Absence makes the heart grow... :)

Please tell me how on earth we could live without this man?  He had the chance to spend a few days in Omaha for work and we thought might be a nice break from his normal, awful desk so he volunteered to go.  Ya'll, he hadn't been gone more than a few hours when all of us regretted it!!  The kids and I just don't know how to function without him here with us!  Our only saving grace was that he got a Kindle that took pictures that he could take with him so we could see him while he was gone.  It also made us up our game and finally get smart phones! ;)  The kids were thrilled that Josh got to see lots of snow, so he sent them pictures taken from his hotel room window.  They were way impressed.

They were also tickled with daddy's sense of humor with funny pics!

And also liked getting to see the building Daddy works in when he goes to Omaha...

When it was finally time for him to come home the kids were beyond excited.  Noah even dressed himself up all by himself to go to the airport.  I am in love with his fashion sense.  Love those skinny little chicken legs!! 

I convinced the kids to make a banner that says welcome home.  I guess I didn't take a pic of it.  But after that I went to get in the shower and they asked me if they could make some signs and hang them in the living room.  I really wasn't sure what they meant but I said sure.  When I came back the living room was plastered in colored paper that they had written little notes all on.  They were adorably cute... stuff like "we all missed you".  Noah wrote 2 of the funniest signs ever.  One said "It's a great day to come home!"  and the other one said, "God missed you!"  LOL  At the last minute they told Josh his flight was cancelled.  This was the picture we got from him:

And this is the picture he got from us:

But miraculously they fixed the plane and he made it home to us that night, hopefully never to leave again!

Written Apologies!

I finally figured out how to transfer the pics from my phone to the computer so I can get started on a huge batch of blogging.  I found this picture and just had to share.  My memory is so fuzzy at this point I don't even remember what Wyatt did, but he sure felt bad about it.  I sent him to his room and when I went back to check on him I found this note taped to his door.  It says " Not sleeping mom.  Sorry for acting bad. will you forgive me? " And then I'm not exactly sure what the last line says, but he was trying to say "please write back".  And then he taped a pencil to the paper so I could write back whether or not I forgave him, LOL.  Oh my goodness, how can you even be angry any more when you see something like this?   I have a bunch of other apologies he has written us.  I'll have to scan them all in before I can't remember what they say.  Love this boy!

Big girl bed!

 Please agree with me that this is the most adorable thing you have ever seen!!  The minute she crawled into her new big girl bed she threw herself down and instantly pretended to be asleep.  But her seriousness didn't last long....

She was just so tickled she couldn't stop laughing.  She didn't know the word for mattress so she kept saying "Thank you my big pillow!!"  And my parents surprised her with a set of hello kitty sheets which is the only thing that possibly could have made this moment any better for her.

I swore I NEVER would put a kid in a big bed before the age of 4 ever again, but she was just so ready.  And let me tell ya, she has been an angel.  Never once got out of it, never cried, nothing.  Just lays down and go to sleep.  And then when she wakes up in the morning she calls, "Momma, come get me!!"  I think God took pity on me after the nightmare of keeping Noah in his bed.  :)

Love this little girl!!

Valentine's Boxes

We made Valentine's boxes again this year for our homeschool group's Valentines party.  We spent a LONG time surfing Pinterest to find just the perfect ones for each kiddo. 

Wyatt fell in love with the idea of a huge Icee and was thrilled with the results.  It was actually the easiest one to make!  Wyatt cut all the pieces out and I helped him glue the strips straight.  We found some cheap plastic bowls at Hobby Lobby and Josh drilled a hole in it for the lid.  Then we hot glued two straws together and tada!  We wrote on the side of it "the coldest drink in town" just like the old school cups say.  Wyatt really wanted me to write "the tallest, coldest drink in town."  He is such a goof!  The most exciting part is that he won in his age group for most creative.  So he got a Hershey bar and a Chick-fil-A gift card.  I was SOOO happy he got to be the center of attention for a little while.  Being the middle child he really does feel left out a lot, no matter how much I work to make that happen.  Winning made my heart happy for him!

Noah saw a tank and fell in love with the idea, so we had to make it work.  I only had HUGE boxes so he and Annie both ended up with massive boxes.  The boys cracked me up cause when I woke up this morning they told me all about how they found the USA stickers and put them on the front of the tank.  I didn't even notice till I am writing this, but they totally put an upside down C instead of a U.  :)

And the only three choices that would be fitting for Annie would be a puppy, Pinky Pie, or a kitty. I figured the cat would be easiest so that is what we went with.  It even had a fuzzy tail!  She was so in love with this box she nearly ruined it.  As soon as it was done she took it into the living room and straddled it and plopped down to watch a show.  :) 

THIS folks, is her own idea.  Her own pose.  Love her.  They had such a blast skating all afternoon that they all fell asleep on the way home.  Not sure if I am ready for next year following Annie around on skates!

Valentines Day!

Yes, I give my kids Valentines gifts.  I think my momma thinks it is a bit much, but I simply cannot help myself.  I think it is such a wonderful day just to tell them how much ya love them.  My mom always made us cookies every year, and I still continue that tradition with my momma's recipe.

They each got a stuffed animal and a small candy thing.  Noah's is a red Darth Vader head candy jar, which is possibly the most awesome thing I have ever seen.  Wyatt got an M&M dispenser thing, and Annie got a Hello Kitty purse full of candy necklaces.  They were all tickled pink.  Annie's animal is an elephant, and for some reason she believes that elephants howl like a wolf.  So she immediately started howling...

Which we could not get enough of cause it was hysterical.   :)  Wyatt was in love with his lion..

This year we decided to splurge a little bit and get an extra gift that was for all three of them.  We chose a Mario Party game for the Wii, since all of us could play.  But we only have two remotes, so we bit the bullet and bought one more for Rosie.  They were excited they each got to open a little box!

Mario Party has been a huge hit!  Annie loves that she can play with us, and she really thinks that Princess  Peach is a drawing of herself.  When we ask her who she wants to be when we start the game she points to her and says, "Ninny!!  Ninny!"  Not sure if the girl will ever learn to pronounce her name right.  :)

Josh and the kids got me lots of lovely Valentines and even a new pair of my favorite jammies!  And we surprised Josh with a wall mounted K-Cup holder, which he was thrilled with.  I love how easy we are to please!

Sibling love!

Oh my, this just made me melt into a thousand little puddles all over the floor.  Without being prompted, Wyatt got everything out to help Annie do her Valentines.  And then he sat with her on the couch and helped her to write her name on all 30 of them.  Seriously.  I about died.  Part of it could have been from fear from a 5 year old and a 2 year old with a permanent  marker on the couch. But mostly it was from cuteness. 

He was so adorable cause he had her put her hand on his arm and then said every letter he was writing to make her feel like she was a part of it.  Then he let her put the lollipop in the first hole and he would do the second hole.  They had a whole system. 

We got Annie's valentines at the store a month ago, and it was a good thing we had them so long cause it took her the whole four weeks to wrap her head around the idea of giving the candy away!  ;)  I kept telling her she was going to give them to her friends but she just clutched them to her chest and said "my kitty candy!"  I'm happy to report that she did readily give them away when the time came!


Since we homeschool the kids are rarely apart from each other.  I usually have all three of them, or none of them.  But this night Josh took Noah to scouts and I stayed behind with the babies.  I'm certain that if Noah was home they never would have sat for nearly an hour on the couch together working on a project like this.  It was really a sweet night and has made me think about staying home with just the 2 of them during scouts more often. 

Blue and Gold Banquet!

 I think it would  be safe to say my boy is officially in love with scouting.  Most things he does for a little while, or just one season, and while he enjoys it, he doesn't want to continue.  But that is not the case with scouts!  He has told us he wants to be in scouts till he earns every single, badge, beltloop, and pin.  :)  Please swoon over his little toothless smile with me!

We weren't sure what to expect for the blue and gold banquet, since we are new to this scouting thing, but all the kids had a blast.  We were served dinner, so it was automatically a winner in my book.  The rest of the gang enjoyed it too. There was a dessert decorating contest, which we knew we simply MUST enter.  It was nice that they had a child decorated category and a family decorated category.  Noah and I brainstormed about what we should make and we decided on wolves, since that is what level he is at.

Aren't they adorable??!  I have to take absolutely no credit for them.  I followed the directions in this book I got for Christmas years ago.   It had directions for werewolves so we used that with gray icing and used a grass tip instead of what they recommended.  Noah was tickled pink with them!  I was so happy we were able to bring something he was really proud of.  AND they won for best family decorated and he got a Sonic giftcard, so that only sweetened the deal for him.  :)

They also had an awards ceremony and he got some new beltloops, some badges, and even a ribbon.  I was pleased about the ribbon cause earlier in the week he was lamenting about how he's never won a ribbon and it seems so wonderful. LOL

The biggest news scouting wise is that Josh will be his new den leader.  The original one is moving, the replacement had to quit because he will be traveling so much with his work schedule, and nobody else stepped up.  So Josh reluctantly took the job.  He is such a great dad and is actively involved in every scout meeting, but he really didn't want to have to plan it all.  Luckily he is married to a gal who loves planning!  I have already got the rest of the year all laid out.  Woo hoo!