L.O.V.E.

I got off Facebook because I wanted more time with my family. Sadly, Pinterest has taken it's place. I am not a crafty person but I follow directions really well. I could never come up with the cute things but can totally recreate them. I made several things for Christmas but this is my first Valentine's craft. I haven't finished the E because I had to wait for the top and bottom to dry but you get the drift.

I'm spelling the word LOVE and am going to put the letters on ribbon to hang. The L and the V are going to be spray painted red and the O and E are white glitter as you can see. I started working on this tonight since Brian's gone and I have no one to talk too. I watched an episode of The Parenthood and glittered away. At least it kept me busy for about 15 minutes;-)

Deep and Wide

The boys and I took Brian to the airport Monday morning so he could fly off to his annual Vegas trip for work. He has to be at a conference on Friday in Phoenix so he's leaving Vegas Thursday night and flying over there. Whew, he's a busy man this week.

Brian and I NEVER let the kids in bed with us no matter what. Last night at 1:30 I woke up to Austin tapping me on the arm saying Mom, Mom, Mom. No telling how long he'd been standing there. I've always been a very good sleeper;-) I asked what was wrong and he said he wet the bed. Seriously? Ugh, that's the worst. I hate changing sheets in the middle of the night. Plus, since Brian's out of town I stay up way too late watching my TV shows. I didn't fall asleep until around 12:20 so I had just really gotten comfortable. I told him to go get new pj's then come back downstairs and let me know when he was done. He had a confused look on his face but then took off running upstairs and did as he was told.

He came into our bedroom and told me he was done. He nervously asked why aren't you going upstairs and changing my sheets. I guess he thought I was going to make him sleep in pee. I told him in a second but he had to go wash his hands. When he came out of the bathroom I had Brian's side of the bed all ready for him and told him to hop in. The look on his face was priceless. You would have thought I gave him a million bucks! All he kept saying was really, really, I get to sleep with you, really. It was so cute.

He did great sleeping with me. He stayed on his side and I stayed on mine. I did wake up and check on him a couple of times and the only thing I found was his head completely under the covers. I'm sure he had to do that to get warm. It's freezing in our bedroom.
My alarm this morning was suppose to go off at 6:40 but at 6:30 my Austin alarm went off. There's nothing like waking up to a child singing the song "Deep and Wide". It was way better than the car horn I usually hear even though it was 10 minutes early. His Sunday school class sang it Sunday and he's been singing it ever since. I told him he could get up and play but he didn't want too (probably because it was freezing out of the covers.) He said he wanted to lay and snuggle with me a little bit so we did. Next thing you know Kaleb figured out that Austin was in my bed and the fight began. What was I thinking?

AR catch up

I had a meeting with Kaleb's teacher last Thursday and she said he was a little behind on his Accelerated Reader points. Over the past weekend/holiday we read 4 books which will give him a total of 2 points. He needs around 12 points so at a half a point a book, that's a lot of reading. He has been such a trouper though. He loves to read and gets really excited about the books and new things he learns. I always hated reading but Kaleb really does like it. He loves the one on one time that I give him more than anything else. It's nice to be able to spend that quality time with your child. It's truly something they will never forget.

Finally Covered

Yay, our pool was finally covered today. I'm so tired of pulling leaves out of the skimmers and Polaris. No matter how warm the weather is, the water is freezing!!! I'm numb every time I come inside. Our backyard is finally COMPLETE. I'll try and catch-up with whats been going on back there but as you can see we now have a water slide and all new landscaping.

Incredible Pizza

I've dreaded going to this place.
I get so stressed out taking the kids to stuff like this because Kaleb just walks off and does his own thing. I've seriously considered making him one of those leash kids. I have to admit it wasn't as bad as I thought. I couldn't have done it without my Mom and Sister coming along though.

We ate first then headed to Laser tag. The boys LOVED it. What I liked about it was how sweaty they got. Hey, at least they got some exercise.

Next thing was bumper cars.
Evan and Reagan did their own things
Then we did go carts but I didn't get pictures of that. Mom was watching Reagan, Kaleb drove by himself, and Shawn and I drove the little ones. The break didn't work on my car and right at the end Kaleb was in front of me and we had to stop. I screamed at the guy letting him know he had to stop me. All I could think was I'm about to takeout my own kid! He grabbed Austin and my car and stopped us just in time. . Whew, that was a close call. It scared me to death. Needless to say, my nerves were shot and I was ready to go. Too bad we still had 45 minutes left. The kids played games and Kaleb kept running off. Luckily, my Mom went with Kaleb and Reagan, I had Austin, and Shawn had Evan.

Places like this are so much work for adults. Add a high strung person in the mix and they need to sell alcohol:-)

We also sorta played mini golf. I stress the word sorta because the kids just ran to whatever hole they wanted to go to and started playing. It was a free for all!

Church

The boys and I have faithfully started going to Central Church. I've been wanting to get involved but have always missed 2 or 3 weeks then just quit going for some reason. One of my many "New Years" resolutions is to keep going no matter what. I have several acquaintances that I do pickup with every afternoon that go, so I always have a familiar face to sit with.

During the service there is usually a time where you greet the people that sit around you. I don't really like that part but I usually talk to my acquaintances and I'm fine. Today was a little different. We didn't do the greeting like usual and I wondered why. At the very end of the service, our Preacher told us to hold the hand of the stranger beside you and pray for them. Talk about humbling. I was sitting in between an older couple which I didn't know and person's husband that I had just met. Of coarse both of them turn to their wives and I'm standing there all alone.
All I could think about was why am I feeling sorry for myself that I have no one to pray for. I have Jesus standing with me and I am not alone. I'm becoming so much stronger in the Lord and with every visit I feel my heart opening up and his word soaking like a sponge into the boys and my heart. I was crying thanking God for giving me the courage to do this by myself when I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was my dear friend Amy that was sitting behind me. I'm not sure if she felt sorry for me standing all alone but I turned around with tears in my eyes and she grabbed my hand and started praying. I'm not really sure what she said but I was thankful for the prayer. Everyone needs them.

In moments like those you realize that you can change peoples lives one prayer at a time. I changed mine by knowing that no matter what, I am never alone. God is ALWAYS with me. I should feel sorry for the people who didn't hear God's message and not for myself who soaked in every word and am passing God's love down to my children. I am so humbled and thankful for this amazing start to the year.

New Bedroom

Brian's finally working on the inside of the house. He started painting our bedroom today and just the cut in looks amazing:-) I'm so ready for any other color than yellow!

This is what the boys did.

Were lucky to have Brian painting so we can be lazy:-) I'm extremely messy and got fired from painting in our last house. I swear I spill, and drip everywhere. I'll post more pictures when he gets closer to being done.