The big girl

My sweet Lily-Kate, my big girl, will be 4 years old on August 25th. Because of the date of her birthday, we had the option to go ahead and put her in pre-k this year or wait until next year. We weren't too fond of the idea of her being the youngest, smallest, kid in her class but she is so mature and is so ready for some kind of learning/ crafting outlet so we decided to let her start pre-k this year through our public school system. It's only 2 1/2 hours a day so it's just enough time for her to go play and learn without missing mommy too much. ;)

Lily-Kate is very much my "minnie me". She wants to everything I do, go everywhere I go, etc. She loves when her and I do "big girl things" together, just the two of us. For a week or so, she'd been asking me to do something "fancy" with her, just the two of us. I figured it would be a good idea to do something special with her before she started school so we had a "fancy day". 

Now, I'm as girly as they come, but I wasn't exactly sure what her expectations of a fancy day were....

She said we had to wear long dresses, eat chocolate, and go somewhere fancy. Apparently, the dress I had worn to church that day was not fancy enough so she made me change into a maxi dress because everyone knows, you're not fancy unless you're wearing a long dress. ;)

I wasn't sure where to take her for our fancy place. We have an Olive Garden in town which I figured she would consider "fancy" and I knew she'd love their black tie mousse cake!

Below is her expression after her first bite of the cake. ;)

We easily finished it off!

For our next event, I decided to take her to get her first manicure.

She just made herself right at home, reading magazines. (National Geographic, to be specific)

In the picture below on the right, she showed me this picture and said, "Mommy, look at this old lady! She's gorgeous. I love her." =) She made quite a few ladies in the waiting area chuckle.

As soon as she started soaking her nails, she was in heaven. ;)

The final product!

We had so much fun together and I was given the best mommy ever award! ;)

I love all my little Tabblettes the same but every once in a while it's so nice to do something special with just one of them, to really get to know each one of them as an individual and to make them feel special. With 3 kiddos all so close in age, it's easy for one of them to feel lost in the shuffle. I'm thankful for these special times I get to have with my girls and look forward to our next "fancy day!"

Do you do any kind of special day every so often for your kiddos? Do you do it monthly? Yearly? At random?

Frap without the fat!

SO excited! I just made myself a guilt free starbucks style frap that actually tastes good! You'll want to save this recipe!

Guilt free frap

ingredients:

1/2-3/4 cup cold coffee, depending on how strong of a coffee taste you like.

2/3 cup fat free milk

4 packets of splenda (more if you prefer your coffee drinks to taste more like milkshakes) ;)

3 Tbls unsweetened cocoa powder

12-15 ice cubes depending on how much coffee you're using.

Put all ingredients in blender. Blend and enjoy!
Roughly only 110 calories!!!

Want to make it more decadent? Add a dollop of fat free cool whip and some mini dark chocolate chips.  

Make it a meal replacement by using a scoop of chocolate protein powder instead of the splenda and cocoa powder and throw in half a banana and a tablespoon of all natural peanut butter! Yum!

Enjoy! <3 <3 <3

Perspective.

You know that moment where you feel your heart plop into your stomach because you suddenly realize what a fool you've been?...That was what I felt Sunday morning in our Sunday school class. The topic of our lesson was "perspective" and that was exactly what I needed. Perspective.

You see, last week, I'm pretty positive that I spent the majority of my time moping...and no, I didn't mean to type "mopping", like I should have been doing, but moping. One "p". I was feeling so sorry for myself, thinking about how horribly hard my life is at this moment! I mean, I'm training for a half marathon which means getting up around 5:00 every morning to follow my training plan, I have a teething baby who seems to want to let the whole world know she's cutting teeth, a toddler who refuses to eat most of the time and is quite sassy, and a pre-schooler who's recently decided she's better off not taking naps. I was feeling like the best thing to do all day was skim through pinterest while I let the t.v. babysit my kids and if they dare "bother" me while I'm trying to "work" then they'd hear about it. When my poor husband got home from work, he'd have to hear all about how horrible the day was and how the baby wouldn't sleep and just cried all day and Lily-Kate spilled her milk on the rug, and Lucy wouldn't eat anything I fed her...etc. 

In my mind, all of those things seemed like such a big deal last week, to the point where I felt I "deserved" time alone at the end of each day, watching mindless television and eating whatever comfort food I needed to make me feel better because I have it hard. But on Sunday morning, thankfully, Jesus tugged on my heart strings, pulled me in tight, and gave me a loving reality slap. ;) 

There's a married couple that's a part of our Sunday school class and the wife/ mother has cancer. She has a young child whom the husband is currently taking care of by himself because the woman is in Texas at a cancer treatment center. Talk about hard times. I've known about this family for a while but hearing the husband give our Sunday school class an update on his wife this past Sunday, it just hit me that my life is so easy! SO incredibly easy! I get the privilege of having my husband come home to us every night after work to help me tag team this parenting thing, I am also privileged to get the opportunity to stay home with my children. We are all so healthy. We've never had any major accidents. I could go on and on about all the things we have to be grateful for and all the ways we have been blessed.

After almost having a tearful breakdown right in the middle of our Sunday school lesson, I decided it was time to get up, brush the dirt off my pants, put on my big girl panties, and get back to being the kind of mother I want to be. The kind of mother my girls need me to be. The kind of mother God calls me to be.

My husband is out of town for a few days so my game plan was this:
-Be the absolute best mommy you can be while Jared is gone.
-find ways to bond with the girls
-Patience. Patience. Patience. 
-put the girls happiness and love cup ahead of the housework.

Jared has only been gone a little over 24 hours but so far so good....Well, actually Great! We've been giving out extra kisses and snuggles, working out our problems in a more calm, quieter way, and I'm reminded that when my sweet little baby is crying, it's not because she wants to annoy me. ;) I need to take in this time while my little Chloe is still so small and cuddle her as much as she needs to be cuddled while those sharp teeth are moving in.

When times get tough, all you need is a little perspective. 

Introducing the Tabb family

Hi!
First of all, let me just say thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts. Also, please excuse any grammatical errors. ;)

My name is Melinda Tabb. I have been married to the perfect man for 5 years and we have three beautiful little girls, our "Tabblettes".

 Our first family picture after giving birth to "Tabblette #3" ;)

You may be thinking, "three kids in 5 years of marriage?!" Yes. After we had been married for 8 months, we were surprised to find out I was pregnant and after that they just kept coming! ;) It's crazy around here but we are so happy and feel so blessed to have 3 beautiful, healthy girls.

Our Oldest daughter's name is Lily Kathryn. We call her Lily-Kate or "LK". She is almost 4 years old and will soon be starting pre-k in our public schools. We are very excited/ nervous! She is the mommy of the bunch and looks out for her sisters. She's tender hearted, compassionate, and outgoing.

 Our 2nd daughter's name is Lucy Isabelle. She is 2 years old. She is one sassy gal but also extremely loving and snuggly. In public she's incredibly timid and shy but at home, she thinks she rules the roost. Couldn't imagine not having this little firecracker as a part of our family.

Last but not least we have Chloe Paige who is almost 1! She was born with a head of bright red hair and is our "little red". She makes our family complete. Her big sisters love to help take care of her and she adores them! She's currently pulling up on every piece of furniture in the house and trying to start walking. Exciting times!

 We live in Owasso, OK, a small-ish town that's a suburb of Tulsa. I am a stay at home mom and I love it! I used to be a hairstylist and might go back to that some day when my children are older. I'm currently training for my very first half marathon and am terrified about the big day, November 24th! More about that later. My husband's name is Jared. He is an electrical engineer and the smartest person I know! I think he gets a direct feed from google to his brain. Even after 5 years and 3 kids, we are still madly in love. He truly is my prince charming. I couldn't ask for a better father to our girls. He's exactly the kind of man that I hope our girls will end up with someday. The boys that our girls date have some big shoes to fill!

 Jared and Lily-Kate at kiddie park

My love and I

Well, that's us. We're a very ordinary family, doing the best we can to raise our children the way God would want us to, to have a marriage that reflects God's love, and to teach our children what truly matters in life. I hope you enjoy reading about the ups, downs, excitement, and chaos that makes my world go round. :)