Dancing in the Rain

I got this sign with my mom - "Life isn't about waiting for the storms to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain". How true is this?!?

When we got home tonight, I thought the kids needed to play in the rain. Abby had a water gun that she would use to take water from a water puddle and put into her frisbe. Brayden enjoyed playing in the MUD puddle - my typical boy. Of course baby Coal helped them both.

Here is to dancing in the rain -

Getting Ready for Valentine's Day

We love to celebrate holidays, so we have started getting ready for Valentine's day. We have some decorations out and decided to do an initial batch of cookies.

This year the kids are getting Valentines daily. They each have their mailbox and when the flag is up, they have mail! We have been doing this for a couple of days now and they love checking for their flag to be raised. I think I may be having more fun than them when I pick out what to put in there!

Here is to adventures with Valentine's day ...

Kitchen Update

When we bought the house, we had these lovely hunter green laminate countertops and honey oak cabinets. Although there was 'nothing' wrong with them, we knew it wasn't for us and that it would be one of the first projects we did on the house.

This past weekend we FINALLY have the kitchen put back together. Brian painted the cabinets a dark brown, we had granite installed, Brian installed under-cabinet lights and he also added a backsplash. I am SO pleased with how it turned out! Probably one of my favorite things so far is the sink. This is the first time having a single bowl like this, but I think I am going to love it.

(Please ignore the curtains - we need to figure out something there. Actually, I need to sweet-talk my mom into making us something!)

Here are some before/after pics. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Brailee!

Yesterday was my nieces 6th birthday! One of Brailee's favorite places to eat is Naifehs, so we all headed there for her birthday dinner. Of course we had to have one person not attend - this time it was Brian. Our excitement over dinner included Brailee losing her first tooth! Based on the 'after' pics of her tooth missing, I would say she is pretty proud of it!

Happy Birthday, Brailee!

Our Growing Family

NO, we are not expecting again. But, we did welcome baby Coal to our family on Saturday.

The kids wanted a dog, but we said we would have to get a house first and then put up a fence. Well, we finally bought our forever home, which actually had a fence. So, the kids were ready. We talked about if they wanted a small puppy that turned into a small dog or a small puppy that turned into a big dog. They opted for small puppy into a big dog.

Brian & I decided on a boxer, Brian said it needed to be a boy and we all wanted a black dog.

We picked him out a couple of weeks ago, but he wasn't ready to come home with us until this past Saturday. The kids loved getting him toys, food and snacks. They were super excited to pick him up and originally loved him. Now they aren't so sure. As with all puppies, he loves to jump and bite. He will grab onto their clothes and not let go. Abs has decided she doesn't need to wear dresses anymore! Ha!

Here are a few pictures of baby Coal - lots more to come.

RAK in 2013

Over the holidays, I saw many posts about RACKing (Random Act of Christmas Kind). It was too much for me to do in December, but I LOVED the idea! So, I thought about switching it up a little and doing a RAK each month!

I really wanted to get the kids involved too. You hear so much about the bad things that happen in our world - why not do something good (even if it is little).

Here are a few rules we setup:
- Do a monthly RAK for somebody we know
- Do a monthly RAK for somebody we don't know
- Can spend no more than $20/month for both RAK's combined

For the month of January, we did a Valentine's RAK for somebody we know. We included a heart mini-cakes pan, cake mix, frosting, sprinkles, a heart box of tootsie rolls and some heart sticky notes.

We bought dinner at Chick-Fil-A (the kids FAVORITE place to go) for somebody we don't know. I felt a little guilty about doing this because we have done this RAK several times before. But, we have just been super-busy already this month ... I have traveled twice and Brian traveled as well, so I slacked a little here. Next month we will try to step it up a notch for somebody we don't know!

Check back next month to see what we RAKed in February.

Happy Birthday, Jason!

Today was my brothers 39th birthday. We were invited to a birthday dinner celebration, which we of course took my dad up on! Abby was so excited to go - she had to put on her pretty dress, curl her hair, put on makeup and wear her fancy shoes ... nothing but the best for Uncle Jason! We were sad because Koby wasn't there, but the kids had a good time - especially when it was time to open presents and eat cake!

Happy Birthday, Jason!