Misc. Monday

Happy Monday!

Random thoughts to start the week.

#1

Our women's Bible study at church is going great.  We're studying the Gospel of John.  I'm learning so much since my friend and I are helping lead the study.  If you haven't ever taught a class, I'd recommend the challenge for your own personal growth.  I haven't blogged as much lately because it takes a lot of time to prepare.  Parts of John are deep and hard to understand, but with study and discussion with my husband and others, I think I'm understanding it more and more.  I'm currently using the ESV and NASB version of the Bible to read and study.  I also rely on some online commentaries for help.

#2

I have a framed print in the living room which displays a Christmas banner and the Christmas cards we received.  Well, it's February and I still haven't take them down.  I guess I should get around to doing that this week, ya think!?!

#3

Art supplies

Will and Ben love to use their art supplies.

Tomorrow I'll have more photos of their crafting fun this weekend.

#4

Saturday the boys played in the backyard for a long time.  

Ben had batting practice.

Will and Mark played catch. 

Ben's running after something. 

Just before the sun started going down Mark had time to pull the boys around in their wagon.

#5

Mark and I got engaged in February 2002.  I found these old photos of us back in 2001 and 2002.  It's kind of neat to know we've been a couple for over a decade. It's even cooler to think we'll celebrate 10 years of being happily married in June.

Gosh we look young!

linking to lowercase letters miscellany monday

InstaLife

It's been a good week.

The warm weather this week has given the boys extra time to play outside.  We also had the opportunity to spend time with family and friends, which is always a blessing.

Here are some moments I captured on my iPhone using the Hipstamatic app and Instagram app.  Mostly I take photos of my boys, but sometimes I mix in random items that catch my attention.

Will and Ben have taken advantage of the warm weather and their sandbox is seeing some mid-winter action.

This watering can is from my great-aunt's house.  I found it in her garage. I think about my sweet family when I see special things like this around the house.  I like the way it looks, but I like it even more because it's sentimental and reminds me of my aunt.

Baby Swing

I'm afraid it's almost time to put it away, sniffle-sniffle!

The baby swing won't be needed much longer because Ben thinks he's as big as Will.  You can see how serious he is and how tight he is holding on to the swing.

Will just learned to swing all by himself! 

I don't have to push him anymore!!!

Here are more photos of his newest feat.

Enjoying more fun outside

This print is hanging in the boys' bathroom.

I bought it here.

We've been staying in our small town more and driving into the suburbs of Dallas less.  Since I'm shopping less at Super Target, I'm shopping more at our small town's grocery store.  This vintage scale is still in use.

Nothing beats a play date at McDonald's

Well, I'd love to spend that time at a coffee shop, but I think others would frown upon me letting my kids go wild so we'll stick to play dates at McDonald's where it's loud and crazy.

My niece, Maggie, took this on her phone.  Love this photo of Ben!

Will and Ben spend two days a week at their grandparents and three days at daycare.  Mark's dad just bought this tent and he put it up in the living room so the boys could play in it.  They had such a good time. 

My precious grandmother and I.

The boys giving Mama Winnie some love. 

AND

Life In An Instant

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Kids Stuff World

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Story of My Life

Who Knew?

Lately I'm having more and more moments where I say "Did you know he could do that?"

The latest moment was when Will got in the swing yesterday and started swinging back and forth. 

All by himself!

I was so surprised.

I looked at Mark and said, "Do you see this?  He's swinging!  Did you know he could do that?" 

My second thought was "Hallelujah!" I don't have to push him in the swing anymore.

The next thing I thought was, "Wow!  He's getting big!"

I can't leave out little brother.

Recently Ben's learned to take off and put on his clothes.  I had no idea he could do that.  I noticed that he would be in different clothes and I thought Mark had changed him.  I finally realized he was changing his own clothes a couple of days ago when Ben came into the living room wearing something different.  I knew Mark didn't change him, and I asked Ben if he put his clothes on and he said he did.  He still needs a little help with his pants but he can get his shirts on and off. 

This new found independence is bittersweet.  It's exciting to see Will and Ben grow up but at the same time sad to know it's all happening so fast.  It's so cliche but they don't stay little for long.

Someone cue Taylor Swift's "Never Grow Up" and hand out the tissues, ha!

Children's Museum

A couple of weeks ago the boys attended the birthday party of my cousin's son.  We don't see that side of my family very much and it was good to catch up and spend time with them.  We'd never taken the boys to the children's museum where the party was held.  It's only 25 minutes from where we live, which makes it easy to get to.  Now that the boys have been to it, they have been asking to go back.  That let's me know they had a great time, and I'm pretty sure we are going to have to take them back this summer.

Ben is all about tractors and he loves anything John Deere.  He played on this riding lawn mower for at least 30 minutes.

The pretend play grocery store was a big hit.  My boys spent another 30-45 minutes shopping in the grocery store. 

Since it's a local children's museum, they have items from around our area.  This brought back childhood memories.  I grew up in a rural area and we'd cross the railroad tracks to get to our house.  I can't tell you how many times I heard my grandparents give directions to our house "Go about 3 miles on the FM road and we're the 3rd house on the right after you cross the railroad tracks." 

There's an airplane in the museum and the name of the museum is painted on the side.

The honorable Judge Will 

Being a history teacher, I'm loving the mock setup of a courtroom.



It's always a challenge for me to select what photos I want to share on the blog.  I took over 50 at the party.  I hope these few give you a good time had by Will and Ben.

I'm having a little (big) winter blog funk.  I have lots of things I'd like to share, but I'm lacking the time to write the posts.  Maybe I'll get back in a routine soon.

Hope you're having a great week!

Family Fun

It's Friday!!!  

That means the weekend is near and I get to spend time with Will and Ben.  Things are so hectic during the week, and the weekend is my time to relax and recharge.  In the past we were guilty of trying to cram too many things into a weekend.  That's all changed since the beginning of 2012.  We've stayed at home a lot since the beginning of the new year because one of our resolutions was to save money.  One way we are saving money is driving into Dallas less to save gas.  (You know we live in the middle of no where so we have to drive at least 20-45 minutes to get to civilization.) 

For the first 3 weeks of January, we didn't make the drive into the suburbs.  That's right, no Super Target for 21 days!  We had to run some errands so we ended up in the north Dallas burbs last weekend.

On Friday we ate pizza at our favorite pizza place, Grimaldi's.  

We try to limit eating out to once a week (another new year's resolution).  Since eating out is a treat now, we try to choose a place we really like.

Brick oven pizza 

While we waited on our pizza, the boys played with pizza dough.  It kept them happy. 

This is Ben's "fish" face or at least that's what he calls it. 

I texted this photo to my sister-in-law because I knew she'd be excited.  It's opening 30 minutes from where we live.  The suburbs of north Dallas keep growing and so many stores are now within 30-45 minutes of where we live.  My husband probably broke into hives when he saw the sign.  He doesn't like Hobby Lobby or Michaels, and I'm pretty sure he won't like Jo Ann.  I could spend hours in each!

I know shopping usually wouldn't be considered "fun" for my boys but they are pretty good in two stores: Gymboree and Old Navy.

Will tried on some sunglasses while we spent our 'gymbucks' at Gymboree. They love watching the Gymboree TV.

Ben likes petting the dog and talking to the mannequins at Old Navy.

The boys are worn out from shopping.

This photo is thrown in just because my boys are cute! 

And you can see the vintage sports pennants that I finally hung in Will's room.  You know I started redecorating his room over a year ago.  Maybe I'll finish it before he graduates from high school.

Staying at home has allowed us a chance to play games with the boys.  Will loves playing board games.  Ben is just a little bit too young to really play along, but we try to let him be involved as much as his attention span will allow.  

Family fun can be simple

Ben and Will seem to think climbing on their daddy is great fun.

The only thing better than getting to watch TV in mommy and daddy's room is getting to use daddy as a pillow :)  Will seems to be pretty comfy.

The last thing I love about spending time at home with my family...

wearing my PJs!

Happy Friday, Friends!

Have a great weekend!

and

Life In An Instant 

at Kids Stuff World

Family Photos

In November we had Will's 5 year photos taken and our family photos taken for our Christmas card.  I've shown you our Christmas card, but I don't think I ever showed you other photos from that day.

It was a cool, cloudy day when we met Lauren at the Dallas Arboretum--perfect for photos.

We took this photo at the end of the photo shoot.  Both boys are happy.  Ben loves to ride on his daddy's shoulders and Will is laughing at something, probably Papaw Jerry.

Mark's parents were with us and Lauren took this group photo of all of us. 

I really like this photo of Mark's parents.

The boys look really good in this photo.  My hair is a mess.  The wind started to blow just as we sat down.

This is the photo we used on our Christmas card.

Some of my favorite photos from that day were taken at this temporary castle that was constructed at the Arboretum.

Will looks so big here! 

He wouldn't be still or pose. He's moving in all of his photos, including this one :)

Ben's getting so big, too! 

This photo is framed in our bedroom.  

There are more photos of the boys that I'll share later.  Just wanted you to see these.  Lauren is a pleasure to work with and I'm always excited to see the images she captures of our family.