Why I Love My Family

There are a MILLION reasons why I love my family but yesterday and today gave me a few more reasons why:
Yesterday I looked at the calendar and realized Valentines Day Weekend ALSO is Presidents Day Weekend so we have Monday off. I sent a quick email to Tim and asked him what he thought about taking the kids and Mickey (our dog) down to Gatlinburg for the weekend, I got an email back within minutes saying "WHY NOT, we love to travel, let's do it, heck yes!!!" So we booked a BEAUTIFUL 3 bedroom cabin in Gatlinburg for 3 nights that is pet friendly. We will leave Friday afternoon and return Monday night. I love my families love for travel and how important it is to us. For us, it is all about making memories that last a lifetime for us in our marriage and our kids, which actually leads me to the next point. . . . . . .
FRIDAY NIGHTS IN OUR HOUSE! It has become our tradition that on Friday nights we go out for dinner which is awesome (tonight we went out and celebrated Luke's b-day and they sang to him which he loved) and then we usually hit Target or Walmart for a bit to get stuff for the weekend or for Family Night (candy, snacks, etc.). Then we head home, put on comfy clothes and play a family game. These games usually consist of made up things like foil baseball, etc. Tonights game:

That's right, a TEENIE TINY baseball bat and a nerf football- we used it to play homerun derby. Tim and I took turns pitching to the kids and to eachother:


The rules were, if you hit the back wall of the dining room HOMERUN. We put a laundry basket on the dining room table: if you made it in there a bonus 5 runs : )

The kids stayed pretty even the whole game, and enjoyed the game emensely:





Tim was schooling me until the final round where I got TWO in the basket. Tim then came back in the final round and beat me by 2! Bummer, but what a fun night.
This is one of the MANY reasons why I love my family!!!!!
So....... this time next week we will be in a beautiful cabin in Gatlinburg, wonder what games we will think of for family nights there!?!?!

Tomorrow............ my baby turns 8 years old, I can't believe it!!!!!!


I'll update with his big day later on this weekend, I'm sure it will be great. I am so blessed to be his mother!

Dinner Gone Wrong and the Small Things in Life

So Tim, being the wonderful husband that he is was going to prepare dinner for us tonight when I got home from work. He was so proud of the recipe he had found on his iPhone for blackened chicken. Well, I noticed the kitchen filling with smoke as he cooked:


Then the whole house filled with smoke and we had to open windows and cover our noses and mouths due to the overpowering smell of spices, poor Tim:


Needless to say we ended up getting dinner from LaRosa's : ) After the smoke cleared we did taste the chicken however and it wasn't that bad, I think he saved it for his lunch tomorrow.

THE SMALL THINGS IN LIFE:
My best friend Kristen who I grew up with married an airforce lifer and they currently live in Germany. Several years ago when they were stationed in Washington D.C. Tim surprised me with a ticket to go visit Kristen for a weekend in D.C. long story short we got lost on the way to the airport and I missed the flight. Luke was 4 at the time and VERY upset I was leaving without him and we ended up buying him a ticket and the two of us went to visit Kristen. It was such a wonderful and memorable trip. One thing that is funny is Kristen had the most UNBELIEVABLE soft towels EVER!!! Luke and I talked about them forever and we told Kristen that in every store we are in we feel the towels and say "nope, not as soft as Kristen's". We honestly do this ALL the time, in EVERY towel section in EVERY store.
Well.................... Kristen sent Luke a present for his b-day and since he wasn't feeling well this week we let him open it early:

She bought him his own set of towels : ) Have you ever seen a kid so excited to receive a towel for a b-day present in his life.


He immediately wanted to shower. He has set the towels aside and has instructed us that they are "his towels" and no one is allowed to use them.

You HAVE to love GREAT friends, good memories, and the simple things in life!!!!

Superbowl and an uninvited new pet

Well, we hosted this years Superbowl party at our house. We ended up having FORTY PLUS people over. Tim and I worked hard to get the house ready, here are some of the decorations I put up:




This doesn't even touch it because I didn't take pics of the basement with the big screen where we showed the game or all the food after it was all put out, but it looked pretty good.
Here are Tim and Luke before the big game:


We had an incredible time, I think we hosted a pretty good party : ) and fun was had by all. I still can't believe the amount of people crammed in here but it was very fun. I wouldn't mind hosting again actually, it was kind of nice having it on our home turf. The Steelers won which made Tim (a HUGE Steelers fan) VERY happy!

Then onto our "uninvited new pet" part of this post. . . . .. . . . . . . .. .
Lauren went to a birthday party on Friday. Now maybe I am "out of touch" but normally when you go to a birthday party and party favors are handed out they aren't living things........................... not this b-day party. My daughter arrived home from the party absolutely thrilled that EVERY SINGLE CHILD AT THE PARTY was given one of these:

Lauren and Luke have named him (if it is a him : ) "Goldie" and they are thrilled with their new pet. I really don't mind that much, he's obviously pretty darn easy to take care of but COME ON!!! If you were giving out fish as a party favor wouldn't you ask first???? I've never owned a fish before but am hoping he doesn't last until Spring Break when we go out of town for a week, I don't want to have to manage "fish sitting", I already have a dog and a cat to deal with on that end.
As I type this we are in the middle of another HUGE snow storm, it is snowing 2 inches per minute and my poor mom is stuck in it trying to get home, this weather is crazy! I'm ready for the beach, come on Spring Break!!!!