Who Are We?

I’m Nicole.  30-something Wife of 30-something Matt (a banker), stay-at-home mom to Luke (9 1/2), Bennett (7) and Jack Henry (4 1/2). I feel like I just became a mom and should still be home with babies, but alas, I’m suddenly that mom with mostly school-aged kids and the teensy-tiniest bit of free time (5 hours a week, to be precise).

I’m a graduate of the University of Illinois, with a degree in Human Development and Family Studies, with an emphasis on Early Childhood (it’s kind of an education/psychology mix).  Thus, staying at home with my boys is a natural fit!  Notice I didn’t say perfect; while I am certain that being home with them is what I was meant to do, our life and parenting is definitely imperfect, and in the spirit of full disclosure, I write about all of it: the good, the bad, the embarrassing, the funny. Since I am not good at keeping up the baby books, and I don’t scrapbook, this has become a journal of sorts about my boys’ childhood.

Because Matt also graduated from the U of I, we share an obsession for all things Illini.  You’ll often spot both of us out and about in Illini orange…and most of the time, it’s not even on purpose. We all also love the St. Louis Cardinals, and moving to STL and marrying me cured Matt of his Cub-rooting ways.

I love getting a good deal on things, and love to shop online since it’s so much easier than dragging boys to a store! Other likes: Riesling, sleeping children, blogging (it turns out I really like to write when it’s not for a school assignment), cooking, sweet tea and Arnold Palmers and cherry coke, coming up with new crafty projects, fixing up this new house, etsy, Pinterest, and reading, which doesn’t happen very often. Dislikes: most animals (sorry, animal lovers), whining, running (or anything that involves sweating, really), a sense of entitlement, and big government.

We are Christians, striving daily to teach our boys about Jesus and what it means and looks like to follow him. Some days we do a better job of this than others, of course.

I also blog about what’s cooking (literally) in our house at Three More Bites, a recipe blog I share with my friend Sonya. And, I have an etsy shop that is not surprisingly called Here’s the Diehl, where I sell some cute accessories for little girls (as well as some accessories for the home!). I have to get my girl-fix somewhere, and since we’re not having more kids, this is it!

Welcome to this glimpse of daily life in our house…