30 day give: days 6,7,8,9 &10

why did i think that i could blog every night for 30 days when i have a new babe and 2 crazy little boys!? 

ahhhhh~ well, we are a tad behind on a few things! we still have our letter on the table to mail to someone with a stamp on it, waiting to be addressed, from day 2! we seem to be a day behind on 2 other days! we finally made it to the neighbors house from day 3, on tuesday night with pictures that the boys colored and chips and salsa from el camps for a snack and a chat.  then we drove through dunkin' on wednesday to pay for someone's coffee from toasty tuesday!! 

the most important things are we are getting things accomplished to make other people happy!

well, i guess tonight, hunter didn't make someone too happy! so now we will have to do extra deeds this week to make up for it! haha! my parents took him to home depot tonight and they had a huge scary witch at the front of the store. hunter asked what it was. my mom told him it was a witch and they are not nice! well, while getting a new key made, hunter looks at the little lady grinding the key and points at her and says "look mimi! she looks just like a witch!"  my mom said she was SO embarrassed!

looks like we will have to buy a few extra people coffee just for that little stunt! hunter, hunter, hunter!

ok, so days 6-10 that you can do through the weekend are:

6-make special time for your spouse-significant other go on a date, turn off your phones.  just spend time with each other.  if you can't get a babysitter to go on a date, put the kids to bed and watch your favorite show together!

7- while shopping this weekend, return someone's cart, share a coupon you have, or give up that front row parking spot! i am always so happy when someone does one of these, or all 3!:)

8- do something nice for your mailman! we love our mail man! he is so sweet to the boys! he is the same  mailman i had growing up! this summer, while unloading groceries, on a super hot day, we gave him an ice cream sandwich and that made his day! you could put a picture from your kids in the mailbox, or put a gift card in there for him! our mailman goes to wendy's and subway a lot on his lunch break, so even if you just do a $5 gift card to one of those, that would be so sweet!

9- do something nice for your parents! this past weekend, i had shawn's parents over for dinner and tonight i had my parents over! just do a little something to spend time with them or let them know you are thinking about them!

my sweet parents

my sweet in-laws  

10- compliment a random person. quick,easy and free! :)

have a great weekend

30 day give: day 6

i call today, toasty tuesday

every tuesday this month will be the same thing:

day 6

buy someone's coffee in line behind you

"the smallest deed is better than the grandest intention"

~ duguet

i know we all have intentions to help the homeless,save the trees, buy someone in need a car,but why not just start small and buy someone a cup of coffee?! it is something little but it will make someone's day!

Drive thru starbucks, dunkin' or  mickey d's and buy someone's coffee! if you have never done this before, it is really so much fun! it makes MY day every time i do it! 

check back tomorrow for day 7 

30 day give: day 5

day 5

mail a letter to someone 

i don't know about you,but i love getting a "thinking of you" card in the mail! what ever happened to the good ol' fashioned hand written note?! we got too busy with life and send out a text or facebook message instead!  

if you don't have time to go to the store and get a card, make a little card of your own!

i'm sure you'll make the persons' day that you send it to!

p.s. pick up that bag of items you gathered on saturday and drop them off somewhere today!

check back tomorrow for day 6

(one of my favorite things to blog about "toasty tuesday's)

just some sweetness for your monday morning 

my daughter capri, 8 days old :)

30 day give: day 4

day 4

do something nice for a neighbor

we have the sweetest neighbors ever! they invite us to all of their family gatherings and have us over ever single day in the summer to swim! 

summer fun

today, i'm going to have the boys draw them a picture, and i'm going to pick them up a gift card to their favorite breakfast spot and take it over to them to tell them we appreciate their sweetness! 

you could rake your neighbors leaves, bake them a cake,stop by their house if you know they are lonely and let them talk your ear off! or just something small and to say "hi"!

check back tomorrow for day 5

30 day give: day 3

day three you can do without leaving the house

make a pile of things to donate

"one man's trash, is another man's treasure"

clean out your closets.

have your kids clean out their toy room.

go through your junk drawers.

clean out your garage.

get rid of things you are not using.

i love having my kids clean out their toy room. first of all they have way too many, and it's less toys that i have to clean up! but secondly, its teaching them to give too! about every 3 weeks i have them go in their toy room and pick at least  3 things to give away. sometimes they want to give a brand new toy away and i'm like "that's a brand new toy, your not giving that away!" ha ha ! but then i think that's good that they have such a giving heart and i should probably let them! :)

my litte givers

perfect time to clean out your closets and get rid of those clothes you have not worn in forever, you know the ones your saving just in case you might need them someday:) 

so get your booty movin' and send all your family members to get a few things you can donate!

check back tomorrow for day 4

30 day give: day 2

day 2  is short and sweet

be the best customer ever and leave your waiter/waitress an extra big tip!

everyone goes out to eat on the weekends, so this is a great opportunity to be a blessing to your waitress and let her know she was great! let's just cover all the bases, even if she wasn't so great and friendly, still leave a extra nice tip! it might just be the thing she needs to put a smile on her face!

"Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness"  
~Seneca

we are always sure to leave a good tip, especially going out to eat with these messy eaters

(doesn't hunter look so happy? ha ha)

found this receipt online, its always nice to get and give a tip bigger than the bill!

check back tomorrow for day 3

have a great weekend

30 day give: day 1

it's that time of year again to give to others~ well, that should be all year long, but sometimes we need something to motivate and remind us that life isn't all about us, and the holidays are a perfect time to start!  everyday in the month of November,  i'm going to be giving suggestions for everyone to do daily! not only does it make others feel good but you will be surprised how good you will feel after doing something nice to bless someone else!

day 1 is simple

Say something to a family member to encourage and build them up! 

Look at this crazy powerful illustration of how our words can effect the people around us and our life in general:

my mom did this experiment , above, you will see two different jars. both were filled with plain cooked rice. on a daily basis, my mom said nice, uplifting things to one, and mean, hateful things to the other. look at the difference !!! if you don't believe it, try it! look how just speaking to rice made it turn all moldy and yucky! think about this when you talk to other people,esp your spouse and kids! 

can you imagine if we only said uplifting, encouraging, nice things to others!? this world would be a different place!

i did this today with my kids, to my boys, i said "do you know mommy loves you? you are so special! you are smart and athletic (had to throw athletic in for my hubby, haha)! you guys are so nice! you're good listeners, you are so good at everything you do!" You should of seen the smile on their faces!  i'm going to do this on a daily basis!

if you are married, try doing this with your spouse! first of all, every woman likes to hear that she is beautiful and appreciated!:) and women, tell your husband how you are thankful for him working so hard for your family, or how handsome he is!

lets not let things get "moldy" in our lives, or others, go say something nice to someone...

right now:)

p.s. you are so smart for participating in this! it could change someone's life!:)

check back tomorrow for day 2

simply give...it up!

simply...give it up! 

does that mean what you think it means!??!?! yep! you could say this may be simply ....whats the word? inappropriate! but you'd be surprised how many people need to hear this! ;) as a hairdresser/woman, i kinda hear it all! even if i don't want to! lol there are so many married couples who don't make each other a priority! sometimes our spouses are the last on the list! well, change this tonight! make sure you make time for your lova and show them how special they are to you ! we are so consumed everyday with our kids, jobs, even simple household duties we put our spouse on the back burner. i know we are sometimes exhausted  after a long day, but drink that cup of joe at 6 pm so you will be wide awake when your kids go to bed and have a nice romantic time with your hunny! and you know all those hours you spent cuddling under the blankets when you were dating even in the summer time, (you know what i'm talking about), well, make sure you do the same tonight! owww owww! 

a baby and a butcher block....yikes!

so, i signed up to do a little family blog, and went to sign in and forgot my password! so i decided to write this on simply give!

craziest story ever, right here! 

as parents we seems to always be worrying about our kiddos! here is something that you can do,( if you are not already doing this) to put your mind at ease (at least a bit)! 

first, here's the story:

hunter and i were hanging out at home, it was time for our lovely afternoon nap! i was 6 months pregnant and was always so sleepy! that day, i must of been extra sleepy ! i cuddled up to my adorable little 18 month old and i guess, passed out pretty quick! i woke up to hear hunter screaming and crying at the top of his lungs! 

i bolted down the stairs and found:

this adorable baby boy

sitting on here:

the little ornery guy pushed the chair up to the stove!

with these all around him:

ahhhhhhh!!!!

look at these suckers!

oh.my.gosh! i screamed, it scared the crap out of me! i thought, "did he cut his finger off?"........" did he turn on the stove and he is sitting on a hot burner?" ...after i thought "what if he fell off the stove and landed on the butcher knife?"

PRAISE THE LORD that he had not one cut or scratch on him!!!!

now, that is a miracle! a baby getting into a butcher block and not cutting himself!!!!

i felt like the WORST MOTHER EVER!  everyone that knows hunter and i, knows that i have always had to watch him like a hawk! i never let him out of my sight! how could i let this happen??!?!?

now, i look back and think about something that makes me the best mother ever.....and that is this:

every single bingle night i pray this over my kids:

dear heavenly father, i come to you in Jesus name, i thank you for protection and safety over hunter (and or carter), i pleed the blood of Jesus over him (them) for safety and protection, i charge the angles to encamp around him (them) that no harm will come near them

i am so thankful that i do this, seriously, what would/could of happened that day?

thank God for his protection and saftey!!!!

this is a small but mighty prayer you can pray over your kids, husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend or whoever you want!!!

10 reasons we are still married II

in case you missed  my previous post, 

my first five reasons for still being married were:

1~we pray together

2~we kiss

3~we go to bed together

4~we date

5~we find ways to make our marriage better

here are the next five:

6~we talk

i think one of the most important things in a marriage is communication, aka talking! my hubby will be the first to say, "sometimes men just don't get it liv, we need to be told stuff. we don't always know whats going on with you" look at these two quotes from a couple, this is from our marriage class.....

 from the husband:

"i thought i was doing great as a husband....i would of said on a scale from 1-10, my marriage is probably a 10. if not a 10, its a 9.8, and i guarantee my wife would agree"

~dave wilson

from the wife:

" and i would of said, we are a 1.0 ,maybe a 0.5, and i think he was totally clueless ...which made me even more angry, because i'm thinking, how do you not know how bad we are doing?"

~ann wilson

this is a prime example of what happens when you don't talk about things! you expect your husband to know things aren't the greateat and he thinks everything is great! kinda when i wrote in my first post and sat down and talked to shawn and said "i am just not happy" and he responded by saying "how can you not be happy?" as if he had no clue! when you let stuff go on and on like this, it doesn't turn out good! that's why you need to talk about the changes you need to make and ACTUALLY DO THEM!

7~we say i love you

plain and simple, even if we know you love us, we like to be told! and more than once a day is always nice ;)

sometimes we carve the words "i love you" in random things

JK....this was a one time deal ;) 

8~we forgive

if one of us does something stupid, usually shawn, (haha just kidding hunny) we will go to each other and say "i'm so sorry i treated you like that, or that i was in a bad mood, will you please forgive me?" (the bad mood part is me most times,haha) then we go on with our evening and don't let it ruin our night! now i know that people have deeper and bigger issues then just being in a bad mood, but the most important thing is if you really don't know how can forgive them for something, talk to someone about what you can do, to get over it,and move on from the situation. unforgivenss will ruin your marriage!

9~we talk about money

so many couples fight about money! what to do with the tax money, what to do with the extra bonus you get. shawn and i have a little policy, if we want to purchase something over a certain amount, we will just run it by each other. i'm not saying to ask for every penny you spend, but ,make sure you agree on those bigger purchases!

10~we spend weekends together

oh, how i love having the WHOLE weekend off from all responsibilities but being a wife! we are in the process of planning another weekend away! we will usually just go to columbus, or crocker park for a few days. we went to florida for a week minus the babes...well, actually minus hunter because i was preggo with carter, and it was so nice ! it is so refreshing to have the time to do whatever you want! our biggest decision  is what place to go out to eat! this is a must for all couples to sneak away and rekindle your love without any interruptions! bow chicka bow wow! ;)

us at crocker park this year 

an extra little reason:

WE HAVE FUN!

marriage should be fun! kiss, dance in the kitchen, be silly, be spontaneous, hold hands, hide behind the bathroom door at midnight and scare your spouse (actually, maybe don't do that, i am laughing out loud right now thinking about when i did that to shawn! he jumped back and said "what in the world is wrong with you? why would you do that?" haha then we both started cracking up!

ok, now go have yourself a happy marraige!!!!!

p.s. once again, i'm not saying or marriage is all perfect, but we     really try to make an effort everyday to do these things! 

10 reasons we are still married

after my post from yesterday, i thought i would follow up with 10 reasons we are still married  that keep our marriage going: here are the first 5

we pray together

have you ever heard the saying "couples who pray together, stay together"?might be a cheesy saying, but it's true! we were at a marriage enrichment class the other night and someone asked "does it count if you pray over your food together?" lol well, it counts for something but it's not the only prayer you should eve say together! when we go to bed each night is when we usually pray together, some nights it might be one minute, some nights it might be five minutes! it doesn't have to be long! 

we kiss

everyday we kiss! your prob thinking, ya, you're married! of course you kiss! but really think about it....do you really kiss your spouse everyday? if Shawn is in a hurry to leave and scoots out the door before i get my "see ya later kiss", i usually say "hey, get back in here and kiss me!" ;) he returns with a quick kiss and out the door he goes with a little smirk on his face! kiss your spouse at least when you leave each other in the morning and greet them when they get home! 2 kisses a day, is that really too much to ask?!?! ;)

we go to bed together

like in my post before, when we didn't go to bed together, it stunk! you miss out on a lot of time you can be talking, praying (its about the only time the kids are settled in bed and it's quiet to pray) or doing whatever ;) i know a couple that has been sleeping in separate beds for years and years! you can bet there is hardly any intimacy going on there! (i do have to say, if i drink a cup of coffee past 6 pm, and wired, i might stay up and watch tv, so we try our best to do this but it might not happen 100% of the time)

we date

we love to go on dates! when i was growing up, my parents went on a date EVERY monday night! looking back now, i think that's so awesome that they made time for each other every week! especially if you have kids, this is a must! you can get so consumed with your kids, you forget to make time for your spouse! p.s. all you mama's that are scared to leave your babe's with a sitter, find someone you trust and even go on a 2 hour date at first! your kid will be fine and might actually like to play with someone other than mommy! ;)

we find ways to make our marriage better

we just started a class, that my parents started, through our church, called marriage university! it has been so awesome so far! we debated taking the class because we felt like things have been so great, we don't have any huge problems, why go? don't wait till you NEED to go to a marriage class! now, when we have struggles in our marriage we will know how to respond to those issues in a Godly way! this is something new for us, but we plan to attend something like this at least once a year! it defiantly keeps you in check! btw, if anyone is looking into going to a marriage conference, "family life center" puts on an awesome one! i know a few people that went and it really changed their relationship, even if they didn't think anything needed to change!

ok, there are a few things you can start doing today, if you arent already!

Get dressed up, and go on a HOT date this week!

it sucks...when your marriage sucks!

this little post is inspired by the month of love, ahhh February! valentine's day! the wonderful made up holiday that we spend billions on! did you ever think that women wouldn't love this holiday so much if we got treated like gold every other day of the year?!?!

well, just a little inside info that most people don't go around saying.... for a while, our marriage sucked! my hubby started a new job, 2 summer's ago now, and we were so excited! the hours were suppose to be more flexible, the pay was better and we were ready for something new!

this lovely opportunity started...and those flexible hours, sure were flexible, so flexible they stretched from 7 am to 9 pm, and i forgot to mention, he was working 6 days a week! "i have to work as much as possible to prove myself here at this new job liv," he would say. so at first i was understanding, until i started to get wore out and so irritated. i was waking the kids up, doing breakfast, lunch, dinner, trying to keep up with the house, bath time, snack time , bedtime! i started to say to Shawn "hey, can you please come home early tonight? i'd really like to ...." the nights he would get home early, i would say something like "its about time you come home early, all you do is work" (and prob nag too much, which made him work even more) then he'd say "well, you could thank me for paying the bills!" ugh! kinda wanted to punch the sucker! haha, not everyday was like this, but a lot were! 

i don't know if you ever have gotten to the point you feel more like room mates then a married couple? that was so us! and you get to the point where you care so much, that you don't even care anymore! 

shawn would fall asleep on the couch and i would be up and bed just waiting for him to come up and hold me!  wake up , go through the same motions, go to bed, and all over again!

this all lasted about 3 months! at the time, we hardly went on dates, and if you know us, we LOVE to go on dates! when we did go on a date, can you say awkward? we were the couple that was on our phones at dinner or barely talking! we basically have been "passing each other in the hallway" and we had nothing to talk about...but the kids!

one night, we had it out after the kids went to bed! i woke his booty up,after he fell asleep on the couch for the 100th time, and started in.

me: you work too much, you fall asleep on the couch, we hardly go on dates,you don't pray with me anymore i am just not happy!

shawn: how can you not be happy? i let you buy whatever you want! i support our family! i am involved in the kids life and i am a good dad!

me: well, you are not meeting my needs! you don't even kiss me when you come home from work! you always go straight for the kids!

shawn: i don't know what you are talking about, i give you everything you want, and what do you expect when i come home and the house is a mess, and you are still in your robe! (haha, im laughing about this now)

me: you give me things,but not you! 

so you get the point! i think every couple goes through things like this! and its all about priorities! after that fight we really got somethings in line! i called my mom the next day and told her a little bit of what was going on! she had some good advice that i think every couple could benefit from! she told me to ask shawn what the 3 most important things were that i could do for him, and vice versa, look how different they are! 

mine went something like this :

1- make spending time with the kids and i a priority (cut down working hours)

2- when you come home,it would be nice if you greeted and kissed me before going straight to the kids

3- i forget what this one was!!! maybe something like, let me know you are thinking about me, even if its just     by a text

his:

1- have the dishes done when i come home 

2- don't throw your clothes on the floor in our bedroom

3- don't have your robe on when i get home....as in be in normal clothes ;)

this helped a ton, even though marriage is not "ill scratch your back, you scratch mine" when he made us a priority i was happy to do things for him! i wanted to make him happy and not just doing it , to do it!when he would send me a sweet text, just to tell me he was thinking about me, it would make my day! he started to let me know how important i was to him, and i was reciprocating the same! things finally got,not just back to normal, but so much better! it took a good month or so! but those sucky months made us stronger! 

some men are so into their sports "i have to practice so we can be the best team" some men/women are so into their jobs " i have to work a lot to get this promotion or so we can invest in the future, "some men/women are so into ministry "i have to go help this person, and go to the church for this, then meet with so and so because he really needs some encouragement!" don't you think its most important to have your biggest fan be your wife/husband? don't you think before all else your biggest investment should be your wife? don't you think your biggest ministry should be to your wife and kids? (And vice versa ladies)

i can not stress enough that first of all, GOD needs to be the center of all relationships! 

ok, so the whole point of this is to say... marriage isn't easy all the time, but i really believe if you have your priorities straight it will be a lot easier!

1-GOD

2-YOUR SPOUSE

3-KIDS

4-YOUR JOB

5-OTHER THINGS

just something i wanted to share, i don't know, it may help someone knowing that other people go through stuff too! i am  no marriage expert but we are sure learning a lot!

i can honestly say, i am as happy now today, as i was in this picture here!