February 2013 Phone Photo Dump

Month 2 of 2013...cell photo run down!

Baskets of Love.

This basket came filled with goodies at Mike's viewing.  A loving lady in our life made sure to leave us the goodies. She filled it up with thoughtful things that she knew we loved because she's awesome like that. It was a source of comfort in a time of sadness. Well the basket has found a home at our house...and when Pap passed away, I dusted it off and decided to sprinkle the same love she shared with us...to everyone in our family.  Filled with chips...it sat in the family waiting room and provided some comfort in a time that was very tough for our family.  The morning of Pap's service I texted this picture to Steff and said...the tradition continues. It's a love basket for sure...and I intend to keep it going for whatever events in life call for a little love.

Breakfast to go. 

After my triumphant run with breakfast sandwiches...and countless pins on Pinterest for a breakfast cup that was portable...I used up some ingredients we had around the house...and created my own version.  These 12 cups successfully finished up a few slices of ham, an onion, the last two potatoes in a 10 pound bag, the last remains of a bag of shredded cheddar cheese...and 6 eggs set to expire.  Besides eating healthier...one of my hopes this year is to stop throwing away food we don't eat.  This was a wonderful start!!

Owen and I attempted to make some fun heart shaped cakes like a pin I pinned on Pinterest. Here was the pinned idea. Well I'm here to report that Cakester oreos don't seem to be sold anymore...and after attempting to find a Suzy Q type product...we called boo on this fun little holiday project. I think next year if I made some whoopie pies from scratch, we could get a much better result! It was a delicious mess though!!

After watching an episode of Pioneer Woman on Food Network...I was inspired to try these SIMPLE quesidillas.  Amazing and fast.  16 minutes is no lie!  And super yummy.  Here's a recipe if you're at all interested.

No shirt, oreos in his hair and on his face, lightning mcqueen car in one hand...getting into trouble witt the vaporizer for 1 millionth time. This is how I always want to remember these toddler days with the boys!

My morning motivation...I haven't started doing this as much as I'd like...but so far...what time I've carved out has been absolutley worth it!!

My favorite fish pic from Children's. Thanks O man!

This little guy sharing his Doritos after a couple really long days.  Instead of being a super crab...which he had every right to be...he sweetly wanted me to watch a movie and eat doritos with him at the end of the day.  I love you bubba!!

Our house temp reading 59 degrees on day 3 of no furnace.  Luckily, $700 and 3 days later, we had the part installed and the house was back to normal!  Shew! Wanna appreciate what your furance does??  Live without it for a few days. 

Ahh. February...it was an adventure. But I will say I'm glad to see you go and usher in a warmer month. March brings a certain someones FOURTH birthday...and hopefully some spring temps...and maybe...just maybe some house news.

Welcome March :) 

Weekend Love!

Our past weekend was filled with wonderful from start to finish...minus a pesky furnace going out thing somewhere in the middle...I could take these on repeat!!

Friday we enjoyed the rest of our two day snow-in.  Friday evening my hubby let me wander out and get a very relaxing and very wonderful 60 minute massage. It was an extremely relaxing way to end a couple very lazy days in our sweats!!

Saturday we got up and headed off to see a movie.  We went to our first ever dine-in movie!  It was pretty much a blast from start to finish.  Great company. Great food. Great atmosphere and great movie!!  If you haven't ever ventured to one of the dine-in theatres in your area...do it now!  If you haven't seen Safe Haven...and you're a Nicholas Sparks fan...go see it!  Anyway, the experience was great and I'm already contemplating our next outting!!  Thanks again Jonnie and April for the invite! Thanks Grandma Stacey for watching our kiddos :)

Saturday when we returned home..we discovered the furnace had quit working.  Our house was a brisk 66 degrees.  So...after a $90 call out to our heating and cooling guys...we were told no fix till Monday, possibly even later.  We sent the boys back to Grandma's and Jer and I hunkered down under blankets in front of the fire place.

Sunday morning after waking up to a house that was 62 degrees, we got ourselves together, popped on a heater for Deci so she didn't freeze and took off to pick up the kiddos! In an effort to keep ourselves busy while our house got colder and colder, we took Miss Jackie and Mr. Ryder up on a lunch date to the Mills mall!  An afternoon of mall food court lunch, easter clothes shopping, chatting about the kiddos and a wander through some aquariums at Cabelas, we hopped on a carousel and headed for home!

Two tuckered out kiddos!

Sunday evening the boys and I took off to my Mom and Dad's for an overnight...where is wasn't freezing!!  After the boys crashed out, I watched a movie with my Mom...just like old times :) Thanks for having us Mom!!

Ahh..here's to lots more weekends like that!

SNOW Days!!

What do the Linley's do when they are snowed in?  Well it looks a lot like this:

Watch it falling...fast and furiously! We had inches in no time flat!

Snuggle up and enjoy some couch time.

Eat some lunch like a big boy.

Put together puzzles and color.

Attempt a craft with Cherrios and glue.

Bake cookies (in which if you are Owen, you leave egg shells because helping Momma crack eggs is fun, but not exactly perfect just yet!)

Oh and a big thank you to  my hubby for digging us out Friday morning.  It is quite the process...and you do it without complaint...as well as unbury our neighbors and my grandma on top of it!  Love you babe!

Happy snow days!

 

Our Day of Love Festivities

This years Vday celebration wasn't super exciting around our house! We spent the whole day before at Children's and so exhausted was our middle name.

BUT, we did manage to have a little festive fun anyway!!

The Sunday before Valentine's Day we had an open house at our house.  We set out festive cupcakes (mostly just for our agent to enjoy while she waited!) and we just so happen to enjoy their deliciousness for a few days after!

**Side note: We found Cooper later in the evening, sitting on his knees in our dining room chairs and reaching with elbows on the table...over the table to get to the cupcakes. He was saying, "CAKES Momma. CAKES Dadda. I CAKES!" He's lucky he didn't fall and have to get stitches.  Which I'm pretty sure I've said to him on mutliple occasions already. (I hearby state he may well be our stitches kid.) Thankfully we had a pretty good laugh after we retrieved him off the chairs. No stitches...yet anyway.**

The boys Valentine's consisted of little crates that said LOVE on them...and were filled with fun Valentine's suckers (or pops if you ask Owen), little kid-sized Hulk, Iron Man and Spider Man beanie toys, heart-shaped tattoos and play doh. There was a box for each boy in my house...and a super hero for each one!  Dadda's crate had a festive photo frame, his favorite candy and a Hulk...no play doh or tattoos. Being 30 is boring isn't it?

On Valentine's Day we put on our matching tats and ate suckers and played with super heroes.

The boys were also recipients of wonderful reminders of love from our nieces and nephews! Thank you all for the personal deliveries and for being our wonderful family and friends. You certainly brightening our lives :)

Valetine's evening Jeremy and I sat down to our awesome new fondue set (thank you Steff and Bry! I ate the entire quart of strawberries minus 3 or 4 that Jeremy ate...it was ridiculously delicious!) and we caught up on our re-run of the Grammy's. Ahh. A perfectly relaxing way to end our day!

**Tulips were from my Momma! Because she's awesome like that!!**

Here's hoping everyone enjoyed something special about the day of love!  Never hurts to be reminded that we are loved and that we love those around us!  I also happened to be the recipient of a lovely fuscia orchid.  I'm looking forward to taking it to work and having a daily reminder of my hubby!!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

Three Word Wednesday...

Mr. Hot Stuff

Daddy's Super Hero Helper

Getting back to every day goings-ons around our household...I have a few posts that need to go up :)

So...Jer and I found a mirror at Home Depot...for a killer $35.  We had to have gotten at least 50% off this bad boy.  It's great. And if our house dreams come true... I have a perfect spot for it in our new master bedroom. Sigh...notice I said IF our dream house comes true. I'm trying to keep myself grounded about the house. As grounded as I possibly can. Since I have the mirror hung up in our potentially amazing new bedroom (and I have also ventured to Pottery Barn online to pick out new bedding and have a master bath color picked out to paint)...I might not be doing a very good job of staying grounded huh??  Sigh...again.

Moving on...

The other night, while hanging our steal of a deal mirror (which happens to look fabulous in our current master bedroom), Jer had a little helper by his side.  I love watching these two do things together!!

Be Still...

When I was in the shower this morning a few words from a bible verse kept rolling through my head.  It was one I came across when I sat down to a little personal study time a couple Sunday mornings ago. I think it was more than coincidence that I happened to sit down to that verse on that particular day.  It was Be Still.  And know that I am God.  In the shower I just kept hearing it in my head.  So I kept repeating it.  Be Still Jess. Be Still.  God has got this.  In this phrase, there was peace for me.  I guess I took a cue from my Grandpa.  He heard words from Psalm 25...it calmed his heart and he let go of this life.  If he could find peace facing death...certainly I could find peace to face this appointment today.  After all, though it was very serious, there was still hope that we could walk away with terrific news.  So I made myself stop the what-if's and do what the verse said. Be Still.

That was this morning.  Now I will admit, that I spent most of the weekend this past weekend thinking and praying about what we would face today.  I prayed selfishly at times for exactly what I wanted. Then I stopped and remembered that God doesn't always give us what we want.  I prayed that this upcoming road wasn't necessarily one I wanted to learn travel on (AT ALL).  But if something serious was in the cards, I was going to need Him.  So yeah. I prayed.  Because whenever I was alone with my thoughts, dark dreadful thoughts creeped in.  A lot.  I took comfort b/c I know we also had a lot of other people in our corner...praying for us as a family, praying for Owen, and praying for the outcome that awaited us.  Praying for Owen's fever to just disappear.  I believe in the power of prayer.  This weekend, that prayer was sent from people's hearts to Him and then on over to us.  It gave us great strength!

Today...whether you believe it was prayer that changed our fate or not...the appointment went unbelievably well!

We met with Infectious Disease doctors at Children's at noon. The doctors were amazing. They were smart. They were kind. And they made us feel 100% ok with what has been happening with Owen.  Based on all his lab results, his tests and how well he seemed to be doing today, they believe Owen came down with a serious sinus infection that was just hard to beat. One that he needed the right antibiotics to really get over it...and we finally found the right ones.

Thank the good Lord!  We couldn't have asked for a better outcome. We are blessed, loved and so very relieved that at this point we were sent home with a clean bill of health.  We are going to pray that this is not something that ever happens again...and also that our ENT appointment on Friday will shed some light on getting his congestion cleared up after colds a little more efficiently!

For everyone who prayed, checked on us, thought of us and offered help of any kind...thank you so very much!!  I believe without those prayers, thoughts and help we survived a weekend of fearful gut-wrenching what-if's, and made it through today's appointment with more grace and peace that we ever thought we could!  We are blessed with wonderful support systems in so many areas of our lives! So thank you all and thank you God!

After some very elated parents left Children's hospital today, we decided that cupcakes for lunch sounded delightful :)

Who need utensils right?!? Owen certainly doesn't!!

We spoke too soon...

Today at the pediatricians, we were not greeted with the type of news we were hoping for.  In fact, it didn't go at all how we planned...and so the theme of 2013 being the year for me to make sure I know how to go with the flow...she continues to march right on through.

After a visit with our doctor, Owen was still running a fever this morning. That being said, a call was place to Infectious Disease at Children's.  We now have an appointment with them Monday at noon.  They ran a long series of blood work tests and got another reading on Owen's white cell count and inflammation counts yet again.  This meant more blood work.  We also had to do another urine sample...this time we were successfully able to do it without a catheter.

Regardless, this is one exhausted bunch of people.  Mentally, physically, emotionally.  This Momma doesn't have much reserve left.  So if you are the praying type...the worrying types...the any sympathy at all type...please put us in your thoughts and prayers.  Words like leukemia, lupus and a few other very serious words were thrown around today...and though at this point we have no evidence of those things being what we are dealing with, the prospect is certainly less than settling.

Owen Wyatt, we love you.  To the moon and back.  We'll get through this...and find ourselves on the other side.  Until then, we give it up to God and pray and wait...and try to soak up a weekend full of family time.

Our little Hero!!

This little boy is my hero. 

That is all I can say.  I posted about our crud the other day...and since the post went up, his fever actually got higher.  After a call to the doctor, we had to take him back in Tuesday morning. 

Tuesday morning at his appointment he was subjected to:

A strep culture

A mono spot test

A blood draw for blood work

All of which sent us home with a baby who was on day 7 of a fever, sore throat and congestion. And not too many answers.   

An afternoon call from his doctor that same day, showed a high white count in his blood and some numbers that suggested inflamation.  So off to Alton Memorial we headed for more in depth labs and a chest x-ray.  It was pretty miserable and after a blown vein...Owen experienced 3 total blood draws for the day.  We got home and hopped into bed, hoping in the morning we would get a few more answers.

The next morning, after another call from the doctor we packed up and headed off for Children's Hospital ER.  His doctor's office was fearful that he was possibly a candidate for Kawasaki's Disease.  This was a scary prognosis because there can be long term affects on the heart IF he ended up with this. And if he did, he would have to be admitted, given IV medication and see a cardioligist.  It would be an answer to the endless fevers, but it wasn't really an ideal answer...

We checked into Children's around 11:30am.  And before I go any further...it's amazing being so close to a place that is state of the art and specializes in kiddos.  They all knew just what to say/do/just the right stickers to help make some of the scary parts a little less scary. One our nurses Nick had a Spiderman shirt on...and loved Owen for his "spunk and fight."  With little time with our boy he knew exactly the kind of willfulness that Owen exudes on a daily basis!

After a short wait and some fish tank watching...we got a room.  The next several hours were spent going through a battery of testing that would eliminate one thing after another and help us determine what exactly was going on with Owen's appearance of an infection even though he's been on medicine for almost a month (which the doctor at Children's felt his ear did not look as clear as it should have)...and the endless cycle of fever, ibuprofen, fever, ibuprofen.  After enduring an IV, a blood draw, a catheter for a urine same and two nasal swabs (one of which goes all the way up into your sinuses and we were warned would be super fast but completely painful) we finally got a few answers. The virus swab came back negative for over 50 different common viruses...his urine looked normal...the flu test was negative...and his blood work was still showing high numbers. After a call to the infectious disease folks out there, they determined that his ear/sinus infection is likely a hard to beat one and is likely causing his high white count and other numbers in his blood to suggest inflammation.  So they gave him a new medicine and said we could go home.  We were released around 6:30...with a fresh dose of antibiotic and as of today are praying that the new antibiotics will do the trick.  We go back to our pediatrician Friday 9:15 for a follow-up.  By then his fever should be gone and the medicine should be working.  If it's not, our doctor will be calling the infectious disease people.  But let's pray that isn't necessary!

Through this all, Owen has been such a sweet boy.  He's tried as hard as he can to be himself.  He's listened as we explained to him why he had to take dose 800 of antibiotic and ibuprofen.  He's asked for ice water and sweetly said..."Ahh. Mommy I all better," after taking a few drinks. He's been patient as Cooper runs around playing with no understanding his big brother doesn't feel well.  He's watched his favorite movies and asked me to lay with him and snuggle...where we laughed and talked about what was happening in his movies.  He's sweetly greeted his brother from the couch in the morning with a "Good morning Cooper. You awake too!!  How are you??"  Even admist him feeling like what I would assume has to be the dirt on someones shoe...he's managed to have a positive little spirit about him. Then we drug him through test after test.  It's been a roller coaster to say the least...and I admire him and how he just keeps trucking.  No he doesn't like doing all of it...and he got upset and cried...hard. But he trusts us and as each thing was done or over with...he pulled it together and we moved on.  "Saying I all done. Shew." It speaks volumes to the little boy I have. You're not gonna get him down. I hope this follows him all his life!!

Owen, Mommy is so proud of you for how sweet and patient you've been.  We are trying really hard to get you feeling better as fast as we possibly can. Hopefully soon we'll just chalk this up to another illness under our belt...you learned to take medicine really well...Mommy and Daddy learned how to share the couch alternating nights so you could share our bed with one of us...and just when we think we have seen the depths of our love for you at their fullest...we are reminded again that a parents love for their children has no depth.  I would have do anything in my power to make things better for you.  A momma and dadda's love is fierce baby boy.  That's never going to change!!  Thanks for kisses through tears and showing Momma how to keep your head up when the going gets tough and scary!! You were truly an amazing little trooper this past month.

Love you always.
Your Momma

A few more shots of our adventures...I know it wasn't exactly a photo worthy occasion...but the few I snapped were for the memory bank. Every event in life serves to teach us something right?  Why not remember the time we went to Children's and Owen was a super big boy?  And he fell in love with fish tanks and we decided it's about time for a trip to Shed's Aquarium with the kiddos!  Anyway...here's a few:

In the ER waiting room they have tons of great stuff for kiddos.  This fish tank was pretty amazing and filled with beautiful fish.  I honestly think I loved it as much as Owen did!

I think we may have a future photographer in the making...he worked hard to take shots of the different fish with my camera!!

Tuesday night at Alton Memorial we made the best of being big and brave.  And I'm talking about Mommy and Daddy right now.  I'll never forget his sweet little self sitting on a chair next to me.  What are we gonna do next Mom??

Dadda and Owen waiting for his Chest xray at Alton Memorial.

During registration there was a plant on the lady's desk.  Owen was pretending he had jungle monkeys in his hands.  The plant was the jungle and his hands were the monkeys.  It was quite entertaining...for a common every day house plant.  Ahh to be 3 and have the imagination of a child!

As we move into 2013...

Last year when I looked at goals and overall thoughts about what I wanted from the year...this is what I came up with. It's slightly disappointing that there isn't more on this list that I accomplished over the course of the year...BUT...life gets in the way and so does weather and other fun plans...so when I look back at 2012 I  know we had a lot of fun...we also had a lot of heart ache over the year...so I will consider last years approach a success b/c I can happily say that I did refer to this and try really hard to let it help guide me!  With that being said...this year I want to try a similar approach.  I'm getting a little more specific this year with a few things and adding less to the list of things to tackle. But as a general rule these are guildlines/goals/resolutions for the year.

 

Family Stuff:

• Monthly Family Fun days
• Currently have our first official family fun day planned for Feb...which includes a trip to Sikeston, MO for some swimming and dinner at a place where they throw your food at you!
• Other family fun days in the hopper: Eagle watching and a ferry ride, Zoo day, Nature Institute picnic and hike, Magic House, Botantical Gardens
• Get creative and come up with another short overnight like Sikeston...maybe the Lake of the Ozarks, Springfield IL or Kansas City, MO via the train??
• Do a library book club this summer
• Set up some fun Friday summer play dates for me and the kiddos with friends and family
• Find more time for crafting/art/creative stuff with the boys
• I've got a few ideas for creating a cool dress up station for the boys (not to worry with lots of manly items like fireman and chef outfits)...and a kids craft space in a future craft space
• Create a Wow Wall where we can display all the awesome stuff we are doing, art work, report cards (in the future of course), anything we should be proud of...a tradition I hope the kids will enjoy for lots of years.
• Make at least one night a week a night all about FUN. Whether it's a family trip for a snack in our PJ's, building a fort out of pillows and reading our stories with flash lights, making a craft or simply running to get McDonalds and making a trip to pick out a fun new movie at Walmart afterwards.

Meal Planning/Budgeting/Household Stuff:

• Begin meal planning and budgetting weekly
• I'm setting a more specific goal for this b/c Jer and I need to get more disciplined so we eat out less and save some cash!
• Also bi-weekly, my plans loose steam. I'm hoping weekly will waste less food and give us more fresh options
• Eat more fresh, less-processed food and get away from fast food.  
• I've gone back to ordering our produce baskets on a bi-weekly basis and will be buying whole grains, fat free, lower sodium items as often as I can for our household in the coming year.  I have already tweaked one meatloaf recipe to include whole grain crackers and turkey burger intstead of red meat. It was delicious.  It's a trend I hope continues to make us a healthier crew.  For us it's not going to be about making a HUGE change...but just simple, more health conscious choices ;)
• Sell our house and get settled in a new space for our family

Marriage Stuff:

• Date Nights once a month.
• I've been using Groupon as a fun and creative way to get us out and on more dates.  On our list so far for the first half of the year we have a Billiken's Basketball game in downtown STL and a Rock Climbing 101 Class and full day climbing pass.  Throw in a dinner at cool wine bar in Edwardsville and some movie passes for a Regal Cinema theatre and I'd say were off to a rockin' start this year!
• Other date ideas to put on the books: Cooking class at Dierbergs (the couples one), Art Museum date day, Day trip and overnight to Herman Missouri
• Purchase a copy of 5 Love Languages and dig into some reading!

Personal Stuff:

• Still want to get our family photos organized
• Work on a morning schedule that includes some kind of 30 minute exercise a couple days a week and a personal bible study/prayer time the other days of the week
• I've done a little of the bible study time successfully and am hoping it provides insights that I can share here. Just to help serve as reminders to me..the lessons I'm supposed to be learning from the things on my heart!
• Eat breakfast...plain and simple.
• Send more cards
• Pray more...and pray better...hoping my bible study time in the morning will help with this!
• Blog more...and do a better job of keeping track of things that have been going on.
• This one is a tough thing to nail down...but I'm gonna do my best! I'm hoping some pre-drafted posts will help me moving.
• 
  Find ways to enjoy the little daily things more...soak up the every day. After all the majority of our life is spent in the day to day routines.

And that about wraps it up. I'd like to share more about my triumphs and failures as we roll through the year...but in a nutshell...I feel this is a similar approach as last year...just a little less to tackle.  And some are maybe a bit more focused (last year I didn't want too many specifics)...which I think will help us accomplish them more easily.  In general I'm really stoked to dig into making some great memories for this year...and learning to roll along with whatever other plans God has in store for us as the months pass by.  The past couple years of my life...have been slowly teaching me to let go of control of my life.. .there is only so much we can control anyway.  Why bother worrying about the things we can't right??  Sounds easy...but for me is insanely tough!  I'm stubborn and slow to give up that control...I'm a planner by nature and I like to know what's coming so I can be prepared. Unpreparedness scares the HECK out of me. But I'm beginning to see more and more every day how much easier things can be when you truly do let it go...and let God.

 

So here's to an amazing 2013. May it prove (as it has begun to already) to be a year that teaches me, fills me up and is filled with amazing times and memories!

The CRUD....

Sometime around/after Christmas...we were hit with a head cold of sorts.  It wasn't awful...just lots of snotty noses, matted eyes, and general grossness.  Everyone got it.  Jer and I have been able to combat it with some ibuprofen and over the counter type things...though we still have some lingering congestion.  BUT...the boys?  They are a different story.

Since the afore mentioned crud hit the house (and mind you...it's already almost half way through February and this began around Christmas) Owen has been:

*Treated for two ear infections...

*Is now being treated for a sinus infection. 

*AND as of now is on day 6 of a virus that consists of a fever, sore throat and vomitting. Because you know...now seems like a great time for his little body to fight that crap off as well right??  

Oh and then there is Cooper.  Cooper Cooper.  Cooper, who just was treated for an ear infection in November...went in for a well check on Friday of last week...and we left with the declaration that he had a full blown ear infection in one ear...and start of one in the other...so an almost double ear infection.  SERIOUSLY????  Yep.  Serious as the plague folks. (Pun fully and sarcastically intended!)

So my crew has been filling up on ibuprofen and antibiotics like fools...and were about darn tired of it.  One saving grace, Owen will be heading to see an ENT at St. Louis Children's Hopsital after all of this non-sense because he's finally battled his way through enough sinus and ear infections to need to be seen. I honestly have been thinking this was a long time coming...I'm just praying it cuts down on our doctor's visits for runny noses that turn into infections...almost every single time.

Anyway...all that being said...we are doing lots of movie watching, afternoon napping and when we're up for it..some fun play time.  But we're ready to have our crew of four back in action!! Last weekend admist 2 house showings and an open house that brought 4 sets of people through...I couldn't help but think...we could use a little more crazy in our life right?? HA!

So the Linley's say...crud crud go away...please stay away for a lot more days! 

When is spring again?!?

Adventures in House Selling

This past weekend we had a good test run at..."Hey. We have these people...and they want to see your house. In like an hour. Is that ok?"  Obviously we said yes...even though we proceeded to fly around the house like crazy people for 45 minutes straight.  After the whirlwind (which I have to say wasn't too bad because we have been keeping the house at a certain level of picked-up-ness since it listed) we piled ourselves....all 5 of us (when the house is shown Deci has to join us) into the car and took off for...we actually had no idea where.  After concocting a half thought out plan...we ended up with these pictures of our lunch (I missed getting one of Deci eating her cheeseburger!) and a tank full of gas.  Shew.  Selling the house...it's definitely been an adventure.  To say the least!!

Nearly wordless Wednesday...

Missing this man so very much.

Cupcakes with my Mom

On a trip over to visit with Pap, I decided to take my Mom to a new place for lunch. I thought Jilly's made a great stop. It was in the STL, right on our way to Barnes. And I was hoping the fun atmosphere would distract us for a little while from the reality we were facing at the hospital.  I believe it was successful...I even managed to get Mom to let me take a picture!

Our lunch was amazingly delicious and our cupcakes even more so!!  Thanks for a fun little side trip Mom. I know I'll remember it for a long time to come :)

Family Date Nightin'

A few Saturday nights ago..we found ourselves out on a family date!  Our date took us out for groceries (super exciting lives we lead right???)...but we stopped for some dinner first.  Dinner locale of choice was Steak N Shake.  It was a pretty awesome time...and our trip to Walmart following was awesome...as well as hilarious.  The boys thought being loud was hilarious...and we gathered quite a bit of attention.  Luckily it was Saturday night at Walmart.  Every other kid in the store was doing the same thing!  Ahh. Here's to family time...and special memories we make when we least expect it!