Valentine's Day Up In Here

These cuties. In a kissing booth. Be still my heart.

Girlfriend's bow hair for her school Valentine's Day party.

Ab's fave princess is Pocahontas.

So a Pocahontas box it was!

I love their excitement for celebrations.

She made 24 rainbow loom bracelets to go with her Valentines.

She was a rainbow loom machine.

AJ requested a Lego head Valentine's box with a confident expression.

Thank goodness for Costco animal cracker containers and spray paint.

And then we went to Casa Bonita with friends for our kid friendly romantic-ha! dinner.

It was an experience.

Definitely something to check off the Denver bucket list.

I've always heard about it. I mean it's legendary in these parts.

Andy said it hasn't changed since he was a kid.

The kids loved it. And I'm glad we went. But probably have our Casa Bonita fix for at least 5 years.

 

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2 Weeks of Insta-Fridays

Young Life area leader retreat day.

Refreshing. Good reminder that having a relationship with Jesus takes discipline and commitment. These things are not easy. I have to make time for this relationship. I can't tell myself that I don't have time. Because I make time to watch Downton Abbey...or put on Jamberries. I need to make time for Jesus. I am not a very self-disciplined individual. This is an area I need to work on. True story.

Speaking of Jamberries...like I was going to miss a holiday themed nail wrap. Ha! You know me, I love a good theme. And holidays. I have valentine socks and pj pants...valentine nail wraps were inevitable. I tried to resist. But you can see how well that went.

Bad pic. The sun was in her eyes. But Girlfriend picked out a new bike for her bday. Naturally, she chose the one where her Barbie can ride with her and has sparkly tassels. Totally awesome choice.

I love our mornings together just Brody Bear and I. One morning he made us a snack picnic for our viewing of the Thomas sing-a-long. Cheetos and Capri Suns on the carpet. I have the best job ever.

Abby is doing an animal report on wolves in Kindergarten. A trip to the library was in order. Can I just say taking these two to the library is like trying to herd cats...that are on crack. It's fantastic.

I love leggings. I love polka dots. But I was way out of my comfort zone wearing polka dot leggings.

They were only $4.50 at Old Navy. I had to give them a try.

So remember that awesome time I fell out of bed and got stitches? Well it got even more awesome when my neighbor walked in the urgent care room to remove them.

A stitches removal selfie was in order for such an occasion.

And yes I saw every.single.person I know in those 5 days of having stitches on my face. Good times.

And next time I'm not going to urgent care. I'm just walking to my neighbors house.

Lots of prop making for Destination Imagination happening in our house. Minimal yellow paint ended up on the carpet.

True story: One night we were eating cheesecake and drinking wine with a neighbor at like midnight & all of a sudden Andy was on the floor in a puddle of splintered wood pieces. It was awesome. I mean like silent laugh till your stomach hurts and you can't breathe and tears run down your face awesome.

So we had to get new kitchen chairs.

And we needed to eat dinner the night we got chairs.

So an Ikea trip happened.

Now if you know me, you know this is not my favorite place to eat. Or take kids to. I mean on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being my level of dislike...it's a 12...maybe even a 15.

The kids were super naughty. Like I wanted to give them away naughty. Then Abby lost her jacket in that gigantic freakin store. Not just any jacket you can leave behind. So more hell ensued as we retraced our steps through that gigantic freakin store with the super naughty kids.

Anyway. Everyone ate. We got new chairs. We found the stupid jacket. And I didn't give any kids away.

I'd call it a success in the end.

Volunteering from home means you get to cut out a lot of stuff.

I can trace and cut like a boss.

Another true story: I sew on patches for friends in exchange for payment in junk food. It's a good trade.

Loot from our school's Labels For Education points.

Cutting, counting, and bundling Labels for Education and Box Tops makes me want to poke my eyes out after about an hour. But seeing the fruits of our labor make it kinda worth it.

Oh Rainbow Loom. I really thought that ship had sailed and my kids hadn't noticed. Nope. I pick up at least 100 tiny rubber bands a day now. Which totally stabilizes my mood and never ever makes me go bat shit crazy. Ever.

Teaching second graders how to sew for Destination Imagination is a trip. It's only mildly stressful when they nearly sew their fingers to their shirt. Nothing like a trip to Ikea with Abby & Brody.

It's awesome to see how much these guys step up and rise to occassion...whether it's building simple machines...or researching animal habitats...or sewing their own costumes...they never seize to amaze me.

Sleepy Bear. Man how I love his cuddles. Seriously puts the whole world back into perspective.

I pretty much hate snow by this time in the year. Pink snow boots are necessary to make it tolerable.

Lent has started. We gave up sweets as a family. No Dr. Pepper or chocolate makes for a mean mama bear.

And man we should have video taped Brody's reaction when we told him no sweets for 40 days.

It was awesome. Awesomely hilarious.

Stay warm this weekend.

I'm wondering if we really are going to get this predicted snowmageddon.

Snowed in without sweets.

This might be dangerous.

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Insta-Friday Girlfriend's Birthday Edition

Guys I've had a crazy week.

I mean cray cray. Even by my standards.

Last Friday this beautiful, crazy girl turned 6.

And we don't do birthdays small in our house.

She requested a breakfast in bed of pop tarts.

Because we never buy pop tarts.

She opened one gift...

Which happened to be this stuffed cat...

She named her Flowers.

Ab is

our little self-declared cat lady.

I am not a cat person.

She will only have stuffed cats till she's 18.

I made it through the day, but needed a little help about car pool time...

Then Saturday we had Abby's Pocahontas friend birthday party.

We made necklaces and dream catchers...

A wonderful daughter of a friend helped me run the party.

I couldn't have done it with my sanity intact without her.

Abby dressed up like Pocahontas...

The girls painted cookies for their party favor.

Andy's aunt made an amazing cake.

The edible rocks were a hit!

We read Pocahontas' biography in a tee pee I borrowed from a dear friend.

It takes a village.

And we are very blessed with a great village that helped make the day so very special for Abby Cat.

Then we cleaned up and switched party gears for a tea party Sunday after church.

Abby has begged for a tea party with her nana and great grandmas for over a year. We were finally able to make it happen.

We dawned our feather boas and tea party hats.

And had cucumber sandwiches.

3 generations of party animals right there.

Brody dressed up for the occassion.

It was pretty whimsical.

After our party weekend, I snuck off to an open house for the first release of MJ's spring line, Hello Lovely!

Seriously pink, yellow, flowers, polka dots.

Love!

. You know me. I can't resist.

I had coffee with a friend, and Abby showed off her Fashion Plates creations.

I couldn't resist getting that thing for her! I used to design dresses and outfits for hours as a little girl. Every little girl needs those memories!

Ab wore her new sun hat to Kindergarten and ballet Monday.

Love that girl's spirit.

Orange Marmalade reminds me of my grandma. I don't know why...maybe we used to eat it at her house. I remember she always had ham and melon to eat. And we used to sit on the porch swing together. Happy memories.

I love how the kids bling out their backpacks with flair.

Yes Abby has a cat backpack.

A roller one. It's huge.

And always awkward to get in and out of cars.

It kinda always drives me crazy.

But it's cute. When we aren't trying to get to school on time anyway.

Destination Imagination.

6 more meetings till our tournament.

Trying not to freak out.

Yet.

After DI I had Young Life Capernaum girls over for pizza, then we went to a Unified Sports basketball game.

Abby & Brody came along while AJ & Andy helped a friend move.

It was a full night, but a good one.

Brody in this flight jacket and those aviators.

Be still my heart.

Yeah. So this happened Thursday morning.

You know. That time I fell out of bed and smacked my head into the corner of the side table and had to call Andy at work for backup and ended up getting a tetanus shot and 3 stitches. Yeah that time.

It was awesome. The headache that came with it and won't leave is awesome too.

Seriously. I fell out of bed. Brody climbed into our bed in the middle of the night when I was dead asleep. And was a total bed hog. So when the alarm went off, and I turned to get out of bed real fast before it woke him up...I went flying off the side of the bed.

Then WAM.

Stars, black, dizziness, instant throbbing headache, and blood.

True story. Nothing cool. I wasn't being chased by zombies. Or day drinking at 7AM. I just fell out of bed.

I amaze myself sometimes.

I mean wow. Just wow.

I did win "story of the day" at urgent care.

So there's that.

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