Unglued.

Linking up today with these super sweet girls-on a series with today's topic "Coming Unglued".

10 years ago if you had of told 18 year old Sarah, "In 10 years you will be a mom, of 3 girls, you will live in the same house you grew up in, you will be involved in your church, you will be on PTO, and your life will be so chaotic that you will come unglued-a lot."

She would have said-you are flat out crazy.

See 18 year old Sarah had big plans-finish college-then go on to Culinary school-if kids came-it maybe 1 girl-but running a restaurant/event service company is a lot of work-so family would take a back seat. Church, PTO, not a chance. And a chaotic life? Coming unglued? Not so much. I can handle it all.

In recent years, I have discovered that I come unglued a lot more than I am proud of. My house is a wreck. I literally threw away/donated over 50 bags of stuff and I still can't get it together. I have a hard time trusting God on a day to day basis. And that my friend is just honest. I know in my heart of hearts that He has it all handled. He knows what is best for me and he knows the plan of my life-as long as I surrender. I tend to try to take the control away from Him-and when I do-life spirals out of control and I become unglued.

I snap a lot at my big girls. I am so ashamed of this. I thought I would be the cool mom that goes with the flow. I get frustrated when they don't put things back-when they cut apart my paper towels in the process of designing barbie clothes. When they take everything clean out of their drawers just to find their favorite pair of leggings. I yell and it is so hard. I have learned to apologize to the girls. And what a humbling experience it has been. Now that Madyson is old enough-she knows that when I snap-I need prayer. Once, I apologized for snapping after she asked for the 4th time in 20 minutes if we could play spa. Her response, "youre tired mommy, I'll pray for you to feel better."

I come unglued at Todd-. I snap when he doesn't get ALL the trash or when he leaves coke cans on the table-or eats cereal out of the BIGGEST bowl in the pantry. I am quick to apologize on this but still-I snap.

As a wife/mom I have a lot of expectations for myself. And when I fail at those-I become unglued.

I have begun a method of waiting before I respond. If I feel myself becoming unglued, I now stop-whatever I am doing-and I pray. My mantra lately has been Matt Maher's LORD I NEED YOU. I can't say I don't cry during this waiting time. But I feel myself being able to handle the stress/anxiety/frustration better.

My prayer is proverbs 16:3. Commit to the Lord, whatever you do; and your plans will succeed. One day-I will be able to handle situations better and more Christ like.
 

How do you handle your unglued moments?

What I am loving 2 months!

It is amazing how much babies change week by week! Amelia is now 2 months old!!! She is becoming more social and starting to finally wake up! (this is her morning smile-she always is happy first thing in the morning!)

She LOVES to nurse. I mean L.O.V.E.S it. To the point where 3/4 of the day are spent nursing. at least 2x a week.

When she does take a bottle she usually has 4oz.

She currently weighs about 8.5lbs

and is officially wearing 0-3 month clothes and even some 3-6!

She is sleeping almost all night with waking up 1x to nurse-but she goes back to sleep pretty fast.

This month my favorite products are

The WubbaNub!

She loves her "Wubby" as we call it. After about 3 weeks she learned to find it herself at night when she needed it!

Similac Bottles-

We received one free in the mail from Similac and tried it out-She loves it. The nipple is very breast like and she seams to favor this over the Born Free we used at the beginning.

Honest Company Diapers:
This one rolls over from last month. I can't say enough good things about them. They are good for the planet. For every pack bought they donate to help families in need, and now they have even created a design that helps wildlife!

Not only can you get a free sample-you can bundle-purchase natural bug spray AND laundry detergent.

Last on the list-
Ivory 2n1 Hair and Body Wash

I received a free bottle thanks to influenster and I loved it for me and the big girls! But then I noticed-I was out of Mia's baby wash-so since it was raining and I didn't feel like getting everyone out to go to the store-I used the Ivory 2n1 on her! And let me tell you-she smelled DIVINE!

and for those wondering-it is safe enough for Madyson's sensitive skin! No eczema flare ups with it!

Lordy, Lordy!!

Today is a VERY special day for our family. My big brother, Wesley is turning 40!

I don't know about you but at times-I forget that I am almost 30-married with 3 kids. When it comes to my brother I still see us as young.

Wesley and I are 11 years apart and out of all my siblings-I have spent the most time with him.

When I was 5, my babysitter (Megan pronounced *ME*gan) became his girlfriend and from that point forward my brother taught me all about relationships. I watched them go through high school with each other. On occasion, they would take me on a date with them! We would go walk around the mall, go to DZ (discovery zone), or Krispie Kream!

When I was in middle school, Wesley had taken my friend and I to the town Christmas parade. I asked what he was getting Megan for Christmas and he pulled out her engagement ring! Being young-and a blabber mouth-I had to find out if she would say yes. I couldn't let my brother get turned down. (Keep I mind the was 6 years after they started dating) so I went into wingman approach and hinted "If he asked you to marry him, would you?"

So there in our hallway he proposed. Romantic huh? ;) Megan and Wesley went on to get married. He got a wife-i got a best friend. I was a bridesmaid-and I cried the whole time. They moved into an apartment down the road from our house. I helped them set it up and enjoyed swimming in their apartment pool. a few years later little Emma was on the way (my eldest niece) and they moved across town. I missed Emma's birth because I was coming home from vacation and she came early! (4days after my 15th birthday) but I have been there for Ellie and Kaiden's (their youngest 2 kiddos) birth. I had the privilege of witnessing my brother become a father and that is the most powerful moment of my relationship with him.

Wesley is by far my biggest role model. He is a hard worker-he loves his family and he is the best big brother. He gave me my love for Vanilla Ice and Sir mix a lot. He made my slumber parties more...entertaining by scaring us on the middle of the night. And he introduced me to my most favorite movie-the Lazerath.

I am blessed to have him and can't believe today he turns 40. Happy birthday brother!

last week in iPhone pics

I don't know about y'all but last week emotionally wore.me.out. Between the Boston bombing-Texas explosion-manhunt it was just a crazy week. For us:

We got a new roof

Amelia is becoming more infant like and growing her personality

We got a pocket hose. Best thing ever

God showed off with some beautiful weather

And we napped...

Aubrie caught a lizard (anole) that lived in a jar for 2 days-here she is hanging on some grass

boring.

Life here is boring. Which is a good thing I suppose. Madyson is almost out of school-so there will be some end of year stuff coming up.

Our daily life consist of trying to get things done with a growing baby. If you come to my house and its a mess-I apologize. My little "leach" (as we affectionately call her) likes to nurse-all. day. For never have nursed a baby before-I believe I am a pro. Well-she is. In the 3-4 hours a day (all 24 of them) that she is asleep and not nursing I may get a shower-do some laundry or a load of dishes. But right now-I am a dairy cow. Who'd a thunk it?

Aubrie Kate is busy getting ready for kindergarten. We are working so hard on getting her prepared. She is still missing some skills-but we have all summer-so I am not too worried.

Like I said earlier, Madyson is almost done with first grade. Next year, we move to a new school and 2nd grade....I am in denial.

Todd is coaching the girls Tball team this year- and its a barrel of fun on Tuesdays-

it drives her crazy that i take photos the whole time

aubrie kate mid dance....

How am I suppose to play with you taking pictures the WHOLE TIME??

Todd adjusting Aubrie's helmet

she hates wearing it-"It's hot"

Aubrie playing in the dirt....

We finally got a new roof!! (2 years in the making!) now we have to paint the house! :/ We might get it done in...two years.

Making your iphone YOURS!

I just now joined the iphone team. I know--I know--about 5 years too late.

Reason being-I loved my android! But we switched providers and the iphone was .99 when you switched the android was more-and I am cheap-so iphone it was.

While I was setting everything up-I found a blog that teaches you how to use the app CocoPpa.

4 nursing sessions later and I now have a cute iphone!

You can use the link above to see the big details-but Ill show you one fun thing you can do!

Say you want to make an icon for you favorite blog, The Broadus Bunch.

First you select your icon. You can search by tags, colors...here I searched for the word "Crown"

I selected this icon-next click on "Set up link"

this is your next screen-click on URL

type in the address. the http:// is very important

hit Ok

Select YES

Next hit the share button (the little box and arrow)

select your icon and add to home screen

ta da! Now-thebroadusbunch.com is a one touch icon on your homepage!!

My other favorite feature: See on my homepage how I have the mustache with "t bird" and the unicorn with "nana" those are one touch icons that will call Todd & my mom. Pretty nifty huh?

Like I said-this blog has great tutorial on how to use CocoPpa! 

Have fun!!

Weekend Fun!

Oh what a fun filled weekend! We are all out of undies due to the lack of laundry-(but I washed enough tonight to make it til Tuesday :)

Friday-Madyson came home from school with her AR tshirt. She has been in AR since kindergarten and loved it. But this year has taken a huge toll on her (with the death of my MIL-me being pregnant-the new baby) and her love of reading really disappeared. Most of her friends got their 50 point shirts first semester-but it took Madyson longer to get motivated and to get her love of reading back! We were very proud that she achieved this! We have watched her develop and change so much this year and deal with a lot of grown up things-she is back making all A's & B's and working very hard at school again.

Friday night we took the girls camping! Now-I know what you are thinking...camping with a 5 week old. Well-lets say...we took the girls camping...in the backyard.

They have been begging to go-and we wanted to test them out in a tent-but I needed to be close to civilization with Miss Mia-so we figured the backyard was as good of a place as any! (I mean we do have a crazy family of raccoons living in our bushes...more on this later)

So we grilled hamburgers and hotdogs-built a "camp fire"-made smores and pitched a tent! Todd and the girls slept outside...and Amelia and I camped on the couch-in case anyone came wondering in during the night :)

Saturday-Todd was hunting with his friends so the girls and I headed to the country to visit my parents! It was a beautiful 70+degree day (I CAN NOT WAIT TO GET THE KAYAK OUT IN A FEW WEEK!!)

The girls fished with my dad and uncle and my mom, grandmom and Amelia went to the produce stand and to get ice cream :) Also, FINALLY-Madyson learned to tie her shoes! We have been working on this for years! And she would never "catch on" finally-we were sitting on the dam and we practice a few times and it finally clicked. I have never been so happy!

Sunday-we had our church picnic

We had a great time of fellowship with our friends. I have gone to this church my whole life-and I love being a part of it.

After the picnic-Amelia went to hang out with my aunt, Todd went to Softball practice and Madyson and Aubrie kate and I headed to the Nature Center to a first grade art show about Monarch butterflies. We have an amazing art teacher at the K-1st grade and she teaches the kids all sorts of stuff. Each first grade class of 20-25 had 5 kids selected to participate in this art show. Madyson was selected and we were very proud!

Madyson with her ribbon and artwork

Her classes art :)

After we all got home-we ran to Kohl's to get Amelia a few outfits. I had some Kohl's cash that was about to expire and never have had a baby that stayed in newborn clothing for more than 3 weeks, so I only have 10 outfits. I picked up a few more until she can finally wear 0-3!) We had dinner at Sweet Peppers then stopped by and visited with some friends before heading home!

It was a longggg weekend! But we had a great time! Coming up this week-we have a Life Group, a tball game, and lots of fun plans this upcoming weekend!!