everything together for my good.
So, if you have 2 kids, and you're wondering whether you should have another, I would say definitely have 3! :)

Getting ready...

Things have been very busy around here with all the usual stuff along with getting ready for our new arrival.  I have been tweaking the baby's room, moving stuff around, and figuring out everything I need to have on hand.  I am very excited about this new baby, but it still has not quite set in that I will have a newborn in less than a week.  I don't think it will set in until it actually happens.  I feel about as prepared as I could be except for getting enough sleep.  Rich is super busy at work trying to get things in order before he takes 2 weeks off starting on Monday.  I am thankful for all the help I will have with my mom and mother-in-law in town, Rich being home, and a wonderful church family helping out.  I am excited to see Anna Ruth's reaction to her new brother, and hoping James will not be too jealous and whiny.  He does seem to like babies, but probably will not appreciate this one taking up so much of my time and attention.  Anyway, here are a few pictures of the nursery, which is ready and waiting to be occupied.  I changed a few things from the way it was for James, like I added ribbon to the wall art to give it a different look, and (with the help of my mother-in-law) I added more cushion and re-covered my glider rocker and ottoman.  I think it looks super cute!

Ketchup Post

No, actually, this post is not about ketchup. 

BUT I do need to catch up on the happenings of the Hamlin household, so here goes.  As I've mentioned before, I knew this kind of post would be necessary from time to time since I am busy with all that's going on and blogging is not exactly my first priority.

The next event on the list after James' birthday is Thanksgiving.  It was our year to spend Thanksgiving with Rich's side of the family, which makes it nice since we get to stay put--traveling with kids is something we try to avoid if possible!  Anyway, all of Rich's siblings except for Shannon were able to come to town, and it was especially good to see Ben and Judith since we knew they would soon be leaving for Germany.  Anna Ruth absolutely LOVED Adia Sulwen, and has now named several of her dolls after her little cousin. 

Anna Ruth holding Adia Sulwen

We all participated in the Turkey Day Run, which was a lot of fun.  Rich ran it, I walked it with the kiddos in the stroller, and Anna Ruth and James also did a kid's fun run after the race.  They each ran with their respective age groups and genders, but they both needed a parent to run alongside them (and in Anna Ruth's case, I had to practically drag her because she was scared to do it on her own).  They both got a t-shirt and a medal, and we hope that they next time, they will both do a bit better. 

After the race, we went back to Rich's parents' house to hang out, make food, and play a little 4-square.  We enjoyed a wonderful meal of ham, sweet potatoes, crockpot mac 'n' cheese, corn pudding, spinach salad, and pumpkin and apple pie for dessert.  Wish we would have gotten a picture of the food--it was amazing.  We always feel more justified in pigging out on Thanksgiving dinner after exercising in the morning.  :)

Anna Ruth's 5th birthday quickly followed Thanksgiving, and this was the first year we had an actual party for her where we invited some of her little friends over to celebrate with her.  She was so excited to have a princess-themed party!  We asked each of the girls to come dressed up as a princess, and the activities were as follows:  decorating princess-themed sugar cookies, decorating purple jewelry boxes with gems, giving make-overs, and playing dress-up.  A while back I had seen a castle cake online, and decided I would give it a try for Anna Ruth's birthday.  I made it purple, since that is her favorite color and added the princess figurines at her request.  I stayed up very late the night before the party making it, but it was worth the look on her face in the morning when she saw it.  She got lots of girly presents including a princess comforter for her bed, a Rapunzel dress-up outfit, a ballet nightgown with a matching nightgown for her doll, and a special gift from Daddy--a real pearl necklace and bracelet set.  We can't believe how fast our little girl has grown up! 

front of the castle cake

back of the castle cake

Anna Ruth showing off her new pearls from Daddy

our little princess on her 5th birthday

Anna Ruth wearing the new nightgown with her matching doll sitting on the new princess comforter

A few days after Anna Ruth's birthday, she performed in her ballet Christmas prgram.  Her little class danced to "Away in a Manger", and it was adorable!  She was scared at the beginning, but she pulled herself together and did a great job.  (As a funny sidenote, whenever James hears the song "Away in a Manger", he starts twirling, with his hands above his head, just like Anna Ruth does in her dance.)

a big smile before the program

Anna Ruth striking a pose

Christmas was spent with my side of the family this year, and my 3 sisters were all able to be here along with my parents and my grandmother (my Dad's mom).  It was pretty chaotic with 8 kids in the house (my oldest sister Sarah's 6 and our 2), but the adults had just as much fun as the kids.  We enjoyed many wonderful meals, played games, had a comedy night, sang Christmas carols, went out thrift store shopping and out to lunch, and opened TONS of gifts on Christmas!  Again, I wish I had gotten more pictures, but everything seemed to happen so fast and stay so busy, that I rarely thought about getting out my camera.  We also celebrated Sarah's 30th birthday and Milienne's 11th birthday, which are both on December 29th.  Overall, it was a blast, and we are looking forward to the next time we will all be together.  

the living room full of presents!



(from left to right) Sarah, Jessica, Mom, Olivia (me), Lisa
We are wearing the matching pajamas Sarah got us.

Just in case you didn't see our family picture we sent out this year in our Christmas newsletter, here it is:

One of Rich's Christmas gifts to me this year was a real pearl necklace, that I absolutely love!  I wore it to a wedding, and Rich wanted to get a picture of me with it on.

Other than holiday festivities, we've also been keeping busy attending lots of oyster roasts associated with Rich's work, going to lots of doctor's appointments, getting back into the routine of Anna Ruth's school one day a week, going to the library, etc.  I've also started working on some smocking projects that I would like to get done before this little boy shows up in early March.  I have plans to smock 3 dresses for Anna Ruth and one outfit for the new baby.  On Monday I started on the first dress and have made some good progress on it.  I will post more pictures as I get each one finished.  

This is a spring dress for Anna Ruth that will have pink and purple tulips on it.

Thanks for reading, and I will try to do better, so that I don't have to have such long ketchup posts in the future! ;)

James' Words at almost 2 years old

It's so interesting to see the difference between boys and girls.  It really is neat to see how from the very beginning of their existence, they display different characteristics.  James and Anna Ruth have been so different, it blows me away!  James is so into vehicles of all varieties--cars, trucks, airplanes, trains, tractors, etc.  He plays with his cars ALL DAY LONG!  He rolls them on different surfaces, pushes them across the kitchen floor, and rams them into stuff.  When he's not doing that, he's climbing, throwing, running, or destroying.  He also loves to be outside digging in the dirt or throwing and kicking balls.  He is obsessed with Pop-Pop (my dad) and his Daddy.  So with all that activity, he doesn't have much time for talking.  Now, he certainly gets his point across, just not necessarily with words.  I remember at this age, Anna Ruth was speaking in complete sentences and already talked incessantly.  I don't think I even attempted to make a list of her vocabulary, because it would have been such a long list.  But I'm finally getting together a small list of James' words now that he's almost 2 years old!  Lately, he has started trying more, instead of just shaking his head when we would ask him to say a word.  So, a lot of these are pretty recent new words.
Here's the list:
Mama
Dada
Anna (for Anna Ruth)
Pop-Pop
Bi-buh (Bible)
bye-bye
eyes
all done
mine
ni-ni (night-night)
hi
bus
ball
boo-dah (he says this for shoe, and we have no idea why)
nana (banana)
buzzzz (birds)
uh-oh
Hun (he calls me this sometimes, because he hears Rich saying it)
gah-gah (lollipop)
my-min (vitamin and medicine)
Amen
He will also answer the first two catechism questions:
Who made you?  Gah (God)
What else did God make?  Aaaall tins (all things)

Random Ramblings

I am very much looking forward to my vacation this weekend.  Rich is taking time off work from Thursday lunch through Tuesday.  So that adds up to 5 1/2 days in a row of being home and spending time with me and the kids.  I did say MY vacation, too, since we will be farming out the kids for several days in there as well.  AR will be headed to Rich's parents and James to my parents from Friday to Sunday.  Then we will drive to Greenville and drop them off at my sister's house where they will have tons of fun with their cousins for a couple days, and we are staying with some old friends in the area.  Rich and I are both looking forward to a break from the normal routine.  My 26th birthday is on Saturday, so we will also celebrate that during the time.  Yay for generous family that is willing to give us a break!

Last night I saw an ad for a new Secret deodorant that is waterproof.  The line they used said, "Keeps working in heat, humidity, and water!"  I was like, okay, so all your other deodorants did not work in the heat or humidity or when wet??!!  Wow, what good to me is a deodorant that only works when you're not hot or sweaty?  If it doesn't work in the heat and humidity or when I start to sweat, it's basically useless to me, especially here in Charleston.  So, either all their previous deodorants are crappy and useless, or they are just trying to sell something new without it really being new at all.  I just thought it was crazy, and I hope people don't see it and think that it's some great new product. 

This pregnancy has been really great so far.  I have rarely felt very bad, and have only have a few waves of nausea a day and sometimes none at all!  I am hungry a lot and am able to eat normally.  With all of my previous pregnancies, I was very nauseous and sick for the first trimester, could not eat much at all, and usually lost at least 5 pounds during the first 15 weeks.  It is so strange that this time around it is so different.  But, hey, I'll take it, especially with two crazy kids keeping me busy all the time.  If anytime I needed an easy pregnancy, it's now.  I was hoping maybe it meant I was having twins, but that's been ruled out.  Oh well, I'm just happy for one healthy baby and that I'm not sick!

I am trying to get better at couponing, but it is hard.  I feel a little overwhelmed trying to keep it all organized and figuring out what I should buy, because you can't buy EVERYTHING that's a good deal!  I've read all the info, watched videos with all the things I need to know and lots of good tips, but actually getting it together every week is daunting.  I have been able to do a little, but I know I could do much better.  I usually save around 50%, but that's because I'm mostly buying BOGO deals, so it doesn't really say much for my couponing skills.  I am working on it, though, and I will update with any progress and success.  If you have any tips, please feel free to share!

Blog Reboot & Typical Day

Hey y'all! Long time, no write, right? Well, you know how life gets and keeping up a blog is not quite at the top of my priority list. But it is fun, and I would like to put up a few more things than I have been. It's tempting just to post pictures and stuff on facebook, but writing about my life now seems like it will be interesting to look back on in a few years. So, I am attempting to get back into the swing of things.
I am hoping to post pictures and videos of the happenings around here, some recipes that I try and enjoy, cute quotes from the kids (mostly Anna Ruth right now), smocking projects I've been working on, decorating ideas and tips (from me or just stuff I've found somewhere), and also couponing successes.

I thought I would start off by writing out what a typical day around here is like.

Here goes: My typical day starts off around 7 or 7:30. Rich is generally still home, so I join him on the couch to read the Bible for a little while. There are usually a few noises coming from the vicinity of James' room, but I ignore them until they become cries. Anna Ruth gets up and plays in her room until it's time for Rich to leave, and she will give him big hugs and kisses to send him off. James does the same, but quickly returns to Mommy. He loves his Daddy, but he sure is a Momma's boy at the moment. :) After Rich leaves, I feed the kids breakfast, which is usually cereal. I'm not much for one to make a nice, hot breakfast, and actually the kids prefer cereal anyway. It's a win-win situation. After breakfast, the kids play while I get the kitchen cleaned up, and generally tidy up around the house. They are pretty good about playing together, but they do have some run-ins over toys fairly often. Occasionally I will let them watch Sesame Street at 10AM, which will allow me to check e-mail, facebook, Southern Savers, and a few other blogs I enjoy reading. It's safe to say that not much gets done until the kids go down for their naps after eating lunch. They both go down at 1PM, and usually stay down for around 2-4 hours depending on how late they got to bed the night before, and how busy the day has been. During nap time, I try to pick up the house, do other household chores, and maybe even catch a rest myself. I mainly just enjoy the silence. The time from when the kids get up to when Rich gets home seem to be the longest hours of the day. The kids are wanting to get outside or see Daddy or just be wild and crazy. I have been trying to let Anna Ruth help me with dinner preparations whenever possible, and she loves to help. She also sets the table almost every night, which is actually a big help. When the kids hear the door open, they run squealing to the door, yelling, "Daddy, Daddy!" He appreciates the enthusiastic welcome, and I am grateful for a break from the kids being at my feet. We eat dinner together, and have family worship before getting the kids ready for bed. We always sing the first and last stanzas of Psalm 23 when putting them to bed. With the kids down, Rich and I have time to catch up talk about our days. We are usually both exhausted and try to get to bed before 11PM to be rested up for the day ahead.