The weekend is almost here

I bought this cute little book for D while I was away in STL. He really enjoys drawing so I thought this book would be good. It tells him what to draw on specific pages and you put the date so you can keep up with when he drew them.

This is an example:

I'm loving the facial hair even though Mike hasn't had any for awhile now..:-)

I'm not sure how this resembles our family car but it's too cute!! I wonder if it's him driving?

Our behavior ticket system is working very well. We had a few issues....B's school switched to a red, yellow, green light system and the 1st day B got a red and a yellow the second day. I had quite a few talks with the director because it all didn't add up and to make it short, the yellow day should of been green but their was miscomminication between the teachers...UGH!! I was furious because I didn't let him have a treat from the store for his tickets or get a lollipop that night and he really should have!!! But I think it's all getting settled now and the teachers are communicating better and they have a more standardized system...at least so far. B has now gotten 2 green lights in a row and I'm so happy. He even told me tonight that "we don't say bad words because it makes people sad" He is such my sweetie pie!!

So on Monday when D got to cash in some tickets at the store he actually used HIS ticketst to buy B a present. And then today when B cashed in his tickets he bought D a gift. Who would of thought they would work so hard for the tickets and then use them to buy each other something....it was so sweet!! Here is what they got each other!

I participated in a Pay it Forward from JJ's blog. She is paying it forward from a gift she received and now I am receiving a gift from her. I am going to continue the pay it forward from my blog once I decide on what I want to give.....I got my mail today!! :o)

Sorry for the bad lighting pics, but I got the greatest homemade note cards! I love them, especially knowing they were made for people that she didn't even know who would recieve them. I can't wait to use them!! They are truly special cards to me!

Strangely enough, I had someone else be especially kind to me today. This was before I knew I had received these cards in the mail. A coworker was helping me move a bed at work and we found a dime on the floor. He offered for me to have it and we discussed back and forth who could have it. So I then said I would take it home for my boys and that they love to get "coin" money. They haven't realized yet that the paper is actually worth more! Anyway I was saying I had two boys and then he reached in his pocket and gave me a quarter so that I would have a coin for each boy. It really touched my heart. It wasn't much, but it was so thoughtful and I felt so blessed. These days I think people overlook simple everyday kindness in the hustle of the world, it was a great day!

I am looking forward to the weekend, the weather is supposed to be really nice. The only downfall is that I need to go bathing suit shopping for our cruise in 10 days and that is NEVER fun in my world!! Same old shape and same old story.....hee hee. Oh well I will just keep picturing THIS!!!

Good times

Daddy did take the boys out in the snow while I was gone. You can see the two boys here (just barely...it's not mommy quality pics) but it is a pic of snow and the boys in the snow....;0)

I have tons of pics of the arch in STL but always feel I have to take a pic every time I am there.

We had a great time chatting and catching up on things. I am so glad that I got a chance to see some great friends while I was there!

Thanks to my great friends Crystal and Rodney also for allowing me to stay at their house one extra night unexpectedly due to the weather!

Lots of laundry to do today, grocery store trip and I need to start gathering clothes for our cruise in only two weeks!!! Busy, busy...it's supposed to be in the 70's the weekend! I know the boys will be happy to get back outside... I see a trip to the park in our future!! ;-)

I have returned

Yes, I am back home finally. My trip had an unexpected layover due to snow here at home. I decided to stay one more day in STL in fear that the roads would be too icy to travel. I am glad I did because even today on my way home there were some areas that were still really bad and really icy. Some parts of the interstate only had one lane open due to the ice, so I can only imagine what yesterday would of been like. I am so happy to be home and hug and kiss my baby boys!! I missed them so much and thanks to Granny for watching them last week. Of course they have the most wonderful Daddy in the world that took such great care of them while I was gone. I have pics to post...of course...but that will probably be tomorrow when I have more time. I really enjoyed my work conference and had a great time seeing my friends!! More later...

Going Going Gone....

All is well here on the home front. We started a new reward system with the boys and it seems to be working well. Of course better for D since he's older and understands better but nonetheless it is working well. Mike bought some tickets from an education store and the boys earn tickets for chores and for doing things they are supposed to like eat breakfast, get dressed for school, do well in school and eat a good dinner. They also earn extra tickets for cleaning up and being very polite. We picked prizes and assigned a ticket value to them. After the first week both boys decided to keep their tickets and try for a bigger prize this week. I think that's pretty cool that they decided that on their own. Of course, the bigger the prize the bigger the ticket value. Although, when they misbehave, don't do well in school or don't listen at home we take tickets away. Both have had a few tickets taken away but they are learning that there are consequences to not behaving correctly. I like the idea and so far it is going very well. They both count their tickets every night and are anxiously awaiting Fri evening to pick a prize :o)
I am leaving tomorrow for a five day trip to STL!! I started to pack earlier today and realized I needed to do a little shopping first for a few things, I'm glad there were some sales out there!! I will finish packing tonight. I am going to a work conference and I also get to see my friends in STL. I am very excited!! I am happy to get away for a little and relax in a hotel room like the hubs gets to! But at the same time I am already getting sad that I will be gone from my boys for such a long time. They get to stay with Granny one night and then hang out with Daddy for the rest. I know the boys will be fine.....I don't think I have ever been gone for this long away from them by myself. Sat night I"m having a girls night out and we are all going to meet at a Mexican resturaunt for great food and drinks!! I am so excited about that!!
Well that's my update for now...lots of things to prepare before I head out of town! TOODLES!

Not a dull moment

Thursday the daycare sent me these pics in my email. Bry decided to stick a girl's braid bead up his nose.....not sure why at all!! Luckily the director was able to remove it with tweezers so that we didn't have to make a trip to the ER!! It was great though because they took before and after pics...just what I need for a scrapbook page!!!!!! It's funny now but def wouldn't of been if we were driving to the ER to have it removed!!

We are heading out on a family road trip today to Cape Gir.. MO to visit with some friends for the day..I'm hoping we don't run into any snow though!! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Some catching up to do.

We had a date night on Friday while the kids were at parents night out. We went to a nearby Japanese resturaunt and had a wonderful dinner. The atmosphere was really nice and the food was wonderful. The pricing wasn't bad and they gave you alot of food. We will definetely go back there!

Adorable "heart" art hanging in D's classroom.

D's class had a great party. The played pass the "hot valentine" kinda lot hot potato. It was funny because they didn't quite understand the concept of passing the heart but it was still fun. The kids also loved making their own ice cream sundaes.

They also made fruit loop necklaces.

And no he's not wearing lipstick, it's the red icing from the cupcakes...my little sweetheart!

The boys and I went on a morning hunt on Valentine's looking for some treats left by cupid.

They were happy to find that the Valentine cupid left some goodies for them. They really enjoyed the goodies and especially the foam swords..

My little cutie patootie!!

Friday I went out and bought some flowers, candy and a huge balloon to take to mom's house to suprise her for early Valentine's day. I also bought her a steak, potato and veggies with chocolate covered strawberries also for dessert. I left her a dinner plate out with fork and knife and a note that read "your dinner is in the refrigerator!" It was such a good plan and all worked out great EXCEPT that when I was unloading everything out of the car the GIANT and I mean GIANT balloon that I had bought her broke away from the string and flew off into the endless sky! I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs... @#@$#%#%%@??! I was so mad....although it wasn't going to bring the balloon back so I did leave her the string...hee hee and then explained later! What a bummer!

I've been waiting for the right time to show off my new tattoos...what do you think? :)

D had a great time trying to attach Rodney with his new sword.....it was too cute!

The guys were in charge of our Valentine dessert on Saturday night. They did a great job. We had NY cheesecake with a little Butter Pecan ice cream on top, caramel topping and a little apricot preserves...yum yum. Everything was low sugar or sugarfree except for the cheesecake. YOu must splurge somewhere!! It was delicious.....good idea guys!! We loved it!

Of course we played some Wii and the guys battled it out at boxing. I don't remember who won but I do know that by the end they were both dripping sweat! Great workout after dessert!

Sunday night we got lucky enough to have my mom babysit the boys and we took Crystal and Rodney to the great Japanese place we had just went on Friday for our own Valentine dinner. The food was wonderful and we didn't sit at a Hibachi table. They had never had Japanese or sat at Hibachi so we decided to take them there for dinner. What an adventure...it was so much fun! We even got Rodney to try sushi....a California roll...:) I don't think he'd ordered some for himself but at least he tried it! We all had such a great time!

Rodney attempted to catch a piece of flying food from the chef but was unsuccessful along with Mike and I. Although Crystal did catch hers...way to go girl!! Must of been the baby telling her not to miss one piece of food...hee hee!

That's about all for now, must go and finish some things before time to pick up boys. Toodles.

Our weekend day trip

We had a wonderful time at the Rocket & Space center!

Busy, busy and more busy

We had a wonderful weekend. B had a birthday party to go to on Sat. and then we saw the "Brahma bull" and took pics. That was too funny. Dev spent the day with daddy. The weather was nice and the boys got to play outside. D has been learning about space and the planets in school. He has been telling us all about it every night. Sunday we got up and drove to Huntsville for the day. We toured the Space & Rocket museum. The boys had a great time and loved seeing the rockets and space shuttle. We also watched Fly Me To the Moon in 3D. I have to say that it was pretty awesome. I think that was one of the best 3D movies that I have seen. At first B was scared with the bugs flying right AT him but then he adjusted. I will post pics later. We had a great day and were even home for dinner.
I am trying to get things together for both boys Valentine's parties on Friday. I will be out shopping tomorrow for goodies and game supplies. For D's class we will be playing some games and I'm going to set up an ice cream sundae station for the kids to make their own sundaes...yum yum!!
We also have some friends coming in town this weekend. I can't wait! The guys are going to be in charge of our Valentine dinner dessert....the girls will be cooking dinner. I'm also going to try to find a few things to make the dinner special......maybe champagne (bubbly grape juice for her, she's expecting) and maybe some candles or something...I also need to get a few things for the boys Valentine's gifts.
The weather here has been 60 and 70's...very nice. I hope the weather holds up this weekend so we can get outside again. I'd love to have a Valentine scavenger hunt for the boys!
I have been getting back to the gym...finally! I even got my mom to meet me up there last Friday! She did great, even though she thought I was trying to torture her at first with my interval training on the treadmill. GREAT job mom you did awesome!!
Countdown begins...only 5 weeks till our Disney cruise! Yippee! I can't wait!!

You never know...

what you might see driving down the road in Mississippi....hee hee. One of the car dealerships had this ox? maybe or bull I have no idea, anyway it was sitting outside of a car dealership. They must be desperate to get some customers and decided this might draw some attention. It did! We stoppped! :) But we didn't buy a car! This all the closer B would get at first, but then he did actually touch it's back..amazing!
Too funny!

The week of ME

This week I have a goal.....ME. I am taking a break from the normal daily routine. I am taking a break from the computer.....this week is going to be about ME and my family....see you in about a week...

A day on the hill

We went out to visit at Dad's and took the boys scooter with us. The boys enjoyed riding down the hill. I'm sure it seemed like a HUGE hill to them! Mike and I even went down too!

I love how D even has Mike's famous "lip tuck" going on in the pic...too funny!

This is a must try recipe from Amy's recipe section. They are called Ranch Sausage Stars. It is so easy to make and tastes wonderful. I made it with just the sausage and cheese and ranch for the boys and they loved it. I made it like the recipe says for us adults but also added chopped onion....delicious!!
Ranch Sausage Stars

1 lb. cooked and crumbled sausage

1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese

1 1/2 cups monterey jack cheese

1 cup ranch dressing

1 cup sliced black olives

1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper

1 pkg. wonton wrapperscooking spray

Preheat oven to 350. Brown sausage and blot dry with paper towel. In a bowl, combine with cheese, olives, ranch, and peppers. Mix well. Lightly grease a muffing tin. Press one wrapper into each cup so it form into a cup. Then spray them lightly. *This will help in the browning process. Bake 5 minutes until light golden brown. Remove from tins and place on cookie sheet. Repeat making about 4 dozen cups. Fill with mixture and cook for another 5 minutes or until mixture is bubbly.

Well back to some snacks while waiting for the Super Bowl to start. I am hoping for the Cardinals since we were in STL when Kurt Warner lead the Rams to Super Bowl victory!! Go Kurt! The weather is in the 60's outside too so the boys can get some outside time again today!!