Busy fun day

Walmart for new eyeglasses for Sean and my sweet husband bought me some really cool Oscar de la Renta prescription sunglasses so I can actually see while having sunglasses on (thank you babe!) Got to see Uncle "Hess" at Walmart and that was fun.

Went to Chick fil a for a special lunch and Dallas commented on this lady with a cross tatoo and said, "Look mommy, she has a SWORD!"

Went to Disney MGM studios for a few hours and boys saw Muppet Show and Lights Motors Action show and loved them! Boston couldn't stop talking about the cars. Played on the playground for a while and headed home. Asher drank water from the sippy successfully first time. He's never really been interested but I think it was just so hot he was desperate.

Grandma and Grandpa babysat while Sean and I had date night, dinner and movie at Citiwalk. Dinner at Nascar again (they never have a wait) and got to sit outside and listen to this awesome aucustic guitar singer and watch the Red Sox play (ya!) Movie: Expelled by Ben Stein. AWESOME! I think everyone should see it. Scary that the science would is so anti creation/Inteligent design theory. Very enlighting and scary how closed off America is becoming. Off to bed...exhausted!

The boys first fair

At 6:30 last night we get a call from John and Christie that they were heading to the Orange County Fair and do we want to join them. We looked at each other and said, "what the heck...forget about bedtimes. So off we went to the Winter Garden fair. It was a small little fair but full of all the lights, rides, smells and carnies. The boys were in awe as we drove up and all the lights were everywhere. They especially loved the fact that they got to run around with Teague and Levi. We stayed until 10pm and had a great time! Boston wasn't too into all the rollercoasters and poor guy couldn't go on two of the rides with the other boys because he was too tall. (My heart broke as he cried watching them). John's commentary on the carnival people was especially amusing. And Teague and Boston walking around holding hands was too cute. We got to see the circus tent with kangaroos, lions and miniature horses. Dallas wanted to play the games that cost money (ducks and fishing for sharks.) Surprising to me they loved the Monkey Maze (a mirrored maze with slide at the end.) And Dallas rode the roller coaster and Farris wheel with daddy and the other boys, Boston was too nervous. It was a fun, spur of the moment night. Thanks to John and Christie for thinking of us! (Picture quality not so great, only had the iphone)

Riding the train

Sean, Boston, John and Teague riding bumper cars (Dallas and Levi weren't tall enough and watching very sadly from the sidelines)
John and Sean got suckered into this game. Sean won a little alligator for Dallas
Dallas was so funny on this ride, he kept looking in the rear view mirror to check for coming cars
Riding the pretty double decker carousel Boston and Teague riding then Dallas and Levi. Teague and Boston noticed the sparks under the tires and were quite concerned about "fire!"

Last ride, the swings. Boston watched, Dallas had a big smile while riding Sean and John closed the night out with a big boy ride and about made both themselves sick! Fun time, fun memories

Funny kid sayings

While at Sam's Club eating pizza today Dallas noticed the man behind us and keep telling me he had a "boo boo." I turned around and saw that, yes, he had a little "boo boo" on the top of his balding head. Then Boston added, "Why is there only hair on the side of his head mom? Why did God make him that way?" (I only hoped that either Boston didn't say it loud enough for him to hear, or the man had a great sense of humor...I mean...come on it was pretty funny!)

You have 3 boys!?!?

Most people who see me out say, "you have 3 boys?" I reply, with a smile, "Yes." They almost always (all but 1 time that I can remember) reply "Oh what a handful!" or "God bless you child!" I love having boys! I wouldn't change it for the world. I'm not saying I wouldn't LOVE to have a little girl in our family (anyone close to me knows this is a deep desire of my heart.) But the truth is that God will give our family exactly what we are supposed to have. That's the joy in having children. It's a visual reminder of God's blessings. He chose for us each particular child because we are the perfect parents for that child. How exciting is that! And with talk of having a 4th, most people always want to ask me if we are trying for a girl. The answer is no. Of course, a girl would be AMAZING, but I wouldn't want to try for a 4th if I wasn't completely sure I would be happy with having a 4th boy. And honestly I would be just as happy if the 4th child is a boy because that is what God wants for us. And I would never want any of my boys to ever think I had wished they were a girl. Never. (FYI-no we are not trying for a 4th right now and I'm not pregnant.)

Which brings me to other thoughts I have had regarding our 4th. We were talking about using different methods to try and make a little girl. But God keeps telling me that it really doesn't matter what we try to do, he is going to give us just what we NEED. And I don't think I want to "try" to make a little girl either. I honestly want to just enjoy the process, not stress about it, and leave it ALL up to God. It's one of those things in life that you truly have NO power over. And how exciting is that! And I'm not saying it's bad to "try" for a sex, I'm just saying God has convicted me about it. And what is right for one person, might not be right for another, so there's no room for judgement there. So God only knows what our family will ultimately consist of...I just know it's going to be beautiful!

Chicken Pot Pie

Monday night I made my friend Mary's Chicken Pot Pie recipe. She brought this to me after I had Asher (along with so many of our friends that were so generous to supply us with so much food!). It was great and I have been wanting to get the recipe from her for months. Well I finally got it from her today and cooked it tonight. Boston went CRAZY over it. He had 3 helpings of it and then before bed said his tummy was so hungry for more and he had 2 more helpings!! Where did he put all this food! And Asher actually ate it as well. First time I've tried to feed him what we were eating and he LOVED it. He couldn't get enough. As we were eating Boston said to me, "Mommy this is the best dinner ever! My favorite ever! I WISH we could have this EVER night!" So thank you Mary for the ever delicious AND EAAASSSYYY recipe.



For those curious minds here it is:

1 whole chix or 2 cans of chix or 3-4 cooked breasts
cup chix broth
1can cream of mush. or celery
1 or 2 cans Veg-all

In 13x9 casserole dish mix all ingredients then in separate bowl mix 1 cup bisquick, 1cup milk ,1melted stick of butter-you don't have to use a whole stick. Blend together and pour over chix mixture. Bake at 375 for 1 hr. or until brown. How easy is that!!

Update, updates and yes more updates

Lots of updates from the Friday through today. Been so busy couldn't find time to slow down and get to the computer to blog. So scroll...yes scoll on down the road! Come on now...scoll on down, scroll on down the road (think The Wiz music...for those musical theatre geeks like me)

Joy in the details of life

Monday-worked out again finally!!! Since Asher has been teething and waking up so much during the night the last few weeks my attendance hasn't been so great for our 6:15 planet fitness workouts...and poor Theresa has been going herself. But I'm back...and I'm ready!

Today I actually got my devotional done in the morning..yes!

Been working on finding joy more in even the most mundane things like laundry, dishes and picking up MORE toys, dealing with a temper tantrum, and saying the same thing 10 times in a row. But I am learning patience on so many levels it's amazing. Life is so good!

Took cookies to a new family that just moved here from Indiana. Boys and I had fun cooking them this morning and trying to teach them about giving and the joy of reaching out to others. They loved it. Looking forward to having this new family over as they have kids close in age to ours.

Today I told Boston that we are going to be homeschooling him next year. I was a little worried about how he would react since he has loved school so much this year and all his friends. But he got so excited and said, "is daddy going to be my teacher too mommy? Can daddy stay home too?" How cute is that?

Funniest part of the day was when the boys discovered the desks I had picked up last weekend for free sitting in the garage. "What are these?" they asked. "Desks for school next year." Boston quickly jumped into his and said..."can we do our abc's NOW!?!?!" So we quickly brought them into the house and I grabbed somethings to work on for each (handwriting and mazes for Boston...coloring and shapes for Dallas) and they had a blast! How great are these!!!

A Sunday Afternoon

Today:

Church-awesome sermon by Pastor David on who we are, reminder for myself: let others see Christ's light through your actions and the joy you have for living life!

Party - Boston had a b-day party for his classmate Anthony at Chuck-e-cheese and the whole family went and had a great time...Asher at pizza...AGAIN! Boston ran from Chucke...like usual. New games were great. And Dallas took the funniest photo on this new ride that makes a drivers licene type card for you. Too funny and our friends Jess and Bart will get a kick out of it! Riding their favorite ride, the rollercoaster, with b-day boy Anthony

Teresa's for Juice Plus talk - very informative and a good reminder on some healthy eating ideas

Dinner out!-Sean wanted to watch the Masters and since we don't have cable anymore no chance at our house. So we all went to Ale House and we had a blast eating together out as a family. Everyone did great and behaved wonderfully. The boys loved the dirt biking on tv, Sean glued to golf and I loved watching all my men! Boys ate all their food..yah.. and even got to have dessert. Lots of laughter and fun memories.

Movie-Sean and I watch "The Last Sin Eater" - good faith based and historical movie.

We are homeschooling!

So there's been lots of discussion as to what we are going to do about schooling next year. Sean and I both feel the Lord leading us back to homeschooling. A passion for it grows within each of us everyday. The funny thing is that soon after we got married Sean mentioned that maybe I could homeschool our kids. I looked at him like he had 3 heads and thought "boy you married the wrong woman if you think I'm going to homeschool our kids!!!" (kind of the same thought I used to have that I could never be a missionary wife-hope that one doesn't come to bit me in the butt too...of course God would change my heart completely to have me live in some remote place with no air conditioning-and honestly the idea wouldn't completely rock me...but that's a whole other blog for another day.) Anyhow....now I'm so passionate about homeschooling. And not that I think badly on traditional schooling, I just think for us homeschooling is going to be great! And God has confirmed it in many ways.

First-we didn't get into any of the charter schools

Second-he planted the seed last year and even had me attend the FPEA conference to prepare my mind for it

Third-so much encouragement from many friends that already homeschool

Fourth-this morning at church 1 ran into 5 people on my way to Life Group (we were soooo late this morning) and all 5 homeschool. Crazy right! It was like God was slapping me in the face with it. I literally didn't see ANYONE else on my way to class....and we go to a HUGE church.

Fifth-last weekend while at the lake we drove by a house that had two schooling desks out front with a "free" sign on them. My mom said, "lets grab them." My thought was, "why, I'm not homeschooling." But I got them anyhow...it's that funny!

Sixth-Boston's teacher told me months ago how great he is and how smart he is. That he picks up on things very quickly and that the only problem she can see in the future is that he will get bored in class because he will be ahead of all the other students. Homeschooling will be perfect because he can go at his pace, not the class pace.

Well there's lots of other confirmations, and I'm excited! I'm soooo excited! And if you read my blog from last week before I found out about the charter school situation you will see that deep down I really wanted to homeschool instead. A part of me wanted to, but I wanted to do God's will. God is good.

Lake beach and "Hess" b-day

Lots of beach play today!
Aunt Suzanne hangin' with Asher (and grading papers....ahhh!)

Daddy playing with the boys and making the slide a water slide

Asher and his pacifier...it's so funny to watch him put it in his mouth. He ate an entire banana today right from the banana peel. Just bite after bite. Amazing!

Getting everything set up to celebrate Uncle "Hess" (Wes as most people know him) 29th b-day party!

Can you fit 29 candles on there?

Asher in his b-day hat...too cute!

Daddy and Asher...cone heads

Surprise...Boston was so excited about getting ready for the b-day party. He just couldn't wait to get all the decorations outBirthday Boy!
Fire alarm!!!
Um...Hess....what are you doing to me?

Aunt Suzanne and Boston

PAAARRTTYYY!