Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day 2015!

My day started off very well.  I got lots of love & cuddles from my boys.

Then, Dustin made coffee cake, scrambled eggs, & bacon for breakfast!

We then went to church where Dustin preached in the Middle School Ministry.

After church, my guys treated me to Olive Garden for lunch.

We then came home & opened cards & a special present.

Each of my three guys made homemade cards for me!

Also, Josiah made me a special coupon book at school for Mother's Day!

Then, they gave me a framed picture of their fingerprints.  Oh my goodness.  Now I'll have their fingerprints forever!!  What a beautiful, thoughtful gift!!

Here are the cards & gift from my guys!

This afternoon, we FaceTimed Granddaddy & Grandma to wish her a Happy Mother's Day.  We tried to with Dustin's parents, but they were at church & out celebrating at different times because they're three hours behind us.  It's always nice to have FaceTime when you don't live close enough to see family in person on these special days.

Josiah & Dustin baked me a chocolate cake for Mother's Day!  Yummy!

We all enjoyed the delicious cake with some ice cream, too.

We took a spontaneous trip to the toy store & then returned home with dinner.  It was such a beautiful day that we ate dinner on the deck.

We then spent the rest of the evening playing in the yard.  We mostly played the game "Foursquare" with Josiah & had a blast.  After the kids went to bed, Dustin & I stayed up & watched a chick flick...my pick!  What a wonderful way to spend Mother's Day.  This might have been the best one yet!

To all the special women in our lives, Happy Mother's Day!

Pinewood Derby Build Day!

Today was Pinewood Derby build day at the church.

Josiah loves racing cars in the Pinewood Derby each year.

Here is Josiah putting primer on his carved car & screwing the weight onto the bottom.

Here is Josiah painting the top to look like a Seahawk.

Here is his finished product.

He is very excited about the race this coming Wednesday night.  Even if he doesn't win, he had a great time with his Dad & his friends at the Pinewood Derby build day!

Senior Dinner!

Congratulations to our Graduating Seniors from Floodline!!

Tonight, our family took a few of our graduating Seniors to dinner at Brazeiros Brazlian Steakhouse.  All of our Seniors voted on a date & location, but then only three got to come due to sports & school concerts. We enjoyed have three of our students to celebrate with, though.

Brazeiros is such a delicious restaurant.  They bring you all the steak you can eat.  My crew loved it & had a blast being with a few of our leaders & students.

Congratulations Seniors!  We had fun at your Senior dinner!

Lunch Date!

I needed to run some errands today with my little guy.  Towards the end of our errand running, Ethan told me he was hungry.  He said, "I want to go inside a McDonalds & have lunch with just you, Mommy!"  How sweet...how could I turn that down?!?!

I loved every minute of our lunch date!

May the 4th Be With You!

National Star Wars Day is every year on May 4th.

May the Fourth Be With You!

Potty Training!

I have been pushing potty training off for quite some time now for several reasons.  First, I had a really hard time with Josiah.  Second, I haven't wanted to start during the super busy season we've just come out of.  I also knew that we'd probably be moving in the near future & didn't want to potty train right before moving.  Well, I finally realized that there's never going to be a good time to potty train & I need to just do this.

I can happily say that Ethan is doing very well.  I started one week ago today & it only took 54 hours for it to finally click & he hasn't had one accident since.  I'm so proud of him!!!!

With Josiah, it took me trying to figure out what motivates him.  Well, with Ethan, that's easy.  He constantly wants to play with cars.  All day...every day.  So, I bought a bag full of 94 cent Hot Wheels.  Every time he successfully used the potty, he got a Hot Wheel.  This is the number of Hot Wheels he's received since Wednesday.  He's so proud of them.

He even loved that we changed his changing table into a dresser.

He says, "I'm a big strong boy now!"

We're so proud of how well Ethan has done with potty training!

Saturday Mornings!

I love Saturday mornings where we don't have anything going on.  Since Josiah went through TCAP & the Orthodontist this week, he requested that Saturday be a lazy day at home.  He wanted to stay in his pajamas all day, spend time as a family, watch movies & play video games.  We thought his ideas were great & were ready for some down time, too.

Ethan wanted to do some painting this morning.

Josiah played video games all morning & Ethan would come over for snuggles & to see how Josiah was doing on his game.  I love these boys & I love Saturday mornings!

Blue Grass Boogie!

Tonight we went to the "Blue Grass Boogie" at Josiah's school!

It's one of the school's annual fundraisers.  This one is always themed with a time period & dancing.  Tonight's theme was "The 50's" & we danced to some 50's music.  Josiah is "getting a little too old to play dress up," so we wore our regular clothes.

Josiah loved running into some of his friends there...including his girlfriend, Cami.

Ethan enjoyed meeting some new friends.

The boys had a great time playing games & playing on the playground.

Josiah danced with his girlfriend, with his Mom, & his little brother.

At the end of the night, Ethan took the stage all by himself & got down.
We had a great time at the Blue Grass Boogie!

Josiah's 1st Visit to the Orthodontist!

Josiah had his 1st Orthodontist appointment today.  He has some overcrowding & his dentist recommended we get a second opinion from an orthodontist as to how to move forward.  The good news is that Josiah won't need to return to the orthodontist for several years.  The bad news is that he needs to lose 7 teeth fairly quickly.  Poor kid's teeth are like mine.  I always had some sort of work being done in my mouth.  Pray those teeth fall out quickly, so we won't have to have them removed.  Josiah did great, though, at his 1st visit to the orthodontist.

TCAP!

Tuesday-Thursday of this week, Josiah has been going through TCAP testing.  It is the annual standardized test that every child in TN takes, starting in 3rd Grade.  He was a little nervous because everyone makes a big deal about it, but he was relieved that it was fairly easy.  We are so happy Josiah survived his first year of TCAP!