You'd think...

You'd think I never gave this kid a nap by the places lately she's trying to fall asleep!

Addie's Preschool Valentine's Party

A few days ago was Addison's preschool Valentine's Day party!  She was over the moon about it.  It was her first time making, giving , and receiving valentines.  In fact she let me know on the car ride there that today it was HER party, not mine.  I asked if I could still have fun and eat some of the yummy food and she agreed as long as I knew that it was her party and not mine.  Man!  She's one tough cookie!  Anyway here are a few highlights from our day.

Addie hugging her bag full of valentines.

Addie "lunching" with her girls...L-R Brynn, Addie, Ava, and Hannah

Brynn joining in on the fun.

Addie getting her Jenelle fix.

 Brynn decided to sit on Miss Martha's lap for our story time.

This last picture I'm just throwing in.  It's a picture of the valentine the girls and I made for Justin.  It turned out cute and the girls liked getting their feet painted!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Need to get caught up!

I can't believe it has been so long since I last blogged! I guess that's what Christmas and moving can do to someone. I feel like I need to get caught up, so here is my attempt at giving you the reader's digest of what's been going on with The Blythes.

First off, Christmas time was wonderful. We did lots of fun activities! One was our now annual trip to see the Nutcracker in Orange County. My mom and I took Addie to it last year and she LOVED it. So we repeated the tradition again. Soon, Brynn will join us (in a year or two).

 Here are few pics of us heading there and of my sweet girl with a one of the ballerinas.

Then it was time to make a gingerbread house!  We waited until Brynnie was sleeping and went to town!  She had so much fun...but I think she had more fun licking her fingers and sampling the candy!

My brother and his family came in for Christmas time, so we decided to head down to Birch Street to see all the lights that this particular neighborhood puts up.  It's totally amazing.  I think all my nieces and nephews were impressed!  It was pretty cold and we had to park about 3 blocks away because it was so busy, but it was well worth it.  Brynn is AGAIN not pictured here.  She was sick (poor baby, seems usual for her) and so Justin stayed behind in the warm car with her since she had fallen asleep.  I promise, we do have TWO kids!  LOL  Also, I'm realizing how bad this pic is!  Oh well, you get the idea.

Cosette, Sammy, Kaelyn, Addie, and Brayden

My sweet girl

Nana and Papa with MOST of their grand kids...

Hitching a ride on Papa's shoulders.

Another great change in our lives is that my cousin Shannon and her family moved back here to Southern California, right after Christmas.  We have lived away from each other since about 6 months after she got married, 6 years ago.  We are extremely close and have always wanted to live near each other so we can raise our kids together.  Well...it's finally here!  I couldn't be happier!  So here are a few pics of us at the park.  We go there together all the time now.  I am so blessed.  We also get to go with my other amazing cousin Sara and her new sweet baby Abby.

Sara and Abby

Oh look!  There's Brynn!  See, I told you we bring her with us!

My girl...Shann Wong! (Silly nickname)

Our sweet kiddos, finally getting to spend quality time together.  R-L Addie, Hannah, and Bubby (Josiah)

The last big thing that I'm sure most of anyone who reads this knows is that we moved!  We are now living in a house in Whittier and we couldn't be happier.  It's not that it's all that much bigger than where we are, but it fits our needs so much better.  I'm attaching a few pics, but please excuse any messes...I mean come on...I have two small kids!  What do you expect?

Girl's playroom...a godsend!  I can close the door and not look at the mess and it's all contained!

One view of the girl's bedroom.  The crib is on the opposite wall.  This has turned out great!  Who knew that Addie could sleep through a hurricane!  (aka, Brynn's late-night crying fits)

I finally have a mantle!  We build fires all the time and love it!

A bigger kitchen!  Thank God!

Our favorite part of the whole house!  The backyard!  Here is the "kid's" part.  I love that they can finally play outside!

This tends to be Chance's part, but also great of running around and playing tag.

So that's a quick update for all you out of town friends and family.  Sorry no one got a Christmas card this year.  What with moving and all, it just didn't happen.  Oh well, there's always next year?!

Happy Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving this year with Justin's family out in Riverside.  It was your typical Thanksgiving...lots of family, football, and food.  The girls had fun playing all day and being doted on by the family.  We have so much to be thankful for this year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, The Blythes

Week Three Acts of Kindess

Day One:  I brought my friend and co worker a Starbucks coffee to work.  As teachers, we LOVE our coffee!

Day Two: A family from our adult fellowship group was going through a tough time.  The man of the house was about to undergo major surgery so I brought them a meal.

Day Three: We were approached by a homeless man in the Toys R Us parking lot, so I gave him the compassion bag I made that I was keeping in my car.  I also installed two of our three carseats for my husband.  Installing carseats is such a pain to him and he hates it, so I did it for him.

Day Four: My in laws came out for the day and helped me to begin packing up our house.   I didn't get to do an act of kindness, because they were showering me with their acts of kindness.

Day Five: I installed the final carseat in my husband's car and cleaned it out as well.

Day Six: Made two big pans of homemade stuffing for our adult fellowship group's Thanksgiving Feast.

Day Seven: Today I really got blessed by my best friend.  She was so kind to me, that instead of blessing someone else today, she showered me with blessings.  I'm really grateful...

Week Two Acts of Kindness

The second week of this challenge has proved to be another successful week!  I'm really loving it!

Day One: Today I took the time to write a sweet card to one of my dearest and treasured friends. She's the kind of friend that you count yourself blessed to have in your life. She has been there for me in everything and I just love her and wanted to take the time to tell her.


Day Two:  Addie and I went through all of her beloved dress ups (those of you who know her know how much she LOVES to dress up) and picked out three that she was willing to give away to someone that doesn't have a lot of dress ups.  We've got someone on mind, but I don't want to give it away till we give it to the little girl we picked.

Day Three:  This one is private...just not something I think should be shared out in the blog world.  :)

Day Four:  My hubby came home after working a 12 hour day and his feet were killing him.  So I offered him a foot rub.  I sat and rubbed his feet for a good 1/2 hour.  I KNOW he really enjoyed this particular act of kindness.  :)

Day Five:  I packed up a "Compassion Bag".  I got this idea off of pinterest.  It's a bag of stuff that a homeless person might want/need.  It's got stuff in it like water, food, soap, toothpaste, deodorant, anti bacterial gel, some cough drops, cookies, wipes, some pain reliever, etc.  It's in a big zip-lock bag and we're gonna keep it in our car and when we come across a homeless person asking for money, we're going to give it to him/her.  We wrote God Loves You on it.  I also brought the trash cans in for my hubby...for him that was a MAJOR act of kindness.  ;)

Day Six: I made dinner for my best friend and her husband.  Her husband is a former chef and makes us the most amazing food all the time.  So I wanted to repay the favor and make him a yummy meal that required no work on his part!

Day Seven: I brought my husband dinner at work.  We were going somewhere after he got off work, and he wouldn't have had time to eat, so I got to his work early with food so he'd get a chance to eat.

Week One of Acts of Kindness

Okay, so I started out of the gate....pretty slow... :(   I was all pumped to begin my 30 days of intentional acts of kindness and my first day I was only able to do one small thing.  So, after giving myself a stern talking to, I picked myself up and told myself to do better.  I think I have!  Here's my first week of "kindness"

Day 1: Made copies of students readers and had them assembled for my whole grade level team.

Day 2: Addie and I made a Thank You card for her Awana Cubbies leader, Miss Heather

Day 3: (Got a few in this day) Ran to Sonic and bought Justin and my mom each a Route 44 drink and brought it to both of them.  Also made dinner for my parents and my cousins Chris and Sara and dropped it off at their houses.

Day 4: Today was another day of helping my mom.  She pulled something in her back and has been struggling.  So I made dinner again for her and my dad, and went to her house and did her dishes and folded some laundry. 

Day 5: We went shopping to fill up two boxes that our church is passing out to give to needy families for Thanksgiving.  So we went and bought all the stuff on the list and we are going to be dropping off the boxes next time we're at church. 

Day 6: Today we baked chocolate chip cookies for Daddy, but also for our amazing neighbors Lauren and David.  We are so sad that we only met them a year ago!  We've lived a few houses down from them for years and have missed out on having this amazing couple in our lives, so we thought we'd show them some love by bringing them cookies.

Day 7: Justin and I are starting up another round of the grief group we run, Empty Arms.  Tonight was the first night.  We were meeting at our church, so I decided to run to Starbucks and bought a "traveler", which is a box of coffee (I got decaf since the meeting was at night) and also brought along a plate of the cookies I had made the day before.  Just wanted everyone to feel comfortable.  It's such a difficult thing to go through and difficult decision to make to join the group.

So...that's our first week!  I'm really loving this!  I'm loving that each day it's putting my mind on how I can serve others instead of worrying about myself.  Again, if anyone has any ideas for me for the next few weeks, I'd love to hear them!  Oh, and btw, I'm thankful for YOU!