Do I sing that badly?

Mommy singing Greater by Mercy Me in the car

Jacey: Mommy?

Mommy: Yes?

Jacey: I just want to listen to the song.

Translation: Mommy, stop singing now.

Tatum...on dating

Tatum: Mommy, when was the last time you and daddy dated?
Me: You mean, when was the last time daddy and I went on a date?
Tatum: Yeah, a dance date.
Me: Oh? You mean when was the last time daddy and I went dancing? Do you think daddy needs to take me dancing on a date?
Tatum (with great enthusiasm): Heck yeah!

(Conversation took place on the way to church before her volleyball game.  This girl absolutely cracks me up, and I love that she wants to see her daddy and I do things together!)

A glimpse.....

So we are still having behavioral issues at school with Tatum. After a discussion with her about her behavior and how to improve upon it, she came up with her own sticker reward system on her calendar for good days both at school and Kids Klub, and a check mark on the days when she behaved well in one or the other.

There aren't many stickers on the calendar.

Needless to say, her daddy and I are frustrated with her choices and behavior.  We've talked behavior and choices until we're blue in the face. We have read scripture to her, we have read scripture with her, we have disciplined, we have tried many different things in an attempt to get her to comply with the rules.

The difficult thing for me is to differentiate her behavior from her many times.

She isn't bad - she makes bad choices. Her choices don't define who she is and don't make up the essence of her being.

I still love and adore my daughter, but I don't love and adore the choices that she makes and when she is in the midst of those behaviors, I don't want to be around her.

Hmmm....anyone see any parallels there with our Heavenly Father?  It's amazing how much more insight we're able to glean into Him as a heavenly father after being a parent.

At any rate, I occasionally get a glimpse into Tatum's essence...who she really is...and her true sweet self really shines through.  I was able to get one such glimpse this week, and it was sorely needed.

Let me explain......
We were discussing her upcoming birthday and planning some party options when she decided she wanted to have a giving party. She told me that she had enough toys already and she wanted to take all of the toys that her friends brought to her party for her and give them to someone who needed them more than she did.

I told her to go tell her daddy, who was about as dumbfounded as I was. (He even posted about it on Facebook, which happens maybe once or twice a year!)

I frequently purge the toys with the kids, and I use that type of language when we do that process to help them understand why we get rid of toys they don't play with or they have outgrown.  I will say that I wasn't sure whether the idea of a giving party would be a fleeting one or if it would actually stick.

The next morning, she made a point to ask her daddy if she was going to be able to have a giving birthday party.

It apparently stuck.

Our plan is to have her friends donate toys in the 4-6 year old range for Aggieland Pregnancy Outreach, specifically their Mama Club program. If you are reading this and feel led to donate something to this ministry, please feel free to do so. A large and constant need for this ministry is diapers and wipes for the girls who participate in Mama Club.

Awesome Mommy Moment

Many morning Mommy moments don't make my heart flutter and melt. But this morning.....this morning was different.

In this midst of changing a nose-holding-worthy pull-up, I was doing a not-so-hot job of answering 20 questions from Tatum (because I am, of course, trying to be more aware of and not contribute to her 'middle-child syndrome', right?).

But I got flustered.

And my flustered tone can sound a lot like my angry tone to my kids, especially when I have asked them just to get dressed and go eat and we are going to be late again and why are we always late and can't I answer your questions later and WHY aren't you dressed yet....And, well.....you get the point.

After I dealt with the aftermath of the pull-up, I walked into the kitchen, where Kellen asked if I was angry. I then had to explain 'flustered' to him and after doing so, he proceeded to tell me about his devotional from earlier in the morning.....about praying to God for peace in stressful situations or when I got flustered.

'If you ask him, he can give you peace in the most irritating situations.'

It was an awesome and humbling experience to have my 9-year old son speak such a truthfully simply, yet profound statement to me this morning.

His comments stayed with me all day, and I can tell you, they not only helped me have a better morning, but a better day.


Points to Ponder

• What simple truths do you need reminding about today?
• Do you trust that He will give you peace in the most irritating situations?  In the situations that don't seem to lend themselves to peace?
• What lesson might you need to learn from the situation?

I have thought about all of these questions - yes, even in the midst of answering 20 questions and cleaning up stinky pull-ups. 

A Summer to Remember

So as summer was wrapping up, we decided to do one more blow-out night at Incredible Pizza in Conroe with the kids and Maw Maw and Paw Paw.  Apparently the kids and the grandparents had been there a time before and tried to take some group pictures to no avail, and Kellen had decided he wanted a group shot to commemorate the summer and to take with him to school to look at, 'in case he got sad.'

So getting that group shot was a must.

But much to our dismay, on our last night attempt, the booth was, once again, not functioning.

We improvised.

I stuck my camera in front of them and did a 'normal' shot. [As much of a normal shot as you can get with this crew]

Then we did a 'silly' shot.

And I uploaded them and wallet sheets will be printed out for the kids to take to school for the first day.

These kids had an absolute BLAST during the time they spent with their grandparents this summer....but I'm honestly not sure who is going to have the worst time with the separation - the kids or the adults.

Not so subtle hint

This is the picture you send to the chef as a not-so-subtle hint for the breakfast order during that particular chef's upcoming weekend stay.

Chef = Grandpa
Grandpa coming = pancakes (at least in the eyes of his grandchildren!)

I am prepared.

Mommy-Son Date

"I don't really care what we're doing, as long as I'm with you."

Those were the words Kellen spoke to me as we started out on our Mommy-son date night Friday night.  And they melted my heart....Any guesses at to what his love language is?

We were headed to go eat, then to the Mommy-son Speedway Spectacular.  Other than the name, I really had no idea what to expect.  I was hoping there would be car races involved since we were headed to a race track.

After going to McDonald's to eat dinner (his choice), we headed there.

Once we checked in, we realized that they had provided dinner (oops).  We headed to the various booths.

Bounce house was first on the list.

Then we checked out the fire truck and talked with the firemen (for a while).

Then we played with the snakes (this one in particular for quite a while).  There was no one waiting for this one when we got there, so Kellen was able to play with him for a while.  He had to relinquish him once other kids started to show up to play with him.

He played with this guy...it was the coolest purple shade (and my camera did not do it justice).

He had fun with the turtle.

And then we painted his hair red (the only color left by the time we got to that station...since we had spent so much time playing with the animals).

We played a few games of "Minute to Win it" (successfully, I might add).



And then he (finally!!) found a remote control car - with the appropriate working remote - and was able to play with it for a little while.

We then went back to McDonald's for some dessert to finish out the night.....and then headed back home.  He journaled all aspects of the night in the notebook you see in front of him.

It was a GREAT mommy-son date.

Roller skating fun!!

Yup!

Roller skating.

Uh huh.

Daddy decided that we were going to go roller skating.

I married a smart man.  One with a keen sense of adventure.

A guy who sure does like to have fun.

We told the kids after church that we had a surprise for them, had lunch and loaded up for a drive.  We drove to Brehnam and they all crashed out in the car on the way.

Once we arrived, we told them what their surprise was...they just LOVE that part!  We went in and got our skates on (after returning a few pair in order to get the correct sizes), and we realized that they even had skates small enough for Jacey...yeah...how cool is that?!?!?  Then Daddy gave the kids some lessons.

And we spend the rest of the time (all told...about 2.5 hours) just playing.  Generally speaking, the kids stayed close to the walls, but then we got a little 'cheater' walker set so they could get a little practice getting their balance and getting good.  Tatum went first because Daddy was just working more with Kellen and she really got the hang of it quicker (it may have helped that her wheels were pretty tight), then Kellen got the walker and practiced some as well.  Then we let Jacey play and practice with the walker and once she got it, no one else was really able to practice any more on it.

The rink played some fun games, did some races (Daddy came in third place in one of them!) and it was just all around fun.  I haven't had this many bruises on my knees since high school drill team (Mommy is NOT a good skater, but trying to help 3 kids half your size stay up is all-around difficult!) but it was just an absolutely fun family day (oh, and the roller skating is a total of $5/person, including the skate rental!).

We stayed until they closed the place down for public skate, turn in our skates, grabbed some water, and then headed to our favorite playground in town to play for just a bit on the playground there.

Have I mentioned before how much Jacey loves slides?? 

 
Overall, the kids were remarkably well behaved and given the amount of physical energy the activities required, I'm surprised that only one of them was out by the time we got home!  I love our family fun days....and I love it when Daddy comes up with his great ideas!

Daddy-Daughter Dance

Our church does a fabulous thing each year.

They provide an opportunity for the daddies to take their daughters on a date.  To model for their little girls just how a guy is supposed to treat them.

And my man did it up this year.

He asked Tatum to go on a special date with him.  Then he arranged to get dressed, snuck out of the house, and knocked on the door to 'ask if she was ready' for their date on Friday night. 

He brought flowers (by way of a wrist corsage) for her as well. 

And jewelry.  That he put on her himself.  {If I wasn't already in love with that man I would have been after seeing the effort he went through to make that precious 5 year old feel oh-so-special!!}

And he took her out to eat to the restaurant of her choosing.  I think it ended up being Chick-fil-A.  And she couldn't play on the playground because 'fancy girls all dressed up can't play on the playground and get all messy'.

At the dance, a friend of ours took some wonderful pictures of them dancing...

The church family life center was decorated beautifully (so I'm told) and there were craft activities for the girls to do and lots of candy and an ice cream bar.  I was also told that Tatum went for four bowls of ice cream...or rather bowls of toppings with a smattering of ice cream at the bottom.  Take a look at the picture below and you be the judge??

They had a remarkable time.  I'm not sure how Daddy managed to make it through dancing with his princess after some of the daddy-daughter songs he told me they played, but he did.

I had a work banquet to attend this same night as well, and when I got home Tatum wasn't asleep yet, so she gave me the quick highlights of her night.  I could tell by those highlights that this will be one of those nights that just sticks with her. 

Watch out, boys.  We're going to teach this little girl just how a princess is supposed to be treated!

Happy birthday, Matt!!

Happy birthday, Honey!! 

We didn't put the appropriate number of candles on your cake,

but you still manage to light up a room!

We love you!!

February Date Night...weekend?

Moving on in our years worth of date nights....our February date night was really more of a weekend.  You see, I signed Matt and I up for the Love and Respect Marriage Conference. If you're interested, you can read more about the Love and Respect Ministry here.

What I didn't realize when I signed us up was that the conference was really a video conference and that we would be watching the conference on a screen. Oops.

But bless Matt...bless him a thousand times...he didn't complain at all.  Just asked if I had realized that and when I said no, I must have had a horrible sheepish look on my face, but he said not a word.

And I believe we both enjoyed the conference quite a bit. We learned more about ourselves and each other (if I may speak just a little for him there...)

It was a WONDERFUL conference and I highly recommend it.  EVEN if you have to watch it on a screen.

And the kids had a wonderful time with Maw Maw and Paw Paw (thank you!!) while we were at the conference. The timing was perfect and we made it back just in time for Kellen's basketball game.

January date night!

It was the first of many for the year....considering that I gave Matt a years worth.....So it may not be exciting for some, but my man and I went and picked out birthday cards for our kiddos and my niece and some other friends kiddos last night.  And we went out to eat.

And I loved it!! He knows that I'm trying to get organized this year, and totally humored me with going to Toys R Us to pick out the cards (because I also wanted to use my rewards card...if I buy 5 of a certain brand of card, I get one free!).  Yes, he humors me.

And I love it.  It was a great night.

I have a friend who is also trying to incorporate more regular date nights, so she and I decided that we would swap babysitting for each other. That way, we both get nights out with our man...but we don't have to stress about babysitting. It's a win-win. And we're going to try to make it work at least 8 of the 12 months. Realistic.

I have awesome friends. And a fabulous hubby. Even if my date nights consists of going to Toys R Us to pick out birthday cards. It's my own brand of fun and I'll take it!

A Years Worth of Date Nights

As I reveal more and more of the Christmas gifts...the one to Matt is especially fun.  I gave him a years worth of Date Nights. Our 'default' is dinner and/or a movie, so I wanted to branch out and try to pick things for us to do during the year that we enjoyed and that we would look forward to.

I planned out date nights once a month for a year. Once a month because I'm being realistic...I know there are experts out there that recommend date nights once a week and I'm all for that, but we're lucky if we get to see each other once a week sometimes...a whole date night once a week just seems a little unrealistic right now.  We'll get there, but we'll start with something a bit more manageable.

The gist is, he got 12 envelopes, each labeled with a month on it.  He got another envelope that explained what the overall idea was and that he was to open the corresponding envelope on the first of the month and we were - at that time - to coordinate schedules and pick a date night for that month. And stick to it.

I also gave him some extra envelopes....one with gift certificates to places in town and another with places to a town where his parents are (and subsequently we are quite a bit), so we have additional date night options that we can add in if time permits. An added bonus, many of the gift certificates utilized for this don't have expiration dates, so I'm in the clear if we end up not using them. Note: not all of the months include gift certificates, but restaurants.com has great deals and you can use coupon codes to get gift certificates at an incredibly low rate (ex. $1 for a $10 gift certificate or $2 for a $25 gift certificate, or even less...)

I'll try to update this particular post with the date night themes or topics as the months progress.

January - Gift certificate to Potato Shack & Trip to Toys R Us to buy birthday cards for our kids and niece for the year (starting the year off right with organizing!)

February - Registration for a Love & Respect Marriage Conference, complete with child care arrangements

March - Gift certificate to Italian restaurant, Gift certificate (for family) to a family-fun restaurant for us all to go to over spring break, Gift certificate for another restaurant for he and I to go to lunch

April -

May -

June -

July -

August -

September -

October -

November -

December -

I tried to vary things...keeping most of these local and inexpensive.  So what are your ideas for fun date nights?

Rockin' Lights & Smores

On the night of Christmas Day we went and looked at Christmas lights and discovered some AWESOME lights....set to music...and with a routine about 45 minutes long.  Completely unprepared for that type of light show that night (not wearing the appropriate gear to get out and watch and play in the smoke and bubbles they had going for the kids in the driveway - yep...it was that kind of house), we vowed to go back the next night.

So we did.

Matt went on fire pit duty while the rest of us went to see the light show again, decked out in appropriately in warm gear.

They had a food drive there as well, so we went bearing gifts the second night as well.

The kids had a BLAST...including Jacey, who of all the kids actually was enthralled by the light show, and absolutely LOVED the Frosty the Snowman.  The older two kids enjoyed playing in the smoke and bubbles in the driveway, and dancing to the music that played.

And apparently singing makes the bubbles and smoke come out....according to Tatum.  She used this logic to talk Kellen into singing with her.

Meanwhile, Matt was making monumental strides with the fire pit, and had quite the fire going for smores when we got back.  So I laid out all of the ingredients and we were ready to go.

Kellen worked on perfecting his technique....but it took him a while.  It also took us a while to realize that he was having more fun simple roasting the marshmallows than actually eating the smores....

Tatum was all decked out to avoid smoke in her eyes....so fashionable, she is.  She had her method and she was stickin' to it!  She quickly figured out exactly how she wanted to roast her marshmallow, did it, made herself a smore and enjoyed!!

It was a fabulous night and best of all, the kids (big and small) had a BLAST!  This is the type of night that we'll look back on years from now and say, "Remember that night when....."

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch

A friend of mine posted an adorable picture on facebook of Grinch ornaments that she had made.  They were precious.  Another friend of mine had made glitter ornaments with her son.  They were precious as well.

I decided to go for it....and Kellen and I made Grinch ornaments.

I underestimated how much glitter would be needed for the ornaments, so I was actually really happy that Kellen just wanted to give them to his teachers at school.  Of course, I wanted to keep one for us, so we ended up with just the right amount of glitter for the slightly more than a half-dozen ornaments we made.

Materials
Glass ornaments (from Hobby Lobby, bought a set of 12 for 50% off of 7.99)
Glitter (from Hobby Lobby, 1.47)
Mop n glo (already had)
White paint pen (from Hobby Lobby, 3.47)
Black paint pen (from Hobby Lobby, 3.47)
(Now, most crafty folks may already have paint pens and this wouldn't be an expense for them.  Me, I do not have these things, so I had to factor them in to this cost. Obviously, they are still good and can be used for other projects....)

Instructions
Remove the "topper" from the ornament, pour a small amount of Mop n glo inside, plug hole with thumb or finger and swirl until inside is fully coated.  Pour into container (I used something that I could easily pour from to reuse).

Pour a generous amount of glitter into the coated ornament.  Shake vigorously until all surfaces are covered and coated.

Recruit an adorable a handsome helper and continue to add glitter and shake as needed.

Reinsert "topper" on the ornament.

Decorate the Grinch face to the best of your decorating abilities.  Start with the whites of the eyes, then add the other features and the pupils of the eyes after the whites have dried.

Enjoy your oh-so-cute ornament!


And in case you need a trip down memory lane......

You're a mean one Mr Grinch
You really are a heel
You’re as cuddly as a cactus
You're as charming as an eel
Mr. Grinch
You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel

You're a monster Mr. Grinch
Your Hearts an empty hole
Your brain is full of spiders
You’ve got garlic in your soul Mr. Grinch
I wouldn’t touch you with a
39 and a half Foot pole

You’re a vile one Mr. Grinch
You have termites in your smile
You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile
Mr. Grinch
Given the choice between the two of you
I’d take the a seasick crocodile

You’re a foul one Mr. Grinch
You’re a nasty wasty skunk
Your heart is full of unwashed socks,
Your soul is full of gunk
Mr. Grinch

The 3 words that best describe you, are as follows, and I quote
Stink, Stank, Stonk

You’re a rotter Mr. Grinch
You’re the king of sinful sots
Your hearts a dead tomato splotched with moldy purple spots
Mr. Grinch

Your sole is an appalling dump heap
Overflowing with the most disgraceful
Assortment of deplorable rubbish
Imaginable, mangled up in tangled up knots

You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch
With a nauseous super naus
You’re a crooked jerky jockey and,
you drive a crooked horse
Mr. Grinch

You’re a 3 Decker sour kraut and toad stool sandwich
With arsenic sauce!

Making snowmen

Without snow....or even without it being too terribly cold.

In Texas.

Yup.  It's possible.

Here is what they look like.

Aren't they precious?

Because I made turkeys with Kellen, I had already told Tatum that she and I would make snowmen, so after I ran the marathon on Sunday (more on that later), and the boys were at Awanas, she and I made snowmen cookies while dinner was cooking.

Don't be alarmed.  They were super easy...and they HAD to be, considering that at that point in time I was lucky to be standing upright.

Ingredients:

Nutter Butter cookies
White chocolate almond bark
Assorted decorating gel

Arrange your cookies onto your cookie sheet

Recruit an absolutely precious assistant.

Melt your almond bark (per the package directions)

Experiment with the best method of cookie-coverage (we used a flip method that seemed to work well) and then place the chocolate-covered cookies onto the cookie sheet

Repeat until all cookies are undecorated snowmen

Let sit until the chocolate has cooled and hardened

Gather your assorted decorating gel and design your own version of your snowmen!

Tatum had a blast doing this...some of her snowmen had yellow arms, some had red, some had things that didn't resemble arms at all.  But I resisted my perfectionistic ways and told her she could decorate them ANY WAY SHE WANTED.

And I stuck to it.

She had a blast.

And she was thrilled that I gave her the independence to do it however she wanted.  And she thanked me over and over for making snowmen with her.

And THAT was all that mattered.