Random

Ok, so my fifth post of the night. Just catching up on some of the pics I wanted to post. The first two below are of the boys playing Ring Around the Rosie and just goofing off together. The third is Jace sitting on the potty. He starts pointing at his diaper and trying to pull off his clothes anytime the other little boys sit on the potty, so I've been letting him sit on it to get used to the potty, how cute! The fourth pic is of Jace going for a ride on daddy's back.

Valentine's Day

The boys had a Valentine's Day party at their Mother's Day Out the week of Valentine's Day. I put pics below showing them the morning of their party. The last one is with them sitting at their table with their Valentine's for their friends as well as their candy bars for their teachers! I have so much fun with that stuff!

Happy Birthday Holly!

My best friend from High School, Holly, had her 29th birthday the weekend of Valentine's Day. We graduated from Alma High, go Airedales!! Anyways, a group went to eat at Doe's in Fort Smith. Talk about a real steak, can't beat it! The pic below is: Holly, Belinda, Me, and April

Jack opening one of his Potty Presents

Potty Celebration!

Well, Jack is officially potty-trained! We started about a month ago and Jack got the concept of pee-peeing in the potty on the first day. Of course, he had some accidents (sorry about your floor Ashley), but he really did great. Poo-poo on the other hand took a while. But, after we caught him in the act one day and got him to do it on the potty, one week later and only 2 accidents later (both in the first two days) we think he's got it down!

We went to Chuck-E-Cheese last night to celebrate because he had opened all of his potty presents! Hooray for no more diapers! He's wearing big boy underwear all of the time. We are still putting a pull-up on him at night time and nap time, but he is waking up dry at both times.


Mommy and Jack celebrating at Chuck-E-Cheese!





Jack riding his favorite ride, the horse one of course!




Daddy and Jace enjoying the festivities as well!




Jack and his friend Lucas showing off what they got with their tickets.

HOORAY!!!!

So, Jack just hit a milestone tonight, and if you don't want to hear about his first poopoo in the potty you should just stop reading now because the proud mom in me is going to tell all about it! Well, we can always tell when he's 'going' because he hides in the playroom (formally known as the dining room, who needs a family table anyways?). Well, I should say, we can always tell when he has JUST GONE. We always seem to catch him on the tail end of that act! Tonight we could tell he was about to go and we kept a close eye. He went to hide in the playroom, we caught him and took him straight to the potty, he sat there for about 5 minutes, couldn't go, got down and then the process repeated about three times! Finally I kept his pull-up off and just told him that he WILL tell mommy when he needs to go potty. You know I was watching him like a hawk then! So, sure enough I caught 'the look' and took him straight to the potty for the fourth time and he went right away!!! We had a celebration of opening a present (one out of his four poopoo presents that have been wrapped and waiting on him to go potty, getting two potty treats, and many many praises from mom and dad! He opened up a set of four play-dough tubs. He wanted to play with it right away and made a lobster out of his 'cookie cutters'. We talked all about how lobsters have claws and will pinch you. Then I could tell he was half afraid to touch the lobster again so I had to explain that it was a pretend lobster and that the real lobsters in the water are the ones that pinch! How cute! Thanks for indulging and reading this far, you are a true friend!

Have you thought of your future daughter-in-law??

Thought that title would catch your attention! Most of my close friends know that I'm a proponent of the book, Preparing Him for the Other Woman by Sheri Rose Sheperd. Don't know why I thought of it today necessarily, but for some reason it was on my mind tonight during my blogging time. I am passionate about raising my boys in a way that will teach them to love God, love others, and effectively love their wives!

This book walks you through how to raise boys to be Godly men, husbands, and fathers. She gives you practical tips, by age, in each chapter. She also has a chapter about praying for your future daughter-in-law. The author began writing letters to her future daughter-in-law when her son was very young. She also began collecting things from his boyhood and saved them all in a hope chest that she presented to her on her wedding day. What an awesome way to start a good relationship!

For anyone interested here's a link to her website, www.hisprincess.com

Guns 'N Things

Anyone with young boys in their home knows that little boys like to fight, kill, and defeat! An issue in our home right now (with a 2 yr old and a 1 yr old, both boys) is guns (I am speaking of play guns in this post). I don't know what the right way to handle the inevitable fact that boys like to pretend to shoot anything and everything. People have said, "Don't have guns in the house". This comment must have originated from mothers of little girls, because you don't have to have guns in the house for any little boy to shoot things. They use their hands, blocks, cars, or anything else for that matter. They have an imagination and the imagine they have a gun.

My boys have water guns in the bath tub to play with during their baths. Jack has been running around the house lately pointing it at me and saying, "Momma I'm shooting you". One reaction I have is to tell him that we do not shoot people, but that he can pretend to shoot his toys. Another reaction I have had is to tell him not to shoot mommy and ask him to find the monster and shoot it so that he can save mommy. I really don't know the answer to this one, morally or for safety purposes!

Any ideas are welcome!

At The Well - Motives

Today on At The Well (www.titus2atthewell.com) we were asked to examine our motives for doing the things we do, even the good things. At first glance I thought that this was not necessarily something I struggled with. What I was thinking at the time was that I do the things I do (speaking of the good things here, not the bad) because I really do want to, not because I want to be noticed, praised, or glorified. But, even that is a selfish motive. I SHOULD be doing things for God to be noticed, praised, and glorified. I SHOULD be doing things out of the conviction of my heart which is put there by God. I have to say that I do have pure motives some of the time, but there are certainly plenty of times when I need to stop and refocus.

I would include the link, but cannot figure it out this time! I'll get it! You can find the link on the right hand side of my blog page.

At The Well

I've started a new internet group called At The Well. It is a program that links women together for the purpose of being a Titus 2 woman. They post devotions 3-5 times per week with each day of the week having certain topics. Mondays are discussion days in which they have a topic and ask questions. Each subscriber posts on their blog for that day about it. I believe that Tuesdays are home-making days (some days are not devotions per say, some just have tips or whatever), Wednesdays are for raising kids, Thursdays are for marriage relationships, and Fridays I believe are for reflection and getting through the weekend (can't exactly remember). I have a link at the right of my blog if you want to check it out. It just started this Monday, so we're getting in on it in the beginning! I dare you to do it!

"Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God." Titus 2:3-5

Valentine's Day gift for teachers/moms or whomever

Many of you might have seen this in Parent's Magazine, but I am going to post this anyways. I saw an inexpensive way to give a gift to the mother of a child you keep, teacher/worker at your child's school (preschool or mother's day out as well). Anyways, you buy a regular or oversized chocolate bar and take the wrapper off. You can cut a new wrapper using printed valentine's paper or use a plain color. Before you glue it on, let your child personalize it by drawing or writing on it. Ex: "Jack is nuts over Mrs. Melanie" or something like that.

Also, I'm making rice krispie treats using the pink marshmallows and shaping them in hearts to give to the kids in Jack's MDO class. I bought red sprinkles to put on top. The Rice Krispies at Wal-Mart right now have a coupon on top for $1.00 off of any package of marshmallows which means they are about $0.30 for the entire bag! Can you see how thrifty I'm becoming???

Now Go

Ok, I know I've been posting a lot of things that my boys say/do lately, but this one is just too precious to leave out. Side note, I am truly blessed to have a husband that bathes the boys, brushes their teeth, and puts them to bed! I use that time to pick up the house, get out pj's, make lunches for MDO the next day, etc. Anyways, Cody said that lately when he has been putting Jack in bed and saying his prayers with him that he has been asking daddy to stay with him. Cody says that he says he will stay for a minute but asks Jack to close his eyes. Jack closes his eyes and either right away, or sometimes he waits a little bit and says, "Now go." (with his eyes closed the entire time). What more could I ask for in life?