To My Fellow Moms!

Mother's Day has fallen on the heels of an emotional week.  I'm not sure if it was last week, or the sermon I heard today, or just some alone time with Him that has made me focus on all the wonderful women in my life that support me, love me, laugh with me, and cry with with me.

Everyday I am overwhelmingly thankful for my boys.  On the significant days and the insignificant days I'm so blessed that God picked ME to be their mom!  I'm thankful for my awesome husband who helps me to raise them to be the awesome kids they are.

But today, I'm also thankful for my fellow-moms out there!

• My fellow Jesus-Lovin' Moms who help me stay on track, remind me of scripture, pray for me and my family and serve as great role models for my kids.
• My fellow Sport Moms who sit in the cold, the rain, the wind (hopefully, eventually, the heat) and cheer with me!  Thank you for getting excited with me when my kids do something well and for letting me cheer along with you for your kids.
• My fellow Safety First Moms for keeping their kids in booster seats (so mine aren't the only ones!) and for making sure that mine are safe in their cars! 
•  My fellow Homework Moms who can talk through 3rd grade math with me and allow me to see that I'm not the only one who isn't clear on how you add to subtract.
• My fellow Pinterest Moms who pin a lot of FANTASTIC dinner and activity ideas.
• My fellow Crafty Moms who give me tips and ideas on how to make my house a home.
• My fellow Moms with All Boys who understand the toilet stench and the fear of future daughter-in-laws.
• My fellow Caregiver Moms who discuss all the kid ailments that come along and give tips and tricks.

So thank you to all my fellow Moms!  You make this day special... so special that there should be a Mother's Day Part II - Celebrating Friends Who Make Us Great Moms!  I encourage you all to celebrate this new holiday!  No pictures of the family today... just a little Pinspiration that sums up the above!

sNOw Way!!

It is May.

This is what I woke up to on Thursday morning.  (Sleety Snow Rain)

This is what it looks like at 4:30pm on Friday. 

Facebook helps me laugh at this goofy weather that might otherwise anger me.  Lot of funny picture and comments about snow in May.  This one was one of my favorites though.

Hopfully next week we will get that other 56%!!

 

Weekend Wrap-Up

Whew!  Ever have one of those weekends that is just an absolute whirlwind of activity.  That was mine this weekend.  A flurry of fun activity - but speaking of flurries - the weather was FANTASTIC and there were no flurries!!

Top 10

10.  A clean house, purchased groceries, and laundry done and put away.  Best way to start a new week

9.  May's Meal Plan is complete!

8.  Pancake breakfast for "Imagine No Malaria."  Got to see the pancake man in action and Kevin got to catch pancakes.  I was glad the pancake guy picked "dad" and not "mom" to do the catching!

7. Tyler pitched for the first time and didn't hit anyone! (I didn't have my camera on Saturday so these are pics from this game last Wednesday... when it was MUCH colder!)

can you see the panic on his face?  Poor guy gets so nervous.

6.  AJ's first game of the season.  He loves his Cubbie uniform... NOT!

5. Helping with Discovery Weekend - preview of what junior high boys are like which is a reminder to embrace my current place in life with grade school boys.  :)

4. Unexpected dinner on Saturday with friends including some awesome homemade ice cream sandwiches.  (by homemade I mean home-assembled-purchased-cookies.  LOL)

3. A nice night out with some of my favorite ladies on Friday.

2. Gorgeous weather!  I mean seriously beautiful!!  Kind of reminded me of the weather we had on our wedding day which takes me to...

1. Celebrating our 12 year wedding anniversary on Sunday!!  Headed to Granite City after church for their awesome brunch and spent the day together - working around the house, watching the White Sox, and enjoying the weather!  I took a stroll down memory lane and here are some of my favorite memories from the big day...

My favorite picture of the two of us!

Precious, precious Jordynne.  She didn't walk down the aisle but how adorable is she!?!?

The party bus!  A little alone time with our closest friends.... and Grandpa Harold.  Grandpa snuck on the party bus!

Me and the Bros

This picture made me LOL as I remembered my entire wedding party trying to bustle my dress.  We attempted this after the party bus/trip to Jimmy's.  Thank goodness for cousin Trisha being sober -she finally figured out the puzzle!

A special picture for my blog-follower Grandma Jane!  A sweet Grandma-Grandson dance.

One of my best memories of this day.  I remember this conversation with Grandpa Harold like it was yesterday.  So thankful for my friend Margo for catching it on film.  :)

Making a Difference

Tyler has a "Making a Difference" project that is due next week.  We affectionately refer to this assignment as "the yellow packet."  The "yellow packet" has had several phases but as a last step he had to come up with a project to do that made a difference at home or in the community.  We had LOTS of ideas but finally landed on Backpack Buddies (a project close to my heart)!  Here are his pictures of him making a difference.  (Although... for what it's worth... he makes a difference in my world EVERY DAY just by being his kind-hearted goof-ball self!!)

 

Time to get the presentation ready....

 

 

 

 

What's AJ been up to you ask.... Just chillin' and chasing "women" (Kindergartners) at recess.  Apparently he chases a girl and sings Gangnam Style but, in his words, "I sing 'little' instead of 'sexy'" (Hey little lady....).  I told him it wasn't nice to chase girls but he informed me she smiles and laughs at him.  Of course she does.

 

 

An Independence Test

I've realized lately that my kids are capable of a lot more than I ask of them.  They are my babies so it's hard for me to wrap my arms around the fact that they are indeed becoming independent.  At least I'm realizing this now, right!?!?  I saw this post on Pinterest about Training Children to be Independent.  When I read it I actually laughed out loud and read through the list of things that Tyler "should" be able to do at age nine.  Oh how I would adore help in some of these areas that both boys "should" capable.  So....... this weekend I decided to test the list.... but I decided to start with one that Tyler would thing was fun! 

I now present - Tyler's first cake!  (Not made from scratch but not just a simple box recipe either.)  Here's the recipe for "Better Than Anything Oreo Cake."

NO Shells!!

 

Ta-DA!!

So Proud

The final touch - gotta make sure everyone knows who the chef was.

 

 

Conference Time!

This week we had conferences for the boys.  I don't typically get super excited about conferences for a couple reasons:

1. I always know the boys' teachers.  I'm lucky that I can pop in after school and help with class parties so this isn't a time for me to get to know the teachers.
2. The report cards are ridiculous.  Everything is broken out in to so much detail that I don't know what to think of their scores.
3. Tyler and AJ are both easy going kids.  They are well behaved so I don't expect to a bad report about their behavior.

So, what else is there, right?  Well this time... conferences were awesome.  The boys both led their conferences so they could show us what they were learning.

AJ counted money so fast that his teacher thought he got it wrong... but he was right.  He did a good job reading to us even though he was embarrassed.  (Found out his ears turn bright red when he's nervous and/or embarrassed!)  He showed us how his writing has improved.  The letter he wrote for his conference melted my heart.  (Or in the words of Grandma Jane, "pulled on my heart strings!")  I scanned the letter below.  Of course, Miss Robinson said she loves having him in class and that he's a great student.

Tyler has led conferences before so he was a pro.  Walked in, sat down, and was ready to go. His teacher was on maternity leave at the beginning of the school year so this was the first time we got to sit down and talk about Tyler with her.  She started by telling Tyler that she hopes her son grows up to be the kind of kid Tyler is.  Can you get a better compliment than that!?!?  He wrote a personal narrative that was awesome.  It's a story about helping Grandma and Grandpa's neighbor on the tractor.  Grandma and Grandpa's neighbor will love the story!

I'm one happy/proud mama!!

A Special Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was GREAT this year!  GREAT!

The boys and I decided to deliver some valentine's day gifts to a couple of my favorite Ankeny residents.  I'm hoping to teach them to do random acts of kindness as I remember to do them myself!

Both friends that we visited were so happy.  In fact, I heard the words "made my day" from both of them.  As if that wasn't good enough, I was SO SO SO proud of the boys.  Neither of these are people that they know well but they were totally in to it.  They were so friendly and answered a bunch of questions. Only bummer was that I was so wrapped up in the moment that I forgot to take pictures.