Wordless Wednesday

Popcorn!!!

My boys LOVE popcorn! It's their favorite snack. Tonight I popped them some and walked into the living room to find them snuggled up enjoying their popcorn.

I love my sweet boys!

Sunday Funday

     My boys LOVE going to church! I mean really, truly they do. It's not just about seeing their friends-they know that's where we go to worship Jesus and learn about Him with other believers. Because the boys and/or I have been sick for the last three weeks, our whole family has not been to church together since January 27th-yes I know the exact date-until today. Lucas woke up this morning and said, "Mommy! Please let me go to church! I need to learn about Jesus at His house!" They do know that we worship Jesus and can learn about Him anywhere, but we are also trying to instill in them the importance of doing those things with others believers at His house.

     Earlier this week somewhere (I'm not really sure if I read it in the Bible myself or if someone else had posted it) I read Psalm 122:1. I remembered this verse because of their excitement and decided it was picture time. I'll pull it out someday IF they are not so excited about going to the Lord's house; although I pray daily they are always excited to go to church.

"I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the LORD!'".

Psalm 122:1

    One of our goals for 2013 is to not go out to eat as much. We've been really successful with that. My mom makes up a month's worth of menus at a time. She always writes a grocery list of ingredients we need for the recipes. Each week I compare the list with what we have on hand and then go grocery shopping. This is probably the greatest contribution to us being so successful with cooking and eating at home. 

     This morning Logan asked Daddy if he would take us out to eat after church. Daddy took us out to eat and even let Logan pick where we went. Logan chose Daddy's favorite-Babe's! We go to the one in Arlington because the boys love to watch the train travel around the tracks. 

     When we snuggled up for family nap time, Logan told me today was Sunday Funday because "we got to church! ...And daddy even took us to Babe's for lunch. Today was the best day ever!"

Sisters

     I love my sister so much! I'm so thankful for her and the relationship we have. There was a period of time when we were younger that our relationship was complicated, but now we are back to being really close. She is always there for my boys and I.

     A couple of weeks ago, my mom got stuck at Parkland at a doctor's appointment and I was afraid she wasn't going to be back in time for me to pick Logan up from school. Calli called to talk and I was in a panic. She was going to pack up the 3 kids (an infant, 1 year old, and 4 year old) she watches to let me borrow her car to get Logan. She does those kinds of things for the people in her life she loves. What most people would look at an inconvenience, she looks at as a way to show her love to the important people in her life.

     Calli is one of the most precious people in my life. She loves fiercely and unconditionally. I'm so blessed to have her as my little sister!

Kitchen Update

Tonight we worked on taping everything off. We also attempted to start texturing, but it was a little bit like an I Love Lucy episode. We decided to call it quits for tonight. So thankful my sister took the boys tonight so we could work on this without extra help.

Beloved

         

"I found the one my soul loves."

Song of Solomon 3:4

Crazy Hair

It was crazy hair night at AWANA tonight! There's been so much sickness at my house lately that I'm not quite on top of things like I usually am. So I stuck a clip in the front of Logan's hair and we went to church.

Lucas had a meltdown because he couldn't go. He ran fever again earlier today. He's missed Cubbies two weeks in a row and he's not happy.

Tonight Logan finished his 1st grade Sparks book and we've already started on his review extra credit book.

I'm so proud of how hard my boys work at memorizing their Scriptures and how much joy they have in that. As we were looking back through the review Scriptures there are so many Logan can still say word perfect! It brings my heart much joy to see my boys hiding God's Word in their hearts!

Kitchen Redo

    I've wanted to get rid of the wallpaper in our kitchen since we moved in. Six years later we're finally working on redoing the kitchen. Back before Thanksgiving my sister and I started ripping the wall paper down and got a little less than half way done and had to stop. It's been like that ever since. On Saturday we went to Home Depot to get this spray on gel wallpaper remover. It made the job a lot easier, but it was still very tedious. We worked on it Saturday afternoon and evening. Lucas wanted to be the little helper going behind us and sweeping up the wallpaper pieces, while Logan took advantage of our busyness and played more video games than he is normally allowed too. While I was at CareNow with Lucas on Sunday, Joshua finished ripping most of the rest of it down. This weekend my sister is coming to help us texture the walls. I can't wait to finally have my red kitchen!

Lucas' Trip to CareNow

     Last Tuesday, Lucas woke up with a froggy sounding voice, runny nose, and little cough. He ran a slight fever on Wednesday. Then back to just the other symptoms. Saturday afternoon, he started running fever again and complained one time about his ear, but Logan and him had just been wrestling so I didn't think much about it. Sunday morning about 4:30 he woke up screaming about his ear. I did web checkin with CareNow when we woke up and they told me the wait was an hour and a half to two hours. I was so thankful we were able to wait at home. It was about an hour and a half before they called us to head that way.

    They checked both his ears and they were infected. His little throat was really red as well. They did a flu test which came back negative for both flu A and flu B, and a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia which came back clear too. He's on an oral steroid and  antibiotic. I'm hoping this clears up quickly and is the last of our sickness for a while. We've haven't been to church as a whole family since January and I miss it! Thankfully my boys do not get ear infections often. Logan has had 3 total and this is Lucas' second. The first time he had one it was a double ear infection as well that took two rounds of antibiotics to get rid of. We dropped off his prescriptions at Walgreens and then got him a happy meal. I couldn't bear to tell that little sad face no McDonald's.

Logan's Valentines

    On Monday afternoon, we worked on Logan's valentines for his classmates. Logan decided he wanted to make valentines for 1st grade early and 1st grade late. We decided to do crazy straw valentines. I found a free printable online that I printed 48 copies of. Then Logan worked on signing all of them. I hole punched the tags, and he helped me thread the ribbon through so I could tie them on the straws.  The tags said, "I'm CRAZY about you! Happy Valentine's Day! XOXO, Logan".  They handed out their valentines at lunch so several kids used their straws at lunch which made Logan super excited! Logan gave his teachers a homemade peanut butter cookie with a Dove chocolate in the middle. 

    Below are some pictures of our valentine decorations around the house. I'll leave them up through the end of the month, and then it'll be time for Easter decorations since Easter comes early this year! All of my valentine decorations came from the Target dollar spot or Walgreens. 

Isaiah 30:21

You will hear a word spoken behind you, saying, “This is the correct way, walk in it,” whether you are heading to the right or the left. (Isaiah 30:21 NET)

Flashback Friday: Lucas

 Here's a few of my favorite old pictures of Lucas.

Fun With My Lil Valentines!

     Yesterday I made these heart placemats for each of the boys. I wrote down six reasons why mommy loves them and then added Psalm 127:3 at the bottom. I also put out a box of their favorite chocolate for each boy. Logan loves Ferrer Roche's (he gets that from Daddy!) and Lucas loves Reese's PeanutButter cups (he gets that from Mommy and Daddy!). For breakfast I made them cinnamon rolls and added valentine sprinkles.

     After breakfast, the boys opened their presents from Grammie. They loved all the little treats she gave them!

    We baked Valentine cut out cookies next. The boys played with Play Doh and the new tools Grammie got for Lucas while I mixed up the dough. Then we rolled and cut out the cookies together. The boys are always so good about taking turns when we do this. 

    After lunch, we iced and decorated our cookies. The boys decided they wanted to give some to their friends, the Hester girls and to Miss Becky who watches them on Thursday evenings when I have Bible study. 

     When Joshua came home from work, he had presents for the boys and I. The boys got an automatic nerf gun because I don't dodge enough things flying through the air with those two little monkeys. :) We had a very blessed and sweet Valentine's Day. Tomorrow classes resume at Logan's school and he'll have more Valentine's Day fun!