LOVE DAY 2014

Kevin is not a huge fan of Valentine's Day but of course I LOVE it.  So he goes a long with it.  My opinion is its a great day to celebrate the people we love the most.  Breakfast started with pancakes, bacon, and gifts for the boys.  Kevin and I exchange cards.  We always have and always will. 

                                            

 I volunteered to work the school wide Valentines Day party by being a face painter.  I knew Will would love to be a part of all the activities so I brought him with me. He was the best kid! I told him he had to stay by me all day and could not run off. I kid you not he did not leave my side all day.  He loved the extra attention from the teachers and kids.  We had a small break between 10:45-12:45 so that the students could eat lunch.  I was going to come home, fix lunch, and do laundry when we saw Zach's class going into lunch. I asked if there was enough food if Will ate too. They said OF COURSE!  So it was very impromptu and fun.  Will was so excited to eat with Zach. We have done this a lot but if we do we take lunch for all of us. Will loved getting a "real school lunch/tray".  He was so happy but a little embarrassed too.  Zach loves to show off his baby brother. It's so cute!

 They kept hugging and kissing each other. Totally melted my heart!

 When it was time to go I grabbed Will's tray. He flipped. He wanted to do it all by himself. So I let him.

 After we finished up the PTA parties we got ready for our annual cook dinner at home LOVE dinner! Kevin and I have ALWAYS cooked dinner at home on Valentines! Even when we dated.  We do not like to go out to crowded restaurants, have bad service, and waits.  We figure we can go out another night. Plus the boys LOVE that we include them in on the "fancy" dinner.  Kevin prepped the lobster while I made cheesy cheddar garlic biscuits.

 Zach was in seafood heaven!

It was the perfect night of food, family, and sugar cookies!  After the kids were in bed, Kevin and I watched a movie….Actually I slept through the movie.  HA!  Whenever I have nothing to be in charge of I totally relax and fall asleep.

100 Days of First Grade

Zachary's teacher this year is SO brave. She always goes above and beyond to make special days extra special. Honestly when she told me what her plan was for 100 day I started to sweat and shake my head. I thought NO WAY!  In fact I got really nervous. But it turned out fun, awesome, and the kids were great. She had several parents come in to help and the kids LOVED it! They basically grouped items in 10's and placed them on their colored t-shirt.  After there were 100 items the parents sprayed bleach on their shirt.  The kids loved the final shirt and loved wearing them on the 100th  day of school. Personally the extra cleanse of bleach in the class room was two-fold…fun project and a germ-killing with the bleach.  

 Another thing Zachary's teach did was to convert each kids picture into a 100 year old.  We had to get the app at home and try it.  We are STILL using this app. It's hilarious. Kinda creepy and scary but hilarious!

Here's Zach's rough draft to his 100 year old paper.  I loved it because it talk about him and his wife at 100 years old. Priceless! 

Lost & Found

A couple weekends ago I woke up on Sunday morning and quickly realized my wedding ring/engagement ring was missing!  We didn't have a ton of time to look for it because of church.  When we got home from church I tore up all the beds, went through my laundry, coat, and gloves. Then I had to stop looking. We host a Sunday Night Bible Study at our home and I knew I needed to get ready for our friends to come over. Even though I stopped looking I just kept praying that it would show up.  The good thing was I remembered having my ring on at Zach's Upward Bball game.  Then we came home.  Kevin took the boys out for BBQ and Bass.Pro while I had a night at home to clean, do laundry, etc.  I must add I LOVE my hubs for recognizing when I need some alone time. He is so good to take the boys out for a "Guys Night" so that I can get caught up and have some Peace & Quiet.    Knowing that I lost my ring at home was reassuring but once I started to think of all the 1,000,000,000 places it could be my mind was spinning.  

 Just as I was starting to wind down and get in bed Kevin said I am going to Wal-Mart to get a tarp. Mind you it is 10:45 pm.  Next thing you know he was back at home. I heard the garage door go up and never heard him come in. When I opened the garage door this is what I found.

 He was going through our dumpster…bag by bag. Mind you by this time its 11:15 pm.  I couldn't leave him out there alone so we just started sifting through the trash.  Totally an act of love. Kevin can do anything with gloves on. HA!

 The look on his face says it all. It was gross…diapers, cut up fruit parts, coffee grounds, etc.  I totally knew he was very sad and concerned my ring was MIA.  He started talking about how he bought my engagement ring when he was in his residency. He saved and saved what little amount of money he had.  Honestly it made me feel worse.  Another reassuring part was that the ring was fully insured.  But I didn't want a new ring. We were not going to give up.

 After going through the trash with no luck we went to bed.  My plan was to get the boys to school on Monday morning and then come home and go through every toy, closet, drawer. I was going to turn my house upside down and shake it.  I.wanted.to.find.the ring.  Then at 8:20 a.m. I went to make Will's lunch for preschool. I opened the lunchmeat drawer and it was like God was stretching out his hand and giving it to me.  AHHHHH!!!! My ring was on top of the turkey bacon. HILARIOUS!  I cried. I called Kevin. He cried.  It all came back to me. While the boys were eating BBQ I had fruit, cottage cheese, and 2 slices of turkey bacon for dinner.  My ring must have slid off when I was putting it back. We are still thanking God for this miracle!  I could still be looking for that ring.  I was heartsick!  Currently I am wearing a faux ring until I get my ring resized.

This whole issue had me check with our insurance guy about my ring insurance. Let me tell you this…My ring was NOT FULLY INSURED!  I realized it was a $1000 deductible and maximum pay out of $1500.  SO we have added a jewelry insurance policy and added several other household items to an umbrella policy. So friends, please check your insurance policies!!

Let it SNOW…no more!

I finally took down our Let It Snow decorations because I was tired of all the snow!  I really do love changing up the look of our house with the seasons. In fact it's one of silly quarks.  Kevin laughs because it takes extra time and effort but I LOVE it.  Here's one last look at our snowflakes…now bring on the Valentine's Mushy, Lovie, Hearts and Cupcakes!  Please don't snow anymore! 

UPWARD Dragons

This is Zach's 2nd year for Upwards Basketball at our church.  Kevin is co-coaching with one of our favorite people, Jeremy.  The team has 5 guys on it however the one kid rarely comes to practice and has been to 1 out of 3 games.  He's a great kid and basketball player too, so his is missed when he is not there.  Most of the time its just these 4 amazing boys.  They have a very fun time playing and don't take it too serious! 

I love Upwards because it teaches the basics but more importantly it teaches sportsmanship, teaching others to be like Christ, and how to be a good winner and loser.  So proud of Zach!

COOKIE!!!

MaMaw & PaPaw got a new pup the week after Christmas!  We knew that it was a possibility and we were anxiously awaiting to see if she would get to be a part of our extended family. Of course when PaPaw went to check her out he couldn't say no.  They brought home the pup while we were in St. Louis. The boys couldn't wait to see her.  My inlaws named her Oreo Cookie but are going to call her "COOKIE"!  Zach was trying to name her while we were driving home from STL. He really thought her name should be Freckles because of her spots but was ok when she was already named.  

Cookie is a German Shorthair

 Will really liked "Tookie"  In fact he follows her around wherever she goes.

 Zach loves Cookie too.

I'm thrilled that the boys "got a dog" without us having to "get a dog". I am just not ready to be up at night with a puppy or outside in the cold with a puppy. We keep saying one of these days but I'm not in a HUGE hurry!

Trying a popular TV restaurant

When we were in STL for our mini-vacay over Christmas break we decided we needed to eat at the infamous "Crown Candy Kitchen" in STL.  It has been featured on a couple food tv shows lately as the oldest fountain soda in the city.  They are known for their 1 lb BLT.  Since we were on our week off from being healthy eaters we figured it was a perfect time to try it.  WOWZERS!  We waited outside the building for approx 1 hour to get in and sit down.  We had a blast waiting outside because their was a reggae steel drum band outside…well not actually a band but a man. THe boys loved it.  There was also pantyhose mannequins that scared Zach to pieces. Will loved them.  Go figure.  

 This is as close as I could get Zach to stand to the panty hose mannequins

 Finally in an old fashion booth.

 Here it is the Heart Stopping BLT as seen on TV.  HOLY SMOKES this was a lot of bacon!

This is just 1 half of the sandwich. Kevin and I should have just ordered one! WOAH!  It sure was good but nothing really that great.  Basically it was a BLT with 1 lb of bacon. That's all.  We are glad we went but we don't need to go back. We just need to get on the treadmill.

Their old fashion shakes were really good. The boys shared a Strawberry Shake. Kevin got a butterscotch malt that was AMAZING. My favorite thing. 

It was a fun stop. Some thing we can cross off our bucket list.