The rest of our Valentines...

Okay so I know I left on a note of what we had been doing on Valentine's weekend. So here is the finishing of that story.

After the pottery and the pizza and the fun at Aunt Jessica's. Leanna and Hudson got to go play with their cousins while Josh and I worked a special event at church.

Our church threw a Valentine's Dinner and Sitting event for couples. For $10 a couple you got a beautiful meal and dessert that was delicious and your children were kept occupied and fed as well.

This was my Valentine.


Josh parked cars for the valet service and I was... well where else would I be but in the nursery. It was tons of fun. I am glad that Leanna and Hudson were able to play with their cousins though. Being in the church nursery room that whole night wouldn't have been much fun for them at all.

The nice part was the workers got to take a shift and eat dinner as well. A sweet surprise for me and my honey???? Someone paid for our Valentine's Day dinner. It was so nice. The meal was great I had the Lemon Pepper Chicken finished with a Strawberry Cheesecake of gorgeousness!

That sneak peak I gave you was the centerpiece of the table. It really was lovely and everyone seemed to have a great time.

Sorry...

Sorry I haven't been around in a little bit. I have been sooo sleepy after work and kids and home and life that 5 minutes after I have tucked Leanna and Hudson in for night-night time I have been found snoring. I know not an attractive picture right?

Tiredness. Oh how tired I am. So busy with life and work and home and babies and husband. I just can't seem to rest enough. So this week off has been nice but I promise I am returning. Tonight would be the return to the blog. The rest of the week I will be playing blog catch-up.

Blessings
*Shay*

Okay so I lied...

Valentine's Day Part 2

The "sneak peek I gave you yesterday? Yeah...about that... Not going to be in today's post. Sorry.

Saturday morning we went to paint pottery. My friend Jessica took all of her older nieces and nephews to a store called:


The kids did a great job and really enjoyed getting to paint there plates however they wanted and getting to pick there colors. I will be interested in seeing them when they are finished. You get to leave them there and then they will glaze them and fire them in the kilns so that they are shiny and pretty and you can eat off of them and everything (you know safely). It was a fun day.

Leanna impressed me with how diligently she worked on hers.


The finished products with Aunt Jessica.

Cadence and Garrett's plates were very well done too. It was a great way to start our Valentine's Day.

Stay tuned to hear about the final of our V-Day and our weekend. I think I can squeeze the rest into one post!

Day 1 of Valentine's Craziness...

We were sooo insanely busy this weekend I am going to split it up into several posts. Because well that is just how I roll. (I may squeeze in a Sewing post in between though).


Friday we were supposed to go and visit our friends the Neebs. However Casey and Miss Mia weren't feeling well (I hope they are feeling better). So instead I hit a store on the way home from work and picked up some yummy chocolates to share with the "small people" (Which is how I refer to them most of the time when talking about them). When arriving home Josh decided cooking was not an option for dinner. So we gathered the kids up and we went to Cici's pizza (I need to try to remember to take my camera out when doing this stuff). Leanna ate fabulously well and Hudson suprised us eating some different stuff this time. (By the way all children 3 and under eat free which is awesome.) We had a nice time.

We came home we mellowed and we watched a movie and just hung out. It was nice.

More on Saturday to come! And just because I can a sneak peek of tomorrow's post...

Words of Amazing...

Listen to the MUSTN'TS, child,
Listen to the DON'TS
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS,
the IMPOSSIBLES, the WON'TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES,
Then listen close to me-
Anything can happen, child,
Anything can be.

-unknown

I love love love love this poem. I wish I had known the person who wrote it. I wish they were my friend in real life. Amazing. We are reading this before bed (after Eloise of course) every night. Just because I want my children to grow up knowing and living these words... Listen to them and they will be right.. Believe them and you will drown in ugliness and sorrow and disappointment BUT just maybe rise above them and man will they accomplish some amazing feats. Try to prove them wrong and think of the amazing things that could be.

Mushy Gushy ??? Maybe...(Pictures!)

I love Valentine's Day. I am not a gushy person by any means...I am a funny girl I love to laugh. But something about Valentine's brings the "gushy mushy" out in me. It gives me a chance to be all gross and sweet. Hey I am sorry but I believe sarcasm is one of my love languages/spiritual gifts (really I do).

So some gushy stuff that is kind of uncommon for me.

Dear Husband,

Keeping the gush to a minimum... 13 reasons why I love you "like a fat kid loves cake".

1. You are one of the most sarcastic people I know. I appreciate that.
2. You are an AMAZING Daddy. Our children love you. You let them climb on you so I imagine you like them too *Grin*
3. You work SOOOO hard. I love that I never have to feel like you aren't doing your best because I know you are.
4. You eat anything I cook and never complain about it being "weird" or not up your alley or whatever.
5. You hug me. Not loose arm crappy ones. The full on bear hug of awesomeness.
6. *Giggles* You make me laugh.
7. You will run to the store for me at 10:00 when I HAVE to have something for the next day and (usually) you never complain.
8. Leanna thinks you are an awesome Bendaroo maker.
9. Hudson thinks you are better than the jungle gym at the playground.
10. You deal with my weird perfectionism stuff and well sometimes knock me back to reality. (figuratively people!)
11. You play playdoh and it is awesome.
12. You hold my hand. All the time. Grocery Store. Hockey Game. Walking. I love that.
13. You love me. 'Nuff said.

I love you,
*Shay*



Dear Leanna,

7 reasons I love you!

1. You get the giggles. FOR NO REASON. I end up with the giggles too. We can't stop. It is awesome.
2. You tell me you love me as "Big as the whole world". It makes my heart melt. I love that you and brother both have a different way to say this to me. (See below)
3. You are funny. Dead-pan straight faced. And still you make me laugh.
4. You are soooo kind. For being 4 you amaze me how often you think of others. It is a trait I hope you always keep.
5. You play with your brother. You have your moments but you play with him. Often.
6. You snuggle. I love this. I know there will be a time when it won't be "Cool" anymore so I am eating it up right now.
7. You don't care what other people think about you. You are your own girl (most of the time).

Love you,
Momma



Dear Hudson,

7 reasons I love you!

1. You give these smiles. You know the one I am talking about. It says... "hate me, want to beat me, but I know you love me anyway". God gave you that smile so I wouldn't kill you.
2. You hold my hand. You get this from your daddy. I love it. It makes my heart sigh.
3. You crawl into bed at 5:00 in the morning...(shhhh....don't tell Daddy) but I like this sometimes too. Especially when you say "It's not wake up time I be still okay?".
4. You are crazy. You will try anything and everything once if not twice(sometimes three). Including flying. You don't believe me that you cannot.
5. You tell me "I love you big as the moon and stars". It melts my heart. I love that you and sister have a different way to tell me this (See above).
6. You play with sister. You have your moments but you play with her. Often.
7. You make me laugh.

Love you,
Momma


So I wanted to put these in my blog so that I won't forget how much and exact reasons (other than they are mine and I love them no matter what) why they make me smile and make me feel warm. I love these three people more than life itself. They make my world go round. Plus when Leanna and Hudson are 14 and 16 respectively I want to be able to show them these. I think i will do this every year. I want them to know what made me smile and laugh and love them more (if that is possible) and I want to remember. Cause well by then I will be old and stuff. I have to stop writing now. I am tearing up thinking about them being old and me being older.

Happy Valentine's Day my friends. Appreciate it and make sure you tell the someones in your life why they are special to you.

Perfection...

Have you ever seen your daughter be too hard on herself? My little girl gets so frustrated when she is drawing. She wants it to be perfect or the best and if it isn't "perfect" in her eyes, she crumples it up, cries, and thinks she is "terrible" at what ever she is working on or trying to accomplish.

My little girl is soooo much like me it is scary sometimes. I love her. She is bright and funny and caring and amazingly thoughtful (for being 4 anyway) but man is she hard on herself. It breaks my heart. Because she is good; she is trying; she is doing her very best, and I know her picture is amazing and beautiful and creative.

I sometimes feel that God must feel that way about me sometimes... I am trying so hard, and my intentions are good, yet I don't do it "perfectly" so I beat myself up and get frustrated and discouraged. I wonder if He wants to scoop us up, hush us, and tell us what we are doing is amazing and beautiful and creative and it is ENOUGH in His eyes.

I need to remember to display this in my everyday life. I need to remember that God sent his Son because we would never ever be perfect. That level is unattainable for us, for me. I need to know that if I feel in my heart I have loved those babies, loved that man of mine, cleaned the house, kept their basic needs met, taught them kindness to others, to each other, taught them about God's love for us to the very best of MY ability (which he knows) then that is all he asks of us. To give him our very best each day.

So that is my new standard. MY VERY BEST. My very best efforts, my very best laughter, my very best cleaning, my very best kisses and hugs to those babies, my very best attempt at scheduling and including and keeping. The guilt has to go.

So for the next couple of weeks and months if you are planning on dropping by, or visiting, or heck even if it is a planned visit and My Very Best Intentions don't meet up with my kids, my time, my day. Please forgive the piles of laundry/dishes/dust/toys that may be around. That day, loving on my babies must have needed all of MY VERY BEST that day.

A Geography Lesson...okay it really is a game.

So you think you know geography? Okay so maybe you didn't say that... however I did. I have always been pretty decent at it. I loved learning about new places and the capitals of our states and the different weather patterns of the area. I loved knowing it was snowing in Missouri but in Hawaii they could be surfing right then. I know that makes me a dork. I am proud that I am a dork. I hope my children are dorks too. So ha.

I found this website that gives you the opportunity to prove your dorkiness smarts in geography. I am shamed to say that in all of my love for geography I was only able to score 82%. So I thought I would link it up and allow you guys (the whole three of you) to show me their dorkiness knowledge in knowing where the states belong in the USA.

So click on the above link and leave me your score in the comments section. *Winks* It isn't as easy as it looks or sounds.

Sunday Night Service

I am so blessed to have musically inclined friends. I am much more so blessed that both of these ladies I am talking about have come down and lead worship on Sunday Nights for our church's Sunday Night Service (which happens once a month). They are so very talented and I love their heart for worship and that they so willingly give of their time and talents. Not just my girl friends but their husband's too. Did I happen to mention I am blessed.

So anyway... The Good family agreed to come down and do the worship service this time and it was such an awesome time. The music was great and getting to visit with my friends was such an added bit of awesomeness. Leanna and Lily (Will and Sarah's daughter is just a few weeks younger than Leanna) are such good little friends too. Leanna is still talking about her time with Lily.

Well the whole gang also went out for some scrumptious dinner/breakfast after service was over to. We found out that at IHOP (bless them that was a lot of little people and big people) they have kids eat free so a whole gaggle of us hopped over there to continue our fellowship and hang time with each other...

Some photos of our time together....

This is my friend Beth with her little daughter Aubrey who is a two months younger than Hudson.

This is my stack of delicious Chocolate Chocolate Chip pancakes (that I didn't even finish half of). Hudson called them Brownies!

Leanna and Lily digging into their stacks of pancakes. For it being so late in the day they were both excellent at the restaurant.

This is Will and Sarah with their youngest little Eva... who I could just eat up all day she is soooo stinking cute!

Last but not least Hudson deciding to eat a lemon... WHOLE... yep that's my boy.


Thanks again Sarah and family. It was awesome to spend some time with you... oh and Sarah brought me laundry detergent (homemade), yep she did, cause we are friends like that and that is just how we roll.

Sewing...

Are you ready to learn with me? I have decided that I would like to make Leanna some pretty dresses and skirts. (Eventually hoping to start sewing little boys clothes too they are just harder.) So that is going to be frequenting my blog now as well. I will explain terms and show you ideas and the steps from turning as pretty peice of fabric into a pretty dress or skirt.

I am even going to attempt to make Leanna's Easter dress this year. Crazy I know. She was so excited though. Her aunt was at the house on Saturday and she showed "M" her "dress", her aunt was confused holding the fabrics I had picked out... Leanna replied "Well it will be when momma sews it", she said. She gets it will take some time but she is excited that it is something I am making for her.

This weekend on Saturday was the day I chose to go to shopping. I asked my Grandma to go with me. (She is an expert seamstress.) So we spent the day shopping and looking for patterns and fabrics (we shopped to look for the cheaper ones). It was a lovely time. She even treated me to lunch it was sooo nice. I am pretty impressed with the fabrics I got. I have enough fabric (provided no mistakes) to make at least one dress, plus a shirt/outfit/skirt as well for $30.24. So if I manage to make at least two items with each piece of fabric I have I will have done 6 pieces of clothing for about $5 a piece. You all know that a dress is rarely that on clearance.



The above picture is what I am hoping will be Leanna's Easter dress. It is pink with white polka dots and the picture (though hard to see) of the dress the little girls are wearing is the pattern I am using.


These are the fabrics I purchased this weekend. A pink polka dot, a black with teeny tiny white polka dots (sorry my camera doesn't do detail very well) and a pretty light blue with dark blue and white flowers and paisley type prints on it as well.

So that is the beginning. More to come as I begin to piece together some pretty things.

Not Me Monday

I haven't done this for while and I miss it. Also seeing as how I had some Doozies of Not Me's this week it seemed like the perfect time to start it back up. Check over at MckMama's for me Not Me's to laugh along with!

So without further ado I welcome you to a free mommy therapy session affectionately referred to as ....



I most certainly did not tell Hudson that if he would be still I would let him sleep in bed with me just so I could get the remaining 2 hours (out of 4) sleep without having to get him a cup of juice/water/milk or listen to him destroy play with everything he could get his hands on until I woke up. No my children always stay in their rooms in their beds until I arise graciously and in a great mood wishing the night had been longer and tell them it is time to wake up!

I did not catch Leanna picking her nose to have her tell me, "Mom sometimes they get stuck and you just can't blow them out." My daughter knows that that is disgusting and germy and just plain gross!

I did not tell Hudson that he could pee in the park behind a tree because there wasn't a stinking bathroom within a mile of where we were a place for him to go to the potty and he refused to put a pullup on and do his business in his pants. I would never allow much less assist in the act of public urination, even behind a tree.

I did not tell my children the other day that I was going to tie them together if they couldn't figure out how to play nicely together. Because my children always play wonderfully together while trying to gauge each others eyeballs out because they each want the same stinking toy and can't take turns and I never have to use silly threats to make them love each other.

So there is the week of wonder in our home. I hope you enjoy it and chuckle as we are all just trying to be honest and survive in this world of raising little people to live another day to become thriving adults. If you enjoyed this please join in over at MckMama's for more free therapy!

Mondays... Mondays... Mondays...

Mondays are such a sad, sad day for us. It is soooo hard to get out of the weekend schedule back to the regular schedule. As much as I wish that I was able to keep them the same it is just not doable. We are to busy on the weekends usually.

WE had an awesome weekend this weekend and I am looking forward to posting some new posts this week about our fun adventures with our friends.

With that said... Sarah am I okay to post pictures of our adventures? Let me know.

More soon. I promise.
*Shay*

Silent Saturdays! The Hubinator...

*Note: Please ignore bluriness from camera shake. Just look at handsome husband and me (yuck) it was fun testing out different settings and he actually took a picture with me which is awesome!*

Sobbing... At work...

Treasure this time. Absorb as much into your memory as you can, because these days will end. Believe it or not, you're going to miss the chaos. You're going to miss the noise. You're going to miss the fingerprints on the windows. You're going to miss the look on their face when they go all day without going potty in their pants and they declare themselves a big boy/girl. You're going to miss reading "I think I can and I Love You Forever" 25 times a day, and you're going to miss the silliness that goes along with sweet, simple childhood.

Oh my gosh... *sniffs* *smiles*

Thank you God for letting me be a mommy please don't let me miss it. Let my eyes be open. Let me know that I have some amazing kids. Allow me to raise them to love you and trust you. Remind me to love them.

I read this today and let me tell you I am having a rough time of it. I am not sure why. Hudson potty trained this week. Leanna is learning to read. She did a math workbook this week and didn't really need my help. They were asked to help at church on Wednesday night and they did it without batting an eyelash or giving an attitude. Oh dear Jesus slow it down. It is going way toooo fast. Slow down clock. Please they are sooo big already. Slow. Down. Please.

Super Bowl Party!

Okay so it wasn't some wild and crazy night but we did have a good time! We got to hang with some cool cats and play cards and watch the game (I was sooooo sad the Cardinals lost and still think the Steeler's should have ejected the one guy for the unnecessary roughness it was crud!). Something people don't know about me are you ready... I love sports! Shocking I know. I love to watch them. My to favorite professional sports are Baseball and Football. My favorite to play are Soccer and Volleyball.

I LOVE SPORTS. I love what the can teach a person and what they can help a person achieve. Most of all I love that it can bring some of the strangest concoctions of people together. For instance I don't think a single person that we were with tonight minus probably "B" knew I was that into football. I also don't think they knew I love to play cards.

It was fun. We rejoiced together and we thought it was "CRUD" together and we enjoyed each others company. As a matter of fact I enjoyed myself so much I forgot to take my camera out that night to take any pictures.

Good times!

Big Boy!!!

I am proud and happy to say that I am the momma of a newly potty trained little boy. Hudson has been wearing big boy "unnerwears" for a full week now.

We are still wearing pull ups at night but during the day we are 100% using the potty. Can I get a woot woot beep beep!!!

I would show pictures but I am afraid of getting weirdo's looking for like the wrong things to be directed to here. So instead I will leave you with the image of this momma doing the happy what I like to call no more diapers dance...you wave your hands in the air above your head then... you do a dance similar to the Carlton (yes from fresh prince), followed with the sprinkler move (yes I sprinkler and so do my children) and you ended it with a big smile and some jazz fingers.

Peace out from one excited momma

Leanna's Snowman

Leanna was very sad that the snow was melting and she wanted to build a snowman before it was all gone. So Josh and I helped her make a "Porch Snowman". Despite his "sad and crying" appearance he sure was a lot of fun to create. I leave you with "Woody" which is no joke what Leanna named him.



Doesn't my little girl look beautiful?
Hope you all had fun playing in the snow too!