A New Decision

I had made the decision to make my blog private.  But to make a blog private, one can only invite one hundred readers. Between the comments, phone calls, emails, and facebook messages I would have to eliminate over seventy of you sweet souls from reading this lil' blog.  That was not my intention.  I have enjoyed the 'community' that has come from this place.  I gain so much from you all.  


My motive for switching to a private blog was merely for protection. Mainly, I do not want my blog to pull up in search engines.  I do not like the idea of my name being googled and my blog (with thoughts and glimpses into my life) pulling up for the world to easily access.  It's the easy access part that I don't like.  I can deal with access, just not easy access.  


I think I have reached a new decision.


I am going to change our blog's URL so that it does not include any part of our name.  It is for protection and will keep my family from being too easily accessed, yet it will allow our blog to be public and still read by more people than a private blog allows. 


Sometime this week, I will email you with our new URL.  From there, you can continue reading our public blog under a new name.  


If you have not already left your email address for me, please do so. I will not be posting the new URL on here, I will only be emailing it to the addresses that I have. 


Thank you for wanting to continue to look into our life!

Goodbye, Papa

 Tuesday, my Papa passed away suddenly. This week has been one full of emotions and memories. My Papa was a man loved by many, me included.  He was a picturesque grandfather.  He always had time for his grandchildren and taught each of us countless life skills.  He taught me to drive, he attended everything that I took part in, and since I have had my own family, he often took us to dinner or visited during the day to play with the kids and encourage me in motherhood.  Each time I saw him, he told me how much he loved me and how proud I made him.  He made me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world, often to a point of embarrassment. He was not just a special person, but a very big part of my life.

It is never easy to loose a loved one, but God has continued to prove himself faithful and good to my family.  There have been so many acts of love and miracles in the midst of tears.  We are not forgotten, but loved more tenderly at this time.  My Papa is rejoicing in heaven and for that, my heart can only rejoice as well.   Just three days before he passed away, we spent the afternoon together and small details of that day are so clear in my mind. I have a sweet bouquet of flowers on my kitchen table that he brought me that day, each time I look at them, I am reminded of his love. God has heightened my, already fond, memories of him and I have those to cling to and pass on to my children and grandchildren.  I am sad that he will no longer show up unexpectedly at my door in the afternoons to play with, read books with, or love on my children.  I'll miss his hugs, the way he reassuringly squeezed my shoulder, his smile, and having someone call me Addy, but I am comforted by my hope in seeing him again one day!

To the many of you who have called, sent emails, cards, texts, flowers and prayers for my family and I... thank you! Jesus has shown his kindness to me through you.

Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of Brad's grandfather passing away. We were very loved grandchildren!

Going Private

Even though I can find many positives to have a public blog, I have decided to make mine private. I will share my reasonings once I make that change.

I will leave the blog public for about a week and then.... no more public access.

If you would like to continue reading this blog, it's easy.

-Leave a comment with your name and email address.
-Even if you do not have a blog or username, you can leave a comment as 'anonymous.' Just make sure to sign your name and leave your email address.
WITHOUT AN EMAIL ADDRESS, I CANNOT INVITE YOU TO READ THE BLOG.
Soon, I will email you a password that will allow you to access the Ingram Gang.

Happy day of love!

Bargain Buy

Old Navy has these lace camis on sale for $2 right now.

That is $10.50 savings on each one if you bought them at the regular price of $12.50.

The sale started yesterday, but goes through the 11th so there is still time for you to make it in if you are interested.

I went yesterday and bought one in most every color. They have brown, charcoal, white, pink, yellow, blue, green, red and purple. I wear a camisole or tank under most everything, so for me this was an incredible deal.

Happy shopping!

I'm Seeing White

It snowed last night. Again.

Sheesh, the snow keeps coming and coming. I actually enjoy the snow so I'm not complaining, but my little go-getters just don't really understand all of our time indoors lately. Kayt is determined that if we really wanted to, we could go to the park. At least for a little bit. Yesterday as I was changing a diaper and I heard a noise coming from the garage, the poor things were trying to ride their Jeep cars in the garage and they said they were pretending they were outside. They are desperate.

I've given up on keeping the house clean. I know that by the time I turn around my cleaned attempts will be undone. So, I've just let it be until we can have a playground other than the living room.

Cleaning house while kids are growing

is like shoveling snow while it's still snowing.

The relevance of this is apparent both inside and outside of my windows right now.

This is the view out of our window.

I will save myself some embarrassment and let you use your imaginations on what it looks like inside of our window.

So Excited!

I ordered this sweet picture (by my friend, Lezlie) of our Emmy on a canvas. It will be the perfect finishing touch in her room.

I saw the offer for a free or discounted canvas on Kelly's Korner and I was so excited because this was *exactly* what I had in mind.

You can get a free 8x10 canvas or $55 off a larger sized canvas.

Go get your free canvas!

It's That Time

I wait all year for this

and this.

Neither of which should be a part of my post-pregnancy diet,

but they are oh-so-good!

Speaking of post pregnancy, I want a pair of skinny jeans. Not now, but when I am skinnier. In the past I said that I wouldn't do the skinny jean thing because I did not think that they would look good on me, but I'm ready to eat my words and try them. It will be so much more convenient with my boots plus styles are much cuter now than when they first came out.

Any suggestions on places to look for a great pair? I'm sure it will take several stops to find the perfect fit, but after I loose my pregnancy weight this is going to be my reward to myself.

I'm all about self rewards.

Take My Word

Read this article on Matt Chandler. It is compelling on so many levels. Seriously, read it. May the name of Jesus be glorified!

Oh, Snow!

This is for my mom who wanted to see pictures of her favorite people playing in the snow.

All of the pictures were taken from the front door because that is as far as I went. I'm sorry there are no action shots, Mom. I do plan to take part in the snowman building later this afternoon though.

I'm not completely sure where this 1980s snowsuit came from. It just appeared in our coat closet one day. This way-too-big suit swallowed Kayt and I couldn't stop laughing at her because she reminded me of the little boy on A Christmas Story.

If you stick your tongue out while working, more gets accomplished. Right, Noah boy? The shoveling wore this boy out. He was very ready for a nap today.

Then everyone came back inside to have a warm drink, eat pigs in a blanket, wrap up like pigs in blankets and thaw out. We are loving snow day number two!

Try, Try and Try Again

I'm not good at this. This blog-thing, that is. I used to be and I still want to be, but there are too many other important things pulling for my time and affection.

I've considered doing away with it since few people still read and since I am so unfaithful, but I just cannot part with it, not yet anyways. I get too much joy from re-visiting old posts and the details of our life's past to call it quits. Plus, my goal in starting it was to document our lives, my thoughts, our memories and taking life slower. I was reminded of that as I read my very first post (which will be exactly two years ago in two days).

On this almost-blogiversary, I want to pull myself back to this place and hold myself accountable to something that I love, my life. I want to share our highs and lows. Even if only for me to re-visit in the future.

The month of January has been one of many emotions for me. Shortly after the holidays, our Emery Claire was put in the hospital with a low fever. It was a hard time for me even after we realized that Emery's problem was easily treatable. The pediatric ward is not a fun place to visit. It lacks the excitement and charm (if you can call it that) of the labor and delivery floor. Seeing many children who would stay longer than our 48-hour visit broke my heart. So many mothers and fathers worry about far more than an ear infection or reflux.

But today, this cute girl is doing so well. After a short hospital stay, a sonogram and testing, we found out that she has urinary reflux. It is a fairly common problem that she takes a daily antibiotic to combat.

At six weeks, Emery is sleeping 7 hours at night, happy most all the time, loves her swing and laying on the floor and adjusting to her antibiotic. Life with three is full and fun!