Super Saturday

Reece and Jalen played Disney Sorry but made up their own rules.

Reece taught Jalen how to build the Lego Ben10 guys.

Good friends!

Yay for Friday night sleepovers and Saturday play dates. Raine was super excited to be invited over to Kaylee's house. She hasn't been feeling well but this is such a special treat that I couldn't say no. She was so excited she helped pack her backpack with all the necessary supplies. Except a pull up and her toothbrush. I woke up at 12:00 worried she was going to pee all over her girlfriends. Thankfully she told Deidre she needed a pull up for bedtime.

Raine was anxiously waiting for me at the car.

The girls were ready for dinner, decorating cupcakes and a movie.

Reece was bummed but we arranged for his friend Jalen to come over on Saturday for a fun boys only playdate. Daddy worked on our front yard while the boys played. I had to run out and pick up Raine. Then we met a friend and her youngest kiddos for lunch and play time at BK. It was great catching up with her, poor Raine was so exhausted and fell asleep within 3 mins of our car ride home. Deidre said she asked to go to asleep at 8 pm when all of the other girls stayed up until 9 or so. All in all she had a blast. Reece and Jalen were starving by the time I made it home. They created their own lunch menus and then checked off what they wanted to eat. It was very cute and they sure did pick a lot of food. The boys jumped on the trampoline, built a fort, created Ben 10 aliens with legos and ran around like wild little animals. It was very fun and I would have Jalen over again and again.

The best part of the day was the fact that we found a babysitter and had a super fun date night. I called about 6 girls and they were all busy until one of my old students Shelby came through for us. We haven't seen her in a while so it was a real treat! Mo and I raced down to Firefly to meet Jenn and Mark for some delicious food and sangria, then it was off to the movies. We saw Just Go With It, which I found to be quite HILARIOUS!!! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. It was a great date but an all around perfect Saturday!

Imagination Movers LIVE

Once again we were blessed with free tickets to see this excellent show! The kids were surprised and ready to dance. Well Raine was anyway, Reece said this is for babies, but then danced all night long. We used to watch Choo Choo Soul & Imagination Movers all the time when we had the Disney channel. Now the kids watch it online. It was a a very fun evening out as a family.

The kids were jumping around dancing when I asked them to turn and look at me,

this is what I got. Silly faces indeed!

Cold Season

YUCK! It sure is hitting our house hard this winter season. I was finally feeling better but only because I passed all of my germs off onto my innocent little girl. She came home from school yesterday with the saddest looking bloodshot eyes, coughing and all stuffy. Raine climbed up onto my bed and requested to watch Beauty & The Beast. I snuggled with the poor thing for a bit then made some leftovers (Noni's not here to cook anymore). Before putting her to bed, I gave her a shot of medicine and prayed her cough would subside and let her get some much needed rest. No such luck, she was up all night long coughing and crying. At one point she was so warm I couldn't tell if she was breaking a fever or just to bundled under her covers. Either way I started calling friends to see if they could sub for me today. Two strikes and then I finally found one, third time is a charm. So here we sit watching Sesame Street and coloring. I hate that Raine feels terrible but I love snuggling with her.

P!nk - Raise Your Glass

Sigh

"I realized that I already know the things I need to do, which is different from all the things I could be doing. And here’s the trick: it’s more important to actually do those things that need to be done than to pursue the shiny new idea right around the corner.

Do fewer things.

Do them better.

It’s become my personal motto for the year. And the really great thing is that it extends to every area of my life: Work. Home. Personal life. Family."-Meagan Francis

I just read this on the Happiest Mom's blog and it made take a deep breath in relief. I have been trying so hard to focus on finding Peace and doing only what is necessary in 2011.

President's Day weekend was spent with my in law's visiting but was very uneventful. If I was feeling better I would have loved to venture out and play in the snow or take a hike at Red Rock but nope, I napped and layed around quite a bit. I didn't even go to church on Sunday but I did push myself to get up and meet the family for breakfast at Ihop and go out on a double date Sunday. We introduced the rents to Aliante Casino and saw Liam Neeson's movie Unknown then headed to dinner at Outback. We checked out the restaurants in the casino but they were a bit too pricey and the elder Hauguel's love Outback. It was a fun date but I had to call it a night at 9:15 because the sangria was kicking my tush and I could hear my bed calling my name. I carefully drove Syd the sitter home and crawled into my cozy bed (because mo bought me a new fuzzy green blanket) with my hot hubby.

On Monday I wasn't feeling very well at all. I stood in a steamy hot shower, ate some cereal and then crawled right back into bed. Mo was very busy creating a masterpiece in our front yard the entire weekend so after making the kiddos eggs in toast he went right back out to play in the dirt. Shortly after lunch, the grandparents loaded my kiddos into their rental car for a trip to the Shark Reef. As a mom, I was a bit taken back because it was the first time my kiddos had gone anywhere alone with their Noni and Pe Pere. I wasn't worried, just unclear of what I should do with myself. I curled up on the couch with my laptop and did what every good mom should do, watched some missed episodes of TV!!! It was very relaxing and just what I needed. I did feel guilty I was missing a fun trip with the kiddos but extremely glad they were able to have that special time with the grandparents from P.A.

Everyone came home happy as can be and with little souvenir turtles in hand. Pa Pere quickly offered to assist his son with the yard and Noni was headed to the store to buy food for dinner. I put Raine down for a nap and joined Noni for a trip to the food store to purchase some staples for the short school week. She was in search of all the ingredients to make a ham and baked mac n cheese dinner but had no luck finding a canned ham so she switched gears and bought a roaster chicken, fresh green beans, stuffing and rice. A meal we all know very well and love even more than ham. I ran around the store grabbing things here and there, feeling a bit of pressure to hurry up. After unloading the groceries, we started preparing the evening meal. I always enjoy cooking with my mother in law because she has super yummy meals made with the simplest ingredients. Reece can't get enough of her cooking either; he raves about them every night. The meal was wonderful once again and we all found some coloring or bible lessons to complete afterwards.

All of that to say we had an amazingly relaxing visit with the grandparents this past week. I feel like it was more meaningful than other visits they have had with us. I guess I am doing well doing fewer things and doing them better. Let's hope it continues ;)

Faith

‎"A little faith will bring your soul to heaven,

but a lot of faith will bring heaven to your soul"

~Martin Luther

Visit from Noni & Pe Pere

On Wednesday Noni & Pe Pere flew in from PA. It has been a wonderfully relaxing visit so far. We met them a for dinner at Outback and enjoyed some yummy food. The kids were starving from a long day of school and a visit to the eye doctor. They gobbled up their dinner and chatted with their grandparents.

Thursday and Friday I was blessed with homemade meals, Chicken Paramsian and London Broil made by Noni. I love to come home from work to a home cooked meal that I didn't have to prepare! It is so nice, I would have no problem hiring a professional chef to cook me meals nightly.

Saturday we ran earned as a family and ended up at Mimi's Cafe for breakfast. It was busy but productive morning. Mo bought me a new fuzzy fleece blanket for our bed. It used it to take a wonderful nap. The grandparents visited and hung out and Noni made us my favorite meal fried flounder, veggies and rice. It was so fantastic.

Raine is starting to read

Raine wants to learn how to read so badly that at night she asks Jesus to help her learn how to read. I am so excited for her. I asked her future kindergarten teacher for some books for her to start with. She said those pictured at the bottom of this post were too easy. So I grabbed her some level 1 books from our school lit lab. Raine was thrilled, she has read all 7 books every night this week. I guess I better get her some more...