Springtime = Softball Season

 It's that time again.  Between practices and games, softball pretty much consumes our evenings.  But...that's what we do, and, because Abby loves it so much, I'm glad.

  I think we will all be happy if the weather will stay tolerable!  Hot, humid softball games aren't nearly as fun to watch!

Muscle-mania :)

"Look Mom, I have big muscles!"

Baby Shower Craftiness

What do you give the crafty girl that has everything?  Normally I would crochet a blanket, but she is a knitter.  Diapers just seem so impersonal.  I really wanted to make something crafty, but that would require getting over myself...

A friend had an idea to make some burp cloths and I ran with it.

I also thought it was necessary to make the new baby a "T" bag since his sister has an "E" bag.

I love how they all turned out!

(And I think the crafty new mama did too!)

Abby's Photography

I have a budding photographer in my house.  I was very impressed when I saw some pictures that Abby recently took.  Most of these pictures were taken for her class at church and then she played around with editing them.

 

 

 

 What an amazing God we serve that created such beauty for us to enjoy!

Happy Sounds

I LOVE nothing more than the happy sounds of my kiddos!  Listening to Ben and Luke having fun on the trampoline definitely made me smile!

Back to School

 I am so proud of Jon!  So many years after graduating from high school, Jon is finally going to college.  No, he didn't go right out of high school, this is his first college experience.  He didn't know what he wanted to do with his life at graduation.  He worked nights at UPS and college didn't really seem to fit at the time.  Amazingly, Jon has been able to move through all of his flight training and end up with a great job all without a college education.  All I can say is that God has been so good!

Upon taking his current job at Cessna, he learned that they had a tuition reimbursement program.  It took a few years to actually act upon it, but Jon got to the point that he knew it was something that he needed to do.  Who knows how long this program is going to be around.  It sounds like one of those things that would be really easy to cut.  He also thought that if he were to (someday) need or want to look for another job, it would be good to have a degree.

So...here we are.  Jon is officially a college student.   (Since it has taken me so long to blog, he is actually halfway into his second class.) 

I knew that Jon going to school was going to be an adjustment for all of us.  With studying and homework, having three busy kiddos and having family time... It has been a little bit more of an adjustment than I expected.  I am learning that I am a very selfish person.  If Jon is home, I want him to be helping out with kids, cleaning up the house with me, watching our favorite shows with me or just hanging out with me.  Yep, it's all about me...  ):  I am learning.

Even more than my issues, I know that it has been really challenging for Jon.  Not only is he giving his job 100%, he is now trying to balance school and home.  He has learned that home is NOT the best place for him to do homework.  There are way too many distractions here.  He has become pretty fond of the library.

I have to say that with all of the stress and selfishness, I am SO proud of Jon!  I can't imagine going to school at this point in my life.  But Jon, I guess he just knows that it's something that he needs to do.  He has been so good about making sure his assignments are done to the best of his ability and making sure they are on time.  He has had to make the hard choice to not do things just so he can work on school work.

I am so excited and proud of Jon!  I know this is going to be a long road, but the reward at the end will be so worth it!

Easter 2012

What better reason to celebrate than the resurrection of Jesus? (Well, besides his birth, anyway.) What a day that must have been! To go to the tomb and find that the stone had rolled away and the body of Jesus was no longer inside! I can only imagine! I am so thankful that, not only did Jesus die for me, but that he rose again! AMAZING!! That is every reason to celebrate!!

I always love figuring out what fun things to make for holidays. I got on Pinterest and found a few musts. Peep Pops and Strawberry Carrots. I love Peeps! I love strawberries! How could you go wrong dipping them both in chocolate? :)

My Peeps are chillin'! (:

This is my favorite way to use up extra melted chocolate! YUM!!

Of course, we couldn't pass up coloring Easter eggs!

Yes, I know that Easter has nothing to do with bunnies, chocolate and eggs. I made sure that we talked a lot about the real meaning of Easter. I wanted to make sure that in all of the fun that Luke knew what we were really celebrating. He will very quickly tell you while raising his hands up in the air, "Jesus came back to life!"

I had so much fun finding things and putting Easter baskets together for the kiddos this year.

Ben is all about Coke right now and I was able to find some things I knew he would love. A new Coke t-shirt, Coke glasses, glass bottles of Coke and Coke puzzle. He was very pleased!

Abby has been talking about wanting the Adele cd for a long time, plus, it's just so easy to find little things for her here and there. Her basket didn't have a theme, but she was happy with her peace sign necklace, Little Miss Sunshine mug, headbands

Several weeks ago Luke and I saw that Aldi had a huge supply of cars from Cars 2. I had bought him a few, but there were certain ones that he still really wanted. I was so happy that I was able to find the ones that he wanted. So was he! He ended up with a whole Cars themed basket with bubble bath and washcloths, easy reader books and the coveted cars. He was one happy boy!

Here is the finished product of my fun, Easter Pinterest treats.

They were as delicious as they were cute!

We were invited to our friend's house for Easter dinner and for the kids to have an egg hunt.

Luke thought the egg hunt was great! There were only two other little girls that participated and, although their bags were much fuller than his, he kept telling everyone, "I'm winning!" It was so cute to watch him get so excited about finding each egg.

He also loved discovering what was inside the eggs! Everything from chocolates and jellybeans to foam stickers and coins. He was one happy boy!

I was very happy to see my big kiddos playing games with the rest of the kids. So often Ben wants to hang out with me and Jon or just hang out in the background. That wasn't the case this time.

The day was enjoyed by all!

Thank you, Lord, for sending your son for us!

Luke 24:1-8
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered his words.

Ugh...

I'm not sure what the Lord is trying to teach me. Patience? Trying to just get me to slow down? I don't know, but I do know that this process has been frustrating and emotional. I feel like I have dealt with foot pain for so long. I often wonder, "Is this just something I should get used to?" "Is it ever going to go away?"


It started out with a brace on my left foot and some special tennis shoes to help heal some tendinitis in my left foot and plantar faciitis in my right foot. I did that for a month and then returned back to the doctor still in much pain. He informed me that the brace usually takes care of the tendinitis 80-90% of the time. Hmmm... The doctor was very apologetic when he told me that my foot needed to be completely immobilized. Yep...I had to go into the boot. ): I'm pretty sure he could see that the tears were welling up in my eyes as he told me that I would have to wear the boot for three weeks (all day long!) and then come back and check things out again. He also mentioned that the next step was one that I probably wouldn't really enjoy. Crutches or a knee scooter. What?! Have you ever seen these knee scooters? Here you go...
Mmm-hmm...can't you just see me rolling around my house on this thing? Ugh...

Please pray with me that my feet (especially the left one!) will be healed and I can move on from this! I never realized how emotional pain can be, but it truly is! I would love to be able to just slip on some cute shoes and go out or put my normal tennis shoes on and go back to the gym! I really have missed all of that!

I go back to the doctor on April 19th and will hopefully have good news to report.

THIS


BOY


MAKES


ME


SMILE!

All he ever wants to do is play outside.

He's ALL boy.

I'm ok with that!

Spring Break 2012 ~ Part 3

The next part of our trip started out just the same as any other day since we had been gone. Wake up, eat breakfast, get cleaned up and head out for the day's activities. On Saturday, however, the day that we were due to be heading home, I just wasn't ready to go home. I still had things that I wanted us to do. I asked Jon if we could possibly stay another day instead of hitting the road after going to the zoo. Spontaneous? Yes. Possible? Yes. To be very honest, it didn't even take much convincing to get Jon to say yes. (The fact that we were using his hotel rewards made it a lot easier to say yes, I'm sure!) Jon took a quick poll to see who wanted to stay another night, only one "no" was heard (I will explain that one), and Jon was quickly on the phone getting our stay extended. Yes!

Why was there are "no" when asked about staying in Dallas for another day? Well...I had promised Ben a long time ago that if he read The Hunger Games, that we would go see the movie when it came out. Seeing as though the movie came out over spring break made it very easy to be able to go. I told him that we would be home from our trip on Saturday and we could go see the movie on Sunday. Hence, Ben didn't want to stay and risk being the only kid at school that didn't see The Hunger Games on Monday morning. I assured him that we would make it work. I told him that Jon and I would do our best to make sure that we left early enough on Sunday that we could see the movie before heading back to school Monday morning. Ben was (mostly) satisfied.

Jon and I debated whether or not to go to the zoo on our trip. Ben and Abby claim to not like the zoo (Crazy, I know!), and since this trip was all about family, I didn't want to do anything that anyone really didn't want to do. However, 1. Jon and I really wanted to go. 2. We knew Luke would love it! Especially after going to the museum the day before and hearing him talk all day about wanting to see LIVE animals! 3. After our disappointment at the museum/science center, we made the executive decision that we were going to the zoo no matter what.

This is probably the funniest thing I saw on our whole trip! If this just doesn't scream "Texas", I don't know what does! This guy made me laugh!!

One...Two...Threeeee!!!
One of Luke's favorite things to do!

Have I mentioned that palm trees make me happy? (:

We were so excited that almost all of the animals were up and about! There's nothing worse than going to the zoo and all of the animals are inside or sleeping... The animals were amazing!

This little guy LOVED the zoo!! I am always thrilled to see things through my kids eyes and this was one of those times. Everything that Luke looked at, he looked at with such awe. Oh, to see things for the first time and be so amazed!

Aside from the heat and a few meltdowns from the little one, we had a great day at the Ft. Worth Zoo!

In keeping with getting things checked off of our lists of places we wanted to go in Dallas and our zoo day, I thought Rainforest Cafe had to be the perfect place to have dinner! I didn't, however, take into account getting there right at dinner time and it being insanely busy, or the fact that Luke might be a little bit afraid of the animals randomly coming to life.

Here is my quick summary of our Rainforest Cafe experience:
We waited a very. long. time. to be seated.
Luke was T.E.R.R.I.F.I.E.D of the gorillas.
We had to move to a different table where Luke was much happier with a safer distance between him and the gorillas.
The service was s.l.o.w...
I have decided that you don't go to Rainforest Cafe for the food or the service, but for the scenery and atmosphere

If you were to ask Luke now, he would say that it was great! Although, I don't think he would still like to be anywhere near those silly gorillas!

It's finally time to check out of the hotel and think about going home.

But not before a stop at Ikea!

I had never been to Ikea and have heard so much about it! I had to see what all of the talk was about. I was completely overwhelmed! There is just so much there. You have to go through the store twice. Once to see everything and then again to get out. Crazy! I did buy a few things, but I don't think it is a place that any of my three guys care to ever go back to. I am glad I have finally been there and I would love to go back!

Jon and I waited long enough! With a 7-Eleven on (what seemed like) every corner, we knew that we had to have a Slurpee! I am shocked that this is the only Slurpee we had the whole time we were in Dallas.

Finally getting it just before getting on the road to head home was the perfect time! I enjoyed that Slurpee goodness almost all the way home! YUM!!

I am happy to say that Ben and I did make it home in time to go see The Hunger Games. It wasn't looking so good for us to get there in time, but Jon dropped us off at the movie theater before we ever came home. I know...I know...

On the way home we all talked about our favorite parts of the trip. This is what we all had to say:

Luke ~ the snakes at the zoo

Abby ~ ice skating

Ben ~ the JFK museum and "the chicks" (oh brother...)

Me ~ the JFK museum and not having to do anything house related

Jon ~ the zoo, hotel and being together for meals out at really nice restaurants

We had a GREAT trip! I am so thankful that we were able to get out of the house, get out of town for a few days, not cook, not clean, not do laundry and just hang out and have fun as a family! I am also thankful that the Lord gave us the opportunity go on a great trip and be able to stay on track with spending cash only! There is no guilt in that! Thank you, Lord!!