Playing Catch Up

I am going to have to play catch up with my post.  Guess I will just lump them into one..............
First, Cal decided after dinner last Wednesday that he wanted to read a book to us.  He is getting more and more confident in his reading.  This was really the first time he has asked to read to us.  He ran upstairs and came back down with Yertle the Turtle. 

Then Brady wanted in on the excitement, so he practiced writing his name!

Last Friday I had two friends from high-school come visit.  Alicia was on Winter Break and Mary is actually living about 20 minutes from here this year while her husband is in school.  All together we have 9 kids!  It was beautiful here, so the children were able to play outside and inside.  It was so much fun to visit and see the children play.

All 9 kids (I only have 2, Alicia has 3 and Mary wins the award with 4)

Yes, we all 3 drive a minivan

My 2 and Alicia's kids being silly! 

I will end with the fun race we went to Saturday morning.  Cal's school put on a 5K race and fun run to raise money for the PTA.  This was the first year and it was a lot of fun.  The 5K was first.  Matt ran with his friend Bubba (both Trinity grads).  I ran alone and only when it was all over did I realize I had placed 3rd in the 30-39 division.  I might have started out a little faster had I known I could "place"!  Ha! Matt's parents watched the boys while we ran then it was Cal's turn to run the 1 mile Fun Run.  He had a group of his buddies to run with and they had a great time.  Their teacher was cheering them on as they got to the finish line.

Matt and I post-race/Cal pre-race

Will, Taylor, Cal and Brady

And they are off.......Cal is somewhere right behind the girl who fell.  Hoping she is fine.

Almost to the finish line.................That is his teacher in the background

Mrs. Hallford is so proud of them!  There were 3 or 4 little girls from their class who also ran.

Funny story:  Cal asked me the other day "Can you get a fancier car?"  What do you mean, mommies minivan is not fancy?  I had no clue what he meant.....:)  So I say, "like what?"  He says, "like that car without a roof over there."  I look over and see a new, bright blue Ford Mustang.  Oh, a convertable is what he wants.  Funny thing about this story is Matt also likes the convertable Mustang, so I tell Cal to call his daddy and tell him.  Maybe one day he and his daddy will have a fun car, until then he is stuck with his mommy in her minivan!  But, they did have this red Mustang at the race, so he needed his picture taken with it.

Our Weekend

We had the best, relaxing weekend.  The boys are also out of school today for President's Day.  Cal missed school on Friday for a horrible cough, but Brady went to school.  It has been 70-80 degrees here for over a week, so I did go get a pedicure with a friend on Friday.  When Brady got out of school Friday, we came home and got to work on the boys new "tree house".  There is a tree that is perfect for them to climb in, it just had a lot of old branches that needed to be cleared out.  They were in the tree all weekend.  Well worth the time it took to clear out the branches.

Cal's pocket knife came in handy.  They each picked a branch to carve their name into.

A friend and I started taking the wallpaper down in the boy's Jack and Jill bathroom on Thursday.  We started in the middle shower/toilet room.  I finished that room this weekend and will do each of their sink rooms next.  It has been pretty easy.  I hear that it either goes really well or really bad. 

Yes, 3 rooms of this seafoam green wallpaper

The white has been scraped of all the backing.  The yellow up at the top is the backing you have to scrape off.  We still have to put some other spray on the white part to make sure it is rid of glue before you paint. We may hire someone to paint, but at least I have saved us the cost of labor for the wallpaper removal.

Here is the cardinal that Matt has been trying to take a picture of since Dec.

He and the female are spending a lot of time at our feeder, but they hear us coming before we can take their picture.  Matt took this Sunday morning.  The color is not good, but he is really pretty.

This was the sunset Sunday night.  We grilled out with Matt's parents last night.  Matt grilled chicken, but the days are still not long enough for us to sit outside.  Oh, how I am longing for the days of eating dinner outside!

Hope everyone else had a nice long weekend and has a great week.

  

Love...with all your heart

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and most important commandment."  Matthew 22:37

The boys have been so into Valentine's Day this year.  First we made cookies for the girls we used to live next to.

Cute little sparkle boxes from $ Store with peanut butter kiss cookies

The direct path into Cal's heart...a box of chocolates!

This is what I did for the boys to give their teachers. Again, box from $ Store with assorted Lindor Truffles. I have to tell you Cal has discovered a LOVE FOR TRUFFLES!  He said, "how come I didn't know about these?"  They were 2 for $6.00 one week at Target.  I bought me, I mean us some and the teachers each a bag, but had to go back and buy more for Cal and I and they were not on sale.  Hate that when you first buy them on sale then have to go back and they are no longer on sale.

Fun Dip, what the boys gave their friends.

On Valentine's Day I was able to make it to Cal's party from 10:45-11:45 and then Cal and I went to Brady's party at 11:45.

Can I tell you my favorite thing this year was making Cal a Valentine "shoe box" this year.  I put paper on it then they decorated it at school.  This is his placemat he made.

LOVE  US SOME MRS. HALLFORD

THESE 4 ARE A MESS...PLANS TO GO ON A CRUISE AND TO HOLLYWOOD TOGETHER

Mrs. Marla is Brady's favorite teacher EVER, he just didn't want his picture taken

Brady and Julialyn

Brady's hands

We ended our Valentine's with a steak and shrimp dinner at the dinning room table.  I let the boys play with fire and light candles.  We had yummy chocolate covered strawberries for desert.

3 Friday's in a Row

Brady has missed school the past 3 Friday's.  Week 1-stomach bug, Week 2-still not over the stomach bug, Week 3-croup/bad cough.  Cold weather and sick children means mommy needs a vacation!  Brady and I did do Ten on Ten while he was home sick Thursday.  He came up with several of my pictures that I took. 

I started at 8:00 a.m. with a shot of a palm in our front yard that is clearly without snow/ice yet again.  There was a small chance of snow last night, but no such luck!

Brady's idea for our 9:00 picture

Cute heart box from the Dollar Store

10:00 Taking Luigi to the vet

11:00 Taking Iron Man for soup at Panera

12:00 Taking a rest with all his puppies

1:00 Drying Dishes with this sweet dish towel

2:00 Bird Watching with Brady

Again, his idea for the picture

3:00 Brady perked up a bit when Cal and Will got home

4:00 Piece of Art Brady made at Art Start

Cal is doing "ot" words at school.  I guess they had to use 3 "ot" words.  I get the Pot and the Rot, not sure about the cot?

5:00 SO TIRED OF BROWN GRASS AND GREY SKIES

I THINK I WAS READY FOR MATT TO COME HOME, COULD NOT COME UP WITH "HAPPY/BEAUTY" PICTURE! :)

3 Going on 4

Brady will be 4 in April, and he can not wait!  He has asked frequently since Cal's birthday in October when his birthday will be and he has been planning in since then also.  The other morning on the way to school he said, "mommy, I'm kinda sick of being 3!"  There you have it, he is ready to be 4 (really he wants to be 6 like Cal, but 4 would be a little better).

A few weeks ago, I was tired of fighting over what he wanted to wear each day, so I told him he could pick out his clothes.  I was a terror about clothes at age 3 also, so I appreciate an opinion re:fashion!  Not a battle I am going to worry about (unless we are really going somewhere and I have been laying out like 5 options).  Here is what the morning I gave up the fight looked like.  This is what I picked out for him to wear.

It is a sweat-shirt and jeans.........what could be wrong with this?  To Brady, A LOT

I left him on his own for probably 20 minutes

And after a long deliberation, this is what he came up with

Red cord pants and a plain blue tee???????

Really? Whatever, he is happy.................

And, I am happy to report that there has not been any more fighting over clothes :)

Then an event happened last week that makes me think he may not make it to 4.

You can see it better in the top picture.  Little holes all in the wall, along with some cross and X drawings.

I hear a noise in Cal's room and go to see what it is.  Brady and his friend Payne had removed 2 doorstops that had screws on the end and were going to town on Cal's walls.  Making hundreds of little holes and drawing.  I still can not even figure out what made them remove the doorstops then think about using them on the walls (2 different walls)?  Matt was not near as freaked out about the situation as I was.  It appears that he took a hammer to his room as a child.  He told me this is just what boys do and he will fix the walls.  We were going to paint Cal's room anyway, it just may be sooner than later now.