7 Years With Riley

Today we celebrate Riley's 7th birthday. It's amazing how fast the time goes by. Seven years ago today, at 4:09 P.M., our little Riley Steven came into the world. He was pretty much the most beautiful baby I've ever seen in my life and he has grown into such a cute little boy. He looks just like me, so I guess maybe that has something to do with it. LOL He is a very sensitive kid who gets his feelings hurt easily, but is such a little lover too. I guess he's like me in those emotional ways too. We just love his goofy, quirky little personality and are so blessed to have him in our lives. Thank you, Lord, for sending this little boy into our lives. My biggest prayer is that he will grow to love you more and more everyday and put you at the center of everything in his life.

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY, RILEY!

Look What I Won Today!!!

Yay, look at the awesome stuff I won today. I'm feeling mighty crafty lately, so I'll be excited to get all these goodies and play!

May Blog Candy & Giveaway at Ellie's Stamp Garden

Want Some Super Cute Stuff?

I just entered a giveaway for some super cute stuff! For some reason I've been really loving the idea of an apron lately. Not only are they cute, but it seems like everytime I make something like spaghetti, I somehow manage to splatter sauce on my clothes. When I'm making dinner before heading out somewhere and I splatter food on my clothes and have to go change, that just irritates me, but an apron would eliminate that problem. Besides the apron though, there is a cute little necklace and just about the most adorable soap I've ever seen, included in the giveaway. So, go take a peek and enter for yourself. Hurry though, because it ends May 30th!

Cupcake Couture Package Giveaway at A Psych Mommy

Yay For New Hair!

It's truly amazing what a good haircut can do for a person. I went from feeling blah and frumpy to feeling vibrant and cute within an hour's time. It surely helps that I have a friend who is a great hairstylist! Anyway, I'm just feeling rejeuvenated and wanted to share. If you're feeling blah and need a quick pick-me-up, I highly recommend a good new hairstyle and I have just the person you should go to if you live remotely near to me. Let me just say that my mom drives about half an hour to her to get hers done and my grandma traveled an hour to have her hair done by her because she loves what she does to mine and my mom's hair so much!

BEFORE


AFTER

A Little Mommy Love

Gavin is going on a field trip today and Riley wanted to have cold lunch just because Gavin was (they have hot lunch everyday), so they both took cold lunch today. I decided to stick a little note in each of their lunches just telling them how much I love them and that I thank God everyday that they are my sons. Hopefully I won't embarrass Gavin. I think Riley will love it though. I am excited to see what they think of me leaving little notes in their lunch to them.

Here's a little view of what the morning went like. I got the boys all ready and made sure they had everything they needed and we loaded into the van. I told Gavin to put his lunch in his backpack, but he said he wanted to carry it because he was afraid it would get crushed by the stuff in his backpack. We prayed together before we headed to the school and the morning was just going wonderfully. I took Gavin and dropped him off on his side of the school and told him I wouldn't embarrass him by kissing him in front of his friends, but I told him I loved him and he said it back and we high fived (hey, I'll take it). Then, I drove around to Riley's side, where he hugged and kissed me and we said I love you before he headed out. Asher and I headed home and I had just unbuckled his carseat and was having him grab some movies that were in the van from church when my cell phone rang. Seeing as Brian is the only one who has my cell phone number and he knows what time I get home from dropping the boys off, I knew it couldn't be fabulous news because he would've just waited and called me on our house phone when he knew I was home. I answered and heard "Gavin left his lunch in the backseat." Aaaaaahhhhh! This wouldn't be too big of a deal if I weren't in pajama pants and had ridiculous looking hair due to the fact that it was pulled all back from when I washed my face last night (did I mention that I am breaking out like a teenager?). I ran in the house and threw on some jeans, but had no time to do anything with my hair because by now it was 7:50 and the bus for the field trip was leaving at 8:00. I ran back up to the school and was hoping that I could just sneak into the office and have Gavin come down and grab his lunch. No such luck. In the office were 2 moms that I somewhat know because they were signing in to go on the field trip. I was so embarrassed. I looked so horrible! Gavin came down and grabbed his lunch and I told him to put it in his backpack next time, like I told him. He had this little grin and said "Ok, thanks Mom."

I hope that kid likes his note from me, in the lunch that I humiliated myself bringing to him after he forgot it in the car.

Just another day in mommy world.

One of the cutest things ever!

So, you may have read that blog I wrote about the pug I found on Friday and how the people were so excited and thankful to get her back. Well, today I'm here at home and the doorbell rings and when I go to the door, there is Maddie's (that's the dog's name) owner with flowers for me. She gave me a big hug and told me how thankful they were that I had found her and took such good care of her and that I had been out trying to find her owner. She had tears in her eyes and told me it just meant so much to her to have her back safe. It was so sweet and then she showed me the card in the flowers and said "These are from Maddie". The card read "Thank you from Maddie (the pug)". I just thought it was one of the cutest things ever. The flowers and her thankfulness just really made my day and I'm so glad I was able to reunite a family with the pet they love so much.


This is Maddie


These are the flowers her owner, Barb, brought me today.

Mom Spit Giveaway at Savannah Says

You'll want to check this giveaway out too!



Mom Spit Giveaway
@
Savannah Says

Soy Delites at Savannah Says

Check out this giveaway!



Soy Delites
@
Savannah Says

CustomizedGirl at Melinda Joy

So, I have a bit of an obsession with blog giveaways lately (I've already won a necklace, a pair of earrings, a shirt and two dresses) and today I found probably one of the coolest ones yet. It's a giveaway for a $25 Gift Certificate to CustomizedGirl and the giveaway is on the Melinda Joy Blog. Brian and I are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary in June and it would be so cool to have a cute shirt in celebration of it. In fact, I designed mine on the site already and I wrote "Love of a Lifetime" on it because that was our wedding song and I truly have found the love of a lifetime. Here's where you can see the shirt I designed, and I would highly recommend checking out both CustomizedGirl and Melinda Joy!

AllPopArt Contest

I just entered this AllPopArt contest at Confessions of a Housewife and I hope I win! This would be so awesome. I would get the scrapbook style vintage one to hang up in our hallway of our whole family. Here's hopin', right?!

There's a pug in my yard!

So, when I was leaving to take the boys to school this morning, we see this cute little pug on our street, sitting by our neighbor's car. When I come home, it's still there, so I decide to see what's up. Asher and I walked over (don't worry, I kept Asher at a distance since we don't know the dog) and I was talking to it and stuff, but it wouldn't move. Finally it got itself up and walked away from me a few steps. I went and got a piece of bologna and tore it up for it, but is didn't seem all that interested. The lady who is taking care of my neighbor came out and said that the dog had been sitting there by the car, ever since she came in for her shift (so almost 2 hours). She asked if I had an extra collar and leash and that maybe I would be able to get it to come with me if I had one. I went and got one and was eventually able to get the collar on and it was letting me pet it and jumped right up and came with me. I realized that it's a girl at that point (oh yeah, she had no collar or tags or anything, so I have absolutely no way of knowing where she belongs). She happily followed me into our backyard and got acquainted with our dog, Sasha. I posted that I found her on Craigslist and then Asher and I set off on a walk around the neighborhood with her to see if we could find her owner. We had no luck and every person we talked to said they had never seen her before. We came back home and she took residence on my lounge chair. The poor little thing wants to come in the house so bad, but I don't know if she will poop or pee in here and I'm not even about to be cleaning that up. Not to mention, I think she sheds and I'm not cool with that either. She is a noisy, snorty little thing too and I can actually hear her right now, even though she's outside and the windows are all shut. So, here I am with a pug in my backyard and I'm wondering what exactly I should do with her. I hate to take her to the humane society and I'm obviously not going to just let her loose back onto the street again. However, I've got my 3 year old niece coming today for the weekend and my 14 year old cousin coming over today as well. This should be interesting, to say the least.

UPDATE: I just found her owner about 10 minutes ago. I have had her since 8:00 this morning and just now found her owner at a little after 5:00. I decided to walk down the street with her again now that I know people are home from work and finally two cars came driving up to me and all the people were so excited! They just stopped their cars in the middle of the road and jumped out and were hugging me and everything. It was hilarious. This little dog is obviously loved. It was funny because I had just told Brian that I kept wanting to call her Maggie for some reason and then as I was walking away from the owners, I turned back and asked them what her name was and it was Maddie! Seriously? How the heck did I get so close? Anyway though, it's good to have her back where she belongs. My cousin, Bryan, is here and now we're just waiting for Payton to arrive. Things will be much less chaotic this weekend, now that there isn't another dog in the mix...I think.

What a beautiful day!

Today was my last day of Women's Bible Study until school starts up again in the Fall. We had a really great morning with lots of yummy food (the fresh guacomole was definitely my favorite) and just lots of talking and laughing. I am going to miss my Tuesday mornings with all those great ladies and learning about the Lord together, but at the same time, it will be nice to have a break from having to get Asher and myself out the door every morning when he is often not in the mood to go. After that, we came home and I spent some time just hanging out with Asher before reading him a book and putting him down for a nap. While he was sleeping, I did a few things around the house and putzed around on the computer for a bit and then I woke him up and went and got the other boys from school. We had tacos for dinner and then headed out for my cousin, Rachel's, softball game. It was nice to sit and chat with my Aunt Nette and Uncle Randy while watching the game and the kids enjoyed running around (when they weren't driving us crazy asking for something to drink). The weather was so nice and it was just a really nice day all around. Tomorrow I am opening up every window in the house in the morning and getting to some serious cleaning. My house has been terribly neglected lately and it is a shameful mess. Gotta get that taken care of before we have my niece for the weekend and then my sister and brother-in-law for a night as well. I guess I should probably get my butt to bed so I actually have the energy to clean tomorrow. Praise God for such a beautiful day and such a wonderful and blessed life!

In a bubble

That's what I feel like anyway. A few weeks ago I had a horrible cold where my ears were popped for days and it drove me totally nuts. It's been gone for a while now though, so it was all good. Then, Friday night on my way back from my sister's house, my ears just suddenly popped again. Out of nowhere with no reason I could figure out. It was about 1:30 in the morning and when I woke up at about 8:30, they were still like that. Then, by about 1:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, they were back to normal. Weird, but I was glad to actually be able to hear right again. Then, this morning I wake up to them being popped again and they still are. It's driving me totally nuts. I feel like I'm in a bubble. I can't hear right, I can't tell how loud I'm talking and if there is more than one noise going on at a time, I feel like my head could explode. That should be lovely when I'm in a gym full of teenagers tonight at church. I really wish I could just stay home and veg tonight. I'm tired and with the way my ears are, I feel all out of whack. I don't want to miss working with the kids tonight though and since we aren't meeting next week, due to the holiday, I really don't want to miss tonight. Tomorrow is an early morning too, with our last day of Women's Bible Study until school starts up again in the Fall and Asher has Storytales at church. Oh well, I'll get some rest sometime...maybe.

Ok, this is downright ridiculous!

It has now been over 4 months since I last blogged. That should give you an indication of how insanely busy and just plain crazy my life has been. We had a very tragic thing happen in our family at the end of January that rocked our world, but God has seen us through and we're taking it day by day. I pray that my sweet cousin is resting in the Lord's arms now. We had Asher evaluated for his stuttering and they have suggested that we put him in young 4s in the Fall so that they can keep an eye on it and get him any necessary speech therapy he may need. The great thing we learned through the process is that at 3 1/2 years old, he is doing most things at a 5 year old level, so he is very smart and the stuttering is really his only issue. Gavin finished another basketball league and it's still his absolute favorite thing. He also had the opportunity to take guitar lessons and did really well with those and will take the intermediate lessons in the Fall. Riley just had his class play and that was something he was really excited about. He was Papa Bear and he looked so dang cute. Things are winding down for me as far as some of the things I've been involved in at church, since school is almost out. My youngest sister, Delyn, is getting married at the end of June and we're excited for that. Life is really good and God is great as always! I'm gonna be keeping this blogging up again and look forward to getting back into the swing of it!