Halloween?

Introducing......The Rock LOBSTER!!!
Rocky peeking out of his baby "Snuggie".
Do these glasses make my cheeks look big?
Meet my second daughter Coopertina! This picture kills me!!! Cooper and Matt have been begging me to let him have long hair. I have been trying to talk him out of it for months. So when he asked me to trim his bangs so they weren't in his eyes, I was thrilled!! Well lets just say I don't have ANY hair cutting skills besides the old buzz. Somehow the little trim that I meant to do turned into INCHES of hair in the garbage can!!! I almost cried when I realized he looked like a girl/Star Trek character. I apologized to him for making him look like a girl and the next thing I know he comes out in this get up! I can't even remove the red eye because it just goes with the nightmare that I created. I have tried to bribe him into letting someone fix it, big problem, he LOVES his new do! AGHHHHHHH!!!!

We LOVE our teachers!!!

We absolutely love our teachers this year! Ruby's class just did a darling assembly about effort. They learned a "Zumba" dance. Ruby LOVES Mrs. Garl (me too!)!!! Anytime there is a snow day, she is so disappointed. I can't believe my baby girl is almost 8!!!
Cooper at the VERY top of the climber at Wonderlab. Notice his cute scruffy bangs :(
Mrs. Behne is another one of our favorites. Cooper told me that she is as crazy as me! Now that is pretty crazy!!! Mrs. Behne likes to steal Rocky every chance she gets. Cooper is a stinker and won't let me get the 2 of them in a picture, so I had to post a picture of Cooper Junior. The day that Ruby fainted, Mrs. Behne tended Rocky for me while I took Ruby to the doctor. So sweet!

I am so thankful for these 2 ladies and for the amazing teachers they are for my kids.

The BLOG book!!!

It's HERE!!! I finally finished my blog book! Some of you asked what a blog book was earlier. There is a company, Blurb.com, that will "slurp" your blog off the internet and plop it into a book publishing program. You can choose to have them do it for you or edit your book the way you want it. I spent 3 months making it the way I wanted. Matt's undergrad degree was Graphic Design, so he gave me lots of great tips. I ended up spending about $60 of my birthday money (yea, I am proud of myself for spending it on me, I am not good at doing that). It was totally worth it. Now I have a hard copy of part of my blog (I have way too much on there to fit into one book). The kids LOVE seeing themselves in a real book and I am pretty dang proud of it myself!

Matt and I went out on a hot date to SWEET GRASS and ordered a FRIED TWINKIE (which is funny because we think Twinkies are nasty and we are not so into fried foods). As we were telling our kids about it, we discovered they had no clue what a Twinkie was! It was one of those parenting moments where we knew we had at least done something right!

This morning we told our kids that school was ON (after 7 snow days!!!). Coop was totally bummed. He said, "Just because we have school, doesn't mean we have to go!!!!

Fun with magazines!

There was a crooked man and he had a crooked smile!


When you are a married to a student, it is all about cheap entertainment!

Shiver me timbers!!!

I asked my dudes what they wanted for Valentines. Their requests were simple, Cooper wanted his own watermelon and Ruby wanted strawberries. I am amazed I found watermelon in this FRIGID little place. You would have thought I had given Cooper $100! He loved his melon.

We have had SEVEN days where school was CANCELED!! Seriously!!! Each morning, we have to check the Monroe County Community School Corp website to see if school is on or delayed! We have had tons of fun reading, sleeping in, art projects (see above), movies, and lots of hot chocolate. Cooper played outside for 2 hours and it was 11 degrees!!!! The snow is too dang cold to build a snowman. We just found 3 huge chunks of frozen snow, stacked them, and stuck our "snow man kit" in it. We have a sweet pile of snow that is about 10 feet high in front of our house. I love how excited my dudes get about snow. We saw some kids sledding and Cooper said, "Look at those kids saucering!" What a great word, that will forever be a part of our families vernacular!
This was our clever little valentine for our Pa Paw's and Ma Maw's (that's what you call em these parts).

Roses are Red,
Grandparents are sweet,
We love you so much,
Here are our FEET!

Gratitude

Warning, this will be a sappy post, but I have to get it out of my system. I have been trying not to stress out over the past few weeks. It is really scary not having a job this close to graduation. We have no clue where we will be at the end of the summer, no clue of what our future holds in store for us. Then I was worrying about Ruby, I would panic every time the phone would ring, hoping she was alright. I always stress about being a good mom, wife, money, when my pants will fit again, etc.

Sunday I was fasting over some of these worries. I was reading the cover of the Sacrament Meeting program about contributing generously to those who desperately need it in Haiti. There was something about their uncertain futures in the paragraph that hit me like a ton of bricks. You know their situation, many of them have NOTHING.

Later in the day I stumbled upon this blog (warning, you will need an entire box of Kleenex). It REALLY helped me put my life into perspective. I have given my kids a lot more lovin and tried to focus on what matters most.

I still don't have any concrete answers to my questions and that is OK. I am so very blessed. I know that I have a Heavenly Father that loves me and He is aware of my little family and our needs. If I stress over the things that stress me out, it doesn't help. What I can do is do my best at being a mom, a wife and a daughter of my Heavenly Father. I just have to keep on keepin on to the best of my ability!!!

February Fun

This is the snow we got AFTER the snow day! I could just kiss those cheeks right off that boy!
2 of my favorite Valentines! Ruby has been doing just fine since she fainted AND her momma is calming down. Thanks for all your prayers.
Yum! Those are not cavities, just chocolate! The tooth fairy did just pay a visit tonight. She actually had to borrow $1 from Coop's piggy bank, but don't worry, she'll pay it back! Here are 2 videos of all the excitement (pre extraction pumping up, and it's out!)
Play ball! Looks like Rocky has the balls in his CHEEKS!

Are you kidding me?

All week we have been hearing about this killer storm that was going to pummel us. They cancel school quite often so I planned on checking the internet early in the morning on Friday so I could sleep in if school was canceled. I checked at 5:30 am as Matt was getting up, and sure enough: SNOW DAY! Matt looked out the window and there wasn't a flake in sight! I kept thinking this HUGE storm was coming. Well look how much snow we had at 2pm! We had to make our own snowflakes to celebrate the snow day! The storm was supposed to hit at 4 am but didn't do much until about 6 pm. It still was only a couple of inches, but it was pretty slick.

SCARY!!!

Today I had a message on my phone to call the school nurse immediately. I freaked out knowing that for sure one of my kids had LICE! Luckily my crazy lice phobia didn't let my mind wander. When I got a hold of the nurse, she informed me that Ruby had fainted and was still very pale and clammy. At that point I really started to panic, it wasn't funny anymore. That drive was one of the longest 5 minute drives I have had. Ruby was as white as a sheet and just staring at all the grown ups looking at her. They told me she had just picked up her lunch tray and collapsed. Her eyes were open but she was completely unresponsive for a couple of minutes. Her cheek was bruised from her face landing on her tray. Luckily her PB&J cushioned the fall. The pediatrician told us to come right in. Everything looked fine, they thought she may have had low blood sugar. I hate how my mind always jumps to the worst possible case scenario; vertigo, diabetes, brain tumor, seizures, etc. They assured me that one isolated incident was nothing to cause alarm. Still alarmed!!! She seemed fine for the rest of the day. Please keep my Rube Dawg in your prayers.