Thursday, February 24, 2011

Tori is 7!!!

Today Victoria turns seven years old!  Where has the time gone?   Tori, you are an amazing kid; I am lucky to be your mother. 

Happy Birthday, Victoria!  I love you.

















Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Love and Respect

I have had a post bouncing around in my head for several days.  I even attempted to type out some of my thoughts the other night, but saved it as a draft, so that I could brew on it.  There are so many families and marriages who are hurting.  And Christian families are not immune to marriage struggles.  My parents got divorced when I was in my late twenties, so I know how hard it is on everyone involved. 

I just feel led to say that if you or anyone that you know is going through a tough time in their marriage, I would encourage them to read the book Love and Respect. 

Love & respect: the love she most desires, the respect he desperately needs [Book]
If anything can save your marriage, it is the Godly principles that are taught in this book.  God allows divorce in some circumstances, but he HATES it.  I believe that the reason God hates divorce so much is because he hates to see His children in pain.  And I will tell you, pain is a definite when dealing with divorce (whether it is unavoidable or not).  In my opinion, there are too many couples today (even Christian couples) who are divorcing because they are bored, unhappy, or have conflicts that they are not willing to address.  These are NOT good reasons for divorce and I feel very passionate about the effect that divorce has on the children of divorce (especially children who are still in the house).  I am trying so hard to not sound preachy, so I will stop at that, because I could go on forever on this topic.  I also am very cautious here because I am blessed with a wonderful husband who is patient, loving, attentive, and a Godly leader.  So, I have no room to judge any women who is living in a difficult situation and I can not say what I would do if put in someone else's circumstances.  This is why I have battled with how to approach this post.  All I know is that God has a plan for each of our lives and He promises to never leave us or forsake us.  If you are looking for HOPE for your marriage, please read this book!  You can buy this book at Wal-mart, Target, Amazon.  Just google it, order it, and it can be on your doorstep ASAP.

Website with information about Love and Respect

I hope that this post will help someone.  Like I said before, I feel very passionate about this topic and if anyone would like to talk more about this, please leave me a comment or email me and we can correspond more.  My husband and I read through this book together with a small group and it changed the way I looked at marriage completely.

Monday, February 14, 2011

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

This weekend my mom kept our kids, so that we could go out by ourselves and have a Valentine's date.  My sweet Valentine treated me to dinner at Red Lobster and then a shopping date. 

Tonight we celebrated Valentine's as a family.  The kids stayed home from school today, because they have not felt good....runny nose, coughing, sneezing, sore throat, low grade fever.  Turns out, the doctor said it was just allergies.  I let my kids stay home from school because of allergies!!!  Oops!  I promise these are some really bad allergies.  Here are a few pics of our evening:

This is Tori and Lacey.  This picture doesn't do these two cuties justice!  :)
They dresses are matching, of course.  But I wish you could see the cute little hearts all over their dresses.


Olive Garden ain't got nothing on me! Ha!
Salad, Spaghetti, and Bread.

Didn't realize that Robert had noodles hanging out his mouth in the picture.  Oops! 
You get the idea.

This is Prince Charming! LOL!  Oh my, won't one girl be so lucky to have this
little man as her Valentine someday.  Hopefully by then, he will have mastered eating
spaghetti without getting it all over his face!!!

Then there were chocolate covered strawberries.  Yum!!

And we finished it off with brownies and ice cream!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

It is Snowing!

Yeah!  It's snowing.  I think this is classified as a white out!



The kiddos are playing games and getting ready to go out and build a snowman. 
Tori's Valentine box is complete!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Victoria's Projects

PROJECT #1:
My mom passed down her childhood doll bed to me when I was a little girl.  When Tori was born, it got passed down to her.  It is the perfect size for Lacey, Tori's American Girl doll.  Tori has never been overly enthused about this doll bed and has asked for the real American Girl bed.  I couldn't justify spending that money when we had a nice one already.  So, since we are wanting to paint her room furniture white, I thought this would be good practice.  I called my mom and gently asked if she cared if I painted the bed.  Honestly I cringed to paint it, because I think that it is so neat that it has lasted three generations.  But what good is it to anyone if it doesn't get used?  It was either put it in the attic or paint it to jazz it up.  My mom gave her blessings and so the project began.  Lacey's gonna get a new and improved bed!!
Here is documentation of the before.  It is really sweet, but just not very current.


First coat of primer

Second coat of primer.  Tori would KILL me if she knew I was telling you this, but she told Robert that she needed to paint on the second jacket.  Get it?  She was getting jacket and coat confused.  I love seeing the world through the newness of children's eyes.  The second jacket makes just as much sense as the second coat. 
Sometimes our language is so confusing.

It has been too cold the past few days to work on finishing it, but we will post the final product.  You may remember that a few weekends ago we were supposed to paint Tori's furniture.  Well, that Friday night Carson started running a high fever during the night, so my mom didn't come.  I spent Saturday loving and snuggling with a little sick man.  Hopefully, we will eventually get around to the big painting project.

PROJECT #2:
Tori had to make a Valentine box for her school party.  My mom, Nana, helped her while she was here celebrating my birthday.  I will also post a completed picture of this project.  It turned out really cute.

Who Needs Toys When You Have Bath Soap?




Sunday, February 6, 2011

3-O in the Snow!

So, Friday was my birthday.  It was one of the big milestones.....it was the 3-0 milestone.  Up until now all the milestones have been exciting.  You know, 13--you are a teenager; 16--you get to drive, 18--you are officially an adult, 21--you can drink legally (have to admit I didn't really run out and use this new advantage).  But can someone older than me please explain how it gets any better from 30 on!!  I see no major milestones to look forward to....guess that's part of getting older that I will just have to accept.  My mom put it in to perspective for me when she asked me, "Well Ellen, what's the alternative to turning 30?"  Yeh, I should be thanking God for giving me another year of life in which I have my health and so many blessings!!  So, it's really not that bad.  I'm actually fine now and embracing this new decade with grace!! :)

But on Friday?  Not so much.  I have to admit it was a very tough day! Let me explain.  You see, it snowed on my birthday and that would have been super fun if it had been on any normal non-milestone birthday and if it hadn't already snowed tons this winter.  But on Friday, that meant that I was stuck in the house......and my brain had no distractions from the blaring truth.  Yes, I was getting older and yes, I was entering into my 30s.  See, I would have been fine if I could have just gotten out and done something fun to keep me busy.  Instead I was stuck in my house with laundry that needed to be folded, clutter that needed to be straightened, and kiddos that were bored out of their mind that needed to be occupied. It was quite depressing. 

You see, my husband had anticipated my birthday and had been planning something special for me.  What he did not anticipate was the snow.  So, his special plans that he had been planning for weeks got thrown out the window.  He quickly rescheduled the plans for Saturday night and called several of my close friends to let them know that the changes had been changed.  Well, they didn't want to spoil the surprise and let something slip, so they basically avoided talking to me on Friday.  Again, I did not know about any of these plans.  So, imagine me, in the depressive state that I was.  I really needed a friend and all my close friends were avoiding me.  I may or may not have gone in the closet and cried several times during the day.  I'm telling you, it was a bad day.  On Saturday night when I learned the surprise, it all made since why my friends had avoided me and I realized that indeed my husband and my friends did love me. 

Had it not snowed....my birthday would have been perfect, but through the experience I learned that my husband really loves me (or he would not put up with me when I am an emotional basket case) and I have really great friends!  I've heard people say that their 30s were their best years.  I'm banking on it!!

My mom got to spend several days with us to help celebrate my birthday!!

This is the "make-shift" celebration with just my mom and my immediate family on Friday.  We went to Wal-mart right before dinner and bought a cake mix.  My sweet husband did make me dinner and a cake. 
He was trying so hard to cheer me up!

Yeah, the celebration was a success!  Yes, that is a Twilight cake. 
It was just a joke....well, mainly!  ;)

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The Amazing World of DVR

Ok, so I promised a post in which I shared what shows are regularly DVRed at our house.  Here are the top ten most watched shows at our house:
1.  The O'Reilly Factor (watching this is a nightly ritual for my husband)
2.  Castle (Love this on Mondays and are very sad when a new episode doesn't air)
3.  Chuck (This is not our favorite; it's a little more cheesy than we usually prefer)
4.  Human Target (We love this as much as Castle....which is A LOT!!)
5.  The Bachelor (Hey, just keeping it real....I know that it is trash, but it is very entertaining.  Plus, it makes me feel so lucky to have a man that loves me and I appreciate the fact that I found my Mr. Right.)
6.  Dancing with the Stars (when a season is being aired.  I will say that we used to watch this as a family, but it has continued every year to get more and more provocative.  It is no longer appropriate for my children to watch.)
7.  American Idol (I don't let my kids watch the first episodes when they are visiting the towns, because they make fun of people.  I usually will let them watch once they begin competing on stage.)
8.  Batman (This is the 1960s version with real people.  We have tried to record the more recent versions, but they are just too violent and scary for Carson).
9.  Full House (this is an afternoon must for Tori once she gets home from school)
10.  The Fresh Beat Band (another one of Tori's favorites)

There are numerous other kid shows that get DVRed regularly, but they don't always get watched.  The main thing I love about DVRing is it allows us to watch our shows whenever we want.  Plus we get to forward through the commercials, so we can watch things quicker.  We really are kind of like two old people; we have a schedule and love sticking to it.  I put the kids to bed around 7:30-8:00 every night while he is taking a shower.  Then he watches O'Reilly while he is ironing his clothes (yes, he irons his own clothes) for work the next day.  During that time I am doing my computer stuff and putting up any leftovers from dinner.  Then we get all ready for bed and snuggle up and enjoy one of our DVRed shows.  I honestly feel like I have a date with my husband every night and it is great!  Speaking of, it's time to go get my pjs on.  How did we ever manage without DVR?