Quick weekly update...

Monday we celebrated Jeff's birthday. After we ate Branding Iron for dinner, Jeff's parents and his sister and Kali came over for cake and ice cream. I think Jeff liked the gifts and the celebration, even though he thinks he's too old to still have a birthday get together. Over the weekend it was the usual. We went out to eat Friday night and watched a movie together afterwards. Saturday night after church we went to our friends house with two other couples and their kids. The kids had a lot of fun playing together, us girls chatted about girl stuff, and the guys talked mostly about politics- I guess. Sunday we went to Kali's birthday at the bowling ally. Austin was becoming very competitive, worrying about his score and whether or not he was in first place. I guess this is normal, he's just not normally so competitive- I was a bit worried. We came home and Preston feel asleep on Jeff's chest(it was so cute) just like when he was a baby. He also slept on Jeff's chest during church Sat. night. He feel asleep in the car on the way over so we brought him into church with us and he slept almost the entire time. Looking at him sleeping there on Jeff reminded me of when he was just a little baby, it sure does go by quick. Then your babies grow up on you and they hardly ever want you to hold them. That is why I held my babies all the time despite what everyone said, " You shouldn't hold your baby so much, you'll just spoil them!" Well, perhaps I did spoil them by holding them all the time, but they appear to be fine now and I don't regret it one bit (to me there's almost nothing that compares to holding your little baby in your arms all day- I can't help but get excited when I think we may actually get to experience that joy again). So, anyway, let's get back on track here... we had a good weekend together. Sunday night I met the girls from work at Olive Garden for dinner (my favorite). I was so excited when they decided to go there. It's one of my favorite restaurants, but we don't go there very often. We had a nice time visiting outside of work. I hope we will do it again. Finally, on Monday we had a professional development day. My sister had to go because she is student teaching at south in third grade. It was neat having her there. We even got to go out to lunch, just the two of us, this doesn't happen very often. It was fun catching up with my lil' sis who I can't believe is going to be graduating from college in May with her teaching degree, also. How cool and exciting is that!!

The caterpillar pizza we made last week. It was really easy and lots of fun to make!

The pictures below are from our day in St.Louis. Preston doesn't remember going to the Magic House before yesterday even though we went last year. He had a great time and so did Austin. I don't think they could ever get tired of going there. It's such a fun, hands-on place to spend a cold, winter day. It seems as though this is the time of year we always take a trip up there. Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot of kid friendly entertainment around here. They always enjoy Chuck-E-Cheese, also. Preston was so wore out from the Magic House that he fell asleep eating pretzels on the way to Chuck-e-cheese. He woke up quickly when it was time for more fun. 100 tokens later and a few hundred tickets won, we were ready to head home. We listened to the kids Veggie Tales C.D just about the whole way home. Preston really likes several of the songs and he wants to hear them again and again. Which I can't complain, it is worship music. Today we got to enjoy another day together. I love my job, I truly feel I get the best of both worlds. I get to be with my kids a lot and I love to teach. It doesn't get any better than that, for me anyways. Today before the boys even woke up I did the big cleaning: sweep, mop, bathrooms, more laundry that never ends, and got dinner prepared in the crock pot. I walked on the treadmill for about 30minutes and finally around 9:15 they both were awake. I let them watch a cartoon so I could get ready. We made heart shaped sugar cookies. They enjoyed decorating them and I cleaned up that mess. Finally, I decided we needed to get out of the house for awhile. The boys were not to excited about going to the mall, so I made the trip short, just long enough to go to Old Navy and JCPenney. We found Jeff a couple of shirts for his birthday which is a week from today and that was about it. A quick trip into Wal-Mart and we were on our way home. We had a Chinese dinner night -Jeff and I enjoyed the sweet and sour chicken that cooked all day over rice and the boys well they wouldn't even try it. So, the boys had shake and bake and rice. We had cream cheese won tons and to top it off- fortune cookies. Lots of fun! A funny moment today....I told Preston to go wash his hands for dinner and put his shirt back on. A few minutes later he came to the table naked as a jay bird- completely nonchalant. He really didn't realize what he had done at first. He must have went into the bathroom and thought it was time for bath, got undressed, remembered it was time for dinner and forgot to get dressed- I'm not sure. But we were all laughing so hard it was hilarious- perhaps you just had to be there to see the expression on his face when he realized what he had done. It's about time for bath, books, and bed for morning will come quick.

OK I know- I'm getting bad lately about making the time to journal and we've had lots of fun this week! So, here are some of the highlights. Yesterday, it was so cold that we really didn't want to leave the house. Therefore, the day was filled with the boys playing and helping me clean, we all made breakfast- cheesy green eggs and ham! They rested and watched a movie with Jeff while I went to Wal-Mart. By then it was already time to get ready for church! We went last night so we can go to St.Louis today: The Magic House and Chuck-e- Cheese is what we have planned! We went to Logan's for dinner and completely stuffed ourselves after church. Friday night the boys began to craft: paint, markers, glitter, and glue were everywhere. We were having a good time, I even shared some of my art skills. OK not really, I'm not very artistic. I made a heart shaped caterpillar out of markers and wrote be my love bug on it ( I think Austin made one of these last year at preschool). Well, I'll just take a picture of Austin's and post it later. It was so cute, he copied mine and wrote the words on it, too. On top of that mess we had out, the boys decided to blow up soap in the microwave, three bars of ivory soap later- our house was a wreck. But hey they were having fun and what else is there to do when your stuck inside. They were putting the soup in pans and pretending to make dinner and cakes, they proceeded to add glitter and glue to the ivory soap flakes. Finally, we cleaned up the mess. It was worth the fun they had making it, I do believe! Earlier in the week we made a caterpillar pizza (very cute idea from Family Fun magazine). Well, I'll be back the kids are ready for me to get ready so we can go have some more family fun!

Wow-this week really flew by

I remember thinking that this week would be a long week after being off for so long and only having two days last week; however, I was wrong. This week went by so fast and it was so nice to get back to a regular routine. It was so busy before Christmas that I felt like I was missing out on quality time with the kids. We obviously made up for that over break and it was nice to have our evenings back to normal this week. Austin helped make dinner Monday, chicken and dumplings while Preston and I made a cake for dessert. We got to take a walk after school also because it was so warm out: well, warm for January. Tuesday we took it easy, the boys played and we just had a relaxing family night. Wednesday our small group met here so Jeff took the boys to his parents for dinner. Thursday the boys and I had what turned into a mini game night. We played several games and built a zoo out of their wooden blocks. I even got to squeeze in two aerobic classes this week that our school nurse is teaching after school called Rip like Ripa, we'll see I guess- if I can stay motivated- that is. And I probably need to quit having that piece of cake and ice cream every night! Sunday after church and lunch, we all got to go on a bike ride around the neighborhood! Yet, I doubt we get to this weekend, it looks like it's going to be cold.

Here goes, I have a few minutes while the boys take a bubble bath! I had to go back to work today. That was difficult. I missed being with boys. Only two days and we'll have the weekend. We had a New Year's Eve celebration again this year. It was a great time; lots of kids, lots of great food, and wonderful company. I really enjoyed it and I think everyone here did as well! The kids made noise makers, played a lot, watched a little t.v, made sundaes and danced through the New Year! I would definitely day they all had a terrific time. To be continued.....