My Valentine's Day Gifts...

Isn't this the cutest? This is what the boys made for me with their Kid K'nex while I was in the shower! I loved it! :)

I'm so embarrassed to even post this, but David MADE me do it! This is the FABULOUS dress he got me for Valentine's Day. It was quite a surprise - he was very nervous about it, he said. He's never bought me a dress before, but just decided to go with it! He went to one of my fave stores and got the right (NEW) size and everything! It is much more bold and daring than I typically am, but it is very fun and I love it! I wore it to church on Sunday, and he insisted that he take a picture of me so I could blog about it and give him all the credit for picking it out! :) Way to go honey - I love the dress and I love you for picking it for me!

Every Day....

....should have a 2 hour delay!!! We woke up to a wonderful surprise phone call from the ASCS phone tree - 2 hour delay today because of ice!! We had no idea - it was a lovely surprise!!!! We enjoyed a wonderful, leisurely breakfast of cream cheese cinnamon rolls and eggs WITH Daddy - it was quite a treat! :)

So Excited About....

1. New dryer sheets!!! We've been out for a while, and finally got some last night when I was at the store. They smell WONDERFUL!!!!

2. I got 2 new cooking clients this week!! Yippee!!

3. Voting today for our primary!!! The boys are SO excited - they always love going with me. I'm excited too - not only to perform my civic duty, but so that the political calls will finally STOP!!!!

That's it for now! Got home a bit ago from my run this morning and now I've got to hurry and shower before storytime at the library! It's a good morning so far!

Josiah, the Big Brother

My Josiah has such a tender heart. He always has, and I pray that he always will. On Sunday morning, his first Sunday School class teacher lets them choose from a treasure box if they bring back their "homework" completed. Well, everybody knows how much Josiah LOVES school, so every week he dutifully does his homework and brings back his notebook to choose a treasure. In the past, he's chosen some balls, or Spiderman cards, or something along those lines. Well, this last week he came home with some little monkey & elephant barrettes. He said they were for Callie for when she gets a little bigger and has more hair. He said "won't she look so cute Mom? She's just going to love them!" I love this boy!

Weddings & Parties

A lovely Saturday here today - our last day of the mild weather that we've enjoyed all week. It was beautiful running this morning (11 miles - woo hoo!) - it has been such a tease having this almost-spring weather here in the midst of winter. I know it's not here for good!!! :)

This afternoon we were able to go to a wedding at church for a friend of ours, Brittany. She babysat for our boys quite a bit and asked David to sing in her wedding today. She looked absolutely beautiful and radiant. It's always so fun going to weddings - it makes me want to pull my pictures out and see them again. It was fun reminiscing with David during the rehearsal yesterday and ceremony today about what we were thinking when we were there 10 years ago! And how you can explain to a bride that it is possible for her to be even more in love with her husband 10 years and 3 kids later??? I don't know, but I sure do!

Tonight our small group had a Valentine's Party with another small group and it was so fun! We had to leave early (probably before all the conflict started because we left right at the beginning of a round of Newlywed Game!), but had a blast while we were there. Lots of VERY yummy food, great fellowship, and just a fun evening out with all the grownups!!! Sue will post the pictures on her blog (believe it or not, a GREAT group picture was taken). We had a great time!!! David's off on with his rockstar band singing tonight, but at least we were able to come for the first part!!!!

A very fun Saturday indeed! :)

Sunday, February 3 - Day 3 of Girls' Weekend!

Kelli and Callie walking around the Governor's Palace during the tour...
Look how impressed she was with herself!
Inside the master bedroom of the Governor's Palace...it's amazing how small they were...beds were tiny too!
Just walking around - Callie and Mom were playing games with each other...so cute!
In front of the Governor's Palace after our tour
My favorite part of the tour - the kitchen!!! Don't you wish you had a meal like this prepared for you every day!
Talk about a dream storage pantry!
I took this picture for the boys. It's an original oil painting, but I thought the guy looked like Captain Hook, and he is doing the "Spiderman" fingers - shooting a web! :) They loved the picture!

This picture was taken inside the new Yankee Candle shop in Williamsburg - it is AMAZING!!!! Quite the destination, let me tell you!! They have 6 or 7 shops inside it, and see how it looks like you're outside in a courtyard? Just so cool!
The four sisters (When I was showing David these pictures, he said "Do you ALWAYS stand in birth order?" The answer is YES!!! :) I am so grateful for my 3 sisters!
This was from Kim & I - a frame that says "I love my Grandkids" with a picture of all of them from Christmas.
Mom reading the card that Josiah made her
Out front of the Yankee Candle store..took us a while to find it, but it was well worth it! :)

One of my FAVORITE pictures. This was Sunday night after I got home. The boys had their baths, Callie was in bed, and I was reading to them before bed. See how close and cuddled up to me they were?? I missed my boys! And I think they missed me a bit too!

Sunday morning, we woke up in our hotel and enjoyed a few more sights in Williamsburg. We were able to take the tour of the Governor's Palace and stop by the Wythe Candy Shop (amazing!). We then drove over to the Yankee Candle shop (by way of a LONG detour) and how incredible that was!! It is an experience in itself! We had to say our goodbyes after that and take the girls to the airport. It was a wonderful weekend to celebrate our mom who is SO special to each of us. I am so thankful for the memories we made together (and thankful to David for keeping the boys to make it possible for me to go!)

Saturday, February 2 - Day 2 of Girls' Weekend

Kim and Kelli - in trouble as usual!!!
Kristen and Katy...I'm sure wrongfully accused!!! (You'll be interested to know that the most common offense was not attending church once a month as was required. People could choose to pay 5 shekels, be whipped, or public humiliation - the stockades. Which would you choose?)
All of us in front of the Governor's Palace. Kristen, Katy, Mom (Callie in stroller), Kelli, Kim (Matthew in stroller) In front of the toy store window. We have so many of these pictures over the years in front of this window!! I love it!!! (Kelli, I didn't have one of just the four girls - I know we took it...is it on your camera?)
We had dessert at the Trellis - holy cow!!! See the FAMOUS Death by Chocolate cake? YUMMY!

This is the garden maze behind the Governor's Palace. They have this lookout, called "The Mount" - would have been very helpful to have someone up there shouting directions for us while we were IN the maze!! :)

Somehow, Mom got appointed leader as we were walking through....needless to say, we didn't EXACTLY take the correct path!!!

We had dinner at Christiana Campbell's Tavern that night...supposed to be George Washington's favorite tavern. It was wonderful!
Callie giving Matthew some love at the Williamsburg Inn!

See all the hands trying to keep Callie off of Matthew? She couldn't help herself - she just loved him SO much!

On Saturday morning, Kelli and I were up bright and early for our 10 mile run!! After strategically placing our newly purchased Gatorades, we were off and running!! It was so fun getting to show her where I run and being the one to know where we were going, where the mile markers were, etc. (I can't believe I didn't take a picture of us...GRRR!). It has been so fun to be able to run together, as she has been a HUGE encouragement to be throughout this process and really understands what I'm going through!! Anyways, we came home, had a wonderful breakfast together with the family, and then we girls (and Matthew) were off to Williamsburg!!! We had a wonderful day walking around Colonial Williamsburg, eating at so many fun places, and hearing about the history of this fascinating city. We even walked through the Williamsburg Inn and saw where the queen stayed and saw pictures of her visit. By the way, she sent her tailor over a month in advance to see all of the rooms she would be photographed in. He was to design her wardrobe so that nothing she wore would clash with the wallpaper!!! Amazing. It was all a surprise to my Mom,and she was so excited to hear that we even were going to be staying overnight!! The weather was beautiful and in the low 50s (the Florida girls were still complaining they were chilly), and the company was the BEST!!!

Friday, February 1 - Day 1 of Girls' Weekend!

Callie (on the left) and Matthew (Kim's youngest). It was SO fun having the cousins together. Matthew has a little outfit that matches Callie's (different stripes) that my Mom got them for Christmas. We missed getting a picture of him in it though - he already had a blowout and was on to the next outfit by this time! :) Oh, and Matthew is 3 months younger but weighs the same as Callie!
For those of you that know my Jacob, you'll love this picture like I do!!! See how he's just rubbing his head on Matthew's head? Did the same thing to Callie when she was younger. My little physical touch boy - so sweet.
This is what happened after Jacob decided he wanted to hold Matthew in his lap - apparently Matthew was heavier than expected!
My sisters, Mom, and I were all sitting at the table enjoying our lunch (Hot Chicken Salad...soooo yummy!) and this is what was happening in the Family Room. Jacob would jump off the coffee table (all you perfect moms can just keep quiet about this part) and Matthew would just laugh and laugh - those deep, belly laughs. It was SOO funny. Jacob just did it over and over and we were dying laughing!
Jacob with chopsticks.....his favorite part of the meal was the egg in the fried rice...
Josiah ate like a champ and loved the chopsticks! Ate all his chicken and shrimp!
Kelli and Jacob
Kristen, Matthew, and Kim (the birthday girl!)
Beautiful Kim after her makeover - we LOVED the eye stuff they used!

Sorry it's taken me a while to get these pictures posted....life happens, you know? Anyways, what a WONDERFUL weekend we had last week!! All of my sisters flew in last Friday morning and drove to my house with my mom and then the fun began!!! We had a wonderful afternoon just being together, playing games with the kids, and catching up. It was my oldest sister's birthday, so we took her to get her makeup done downtown. It was so fun for her to sit and be pampered a bit!!! We met David and the boys for dinner at Otani's - a Japanese Hibachi grill place - and had a blast!!! The boys had their eyes WIDE open for most of the dinner and enjoyed every minute of it!! They had never been and were flabbergasted to say the least!! Kim enjoyed her special birthday dinner (although politely declined the "gong" and "happy birthday song") as did the rest of us. Josiah and Jacob loved doing chopsticks for the first time, and Josiah even loved the shrimp!! It was a great first day of the weekend!

Psalm 126:5-6

Psalm 126:5-6

Those who sow in tears WILL reap with shouts of joy. Though one goes along weeping, carrying the bag of seed, he WILL SURELY come back with shouts of joy carrying his sheaves.

(If ya'll would just DO this study with me, I wouldn't have to blog about it all the time! :) )

I had to miss biblestudy this morning because of the sick boys, so I decided to post one of my favorite parts from my homework this week instead. We were concluding our study of this chapter (Psalm 126) and Beth Moore shared about visiting Angola and bringing food and aid to the starving children there. She said that her guide stated that "One of the most frustrating things is that in villages where they receive seed, they often eat the seed rather than planting it and bringing forth the harvest." Here's what she said about that:

Why have many of us heard hundreds of messages on freedom, done every line of Biblestudies like Breaking Free, wept over them, been blessed by them, and even memorized parts of them, yet remain in captivity? Because we ate the seed instead of sowing it. Why have many of us read books on forgiving people, known the teachings were true and right, cried over them, marked them up with our highlighters, yet remain in our bitterness? Because we ate the seed instead of sowing it. Why have we repeatedly heard how Christ has forgiven our sinful pasts and sobbed with gratitude over the grace of it, yet we remain in bondage to condemnation? Because we ate the seed instead of sowing it. Sometimes we think we accepted the teaching because we were so moved by it. But you see, the seed of God's Word can fill our stomachs and give us immediate satisfaction and still not produce a harvest - that's when we eat it but don't sow it. Many times we apply biblical truth to our theologies without applying it to the actual practicalities of life."

Okay, that's all for now, but it was a great week of study! I'm SO bummed that I didn't get to go this morning to share with my group and here their wisdom too. Oh well - now it's posted for the rest of you to read and enjoy! (Maybe enjoy isn't the right word...)

2 Sick Boys

Josiah woke up around midnight last night throwing up. Jacob started this morning. Both are sitting rather pathetically on the couch watching a Little Einsteins episode for the moment and things are slightly under control. Been a rough first half of the day!! I'm going to choose to be thankful for some things though.

* Thankful that Callie, David (Mr. I've Never Thrown Up In My Life), and I are all healthy
* Thankful for my washer and dryer to be able to do the laundry that sickness creates!
* Thankful that neither boy was sick at the same time this morning (so far!)
* Thankful that I'm able to stay at home with my boys to take care of them when sick.
* Thankful for the quiet, one on one time that I've had with each of them today. Time spent just sitting on the couch reading library books together while the other is dozing.

We'll see what the afternoon holds!!! Oh, and I know I haven't posted pictures from my Williamsburg weekend yet. Maybe tonight - if the sickos are better and can sleep through the night!! It was fabulous though!