LOVE DAY WITH MY LOVES!

Valentines day was perfect this year! it fell on a friday which was great! these were the cute little valentines peyton handed out to her class!

and this is what we made for her teacher!

the goodies for our babies!

that morning I took ry and bailey to school then we came back home to get the little ones ready they were excited to be dressed for the occasion!

after taking peyton to school I had a free breakfast meal at IHOP for my bday so brody and I went and ate breakfast for $4 (and that was for the tip and brodys drink : ) cant beat that!

after breakfast brody and I stopped at grandma and grandpa’s to visit for a bit then we had to run to a couple stores so I could finish up daddy’s goodie basket I made him! then it was time to head back to peytons school for her valentines day party!

I brought some mini cupcakes!

they had strawberry sherbet floats to drink! (they honestly had way too many sweets there in my opinion)

when the class played heads up 7 up brody just had to participate… even thought he had no clue what was going on lol

look what brandon brought home from costco… YUM!!!

daddy’s valentine from all of us!

grandma and grandpa came by to bring the kids treats and to celebrate my bday! so we got a heart shaped pizza from papa murphy’s and another pizza for the adults from JC’s pizza (and some wings for ryley)

my cute (and huge) ice cream cake they brought me from baskin robbins!

such a sweet day spending it with all my loves!

BYE-BYE “BINKS!”

On Monday night March 10th it was Brody’s last night to sleep with his binky (pic above), I had this date planned for a couple months, knowing he would be 3 1/2 in a couple months and that it was over a week i didnt have kids incase we were up a lot at night. the following morning I had done lots of talking about giving the binks away in exchange for a a new big boy toy! (he contemplated a lot that morning)

he said more than once, he don't like new toys, just binky’s so I was thinking this was not going to go so well! after dropping peyton off at school we headed up to the woodburn outlets, grabbed some coffee and chocolate milk

brody picked out some new Crocs

 
he picked out some Lego ones with cool super hero jibbitz!

then it was the big moment, when we pulled up to Toys R Us, he seemed just fine and ready..

after looking around each aisle for a good 30 minutes he decided on this dinosaur hot wheel track! (just look at that big sweet smile)..

waiting to hand over the binky’s.. which he did like such a big boy and with ease!

that night we went to the school carnival, and before bed I said a little prayer for him and he went to bed without his binky (although he did prolong bedtime which he normally don’t do), but he never asked once for it! I must admit that it did break my heart a little bit. “Binks” has always been his consistent “lovey” (along with his blankey) and I hated that we were taking it away. Honestly, the fact that he still used it didn’t bother me…even thought I knew he was WAY too old! But I knew it was time, mostly because of his teeth, they were starting to become pushed out. he was SO proud of himself the next morning when he woke up, and I told him he didn’t even wake up once and ask for his binky! If I’d known it would be this easy, I would have done it a lot sooner!!! but we are SO PROUD of this soon to be 3 1/2 year old big boy!
(cuddling with his blankey that night without his binky) : )

WHAT IS THIRTY-SIX?

Is thirty-six old?

I can’t really decide! its closer to 40…but not by very much. It still puts me in a category of “young adult”…which, does that make it old or young? Once again, I’m really not sure. But, I can tell you that Thirty-six is looking to be pretty great. And tiring. And fun. And busy. On February 12th I woke up to Thirty-six at 6:15 this morning to the sound of, “Mommy, I wet!” (he had leaked through his diaper) Bless him. Bless me. And, HELLO THIRTY-SIX!

In my world…
Thirty-six is being a Momma to a 15, 12, 8 and 3 year old.  

Thirty-six is being married for 12 1/2 years and loving that he’s still my favorite person on the planet to be with.

Thirty-six is lots of grocery shopping, transporting, wiping hineys…and picking up toys.

Thirty-six is unashamedly loving my suburban…and caring about landscaping/flowers…and wanting a newer, fancier washer and dryer!

Thirty-six is more Facebooking, Instagramming, Texting and Phone Calling to catch up with friends than it is Girl’s Nights Out and long, leisurely lunches

Thirty-six is spending about an hour each day in the car transporting kids to and from school and doing homework and making lunches and washing dirty clothes.

Thirty-six is being used to paying for things like my home, utilities, insurance, car payments etc.… (Even though I still feel like I’m too young to have responsibilities like that!) : )

Thirty-six is eighteen years since high school!!! MERCY!!!

Thirty-six is knowing the value of a good cup of coffee…a long bubble bath…a forever friend.

Thirty-six is wearing more leggings, yoga pants and flats…and less skinny jeans and high heals.

Thirty-six is prayerful…because I need it to survive and my kids need to see Grace!

Thirty-six is trusting in my Jesus more than ever…and realizing how thankful I am for the people in my life!

Thirty-six is here! And, I’m thankful for everything it is…and everything it’s going to be!

tonight we went to dinner at outback..

and I got a new lens for my camera!

I get to celebrate again on friday (valentines day!)

THETRUEFAM SURVIVED SNOWMAGEDDON 2014

Back in the beginning of february ( thurs feb 6th to be exact) the weather men had predicted lots of snow coming our way for the weekend… school was cancelled that morning because all around us towns were getting hit, we didn’t have anything yet but a few tiny flakes here and there, no daycare kids were coming that day so I loaded up the kids and we drove to target because I had seen just a few days before that all the snow/sledding equipment was on clearance, we grabbed a couple sleds (for $4 each and a toddler one for brody for $6 cant beat that!) grabbed a few things we needed for dinner that night and some starbucks and came back home to soon play in the snow!

poor brody and peyton asked at least 10 times when the snow was coming and finally around 1 pm that afternoon it started to fall in big pretty flakes!!!

and by 3:30 that afternoon we had this!!

the kids were loving it!!!

the next morning we woke up and had even more!!

friday brandon stayed home from work, and we drove the kids up to the sledding spot here in keizer!

our town looked so different with so much snow all around!

they all had a blast at the sledding hill!! so much fun!!

and the snow just kept coming down!!

saturday morning, we really needed to go to the store I was getting stir crazy, so brandon drove us up to keizer station to get some things at target, we also ate breakfast at mcdonalds (which never happens so brody and peyton were excited for that!)

and I got my free birthday starbucks drink!

sunday was still covered in snow!

made chili for dinner!

the girls went over to spend the night with alyssa and briana since we knew school would be cancelled monday!

here is a quick video I put together with different days of them playing in the snow!

Snow!!!