Girls Birthday Weekend

Last weekend we celebrated my mom's birthday. She took us girls (Me, my sis-in-law Cara and our friend Becky) to San Antonio. We surprised her by stopping mid-way for a pedicure that we evidently all needed. :) Cara and I had a hard time picking out colors... (I have no idea why this is underlined... can't seem to make it go away).

Our freshly painted tootsies...

We continued to head south and decided to stop in Gruene and eat at the Gristmill.

It was delicious and had awesome ambiance. I plan on making Brian take me back there someday soon. :) We headed on to San Antonio, found our hotel, checked in and decided to have dessert... and some appetizers at the Hard Rock Cafe on the river walk. This was not shaping up to be a healthy weekend.

On Saturday we got up and ate a late breakfast at the Madrid Room in the hotel. Then we headed out for a little shopping and some more eating. We got a ton of baked goods from a bakery we found (can't remember the name) and ate a gordita like thing from a booth in the middle of the marketplace. It was fried and wonderful. Then I ate a churro. Goodness. We headed to our Cirque show, Dralion. It was great as they always are! That night we made reservations at a nice restaurant named Ostra on the river walk. The food was yummy, but the service was terrible.
After some more late shopping, it was off to bed. We ate breakfast the next morning, you guessed it, on the river walk. By this point my stomach was rolling, so I had fruit and toast. The best part about breakfast? A bird pooped on my arm. I had to keep my gag reflex in check - it was so nasty. A little more shopping and we started to head back home. We had a great weekend with lots of laughs and great conversation. Happy Birthday to my mom... How old is she you ask? I'll never tell... :)

Spring Break Part II

I think instead of going into what my boys did for the second half of spring break, just click here. My mom took them camping and they had a GREAT time (and she has the pictures on her blog to prove it.) :)

While the kids were at their house, I was running errands and cleaning our house and Brian called to see if I wanted to look at some cars. My Expedition was 5 years old when we got it and only had about 60,000 miles on it. Now it was creeping up on 100,000 miles and was beginning to show some signs of wear. We had replaced the starter twice in the three years I had had it and it was turning out to not be so reliable (I got stranded in the pick-up line at Reed's school a couple of weeks ago - thank goodness Brian was only 5 minutes away and it didn't happen somewhere else!) Anyway, we ended up spending a huge chunk of the day at the dealership and came home with this...

I could not be more excited! Brian and I took advantage of babysitters and went out to dinner Thursday night. More errands and cleaning on Friday and then Brian and I had went out to a movie (two dates in two days... never thought that would happen, but it was awesome!!). I picked up the boys on Saturday and we had a friends' fun birthday party to cap off Spring Break.

They had such a great week and I'm so thankful for sweet grandparents that love them so much. :)

Spring Break Stay-cation

For Spring Break this year, we spent half of it with Brian's parents on a "stay-cation". On Monday, we drove up to the hotel and stopped on the way and had a fun lunch at Chuck E Cheese. The boys loved it. We checked into the hotel and swam in the indoor pool. The boys loved that as well. That night we went to Medieval Times for dinner. It was so much fun. The boys each got souvenir swords on the way in... and we all loved wearing our cardboard crowns.

On Tuesday we headed to the Dallas World Aquarium. It was a really fun place to go - the boys had a great time. This is the shark tank tunnel. (Thanks to DadDad for all the following pictures - I'm usually the photographer, so it's nice to have pictures with me in them!)

They had a tank where you could reach in and touch some anemone-looking things... Brian and Susan both thought they were dead because they were super hard... guess that's why they let us touch them. :)

Going out to see the penguins...

One of the many tanks they had... I'm sure I was showing Reed something very interesting. :)

They had a manatee there that was pressed right up against the glass and he was SO cute and HUGE!!!

A scuba diver cleaning a tank

Hudson and I scoping out the map... He loved holding the map. I think it has something to do with Dora (I'm the map, I'm the map...)

We ate at P.F. Changs that night and Hudson slept in the booth the whole time. Wednesday morning we headed home after breakfast and bought Reed a Monopoly game on the way home. We had played two games on the trip and he really enjoyed it, so we got one for our house. The kid is GOOD at it to. He has beat me twice... and I'm not holding back. We played another game of Monopoly at Gammy's and then headed home. Stay tuned for the second half of Spring Break...

Spring Break is here.... Peace out.

A little planting and some pinkeye...

Brian and Hudson got out Sunday and planted some lillies in the flower bed for me. Hudson would dig the hole with a spade...

Put in the bulb...

and then of course they needed watered. Hudson was pretty tired after all his hard work, so he had to get a big gulp from the hose...
While all of this was happening, Reed was inside watching TV. He had woken up on Sunday looking like this...
The picture does not do his red eyes justice, but please ignore the pitiful look. He felt FINE. Thats why I had assumed that it wasn't pink eye because he had no discomfort whatsoever. After talking to some people, I had decided that he did have it. I called the doctor Monday morning and we got him some drops just as the itching began. So while we have yet to meet our new nephew/cousin because pinkeye is highly contagious, Reed has gotten a 2 day break from school while feeling good enough to play and have fun. He won't be contagious by tomorrow, so off to school he goes.

My newest nephew

On Monday, March 7th, Jacob Michael Blevins arrived...

He was born at 12:53 p.m. weighing in at 9 lbs., 2 ounces and 21 inches long. Mommy and baby are doing great and should come home today. So glad he's finally here - it's been a long wait!

Reed loves Eggo chocolate chip waffles and has gotten Hudson stuck on them too. I usually make them 2 each, so when I got Hudson up this morning and asked him if he wanted waffles he said "I want ONE waffle. I want to be a small boy." He's just turned three and has been wearing 4T or 5T clothes... I think it's a little too late to wish to be a "small boy", but it was very funny. :)

Everybody needs a little push sometimes...

The battery died on the boys little Gator not long after they started driving it yesterday. Brian drove over with the golf cart to help them back to the garage...

It may not be the most interesting post, but it sure does make me smile! :)

Read your Bible people!!

As I mentioned previously, I have been reading my Bible every day. A switch flipped in my mind last week and I knew that it was something that I needed to do in my life and I can't tell you what a difference it has made. I have been getting up at 5 'til 6:00 every morning and spending an hour reading, praying and worshipping and it has changed my whole outlook. I don't think it has had much to do with what exactly I'm reading (I've made my way through Genesis and Job, so I know these stories well - it's really been nothing new as far as material goes), but that I'm spending time seeking God. Just a few of these changes-

• I have a better attitude
• I have more patience
• My "knee-jerk" reactions to things tend to be more godly
• I WANT to get up early and have my quiet time to see what God has for me that day
• I crave Christian music when I get in the car instead of mainstream trash
• My daily "chores" seem less of a chore and more of an act of service for my family

The list could go on and on - there are so many things that I feel differently about. In our Bible study yesterday, some women shared things that have happened to them in the last couple of weeks to show how God has not only been working in their lives, but obvious ways that He is trying to show us that He is with us - things that gave me chill bumps!! It was an awesome discussion and I am so blessed to be surrounded by these women who are actively seeking God. All this to say, if you are not reading your Bible daily, please start. It WILL change your life. There are a couple of videos that I watched that really convicted me to start reading and actually gave me an outline on how to do it which was really helpful to me. You can click here and go to the site. Go to the left side and click on "Series Name" then scroll down to "Frequency". Scroll back up and click on "Value His Voice". I know that it has blessed my life as I know it will yours also.

Just to share something funny...

I love to sleep in, so last night I turned off my alarm and decided that I would do my quiet time later in the day. Like I said above, I normally get up a little before 6:00. This morning I woke up at 5:00 and COULD NOT go back to sleep! So I got out of bed and said with a smile "Okay, God, I hear Ya!" He does work in mysterious ways, but sometimes it's pretty straightforward too. :)

Tonight we rode to small group in a jeep that Brian bought. The boys looked so cute in the tiny back seat that I had to take a picture. :)

Before small group started, Reed and Hudson had a collision on the trampoline and Reed busted his lip and knocked his remaining front tooth back a little.


Lots of blood, tears and Tylenol later, he's doing fine. He wanted Brian to pull it, but it's still hanging on a little too tight. I really felt sorry for him! Reed said he heard that the tooth fairy gives extra money if the tooth was hard to get out... I think this situation will be worth a little extra when the time comes. :)

Experiencing God

I go to a stay at home mom bible study each Friday. We began a new study last week on the book Experiencing God and I have to say that I can already feel things changing in my life. I read the assigned chapters of the book and really was excited about it... then in class this morning as we began to discuss it with one another, it became even better. It was really interesting to see the things that had stuck out to others in the book - and how they struck me when brought to my attention. All of this to say, I really do want to experience God in a way that I never have before. It was brought up in class that if we truly want to experience God, we have to have a relationship with him and that means putting in the time. I really began to think about what it is I do with my time and asked myself... Am I spending time in the Word each day? Am I praying? Am I worshipping and spending time with Him? I do those things, but as far giving Him my time, I am sorely lacking. I decided that the time I have is plentiful, I just have to decide how to use it better. I am resolved to get rid of the clutter, so I cancelled my Facebook account today. It had become too much of a time sucker. I'm going to decrease the amount of TV I watch. I'm deciding to get rid of the things that don't matter. How can I expect to experience God while giving away such chunks of my time to FB, television shows and so many of these other meaningless things instead of giving it to Him? I'm really looking forward to getting more into depth with this study - if you're looking for something and not quite sure what, this may be a great one for you!

Snow Week

This has been a heck of a week. Reed had school like normal on Monday, then that night the sleet hit. We got the e-mail about 5:30 Tuesday morning that school was cancelled, so I just turned off my alarm and went back to sleep. We got up around 8:00 and I made pancakes. We had a fun day of watching TV, eating whatever we wanted and enjoying each other. Reed couldn't believe that every time he asked to do something, I would say yes. He ate junk all day long. :). Well, we got the e-mail about 3:00 on Tuesday saying school was cancelled for Wednesday, so on and so forth for Thursday and Friday AND... Here we are. Brian did drive us to walmart last night for some groceries and we ate dinner at Mi Familia which was a lot of fun and did help to improve my attitude. :) It snowed last night and this morning, so I was able to get out and get some good pictures.

The boys ended up driving over to Gammy and DadDad's who were very excited to see them. Brian said that Hudson and Reed were both very cold and ready to get to Gammy's, but I'm sure it will be a really neat memory for them. This has been quite a week... :)

Vegas

I got back Thursday night from my Vegas trip. Brandon and my dad go to the Shot Show convention each year. My mom and I tag along and this year Becky came with us.

On Monday we spent most of the morning traveling. We passed by the iconic Vegas sign on the way to the hotel and had to stop for a photo op...

When we got to the hotel and unloaded, and headed out to see some sights. I have to learn that when Becky is with us, she's sneaky about taking pictures. I tend to act goofy and when I try to "mess up" her pictures, she ends up taking one of me looking like a fool. For example...

The nest morning we got up and ate breakfast at Bouchon in the Venetian. All I can say - YUM. (Yes, I am wearing the same sweater as he day before. It was a little chilly, and all I had was this sweater and a heavy coat - please don't fault me for wearing the same sweater 2 days in a row.) :)

Here I am at the slots. Don't be fooled - I did not win. :)

Walking in the Venetian - a beautiful hotel!

Why did I post this picture of my hind end? Well, Becky took it on the sly so I prove that I took the stairs. When did I take the stairs? Every time I had the chance. Seriously... EVERY time.

On Wednesday we went to the Luxor and saw the Titanic exhibit and the Bodies exhibit.

Bodies was really neat. They were actual bodies that had been (for lack of a better word) skinned and preserved. These were people who had died of natural causes and donated their bodies to science. You could get up close and see muscles, bone and tissue like you have never seen before. It was quite interesting. The Titanic exhibit was also really neat. They gave you a card as you entered with a real passengers name on it and you found out at the end if they lived or died. They have many pieces from the wreckage - jewelry, clothes, dishes, etc. Even a reconstruction of the grand staircase and a giant piece of the side of the ship.

That night we ate at Olives in the Bellagio. We were able to sit out on the patio and could watch the fountains every 15 minutes (you can see them behind us). It was not only great food, but super neat ambiance! I came home on Thursday so I could be here for Brian's birthday on Friday. I made him a dinner of homemade chicken friend steak, gravy, onion strings, baked potatoes and blackberry cobbler. It looked like a heart attack on plate, but he loved it. :)

It's good to be home.

Out with 2010 and in with 2011...

What a great year! God continues to bless our family with wonderful things! This year:
- Brian and I celebrated 14 years together (February 6) and 8 years of marriage (August 10). I am so thankful for a husband that works so hard so that I am able to stay home with our boys. He is my best friend and I am thankful for his support, his counsel and his love.
- Reed turned 6 and started first grade and Hudson turned 2. I love my boys so much - God certainly knew what he was doing when he gave these sweet souls to me!
-I lost 30 pounds over the course of the year and have made many changes to my lifestyle to continue success with my weight loss. I'm thankful for the continued motivation.
- Brian had back surgery at the end of September and everything went very well. He had his 3 month check up last week and was released from restricted activity. I am so thankful that he is remarkably better and that we found such a wonderful doctor!

In 2011, we look forward to:
- My boys turning 7 and 3. Wow! Reed will wrap up first grade and start second. I will be praying for another great teacher - we've had wonderful ones so far!
- The birth of our sweet nephew (STILL poor unnamed baby). Sara and Eric are expecting their little boy at the end of February.
- Another summer in the garden. Brian has another garden planned and I'll be more prepared this year for the bounty I'm sure we will have!

From the Blevins household - we wish you a safe and happy new year!