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Fennell Family Life plus Weekly Goals

by Carolyn Leave a Comment

Last night we went to our local Christmas parade. I forgot what going to a parade with a 4-year-old is like. It was a blast. She loved everything about it. The lights, the candy and especially waving at everyone was so much fun to my little girl. We had debated whether or not we were even going to go and everything fell into place that we did it and I am so glad.

Christmas Parade

Does everyone else feel like this week is crunch time? I feel like everything has to be done by this Friday. I am starting to have so many lists in my head that I am forgetting things.

Last weeks goals:

Family

  1. Borrow some new books at the library for the boys. They are about done with the current stack. Done, plus I checked out a book for myself and read it in 2 nights. It was a quick read and I am too embarrassed to say what it was. It was written by a reality tv person.

House/Home

  1. Deep clean the bathtubs upstairs. They need a major scrubbing and toy clean-out. Some of the toys need to be secretly thrown away. I only think of it when my little girl is taking a bath so I can’t do it in front of her. – FAIL. My husband has decided to have some people who work for him over for a Christmas party on Saturday so I will be busting my tail getting this house together this week.

Blog

  1. Link up with 6 Blog Hops.
  2. Research where I should be storing my photos to help my site run fast. I am just downloading them from my computer to the Media tag in WP but am not sure if that is what I am supposed to be doing. Still need to do this.

This weeks goals:

2 Huge Tasks that I have to FOCUS on completing!

  1. Clean the house for my husbands Christmas party.
  2. Finish Christmas shopping.

What I really want to be doing is working on planning our trip to Napa next summer. I need to stay off the Napa info until after Christmas but I keep procrastinating.

Filed Under: Family Updates

Friday Favorite – Other uses for Waterproof Crib Sheets

by Carolyn Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links. See my full disclosure here.

I am so grateful to a friend that told me to keep my waterproof crib sheet. Who knew there are other uses for waterproof crib sheets? I would have never thought I would need it after the crib stage. Now when my kids are sick and I can protect my furniture from potential accidents.

Another Use for Waterproof Crib Sheet

Here is my little girl today.

She had to have a small procedure and the doctor gave her a muscle relaxer to help her through it. He warned me that she would want to lay around the next few hours and to make sure she was on her side if she fell asleep because the medicine could cause her stomach to be upset. Cue Mommy panic about what could happen to the furniture. Luckily, I keep these sheets in the closet so I can pull them out and protect my furniture.

Other Uses for Waterproof Crib Sheets

These are the sheets that we used when the kids were babies.

They were great because you made up the bed with your regular crib sheet and then snapped this over top of the regular sheet. Then when your little one’s diaper leaked in the middle of the night you could just unsnap this sheet and not have to remake the bed at 3:00 am.

I don’t know about you but my boys had middle of the night diaper leaks almost every night. I guess it is a boy thing because my daughter had no problem.

When I bought these I had no clue that they would still be used 8 years later, I would say they have been a good purchase.

 

Filed Under: Raising Kids

Bonus Cleaning – Front Porch

by Carolyn 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For my complete disclosure policy click here.

So this week I get to sit back, relax and let my husband do the work. He would say that is what happens every week but whatever! 😉

I finally convinced him to pressure wash our front porch, bottom part of our house and windows. Let me just preface that we know it was desperately needed and like always it is embarrassing showing the before pictures. We live in a coastal area so everyone has to pressure wash their homes once a year to keep the green mold away so this is maybe a year and a half since the last time we did it which is way too long.

Here is the front porch.

Front Porch Before Cleaning

Yes, I am hanging my head in shame. I can’t believe we let it get this bad. Especially, because we actually own a pressure washer. So I did what every good wife should do in this situation and nagged her husband to take care of this task.

Front Porch Railing Before Cleaning

Please ignore the landscaping. That is on our to do list soon.

Side of the House Before Cleaning

Britton having some fun running through the spray.

Having Fun in Spray

 

My husband likes his pressure washer and it has paid for itself over the years. Here is an affiliate link if you think it will be a good gift for your husband. Men like tools, right?

After my husbands hard labor, it is all sparkly clean!

Front Porch All Sparkly Clean

And we can sit back and relax after a hard days work…see, I get to take part of the credit too.

Let’s take a look again at the after again…ahh…much better.

Front Porch After Cleaning

Now I am going to say what we should never say, I will never let it get that bad again! Next, for the outside is taking care of our landscaping and weeds. Let me go find my husband, Ha Ha!!

Filed Under: Cleaning Tips

How eating Popsicles helps me lose weight

by Carolyn 4 Comments

Yes, it is true. Eating Popsicles helps me lose weight. Here is how.

How Popsicles help me lose weight

After dinner, I can’t stop eating sweets. I eat when I want to relax. I eat when I am stressed. I love to eat no matter what, who’s with me?  It is a terrible habit but when I find that all my snacking has caught up with me and I have gained a few pounds I switch to Sugar Free Popsicles as my after dinner snack. My girlfriends all laugh at me when I tell them but it works.

Sugar Free Popsicles are only 10 calories each. So, in my crazy head I can eat 10 of them and it would only be 100 calories. Now, I never actually get to 10 popsicles, but in my mind if I tell myself I can then it seems like such a treat and I am not depriving myself. It takes about 5 mins to eat a popsicles so I get that satisfaction of a sweet snack that takes a long time to eat. At most I have 2 -3 and then I am satisfied and (BONUS) I have only had 20 – 30 calories.

I love tricks like this so if you have anything similar please share with me!

 

Filed Under: Fitness

How to use your Christmas Cards to Decorate

by Carolyn 3 Comments

I don’t know about you but I love receiving Christmas Cards from friends and family. I like seeing the kids growing up. I even like the families that send the letters updating us on everything they have been doing. I don’t send a letter but I do send out a photo card.

After all the time and energy getting the right photo of the kids and selecting the best layout of the card, I didn’t want to just throw our family card into a box to not be seen again. It brings such joy to look at how far we have come as a family.

Here is how to use your Christmas cards to decorate.

How to Decorate with your Christmas Cards

First –  I decided to buy frames and frame our cards. I bought 10 frames at Target so I would be able to use the same frames for several years. I need to go look and see if they still have these and buy some more. Here are some great ones on Amazon.

Second – I had to decide on a size for the cards. I only order 5 x 7 cards now. If you notice close in the picture above, the year before I decided to do this I had used a landscape card so it has a different frame.

Third – We store them with our decorations so every year so these are only out during December.

How to use your Christmas Cards to decorate

My kids love to look at them and it brings back memories of different years. These have become one of my top 3 Christmas decorations.

 

 

Filed Under: Christmas Tips

Fennell Family Life plus Weekly Goals

by Carolyn Leave a Comment

I am proud to say that I finished reading a book! I want to say that I love reading but after having kids I realized that I am not a good book reader and Mom. My problem is that I get completely involved with reading and hate to put the book down so I end up staying up half the night to read just “one more chapter”. Anyone with me?? 🙂 Then I wake up the next morning and am cranky and have no patience.

With all the traveling I did last week I took a book with me (plus my Grandmother’s house has no internet). I read The Girl on the Train.

Such a good book. I am usually a romance reader but love a good thriller occasionally.

Let’s catch up. My Grandmother passed away last week. I am super sad and trying to deal with it so can’t even write about it yet. My in-laws did a fantastic job watching the kids. I am so thankful they could watch them.

Let’s talk about Goals for the week, I am not even going to go over last weeks goals since I didn’t even look at them since I was away from internet. I did get most of the Christmas Cards complete.

Christmas Cards

Let’s go with a fresh start.

This weeks goals:

Family

  1. Borrow some new books at the library for the boys. They are about done with the current stack.

House/Home

  1. Deep clean the bathtubs upstairs. They need a major scrubbing and toy clean-out. Some of the toys need to be secretly thrown away. I only think of it when my little girl is taking a bath so I can’t do it in front of her.

Blog

  1. Link up with 6 Blog Hops.
  2. Research where I should be storing my photos to help my site run fast. I am just downloading them from my computer to the Media tag in WP but am not sure if that is what I am supposed to be doing.

 

Filed Under: Family Updates

My Beautiful Grandmother

by Carolyn Leave a Comment

My beautiful Grandmother went to heaven yesterday. I know she will go straight to heaven as there is no one I know who is more faithful and obedient to the Lord than her. She is going to be terribly missed. She has 9 children and 25 grandchildren and even more great grandchildren. What a strong woman. My Granddaddy died when they were in their late 40’s so she has raised our family all by herself. Amazing.

Grandmother

I will be on a blog break for the rest of the week to be fully present with my family during these tough times.

Filed Under: Family Updates

Fennell Family Life plus Weekly Goals

by Carolyn

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday. I love having the whole week off to head to my parents beach house. We couldn’t have had better weather. It was warm and sunny. We heated up their pool and went swimming and swam in the tidal pools at the beach.

Boys Beach Football

We enjoyed reconnecting with cousins and having lots of laughs. Even finished a 1,000 piece puzzle.

Girls Thanksgiving

My youngest sister and I were able to see a small Darius Rucker concert. It was so fun since it was a small event with open bar. The sky was a clear blue and it was so fun to experience it with my sister.

Darius Concert with Sister

My Mom does an incredible turkey dinner. This is a small peak at her new kitchen, it is gorgeous. Maybe one day we can do a tour of the renovations to the entire house.

Mom Thanksgiving

Let’s talk about this upcoming week. It is Christmas Season!! Woohoo! I could tell by the line at the post office that the crowds have begun to come out for shopping and errands. I have lots to do to get ready, I am sure you do to.

Last weeks goals:

Family

  1. Go eat lunch with my boys at school
  2. Set up a date night. We haven’t been out just the two of us in a couple months and we need it. – FAIL

House/Home

  1. Order Britton’s Birthday Cake
  2. Order Christmas Cards

Blog

  1. Link up with 6 Blog Hops. I would like to get some readers, it will be more fun to write if I know that someone is reading. Hi there, if anyone is reading this. 🙂
  2. Write a Thanksgiving post that links to my 5 favorite posts to have up during the week of Thanksgiving. I will take the week of Thanksgiving off.

This weeks goals:

Family

  1. Borrow some new books at the library for the boys. They are about done with the current stack.

House/Home

  1. Get everything ready for Britton’s birthday party on Sunday.
  2. Address and mail Christmas cards – I received them and now need to get them in the mail.

Blog

  1. Link up with 6 Blog Hops. I was able to do this last week and had some views so I’ll keep this going.
  2. Write a post that I can put up for when my Grandmother passes because I will be traveling and away from wireless. She is on hospice care and will pass any day now. She is the most faithful woman so I am sure she will go straight to be with Him. My family is crushed and will miss her terribly.

I hope everyone enjoys the rush this week brings to the season. We put up our 12 foot tree last night and it is way bigger than we expected but looks great. I can’t wait to put the decorations on it.

Filed Under: Family Updates

Happy Thanksgiving – My favorite Posts

by Carolyn Leave a Comment

I hope you are enjoying your holiday. We are spending time with family so I am going to take the rest of the week off from the blog. If you are visiting for the first time feel free to take a look at my favorite posts so far.

  1. Bow Bootcamp – How I got my daughter to wear her bows.
  2. How to stop your wreath from scratching your front door.
  3. Toy Review – What my 7 year old boys received and actually played with this past year.

Here is a preview of our new family photos. I am so happy with how they turned out.

Fennell Family Portrait

Filed Under: Family Updates

Top Gifts For 3 Year Olds

by Carolyn 5 Comments

As a mom, I love hearing what gifts moms give to their kids.  This list of Top Gifts for 3 Year Olds comes from our own experience.  Sharing our favorites that are hits longer than a few days is a must! Take a look at our daughter’s favorites from when she was 3 years old.

I have also shared the hits and misses for my boys with  Top Gifts For 7 year old Boys

Toy Review - 3 year old girl toys. A review 1 year later of the toys my 3 year old girl received and which toys were hits and which ones were a miss. This is super helpful to prevent you from wasting money on a toy that won't be played with the next day.

Top Gifts for 3 Year Olds

Below are the gifts our daughter received when she was 3 years old.  We’ve even included our thoughts after she spent time playing with them.  This gives you a good idea of the investment and if it will be worth your money for your particular child.

Loving Family Doll House – This is a huge hit! I can’t recommend this enough. While she didn’t play with it a ton the first couple months, when she hit 3 1/2 and her imaginative play took off this became her favorite toy. She seriously plays with this every single day. We have a few of the accessory packs that you can purchase to go in the house. Hit

Toy Review - Loving Family Dollhouse

Sing Along Microphone – Another huge hit. This is the gift that was her favorite on Christmas Day. It immediately made an impact and she started singing Christmas songs and it really made Christmas morning fun. Hit

Toy Review - Microphone

Sofia the First Royal Family – I thought she would like this because she likes the show but really she never plays with it. Miss

Toy Review - Sofia the First

Alex – My Giant Busy Box – this is a great gift for any preschooler. We did all the crafts and I buy these whenever they go on sale or use a Michael’s coupon to make them a reasonable price. Hit

Toy Review - Alex busy box

Melissa & Doug Stamp Pads – I am glad we have a these but we have 3 sets now and really could survive with 1 or 2 sets. I am going say Hit because we do use them even a year later. Hit

Toy Review - Princess Stamps

Finding the right gifts for 3 year olds is hard.  They are at such a young age for many things, but also deserve to have fun things to play with under the tree or at their birthday.  Think about where they will be in a few months, and remember that sometimes no matter how hard you try, it just won’t be a perfect fit for your child.

More Gift Ideas

Favorite Advent Toys that Kids Love

Top One Player Games That Kids Love

Top Gifts For 7 Year Old Boys

Gifts For Soccer Fans

Like it? Pin it.

Gift guide for 3 year old girls | 3 year old toys | gifts for 3 year olds | #giftguide #3yearold #toys

Gift guide for 3 year old girls | 3 year old toys | gifts for 3 year olds | #giftguide #3yearold #toys

Filed Under: Christmas Tips

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Welcome to Fennell Seeds. I am Carolyn Fennell and I have twin boys and a little girl. Do you feel like you are struggling to keep up with your house, life and all the little things? Let's figure out short cuts and helpful tips together. Welcome! Read more...

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