Cow Appreciation Day

We enjoyed our FREE combos from Chick-Fil-A this year! We dressed up for both lunch AND dinner to make the most of this fun day! We missed last year so I made sure not to miss out this time. :) Here's some pictures of my little "cow" kids.

We had lunch with the Martins after we worked out at the YMCA.



for dinner, we met our neighbors. Mike was a good sport and wore the cow costume Kristine found for $2 a few years ago. who knew that costume would get him free food once a year! :)

we were able to wear some of the cow print costume stuff that Mimi made for last Halloween. see Addison in her cutie patootie little vest! :)

here's Mike! the funny thing was there was another guy eating his dinner wearing the SAME costume. it was hilarious!

my little "cow" girl!


say "MOO"

Race for the Cure 5K

Today I ran The Race for the Cure 5K supporting Breast Cancer Research. It was SO much fun. I love the race atmosphere...so inspiring! I had two friends running today that had never run a 5K before so that was very exciting. My friend and neighbor Andrea and my friend Heather from church. I was SO proud of them. Y'all know, not too long ago, I started my running journey so to inspire a friend is almost mind boggling to me! :) They did awesome and should be SO proud of this accomplishment!

Erin ran with me. It was wonderful to have my running buddy by my side! She was SO supportive of me while I was training for the 1/2 and I truly miss our runs together. As soon as this weather cools down a bit, we'll be back together more often I'm sure! Another neighbor and friend, Terri, also ran with us and was so supportive of Andrea during the race. I am often reminded of the answer to prayer my sweet neighbor friends are! The Lord knew what he was doing when he put us in this house. I believe that! Our friend Vita came out to meet Andrea at the finish line and Brian and the kids were at the finish line to support Heather. On the shuttle bus home, Andrea, Terri and I laughed at how much we had accomplished and it was only 8:30am. Nothing like starting the morning off with a bang! right! :)

One more thing...if you ever do this race let me tell you in advance it is VERY hilly! Don't let ANYONE tell you it's not. Man, it's probably better that I didn't know it was so hilly! Whew! and it was HOT too! I can't tell you how much I prefer to run in the fall and winter months. :) Finished in 32:03 according to the watch...they haven't posted the official times yet but that's a 10:20 pace and I was happy with that.

Erin and me...so thankful for this girl!


WOO HOO Heather! This was before the race started. She was very nervous and I SO remember that feeling.

YAY ANDREA and TERRI!!! WAY TO GO!!! You girls ROCK! :)

All finished!

I really do enjoy these races! I'm sure glad Katy inspired me to get into running! Katy...have that baby so we can do a race together. I'm gonna try and get faster for you! :)

Meal Swap at Chili's

My 10 Bags of Tamale Pie - I set them on the counter and dumped all the ingredients in the bags. Pretty easy! The "hardest" part was browning the 10 pounds of beef! AHHHH! That's a lot of beef! :)

I bagged the pie mixture and then bagged the cheese in a snack baggie. I put the pie and cheese into another bag with the recipe facing up so they could see what meal it was.

Here is my cooler, ready to go. They each needed to grab one bag from the cooler and one box of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix.

So I've been doing this kind of cooking for a few years now, batch cooking and then freezing it. We've tried to cook as a ladies event with our small group from church every so often and it's been fun but this time we decided we would make 10 meals of the same recipe and then we would meet at Chili's for dinner and swap meals before we left. It was GREAT and so fun! We must have looked a sight laying out our meals on the curb at Chili's! ha ha!!! I can't believe that NO ONE in our group had their camera! The picture would have been priceless! I loved assembling the meals at home, I loved getting to go out to eat with some great friends, and most of all...I LOVED coming home with 9 different meals that we will be able to enjoy this month (left my meal I made for our family at home in my freezer).

If you haven't tried cooking ahead like this you really must try it...just once!!! It is a life saver as a mom. That 4-6pm time frame for most families with kids can be a little scary and if you haven't thought about dinner until then you are probably going to end up ordering pizza or eating something not so homemade or delicious! You've been there, I know! :) Try it, you'll be hooked and you won't want to go back to the old way! :)

Kid's night at Chick-fil-A

Here is Lindsay as a Butterfly and Harrison as Batman. You can't see the two points to his mask because they are under his bangs. BUT, if you'll notice...this is how I like his hair! :)


Look at the cute couple! We love the Megilligan family so if Harrison is ever interested in Lindsay, well we would have ABSOLUTELY NO problem with that! :)

We met the Megilligan family at Chick-fil-A on Tuesday night. It's kid's night and if you buy an adult combo then you get a free kid's meal. Anthony's out of town so it sounded like a GREAT idea. I was SO happy that Janet suggested getting together! I needed some adult time! :) The place was hoppin'! They had face painting, as you can see, and balloons. They practically gave us ALL of the balloons to take home being as they were just going to be popped. I'm not even holding the Megilligan's balloons. :) It was a fun time! The kids kept saying "this is SO fun" every time they would pass our table!

Thanks Brian, Janet, Austin, Lindsay, & Reece for hanging out with us!!! We had a blast!

Oh, I forgot to say, this was Harrison's first time having his face painted. He's never been interested before. I always say, it has to be HIS idea for ANYTHING to sound good to him. In order to get a balloon, you had to have your face painted so I guess that is what sealed the deal for him. He LOVED it. He was SO proud of it! However, on the way home, he realized he wouldn't be able to be Batman forever. He wanted to know if he could keep it on his face for school in the morning. After I broke the news, he was so upset. I convinced him not to cry in the car on the way home, as that would completely ruin his face paint, but after we got home he just moped and moped. At some point, Jackson threw a toy at him and he started bawling! Then he started bawling even more when he realized his paint was coming off! "MOM, look at it! I'll NEVER get to do this again! They'll NEVER be there again!" sob, sob, sob. Pour guy! Who knew he'd be such a fan of the face painting! :)

Hopefully, for his sake, he'll get to have his face painted again soon...

out on the town

i've been trying to make sure we have a least a few morning activities each week. it's hard for all of us if we are in the house the entire day...although sometimes that would be easier for me...it leads to WAY too many discipline problems. trying to keep busy to keep the boys making good choices when it comes to behavior. we're adjusting on two fronts...new job for daddy and new baby in the house. so it's better for everyone if we are getting out and about! :) the boys are doing great and each week seems like it's getting better and more "normal".

i am LOVING life with my three!!! the work is worth it and i'm loving every minute of these three precious children!!! just trying to take one day at a time! ;)

first movie at 6 1/2 weeks old


went to the free movie last week with friends from church and saw Jimmy Neutron. it was a great distraction for the kids and nice to be able and sit in a dark place and relax for a bit! :)


another day we met friends at jumpin beans and got the kids wild energy out. perfect activity for little boys...and girls! :)

sunday afternoon with friends

Sunday afternoon, May 4th, the boys spent the afternoon with some friends from church while mommy was experiencing some "false" labor. It's didn't feel very false and was quite painful but the hospital was able to make it go away and sent me home to wait a little longer. :)

As you can see from the pictures, the boys had a blast! I'm so thankful for the friendships that we've made in our Life Class and thankful that the kids are making friendships as well! Laura is fast becoming a professional with the camera. She's going to take pictures of the baby when she arrives and I can hardly wait! I know they will be incredible! I think we've found our new family photographer! :) Thanks Laura & Geof for taking our boys and entertaining them for the day! It meant so much to know they were in good hands!

Harrison

Jackson

Brothers (this picture was obviously before his haircut! :))

Harrison & Addie - this little sweetheart has taken a liking to Harrison and it's the cutest thing! Harrison doesn't mind the attention at all and I'm told they were quite cute hanging out for the afternoon! :)


They even got to go to Jack's house for a bonfire and s'mores! Although most of the kids wouldn't even try the s'mores because the marshmallows looked brown and yucky. :)

Jackson and his good buddy Jack

Jackson is quite the baby lover. He can't keep his hands off of them! He was able to get a lot of practice trying to be "gentle" while playing with Sam and Ellary. He just loves babies...sometimes a little too much! :)

Friday night at the Barbours

One of the couples in our LIFE class has opened up their home on Friday nights for anyone in the class to come and hang out. Heather & Brian have been very generous to welcome all of us with NO limits! This past Friday is the first time we've been able to make it since they started a few weeks ago and it was a lot of fun!! The guys stayed in the front room pretty much the entire time, the ladies in the family room with all the babies and everyone else, 2 & up, was upstairs playing and enjoying each other (for the most part :)). Thanks Heather & Brian for opening up your home and making us all feel so welcome! We look forward to the next time...

A morning at Elmcroft...

Jackson & Caden working on their Gingerbread Men

The residents just loved seeing the children! Jack wondering what Mrs. Beth is up to!

Suzanne helping her sweet Melody.

Jackson wore his Reindeer Antlers because he knew the residents would love seeing them. He was a hoot, as always!

The real fun began when the balloons came out. Ms. Betty was Jackson's new best buddy! They hit the balloon and kicked the balloon back and forth to each other. Jackson just laughed and laughed.

Kelly, one of my friends from our Life Class at church, invited us to the nursing home on Friday morning to do an activity with the residents. Kelly's mom, Terry, is the Activities Director at Elmcroft so she had planned a craft for us to do. The kids had a ball and the residents just loved seeing all the little children. Baby Caroline and Baby Sam sure got some smiles as well! It was a great morning spent at Elmcroft and we're looking forward to the next time! :)