Our Last Week of Break

Well, we're back to school, back to our routine, and I'm totally missing our last week of Christmas break. It was pretty much perfection.

We arrived home on the 27th from Shreveport, and celebrated Christmas with DJ's dad and stepmom. The following day, we had snow on the ground and DJ and I decided that together we would head to the grocery store and to Lowe's. As part of our Christmas present to each other, we knew that we finally needed to purchase hardware for all of our drawers and cabinets. They've taken a beating since we've moved in 6 months ago!

So, off we went.... we joked that it was a mini date since we had grandparents to watch the girls and we were out by ourselves! Lowe's took a lot longer than expected. I thought I knew what I wanted, but then the decision was harder once we arrived.

We split up our lists at the grocery store, picked up our dog from the boarder, and finally  made it home for lunch. 

DJ and his dad spent the rest of the afternoon putting the hardware in our kitchen.

And, I totally love it!

We made a pot of chili that night and settled in to watch football. 

Tuesday was spent cleaning bedrooms, putting Christmas toys away, and doing laundry. Oh my the laundry! Y'all, I'm still trying to catch up with the laundry! 

Addy was oblivious to the snow outside and insisted on wearing shorts. She played "mommy" while I cleaned up bedrooms upstairs. 

This girl loves her babies!

And I had to document how clean the girls' bedrooms were! I mean, they're never this clean!

The pink room is Gretchen's. Pink is her favorite color. You can see her little room tour here. We're in the processing of updating her bedding- she's had this set since she was 2. So, I'll do a new room tour when we're all done!

The purple room is Megan's.  I went back to pull a past post because I thought that I had completed our home tour from moving in this summer, but I guess I did not! I'll have to add Megan's bedroom tour (and Adalyn's) into my blogging list in the next few weeks!

We literally had no schedule over the break. We stayed up late, we slept late, we had pajama days. We watched football, watched movies. And, Megan crashed in the afternoons every once in a while. 

And, then one night after dinner, Megan and Addy were playing chase. They ran from the kitchen, in to the living room, in to my bedroom, and BAM. We heard a fall and screams. Addy apparently tripped and fell in to our bed. I snapped this quick picture and tested it to my mom and sister in law to see if they thought we needed to take her to get stitches. It was also almost 8 in the evening so we weren't sure if an urgent care would be opened or if we would need to go to the ER. They definitely agreed that we needed to take her in and thankfully we found an urgent care that was still open. And since I have bad luck and no patience for waiting rooms, DJ took her in. Thankfully, she did not need stitches and didn't need for it to be glued. But we have had to keep a steri-strip on her cut. 

She got lots of extra cuddles the next day!

Thursday afternoon, DJ stayed with the girls and I was able to run some errands for myself. I'm telling you, it was pure bliss!

We lived it up New Years Eve by watching football and giving the girls a bath. 

We all watched the Rose Parade on Friday morning. 

On Sunday morning, we headed to church. It was the first day that we had really taken the time to get dressed! I attempted a picture of just the girls, but Adalyn wouldn't let DJ put her down. 

And, so the girls and I snapped a pic too. 

And, a silly face picture! Megan was pouting because she missed our first silly picture!

Sunday afternoon I went on a walk and Gretchen rode her bike with me. We stopped by the park so she could play and I could run and DJ stayed behind while Adalyn napped. 

We finished out our weekend by getting ready for school to start again on Monday- Boo!!!

Show & Tell Tuesdays: Just Me

Well friends, we are back in full swing in our house! I must admit, the last two weeks off have been fabulous! When I have these spurts off, it makes me want to stay home with my family and snuggle and be lazy, and live in the moment every single day.... and then the girls start to argue and fight, and I'm ready to go back to work again! #thestruggleisreal

I'm determined that we're going to be revamped and more organized heading in to this year, and so far, so good, but we're only 5 days in!

I'm linking up with Andrea for Show & Tell Tuesday today, and today we're sharing a bit about ourselves. You know, sort of a re-introduction. 

Hi there, I'm Elaine. I'm the mommy blogger behind The Welte Family blog, formerly Honey Pie Accessories blog. I've been married to my hubby for 10 years now, and we've lived in 4 states. I'm originally from Arkansas, so my southern-roots run deep. We have three daughters; they're the reason I do what I do! I work full time as a speech-language pathologist in our local school district. I've also owned Honey Pie Accessories for the last eight years. I'm sort of in a place in my life, where we are crazy busy, and HPA has been put on the back burner for now. I'm very limited as to what orders I'll actually take, as I'm really trying to re-focus on my family and other ventures. This past summer I started using Young Living essential oils and we've officially gone oily in our house. I'll be posting bi-weekly about our oily adventures, and I'm working on getting an Essential Oils tab at the top of the page. In the meantime, you can email me here if you ever have any EO questions! In my spare time, I pretend to love working out, I also pretend to hate it. My vices are jewelry, coke, and chocolate. 

This is my hubby and our girls. You'll see DJ mentioned on the blog, but you'll rarely see him on the blog. Most of our adventures, he's away for because he's a college football video-coordinator. Now that football season is over, we're in the midst of recruiting season, so you'd only think he'd be home more! He loves what he does, and we love him for it!

Our oldest daughter turns 8 this month! She loves ballet and thinks she's a sporty girl. (She's playing basketball for the first time ever!) She also loves to read and play with her Barbies or American Girl dolls. 

Our "middlest" is 4 1/2. She's a little mommy and is our resident goof-off. Life is a big party to her. She's also sensitive and sweet. She's friends with everyone she meets (although she's still a little shy.)

And, our youngest is 2 1/2. She's our little surprise, and she still surprises us every day. Her BFF is her ballet baby, but she's also a little mommy herself. She loves playing with her baby dolls and she loves trying to keep up with her big sisters even more! 

Yesterday, I shared my New Year Resolutions, so if you want to check out those, feel free to! I've deemed this my "selfish" year and I'm determined to focus on getting back in shape by walking/running 1,000 miles this year (I'm totally crazy!), digging in to God's word, building my oily biz, and serving others. 

You can also keep up with me on Instagram (@ewelte_hpa) or find our hashtags: #theweltegirls #theweltefamilyblog #hpagoesoily are just a few! 

You can also head over to Bloglovin and follow me there. 

I cannot wait to find a few new blogs to follow! Leave me a comment below so I can find you!

And, if you're wanting to link up with Momfessionals next time around, here's the schedule:

New Year's Resolutions

 Well my friends, we made it! We made it through another year, and we're on to the next. Is it just me or do these years just fly by? I mean, I use to think that my college days were the best of my life, but I was wrong. Right now, these moments- moments with my little my family, my people. These are what make the best moments. The best memories. 

And, we're on to a new one. 

I'm not a big New Years Resolutions girl. I haven't made resolutions in a few years. I always fail, so I never bother. But, not this year. No ma'am. This is going to be a big year for my family. I can feel it. The end of 2015 was pretty epic. I mean, I kind of feel that God's putting pieces of the puzzle in to place, and things are just fitting the way they should be. I have that warm fuzzy feeling, that this year may be the very best one yet. I'm sort of determined that it will be. 

It's a New Year, and a New Me. 

Well, maybe just a more well-rounded me. 

I've kind of dubbed 2016 as my "selfish" year. This year, I want to focus on myself. I want to make me a better person. I've set some goals and to-do's for myself in order to make this year my best one yet. 

1. Study scripture. I go to church, I pray daily, I listen to Christian music radio. But, I fail to read my Bible. Every once in a while I pick it up, I read through a study guide on my Bible app, but it's often quick and not quite intentional. Last week, I went to the Christian bookstore and bought "Jesus Calling." The devotions are short and there's a section for writing on each page. I love that I'll be able to journal along with my devotions and have everything together. 

2. Kick Toxins To the Curb. We started our mission years ago, but only did so much. We use cloth napkins, make our own cleaning supplies, we cloth diapered. But, there are still so many toxins in our every day products that I'm wanting to get rid of. I'm determined that this year will be the year that we clear out every single toxic product in our home. Thanks to Young Living, I've been able to jump start, and we're officially cleared out of toxic cleaning products, and our laundry room is toxin free. I'll be blogging bi-weekly about our adventures and progress. 

3. Exercise, eat healthy, say good-bye to Coke and Sugar. Let's be real friends. This is going to be an every day struggle. I mean, I'm going to hate myself by the end of the year. I know this one is going to be baby steps. Actually, I'll probably be crawling through most of the year. But, I joined a challenge group on Facebook to walk 1,000 miles this year! And, i'm not talking about the walking that I already do every single day. I'm talking 1,000 extra miles. Like, I will have to intentionally figure out a way to walk about 2.8 miles extra every single day. Can I be honest, I may shoot for 500 miles in a year, because 1,000 might be overkill. 

4. Rock my Biz. When I started my Young Living journey I knew right away that I wanted to rock the business end. But, I also wanted to make sure that I was pushing a product that I 1000% believe in. I mean, it's great when people sell products, but I need those products to fit in with my life choices. Once I actually started using essential oils and seeing benefits and life changes I knew I was all in. My goal is to hit Silver by this summer and Gold by the end of the year. I'm dreaming big my friends. 

5. Serve others. One reason that I'm so passionate about my Young Living venture is because I want to be able to give freely and without hesitation. God has really been working in this area of my life. I want to have a servant's heart and I want to teach my girls the importance of serving others. I plan on meeting God right where He's been asking me to, by committing to a family service project each month. It may be as simple as making cards for people or random acts of kindness. We may participate in our church's children's program service project, or we may participate in their Second Saturday service project. We may bake cookies for the fire department. I just want to serve others. 

6. Take time for Family and Say No. I have a problem with saying yes too often. I hate to let people down. I totally over commit. This year, I want to focus on being home and being with my family. 

7. Be Debt Free. DJ and I have decided there will be no vacations this year. We want to go in to 2017 being debt free. 

8. Finish House Projects. We need to do a few things to finish up the inside of the house. Bar stools, curtains in our bedroom, Adalyn's big girl room... We also need to fence the back yard, put gutters on the house, and do some landscaping out front. We may even plant a garden in the back. 

Whew. I have some work to do! I thought I'd update monthly on how I'm doing with my resolutions. That way, it keeps me accountable. 

So, what about you? Are you making resolutions this year? 

And, can you do me a favor- pray for me! I'm going to totally need it! And, if you'll leave me a comment below, I'll be praying for you too! 

Christmas Part 2

As you know, we spent our Christmas day in Shreveport for our Independence Bowl trip. It was a pretty unconventional Christmas, but we made the best of it and had a blast! 

We let the girls know that Santa had not only brought presents to our hotel room, but that he had left presents at our house too. Because Santa knew that we couldn't get all of our presents home on an airplane! The girls opened three presents on Christmas day. When we arrived home Sunday afternoon, we not only found Pops and Grandma Dee at our house, but we found tons of presents under our Christmas tree! 

I'm pretty sure the girls insisted on opening presents before we even thought about bringing in our suitcases. 

Meggie received a remote control Sofia the First carriage from Santa. 

Adalyn received a Melissa & Doug farm bead set. 

Gretchen received Grace's puppy from the American Girl doll store. 

These girls had the present opening down!

Addy's very own laptop. 

All of the girls received headphones. DJ and I were going to give these to the girls before we left for our trip and then we forgot!

Addy Pearl loves Minnie Mouse!

A new Matilda Jane outfit. 

Rain boots!

The girls received the Girl Scout baking oven from Pops and Grandma Dee. 

Pops opening his present. 

Grandma Dee opening her present. 

After present opening we sat down for dinner and enjoyed hanging out with family!