Reed's 7th Birthday Party

It's 3 weeks before the actual date, but we celebrated Reed's birthday today at the bowling alley. Good old Granbury Lanes... brought back memories. :)

Grace and Hudson would roll the balls so slowly that they took about 30 seconds to get to the pins. At one point Grace's stopped about 5 feet short of the pins... too funny.
Reed did pretty good and he had a lot of fun (until one of his friends accidentally smashed his finger between two bowling balls. He was trying to put on a brave face, but his finger was already swollen and turning purple. The poor kid sat in my lap and cried for a few minutes while we put some ice on it. This picture is pre-finger smashing.)
Then it was time for cake! I lucked out and instead of making some fancy cake, Reed asked for coconut cake, so I whipped a few up yesterday and it was enjoyed by all.
On to presents... He made out like a bandit. :) I was really happy about the gifts. Nothing overdone and there were only about 8 of them. He got a light that looked like a Lego block and it lit up when you push the button in the middle... that button needed to be pushed by every kid there. :)

Gammy got Hudson a gift too...

A barrel of monkeys! It kept him occupied while Bubba (as Hudson calls him) opened the rest of his gifts.

And during the whole party - bowling balls slamming against the floor, kids yelling, etc., here was sweet baby Jake...

Dontcha just want to squeeze him??

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for:

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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... :)