Remembering the past

I had a beautiful time with John and the boys yesterday, going back to visit some of the small towns John grew up in. I have always heard the stories but to actually see them and most importantly see the memories and excitement just ooze from John was more than my heart could handle. It was sooo neat to see him all giddy over everything and walk around these precious towns with him. Here's a glimpse into our memories!

Louise, TX...I love old watertowers

Standing in front of lumberyard his dad used to work at.  Those were the doors to his dads office.

The house John lived in, that I would love to live in now.  It was seriously the cutest ever!

The "Church House" another house he lived in, that was having a garage sale so we got to go up close.

The big house, yet another he lived in.  It was being remodeled so we walked all around it.

Shots through the windows

Love this front door.  Such charm

Priceless Picture

Havin a dance party with the cousins

Takin a rest, dancing is exhausting :)

Let the weekend begin

After a kind drive and a near missed robbery, we have finally made it. Yes i said robbery! One of the gas stations we stopped at had just been robbed 30 min before we got there. We pulled up about 5 min after police left. I was in the store when he told another guy so I just slipped my stuff back on the shelf and we hit the road. Most of the stations along the way are pretty shady and I wasn't waiting for the guy to come back and get the money he'd missed- per cashier!!!! But we made it safely and eventually got our red bulls :D

The boys has a good time playing with "Uncle" Kim and Uncle Larry before it was time to go back to bed. We got in around midnight so they way needed to be back asleep! *by the way uncle Kim is really aunt Kim, Seth just calls them both uncles. We thought it was cute, so it's stuck :)

After we got the boys down I finished up most of my homework -boo that had to come with us. Now it's way late 3:37 actually, and after a 7 hr drive I'm exhausted. But homework's done and won't have to mess with it and can enjoy being with family.

Tomorrow John has the day planned to take us to Louise and El Campo, two small town he grew up in when he was little. He's soo excited which makes me excited. How cool to show the boys where daddy used to live. Can't wait to share pictures with all of you too!

But for now I'm going to bed...goodnight

Hi, my name is Kristi and...

I have become seriously obsessed with crafting blogs!!!!!  I'm talking I really need some help here.  I've got a fever, and the only prescription is...more craft blogs!  So in case you need to feed your obsession as well, here's some of the new one's I've found. 

For the more organizational person.  I love her music also.

For those needing a muti craft fix in one stop.  She is hosting Crafting with the Stars, so if you read this before 10am today, check her out and cast your vote!!!!  LOVE LOVE LOVE the book clutch!!!

Crafting with humor, check out my new "friend".  *can you be friends with someone if the other person doesn't know your her friend?  hmmmmm...

And if you know how to sew or want to learn, take a peek here

And last but not least, she is quickly becoming one of my top favs!

So hope you enjoy these.  I'm working really hard to get my life organized and allow time to craft as much as I used too.  I miss it soooo much.  I hope to be included in the ranks of these great ladies one day and have a crafting blog.  How fun would that be!!!!!

Have a Terrific Tuesday :)

Whew!

Wow, I don't know about you guys, but I need a weekend to recover from my weekend!!!

Friday we had a great time with some of the mom as we went on a "safari' at the bank. 

Then Saturday, wow that's a day I could have gone my whole life without having.  It was a stressful day worrying about a friend that decided it was best to take drastic measures with his life.  It took most the day, but he was finally found and is alive.  Thank you to all who helped me pray for him, I truly believe that is the only thing that saved him and kept him alive until he was found. 

In between worrying and trying to find him, I did enjoy some time with my boys.
We all had a towel popping fight and ran and chased each other around the house, then a game of hide and seek before it was time to eat.  We cheated for supper and grabbed some takeout since it had been so stressful.  Boys had McDonalds and we ate yummy Panda Express!!!  Then we watched some old school reading rainbow thanks to netflix...LOVE netflix people!

Sunday, Daddy stayed home with A, while Seth and I went to church.  We had a great time at church and the kids and I laughed sooo hard.  *I am the children's church leader.
That night, John made us supper while I worked on homework, and it was the best grilled cheese/soup night ever!!!

All weekends go by fast, but his one was gone before I even got done blinking.  Next weekend we are going to Victoria to see John's brother and his family.  I can't wait.  We always have such a great time when we are with them.  We are borrowing John's moms car-she offered since we had planned on a rental.  Plus John got Friday off, so we'll be leaving Thursday night and have all day Friday with them.  So looking forward to a nice little break!!  Now I'll leave you with a cute Aaron video

What I cherish

Are those late night whispers with your little ones as you are putting them to bed.

Aaron version is hugging me around the neck as he sings Elmo's World and knowing he's asleep when the fading song is replaced by tiny snores!

I love this special time with Seth as we whisper talk, tell stories and share little giggles. Then right before he drifts to sleep the heart-melting "I love you mommy".

Memories for my heart!

It's my blog and I can cry if I want to!

So not too much crying, more like an exhausted sigh!  Aaron has been sick with an ear infection and let me tell you people...he is a bear!!!!  This is how we made it through the last couple of days.  Keep in mind he's 14 months and 24lbs.

Busted out the baby wrap

The look I got most the day. (he ate lunch this way, excuse the messy face)

Seth needed to give it a try lol

same wap and cute grouchy face, different day.  *you can tell he doesn't feel good*

managed to finally get a smile!

What happened when Daddy tried to give Mommy a break

Did go over well

Now we are a little happier!

Seriously, how cute are freshly bathed kids!!!!

We survived the day, although the house was a total disaster for John to come home too.  On top of A being fussy, I was swamped with housework and stressing about taking food to a friend who just had a baby.  In the end I opted to deliver my food another day, I got all my homework done before John came home *even squeezed in a small amount of cleaning beforehand.  We decided not to cook and Seth picked take out from the chicken place.(aka KFC/Taco Bell)  He eats so well from there, so I choked down a grilled stuffed burrito because I'm nice like that. ;)  Ended with a little paper airplane battle and chocolate chip cookies for the big kids after the little ones were in bed!

I love cilantro!!!!

Seriously, I love it's fresh smelling goodness and the way it turns anything into yummy deliciousness. Amanda I know you love it as much as I do, so if were were dating (crazy but go with it for for the sake of my thought) I'd totally bring you a cilantro bouquet. Weird I know, but you'd love it! :)

I also love my sentsy warmer and have decided that my new favorite smell would be for them to make a cilantro scent. You have every other food smell, so why not right!. I'd love it, and it would smell so fresh and herbish.*is herbish a word?

So enough of my weird post. But I'm tellin ya, cilantro in some serious goodness!!!!

It's started!

School has started back, and im suffering from the overwhelming "oh man, what was I thinking?!!!"  It is my first full week and I already have more assignments then I know what to do with.  But, I will get them done.  Some right on time, but done!!!

I have found a new scheduling system that I think is going to work great.  I have scheduled out my housework, homework, down time, school reading, personal reading and still have time for family.  I am determined not to get back into doing homeworkd from 10 till 2 in the morning.  I am going to be in bed by midnight-running late tonight but as soon as I hit post i'm there!

This weekend has been a little crazy because A has been sick.  I took him in last Friday and it was just his molars and some fluid buildup but no infection.  Welp, screaming and fever last night and infection today.  He's on meds now, so should be cleared up soon.  We were home from the dr no more than an hour that S didn't start bad coughing and complaining about his throat huring...sheesh!  I'm ready for spring and this crazy weather to go away.  They said we might have more snow this week.  If it's going to be cold and snow then let's stay that way till it's time to warm up.  18 to 56 is doing nothing but keepin us sick.  Our family is just getting it out of the way now, so we have a sickfree spring/summer!

Oh and guess who is now and iphone user...ME!!!  I am loving it!  I got it today and by got I mean I finally found where A had carried it off to.  John got it used from a friend, then his upgrade was up and went to a droid of somesort (I really don't care about techy stuff) and he gave it to me.  It was sitting around for a while, when A grabbed it.  I didn't really care about swithing over till I found out about some grocery and health apps.  So after a week of tearing the house apart, I finally found it in the bottom of my material bag, inside my sewing cabinet!  I love you A.  We'll see if it's all they say it is.

Can't wait to post some cute pics tomorrow :)

Stick with me here

This post will be a little lengthy, but it's all interesting I promise!
So first, I ask you to be in prayer and thoughts with me about something.  I was approached last night about a possible job as an independent contractor to CPS.  I would be taking court ordered clients/CPS referrals and helping them with parenting issues, budgeting, lifeskills or whatever the need might be.  You set your own hours and case load, and the person who currently has the job is working 6hrs a week. (Evenings and Saturdays)
I will be hearing more on Friday, but want to be in prayer about this now!  As most of you know, CPS is where I planned to hoped to work after the boys were in school.  But this could be the small opportunity needed to get my foot in the door.  It's also what I'm going to school for currently.  I am double majoring in psychology and sociology.


School, that's one reason I want to make sure this is a God lead decision.  I am taking 15hrs and do not want to overload myself and affect my grades.  Nor do I want to overextend myself and take time away from my family.  Help me to know the right decision Lord!!!!


Now for a feel good.  Over at, you guessed it, Momma.Roar as John calls it, she has started a new series called Wake Up Wednesday.  Last weeks challenge-which I didn't do-was to make something and give to a person you know but not very well.  This weeks challenge is to complement strangers.  I look forward to posting my experience with this next week.  And while we are on the topic of my favorite blog, let me just tell you how EXCITED I am because my blogging hero left me a comment!!!!!  Yes that's right, I got a comment from Cheri and if you could have only seen me last night hahahaha.  Lucky I looked at the time Tonya or you would have gotten a text instead of my excited email!   Yes, silly I'm sure, but seriously this woman has over 3000 followers and although it was thanking me for a comment I left her, she didn't have to take the time to do that.  And time is what it took since I checked it only 10 minutes after she posted and she already had 35 comments!!!!  I could have easily gotten lost in all of that, but I didn't.  So thank you Cheri for making my day.  I was more excited than John would have been if he'd have met his baseball hero Craig Biggio (Be.ze.o) for you non Astros fans :)


Now, I didn't do last weeks challenge but I am going to count this.  This goes to show that sometimes a burden can be a blessing!
Last week or so we had our heater fixed.  It was an old unit and needed a good cleaning and to be checked out.  My dad looked at it, but it was more than he felt safe doing.  So we called the heater people once we had set aside some $ for them cause that's not cheap ya know.  They were to clean our unit only, then give an estimate on on further repairs.  Well, he said it would take a bit to clean it, so we went on about our business and left him to do his thing.  40 min later he was done and handing me a bill for $275...2 HUNDRED I asked?!!!!  After explaining he was not to have done repairs and offering him the opportunity to undo his repair, he said I would just be billed and pay it out as we could.  I was in SHOCK!  I stressed and worried because that is a LOT of money for us and needs another home in our checkbook.  My dad came to make sure the work was done and found some repairs that may not have needed repairing.  Skip ahead to last night.  A friend posted that their was a family in need of heaters.  Well do to our costly repair and now working heater, we were able to help out.  We had been using electric radiator heaters in each bedroom and the living room.  I was able to take all 3 heaters for her to help this family out.  This family had 4 smaller girls and very little heat.  It felt good to be able to help even if I didn't meet them and if they never know who the heaters came from.  Our costly repair made the way for us to be able to help another family, as we have been helped so many times in the past. 
*On a side note, my dad called and questioned some of their repairs cause he knows what he's talking about.  He agreed and our bill went from 275 to 150...Thank you Lord and Dad!


Thank you for hanging in on this long post, and just so you feel like you got your monies worth, here's some cute pics of the boys :)  Have a great day

Mr. Cool

Busted with chocolate!



Our new favorite toys...Thanks Mema, Papa :/

Brother Brag

 So I have bragged about my brother on here before, but it's time for another brag to start the year off right. My brother "J" is going to Texas Tech, so he is living in Lubbock right now.   At his job there, he has been able to put his leather working skills to use, and he is getting even better. This year for Christmas, we were so excited with the handmade gift he gave the boys!

S: chaps, belt, spurs and a lasso
A: chaps (he is still a little small and growing to fast for the other items just yet)

The pictures in no way do justice to the attitude A got as soon as he put the chaps on. He thought he was 'the man' as he strutted around making sure everyone was paying attention to him. He was too cute and had the biggest fit when we made him take them off. Thanks J for an such an awesome gift!

Look at the detail he put into each piece!

Family Fun

We are loving the snow! Except for when we bundled up to play in the snow, we have spent the most wonderful two days at home in our pj's. It's been amazing!

I redecorated

Doing a little remodeling around the place to spruce things up a bit. I thought it was neat that I found this website where you can generate a signature and found one that looks just like my handwriting. Takes a little work to find where to place it in the code, but glad I did.

I plan to continue to write about my family, but hope to be adding new projects for you to look at as well. The two should mix together nicely I think.

I also want to work on finding a writing style. English has never been my strongest area, and if I could learn to write like what is in my head...
I've enjoyed reading the new blogs i've run across-totally loving the blogging world! I hope they help influence me to create a style i'm happy with. I'll be adding 2 new posts soon: one of our snow day, and the other of me actually dressed up with my new fashion goal!

Hope you have all had a wonderful day today, I have. I plan to spend another wonderful day with my family tomorrow, because John has off due to weather. Love when we have him home for some extra family time.

Ah, the English language!

I called to make an appointment for the heating guys to look at our unit. The lady said it would be tomorrow and they would call before they came, so I was very surprised when they showed up today, which I was totally unprepared for. I was in my pj's, hair a mess, laundry all over the place and trying to recover the house from being sick. I was so embarrassed!

Then as they were fixing it, my embarrassment worsened!!!

Seth to heating guy: Be careful, there might be bugs in there and they will come out! (ahhh really Seth?!!)

Heating guys: bugs huh?

Randomly Seth continues with bug comments against my persistent "Be quiet or I will kill you put you in time out looks"

I tried to play it cool, so I finally asked him-near the heating people-why he thought there were bugs in our heater?

The answer that saved the day and gave us all a great laugh:

"Remember mommy, when Pop looked at it. He said we needed to call the fix it guys so they could work the bugs out!"

hahahahaha, we were hit with the play on words. Gotta love those double meaning in the english language :)