{February 2011} Valentines

It's funny how this time last week I was completely against the boys exchanging Valentines at school and today finds me putting the finishing touches on homemade Valentines to share at school!  I swear, I can't run from it!  I'm a romantic at heart and feel the need to make days like Valentine's Day special in any and every way possible!  I'm quite proud of myself, I must say, each boy needed 37 Valentines, so that's 111 that I made and 37 bought for Hayden's class.  I did all of this for a grand total of $14.00 (and most of that was for the candy)!  Dave Ramsey would be so proud ; )! 

Tristen, Seth & Garrett glued, hole punched, inserted candy & signed theirs ^

And Hayden signed his name, folded & sealed all of his!

I used what I had and kept it simple.

The boys received these Monday from Brad & me.

Freeze-able root beer mugs filled with old fashioned rootbeer barrels (candies) - Sundays we watch movies after church and have a snack, the boys' favorite seems to be rootbeer floats, these mugs will come in handy for Sunday movie snacks too!

My Mom sent money for me to buy some Valentines for the boys and just look what I found! - That's right, little tackle boxes filled with all the fish-like candies you could imagine!  I found them to be the perfect gift from Nana & Papaw after their little fishing expo with the boys this past holiday season!

Of course, they also got foam swords because every prince needs his weapon! 

And since we're in FPU and we each have "blow" money... we didn't do gifts for each other (Brad pre-ordered a video game he wanted and I ordered two new books) -but Brad did leave this not for me!

All-in-all it was a great Valentine's Day!

{January 2011}

-Photography by Bonnie Crankshaw-

It is very important to start one's year off right.  This year Brad & I have taken some very significant steps towards doing just that!  Step one, we joined FPU (Financial Peace University) through our church, HDC that begans Jan 24, 2011  Our plan is to become credit card debt free by June of this year and get some work done on my car that we've been putting off.  In fact, without the help of FPU we paid off our two highest balance credit cards already (one in April of 2010 and the last payment went out Dec 2010 on the second) a combined total of nearly $10,000.00!

In addition to that, Brad has continued to join the boys and me at church regularly and I'm back in TLBS as of Jan 25, 2011  The Lord has done such wonders in our lives these last few years, and that's an understatement if I ever heard one!  My prayer for this year is that we stay on the right track and continue to follow God's will for our lives as I'm facing a major transition with Tristen leaving elementary school this Summer only to become a Jr. High student in the Fall, as well as Hayden becoming a full-time student in the Fall at Discovery as a Kindergartener.  As for Brad, he hasn't cracked under the pressure (although Lord knows they sure are piling it on high) at work.  He remains steady and confident in his abilities, he's a survivor for sure, always making sacrifices to provide for us.

-Photography by Bonnie Crankshaw-

{January} 2010-2011 New Year's Eve

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! 

I've been having trouble posting photos

-a problem that has obviously been solved-

so get ready... I'm baaaaaack!!!!

{December} 29 Mom's Birthday

After fishing, we all went to Roadhouse for a juicy steak to celebrate mom's birthday! 
Not only did they give her free ice cream & sing to her, they made her wear a toilet seat cover bib and a coffee filter crown! 
L*O*V*E-I*T

{December 2010} Fishing with Pappi

While Mom & Jim were in town they stayed at one of their timeshares in a community where there was a man-made lake -and it was fishing season!  Jim bought two rods and a tackle box for the boys to share and we headed out to the lake to do some fishing (right after going over some ground rules).

Although the boys have called Jim "Papaw" all these years, Seth started calling him "Pappi" on this trip!  Jim found it endearing since that's what he called his grandfather.

The sun was setting and cast long shadows.

 There were ducks everywhere!  They wouldn't leave us alone.  Garrett went to the car to get some crackers from his snack to feed them.

All four boys (5 if you're counting "Pappi") had a great time!  This is more up Garrett's ally (see skating blog).  It was freezing cold and windy but Mom (Nana) & I stayed in the van with the heater on (except when we were taking pictures -so, not for long! haha!) The weather didn't seem to phaze the boys but after an hour or so "Pappi" rounded them up and we headed out to Roadhouse for a nice juicy steak to celebrate Mom's (Nana's) birthday!