InstaFriday - Birthday Boy!

It's Friday Ya'll!  Woohoo!  You know what that means?!   

InstaFriday and a recap of our week!

Very thankful for IG filters and picfx to make my self portrait better than when it first started!  That second picture is proof that Chad loves our new pup Betsy, just as much as the kids and I do!  He likes to tell the story that he went to Vegas for the weekend and came home and there was a dog!  Both of which are true, but he totally knew about the dog before we bought her, I swear.  And for the record, we chose Betsy's name way before I saw that one of the Teen Mom's on MTV named her French Bulldog Betsy.  Technically she was first, but that episode didn't play until this past Monday, so I claim that we were first! 

 Saturday morning football.  Thank goodness this one was much warmer!

Snuggle pup, she loves our faces.

Tired boy.  Couldn't eat his dinner his head and mouth hurt so bad.  I assume it had something to do with all the crazy stuff he had going on in his mouth from his ortho appointment last week.

 The Oversized Growth Chart Ruler that my friend Meghan made me for Christmas finally got hung and I love it!

 Birthday Boy!  My baby turned 8!  I remember his birth like it was yesterday (sucker for a birth story?  You can read his here, it's an emotional one).  He woke up feeling refreshed!  No headache at all!  His present from us this year was Betsy (it is Lola's present too, they agreed before we bought her) and he is SO good with her!  We also didn't do a big birthday party this year (dog again, she was quite pricey), however we did head to ChuckE Cheese's together as a family.  Kyan and Lola had just as much fun together playing games as I think he would have had with friends.  They have such a bond and it is so fun to watch them together.  After a late lunch/early dinner, we headed home to eat ice cream cake with grandpa and grandma Moffitt, Auntie Rae and the cousins, and the Adair family.  It was so special for Kyan and he kept saying over and over that he didn't want his day to end. 

 Cooked a little something old and a little something new this week!

Salmon Patties (they look like cat food to me): One 15oz. can Red Salmon, One egg, Crushed Crackers, and Creole Seasoning to taste.  Mix it all together and make 4 patties.  Cook on stove until the outsides get crispy!

Cilantro-Lime Chicken Bake: NOT my recipe, but a recipe that I found on pinterest and knew I had to try as it has two of my favorite things to cook with in the title of the dish!  You can find the recipe here.  I didn't use the cilantro-lime rice that her recipe gave, instead I used this one, I had made it before and loved the taste, so I decided to not change what I knew worked!  She said she also bought fresh mango salsa at the grocery store.  I looked and didn't find any so I made the mango salsa that I use for our California Hot Dogs, you can find that here (you just have to scroll down, that is a long post about how to throw a hot dog party)!

InstaFriday ~ Puppy Love

 Meet Betsy, a french bulldog, and the newest member of our family.

 Sleep.  Eat.  Pee/Poop. Repeat.  Kyan is good with each part of the cycle, Lola, notsomuch!  She just likes to snuggle and for whatever reason is scared o the tiniest puppy ever.

 Oh man, had to go back to school and leave Puppyville Land, but still smiling!

 Kyan has been reading like crazy on his iPad!  He'll often choose his book over playing a game.  You know my love for reading, so this makes me over the moon excited!

Crazy kinda wires in his mouth this week at the ortho, but good news is the braces and expander come out next visit and a retainer goes in its place.  Not sure what his mouth is going to look like without those bad boys on there!?

 I have spent every single lunch at home since we got Betsy.  She is a baby (almost 9 weeks) and needs attention.  We come home right away after school, so I have been quite backed up with grading.  While the bachelor was on, I graded.  Paid for doing nothing over the weekend.

 I love stuffed bell peppers.  When I make them, I always make more stuffing than what is needed so I can eat it while the peppers are cooking.  Wanna know how to make 'em?  See below!

So out of nowhere, Monday night Lola's cough started back up.  We started breathing treatments (so scared to get pneumonia again) and called the pediatrician, who got us in yesterday.  Turns out she has a nasty cold and an ear infection.  She looks super happy in that middle picture, but I had to convince her to step foot in the office today.  She is so sick of taking medicine and psyches herself out the first time she takes a new medicine.  In the last picture she said, "Just give me a minute to think about it mom!"  Ten minutes and a lotta tears later she took it.  But it had to be on her terms or it wasn't happening.  So I just had to wait it out. 

It's an important weekend around here, Kyan turns 8!  

Happy weekend to you!

InstaFriday ~ On Time!

Happy Friday y'all!  

Woot!  Woot!

Not 35,000 pictures and three weeks worth of news to catch up on, so this should be a nice and easy read!

Lola had a much better visit at the doctor's office last Friday than she has been getting!  While we had to spend the rest of the weekend at the house, making sure we were ready to go to school, her wheezing was almost all the way gone and she just looked healthy!  The doctor couldn't believe the difference just two days made in her!  It really was a huge difference and as much as it pained me to do NOTHING but stay at home all of break, I think it made the difference.  No pushing to go here or there, just resting.

While Lola rested the weekend away (and by this time was going stir crazy), Kyan finally got an account with Club Penguin!  He has been playing for free forever and I gave in and played the monthly fee so he could upgrade his penguin and the igloo (can you say like father like son?).

 Cilantro, it's my favorite ingredient to cook with.  Oh, and limes!  Prepped dinner and Monday's lunch using lots of both!  The kids pitched in with dinner too and daddy taught them the art of patty makin'!  They were like puppies, hung on every single word he said and followed him out to the grill when it was time to put them on!

 Monday morning meant back to school and back to reality!  It was the first time Lola had seen that many people in a long time!  She was so excited, popped right out of bed in the morning!  Kyan begged to sleep in just a little bit longer (signs of him getting older, he'll be 8 in just 9 days...I can't believe it)!  It also meant I couldn't lay around in my favorite ASU sweatpants anymore.  We were excited to be back!

Hoop Art.  Hope anchors the soul.  Hebrews 6:19.  

I crawled out of my crafting slump and made a gift for a friend at school (we draw names for birthday's, hers was over break so when we got back it needed to be ready and she requested handmade).  She is a woman of faith and her son serves in the US Navy, when I saw that she had this quote pinned, I knew I had to find a way to make it for her somehow!  I put burlap in an embroidery hoop and then cut out the anchor and the bible verse with my Silhouette.  It was next to impossible to stick on the vinyl and I had to hand place most of it, but the end result was worth it.  The little flowers on there were handmade as well, just rolled pieces of double sided scrapbook paper.

 My wall-o-frames got a little makeover with a new banner from a bloggy and IG friend @itsjustemmy! She had one, I begged for one.  Look what is hanging on my wall?!  She sent along some fabric and I made her a pillow cover and shipped it back to her.  Having crafty IG friends is great!  We had family pictures done back in October and finally put the new ones up of the kids!  I like to keep a little old and new, so not every frame (that has pictures in it) was updated, but four were!

 That same IG friend that made me that banner, does this cool thing on her feed where she gets to know her peeps.  She posts fun questions and then we answer.  Well, wouldn't you know, I was her peeps and the questions above were things she was dying to know!  Wanna know the answers???

Dream Job?  I wanna spend my day at home, crafting.  I also want to get back into my photography business.  Teaching a new grade level this year has sucked all of my time and I have had less and less to take on new clients.  I miss it.

If I could have a dinner party with 3 celebrities who would it be?  Channing Tatum, Justin Timberlake, and Adam Levine (not in any particular order).  Very superficial, I don't care.  I probably wouldn't eat, just stare and drool.  Yep, lots of staring and drooling.

How did I meet my man?

At a bar, through a friend of a friend on my 21st birthday.  If you ask him, he will tell you I wasn't very nice that night.  I will tell you that I thought he was hot, but he is right, we didn't talk that much.  Fast forward two months later, head to another bar across town (it sounds like I spent a little too much time there back in the day huh?!), we "re-met" and he fell in love!  We became inseparable and two years later we were married.

Now I have a question for you?  Do you watch the Bachelor/Bachelorette?  I know it is horrible and the producers do dumb things to plug ratings, but man, I can't take my eyes off of that show.  A new season started this week and you can bet I am hooked!

Mama's Chili.  We didn't eat much at home, but there were a few things my mom could make and her chili was one of my favorites (sorry mom, I realize that I am kinda putting you on blast here...love you.  To make you feel better, I will blast myself, I am NOT a good cleaner.  There.  Feel better?).  Anywho.  Her chili is simple and delicious.  1lb ground beef (brown it and then add the rest of the ingredients), 2 cans Mexican Style chili beans, 1 small can tomato sauce, 1 packet of McCormicks chili seasoning packet, and chili powder to taste.   Boom.  Done.  Told you it was easy! 

Thursday Night Lights.  Kyan had his first scrimmage game of the season and he'll have his first game tomorrow.  It was cold last night, but worth freezing out booties off to watch him doing what he loves.  It is going to be cold on Saturday.  I must find a portable heater or something before then!  I have no idea how I lived in Nebraska for 18 years.  It drops below 60 degrees here and I feel like I might die. 

That is it, pretty simple week.  Excited for the weekend.

InstaFriday ~ Where Have I Been?!

I have nothing but bad excuses, so I am not going to even try and make up something good!  

Our life, the past couple of weeks!

Celebrated Chad's mum's birthday and took her to dinner then went home and treated her to a smore's dessert outside by the fire!  

We took Christmas pictures so early this year (way earlier than we usually do), however, it took me forever to actually address them.  Boo.  Sent them out later than normal.

Rainy weekend, kids posed like that all by themself.

Girls Christmas party at Candis', we stopped by Brion's grave to say a prayer before we went.  We love and miss him every day.  Lola tries so hard to remember who he was.

Spirit Week at school, College Sports Day...thankful for the ASU sweats I bought on Black Friday because I got the stomach flu something fierce that Monday morning and I shouldn't have probably went to school even.  My husband had the day off and dropped off Pepto and a magazine (he said for when I was stuck on the pooper)!  I lost one whole day of lots of stuff to do before Christmas, as I went home and went straight to bed to try and sleep off any bad that was coming out of my body.

Snow day at school for the kids!  Made sure they were nice and bundled up before we went to school.  It was also concert day for Kyan during the day.  He loves to sing, and while the program was crazy, he and the rest of the kids didn't care!  Nothing but smiles from them!

I hand painted 5x7 wooden silhouette's of each of my students (with the help of my room mom and dad) for their Christmas gift.  Meet my class. 

Snuck away from my classroom to hear Lola sing her little heart out at her Christmas program.  Kyan snuck too!  She was so excited to have us come and watch her!  Santa visited the school later that night at our family fun night that PTO sponsors and her brother wasn't feeling well, so she made sure to tell Santa what her brother wanted too.  It was sweet, in fact, she made sure to tell Santa about him first before she asked for herself.

Picked up my parents at the airport on Thursday the 20th (I am so behind on this post, trying to keep the dates in perspective here)!  Lola went with me!  She was so excited.  There plane was late and every other second she was asking if they were here yet!?  She batted her eyelashes at her grandpa and begged to stay with him that night (and skip school the following day) and wouldn't you know, grandpa is a sucker for her?!  She went home and told her brother the good news!  Ditch day with grandpa and grandma!  Don't worry, it is not like anything super productive was getting done at school, so I approved of the skip!  I wish I could have skipped too!  

Errand running requires glasses and a hat - how I roll when I don't want to get ready but have a ton of stuff to do.  These are days that I wish I had long hair to throw up in a pony.  We made Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day dinner so I had a lot of stuff to get from the grocery store and I wanted to try and avoid it at all costs on Sunday (I was gonna cook all day then anyway)!

Another project hung, this one a jewelry holder made at a Super Saturday almost two months ago!  It is in my closet so I can just grab whatever I need after I get dressed!

 Ugh.  I love them.  

We went to church with Donna and Michael the Sunday before Christmas and went with my parents on Christmas...and thus begins the first of our Christmas traditions that I am going to talk about - - in no particular order, just wanna make sure that I get it written down  (I meant for this to be a post separate from all others, but then pneumonia came a knocking and ruined everything), so I give it to you in one giant post!  Long story short, we go to church with my parents on Christmas morning.  Just so happened that it worked out and we got to go with Chad's family this year too!  We would like this to be able to happen from now on.

Tradition:  Prepping Christmas Eve dinner the day before.  We have spaghetti and meatballs every year (my Aunt Jan's recipe).  She used to make it at her house, but as time has passed, I have taken over.  We make this meal about three times a year and every time, Kyan gets so excited!  Meatballs are our favorite!  I duct taped them so no one would try and steal them before dinner the following day!  It was a dumb move though.  I totally ruined my tupperware.  Lola helped me make cookies (Aunt Heidi's chocolate chip secret recipe and my Aunt Sue's chocolate peanut butter balls and Mexican Wedding Cake balls).  We were in the kitchen all day long!

 We spend it with my side of the family, eating all that yummy food we spent prepping the day before.  I grew up opening presents Christmas Eve, so that is what we do with my parents and our kids.  They were spoiled rotten this year and both agreed that their favorite gift was their mini iPad's from grandpa and grandma.  They come in handy and keep them busy when we are on the go.  Plus, I get my iPad back!  It was a win/win gift for sure!  They kids always sprinkle reindeer food outside for Santa's special helpers.  He gets enough cookies, so we feed his sleigh pullers!

Tradition:  Chad and I open presents at midnight.  I set my alarm every year.  Why?  Well....I grew up opening presents Christmas Eve, he grew up opening Christmas Day.  We are both stubborn and wanted it our way and weren't willing to compromise, so midnight was our compromise.  Technically I think that makes him the winner because it is December 25th, but we open them before Santa makes his delivery, so I feel like the winner too! 

Tradition:  Santa brings one present for each of the kids.  The ONE present that is on the top of their list (we have been able to afford it so far, as they grow up, not really sure how this is going to work out?).

 Tradition:  We celebrate with Chad's side of the family on Christmas Day.  We take turns on who hosts and this year, it was our turn (actually is this the first time we have hosted?  No way?!).  We spent the morning prepping yet another dinner.  This time Chad took over in the kitchen, he bossed me around and I was perfectly happy with that!  We pop crackers too, an English tradition!

The day after Christmas the stuff always comes down.  I don't really like Christmas decor as it is, so I am happy to take it down and get rid of the dead tree!

Favorite Christmas present, my new Michael Kors watch.  My husband did good!

Lola had a never ending cough, so I took her in to get checked out.  Looooooooooong and very frustrating story short, they diagnosed her with strep and sent us off with meds.  Kyan spent the next few days with grandpa and grandma and Lola and I hibernated at home and tried to away from civilization as much as possible.

 Modern Technology keeps 'em busy so I can have an uninterrupted dentist appointment.  Thankful for the mini iPad's the kids got for Christmas.

Lola felt better and was able to join grandma for lunch at her favorite spot, Pei Wei!

Kyan tried ribs tonight at dinner with my parents at Dillion's at the Zoo!

Sons of Anarchy, the new show that I am obsessed with!  I got the first three seasons for my husband for Christmas (it was a selfish gift, we needed a new series to watch together)!  I didn't know I would be so hooked on it from the start.  We already finished season one in like 3 days!

After grandpa and grandma went home, my sleeping buddy was back.  We were doing okay for awhile, but this is where things took a turn for the worst.

 How we spent our New Years Eve.  It was riveting.  NOT!  Lola was not improving, despite antibiotics and her fevers were outta control.  I called her doctor who said it didn't sound right, but they referred me to Urgent Care, as they were closed.  Awesome.  Urgent Care was the most packed it has ever been.  We waited an eternity to see the doctor who couldn't determine what exactly it was that was going on with her.  So they recommended we head to the ER to confirm/deny pneumonia.  More waiting.  The ER wasn't too busy (shockingly) and we were there for another 4 hours, where they confirmed she had pneumonia.  They gave her a shot of rocephin and more antibiotics and sent us on our way.  It was almost 10:30 before we got home with medicine.  We were exhausted (did I mention we started at Urgent Care at 2pm)?  

 The next day we still battled fevers, I could get them down with medicine, but they were the highest I have ever had a kid have one.  It was scary.  Because I could control them, I did my best to wait it out handle things on my own until we saw the pediatrician the next day.  In the meantime, because Lola has been so sick, I have been disappearing into some great books.  Just a few that I have finished in the past week and a half and highly recommend reading are:  "The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden" by Jessica Sorrensen, "Hopeless" by Colleen Hoover*****, "The Sea of Tranquility" by Katja Millay*****, and "Ten Tiny Breaths" by K.A. Tucker.

If you are thinking about picking up any of those, I really do recommend them all, but the two that are ***** I would read first!  But they should come with a warning label, you won't want to put them down!

 So those fevers weren't getting better.  Lola woke up Wednesday HOT!  I was on the phone making an appointment with her pediatrician begging them to squeeze us in first thing.  I was rushing us out the door and Lola was just crying saying she was too hot (but I was trying not to give her anything, as I wanted the doc to see how hot she really was) and she puked up all the water she chugged.  I felt so bad, but her fever was getting the best of her.  She was a mess and we were late for our appointment.  It was explained that the fever was Lola's body trying to rid her sickness on its own, that the medicine alone wasn't working.  She needed something different.  The pediatrician heard wheezing this time around and prescribed breathing treatments every 4-6 hours until we see her again on Friday.  She also said if we wanted her better faster, which we obviously do, we needed to do another shot of rocephin. I talked her into the first shot, but there was no way I was going to be able to do it again.  Then the pediatrician delivered even more bad news and said she needed to delivery it in two shots.  My heart broke for my little girl.  So sad.  I have heard that rocephin is like peanut butter going into your skin, so I can only imagine the pain.  I begged for another nurse to help, as I wasn't going to be able to hold her on my own.  She screamed and pleaded with me to not have to do it again.  It broke me and I couldn't help the tears as I held her down and they gave the shots.  It was so, so sad.

We went home and painted her nails and toes a sparkly pink and Grandma Julie sent her flowers all the way from Nebraska.  It did brighten up her day and lift her spirits.  Being able to sleep in bed with me another night too helped!

 I tried my hardest to do something yesterday.  When your kid is sick, you hang out on the couch in pj's all day, but I was bound and determined not to let this sick-ation go completely to waste!  So I filled out my birthday banner with friends and families birthdays before it got hung on my big ol' frame that is at the base of the stairs!  That is something new that I am sharing too!  That frame comes in just shy of 4x5 feet, wrapped in fabric from an old shower curtain that I saved from our old house (I saved it for a rainy day, we have doors, so I cut it into strips), and backed in chicken wire!  The cool thing about this project is that it was completely free!  My parents bought me the giant frame at a garage sale for a steal of a deal ($15), knowing I would do something with it, I had the shower curtain in my fabric stash, and my sister in law has a crazy amount of chicken wire from grandma's sale, so I raided it!  The birthday banner was a Christmas gift from my SIL as well!  She knows, along with the rest of the universe, that I struggle with birthdays (did I mention it drives my mother crazy?  No?  Well, it does) so she made that banner in hopes that it would help me!  I filled it out and hung it up!  I have a nice jump on it, but I am sure I will miss a birthday or five, so I will fill it in as I go and send cards....errrrr, next year (love you mom)!

 I make no promises to update every week, but I will try.  This is the place where I store all of our family memories.  I wish I had more time to post full projects on here, but Insta posts are all you are gonna get for now!

Happy Birthday Dad!

 There is no one on earth like him.

I am the luckiest daughter on the planet, for real....and my kids, even luckier to have him as a grandpa!

Wishing my dad the happiest of birthdays!

CAN NOT WAIT to see you next week!

 PS-I am so horrible about sending cards, so sorry mom.  I know that you are the card queen.  This is how I show you how much I love you...if you make the blog, kind of a big deal (especially when you only post weekly updates these days).  Hope this makes up for my lack of card sending...again! 

InstaFriday ~ Technical Difficulties

I swear, my excuse is a good one!  I actually had last week's post done last week, but I ran out of storage space on my blog (to upload pictures) so I had to purchase more!  By the time I got around to it, it was too late to post...so here we go with another two week-er!

 Zelt spelled out a special message in Scrabble letters for the kids last Friday morning.  It's not that they weren't behaving, he just wanted to remind them!

Lola's hair is getting long and it drives me crazy!  She always wants it in a pony tail, which makes it easy, especially when we are pressed for time in the mornings, but I told her she had to let me start fixing it other ways if she wanted to keep that "long hair" of hers that she thinks she has.  My french braiding skills are improving!  

We went to get our Christmas tree, go to the same spot every year!  Kyan found the tree this year that he thought was best!  The weather was a little warm (perfect in my case) to feel like the right season for picking out a Christmas tree!  If I would have let Lola, she would have been in her shorts and tank top!

When we got home from picking our tree, Lola fell asleep at the kitchen table.  She really can sleep just about anywhere, sweet little thing.

Because it was late by the time we unloaded the tree (and Lola fell asleep at the table) we decided that we would decorate Saturday morning!  Chad does the lights and the garland and the kids and I take care of the ornaments.

I took a former student of mine's senior pictures for her.  They turned out beautiful and it ended up being one of my last shoots of the year.

I spent most of my weekend crafting handmade Christmas gifts, but managed to make a few things for myself, including a vertical corkboard made out of wine corks and a globe potpourri holder, made by cutting a globe in half and sticking those smelly pinecones inside with a few branches from my tree.  I set it on top of a candle stick to give it a little height!  One of my favorite things I think I have ever made!

 Kyan went to a friend's house to play on Saturday and he advised Kyan to leave a note and a pencil next to his elf asking it to write his name (in cursive).  Kyan totally did and the elf responded.  Kyan was so excited to wake up to find his note!

We have become one big happy family at school.  It is fun to watch our kids interact with each other!

Just cooking dinner and all of a sudden I hear a crash.  Our tree fell down.  It looks way worse than what it really was.  Only one ornament broke.  Kyan, however, was heartbroken over the situation.  He kept saying that he picked the wrong tree and he thought it was his fault it tipped over.

To make Kyan feel better about the tree he chose, Zelt left him a little message the next morning: You picked the right tree for me.  It was all Kyan needed to mend his heartache over the tree.

Came home to happy mail!  A friend of mine on instagram, whose planners I have been buying for years, sent me a family banner!  I have plans to hang it in my front entrance, but can't put it up until I finish a piece of furniture that I bought (see below for the start of that project)!  Getting it gave me motivation.  To say thanks, I made her a pillow using the fabric she sent!  Was so much fun swapping our crafting skills!

A fellow blogger, crafty mama, instagrammer sent me the cutest family banner for home, after I saw her own and fell in love!  So she made me one and in return, she had some fabric that she wanted turned into a pillow!  So we traded!  I think I came out with the better deal if you ask me!  I am finishing a piece of furniture up first (see below for the color I chose), before I can show you the final project!  And Zelt left a note for Kyan letting him know that he thinks the tree he picked out is perfect!  It was all Kyan needed for his little heart to be healed!

Kyan has been complaining about his back hurting for about a month.  I brushed it off as being growing pains.  Then, I started to hear him cracking his back constantly.  Still, growing pains.  Finally I looked at his back and noticed that on his right shoulder it looked swollen, so I called the doctor and he didn't think it was anything, but sent him to get blood work (Kyan did so good for being petrified of shots) and x-rays.  *I did found out this week that his x-rays and most of the blood work came back normal.  The one test that came back abnormal was his muscle enzyme test.  It was elevated so the doctor wants to do blood work again next week (Dec. 20th).  The part that kills me is that being so close to Christmas we probably won't know the results until after it is over.  The doctor told us that if they continue to be elevated, we will see a neurologist next.  He also said that the test could be absolutely nothing and he just got injured (and doesn't remember) and his muscles are working overtime to repair themselves.  I am praying with everything that I have that it is the latter. 
To take my mind off of things, I started on that pretty little number for my front entrance.  I will be honest I wasn't the biggest fan when I started painting it.  I have only refinished furniture in a shade of turquoise, but not that it is finished, I love it!

Lola wears her hair in a "whale spout" every single day.  She begs for it.  She thinks that it makes her hair longer when it is that high on her head!
A drawing from a special student that comes from the high school to help out every Tuesday and Thursday!  She admitted to stalking my instagram to find the perfect picture to draw, I just laughed!  I love it!
Holly and I went to our former students basketball game!  It was so much fun and nice to be around kids that get your jokes!  It made me miss 8th grade something fierce though.
I love words.  They have power.  Since high school I have highlighted quotes in books and kept journals of quotes.  This one spoke to me the other day.

 FedEx and I fought (not really, but they ARE idiots when it comes to shipping).  Good news was I got the two packages I was expecting with just one little hiccup!
Saturday was craft extravaganza!  I finished my new cup holder, in hopes that it will eliminate cups every where around the house.  So far so good!  The furniture piece that I started earlier in the week got finished!  Looks great in my front entrance, now I need to dress it up a little!  Helped my friend Holly make a wedding gift with my silhouette machine.  Song lyrics printed on cardstock, cut into a tree, with initialed hearts hanging from it.  It is my go to present these days for weddings.
The boys bathed themselves in the sun while we crafted, in between a game or three of football!
Another box of Ava's clothes arrived!  Lola is obsessed with her cousins clothes and picks an outfit of hers every single time!  I got so much stuff done Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning!

 Sunday afternoon we went to Rae Lynn's, where grandma had crafts for the grandkids to make!  She let them go to town and they had a blast making memories together!

 Every excuse NOT to fall asleep in her room.  However, the second she snuggles up next to me it's lights out!  It is so hard to say no to her sweet little face, and this particular night I was up to my eyeballs in grading, so I was willing to do just about anything to get her to quit whining so I could finish.

 They are always together.  Sure, she could use her own computer at school, but that isn't as fun as watching her "brothie" play!
She was so proud of her gingerbread house she made at school!  Her side "whale spout" kills me.

 My kids sleep together every single night.  Yes, they have their own rooms, however, they would rather be together, especially Lola.  She wants to be where Kyan is.  Usually they sleep in Kyan's room, as he has bunk beds (Lola sleeps on the bottom, he sleeps on the top bunk), but because of Kyan's back issues, we have tried sleeping in Lola's room instead.  She seriously has the most comfortable bed on the planet!  But, Kyan doesn't like to sleep next to Lola because he says he has no room and that she kicks him in the middle of the night. 
They are adorable with each other, even in their slumber.  I love everything about their very special bond that they share.

Field Trip with my boy!  He still wanted to sit on the bus next to me!  Love that he is so proud of his mama.  We have been learning all about the pioneers and visited The Pioneer Village on Thursday.  Kyan turned into a prairie boy!  It was fun to get to be with him!  Usually daddy gets to go on field trips, so this was nice that I get to go!  Perk of the job this year for sure!
So after an exhausting field trip day, Kyan had football practice as usual.  It was freezing.  I wore layers upon layer upon layer to stay warm.  It worked up until it started raining.  Brrrrrrrrr!  Lola loved the rain and was trying to catch the raindrops on her tongue the entire five minutes it rained during practice!  Kyan's favorite practices are always rainy ones!

Ok, there you have it!  Two weeks in one!
This week is going to be just as busy as the last! 
We have 4 parties to attend in 3 days...yikes!  Hoping to make them all.

Happy weekend!