Behind the Scenes of a Grocery Store

I was in charge of playgroup again and this time we toured our local grocery store. It sounds kinda lame, but it actually turned out to be one of the funnest playgroups we've had! The store manager prepared each of the department manager's before our arrival, so each department had something special to give the kids after they taught the kids what they do.


First we visited the floral shop, and the kids got to take home a tulip bulb to plant in the spring, then they got to see how they decorate the cakes, then we visited the deli and tasted some cheese.
At the produce section, we tasted fresh pineapple. Then, we got to see the huge freezers in the back of the store where they keep all the milk and ice cream. The kids got a huge kick out of that (the mom's couldn't believe how big the freezer's were!).

Then to top off the tour, they let the kids ring up their own groceries by putting them on the belt, then punching keys on the cash register, then they scanned their item, then they got to bag it! That was Hallie's favorite part. She thought that was so cool to actually touch the keys and scan the items. It was a great tour, I was so impressed with the store for doing that for us!!!

Valentine's Day

Hallie was invited to a friend's Valentine's Day party so this was the first year she was able to pick out her own Valentine's cards. Of course, she picked princess cards. Hallie had so much fun writing her name on all the cards, and she actually wrote her name or at least the "H" on every one, I was so proud of her. At the party, they exchanged Valentine's and had Papa John's heart shaped pizza for lunch. Yum.

Can Jesus Hold Me?

After saying family prayer tonight, Hallie said, "Mommy, I want Jesus to come down from heaven and hold me." Words can't explain how much that touched me. It never ceases to amaze me at how close children are to the spirit, my girls are truly the best blessing I could ever ask for.

A Ball of Many Purposes

Sydnee has just blossomed this past month! She has been seeing her physical therapist for a few weeks now and they have been able to readjust her body in areas that were causing her lots of pain and problems from birth, and every session has been so beneficial! She is now sitting up by herself with great posture, she talks all the time, she says, "Mama" when she wants me, and she is so happy, squeeling at everything from sitting up in the grocery cart to being rudely awakened by Hallie flipping on the light and yelling, "It's wakeup time, Syd!!" every morning. (I know she's dying to have her own room soon!)

It's been so fun to see her growing and getting to know what her personality is really like without her being in pain all the time. Her developmental therapist puts her on this big ball every week to help her with balance and posture, and she gets so excited when her therapist pulls this ball out, she loves it! Of course, being on a big ball isn't enough, she needs to be holding another ball to top off the fun!?

SOLD!

Our First Home Sweet Home!!

Above: Front of house

Above: Back of house


Above: Front door/porch area


Above: hallway/entryway; half bath is on the left and the laundry area is on the right of the hallway.


Above: Living room;

Above: Family room with sliding door to backyard.

Above: Eat-in kitchen and kitchen

Above: Kitchen and you can see a little bit of the formal dining room

Above: Kids bathroom upstairs


Above: Bonus room upstairs with attic access

Above: Closets in one of the bedrooms

We are officially home owners!! After only a few weeks of searching for "our" house, we found this and fell in love with it. When we walked in, Cam told me that he knew this was meant to be our home, but I wasn't so convinced. I loved the house, but I also liked two other homes we were scheduled to walk through a few days later. To make a long story short, the other two homes were not near as nice as we had thought and they both needed a lot of work. As soon as I realized that, we walked through this house for the third time and I knew this was our home too! Everything worked out perfectly, even the offer which was surprising since there was another couple who was very interested in it as well. Believe it or not, this house has been on the market for over a year, and there have been three other offers that were put on it in the past year, but the seller didn't accept them until we put our offer in yesterday afternoon, and he accepted it without even counter-offering it. We put in an offer yesterday on this house, and it was accepted today. We are just amazed at how the Lord's hand is in everything, because we have no doubt this house was meant to be ours for whatever reason. We are so excited to move in on at the end of March, now we have plenty of room for visitors!!

House Facts:
Our house is a little over 2100 sq. feet, 5 bedrooms (well, the previous owners used it as a fifth bedroom, but we'll be using it as a bonus/play room), 3 baths. It has tons of attic space for storage, a living room, a family room, a formal dining room and kitchen with a pantry, and a bonus room which is upstairs. It has newer windows, appliances, furnace and A/C which was a huge selling point for us. It's in one of our favorite neighborhoods, and only a couple minutes from Hallie's future elementary school and church. We couldn't have found a better house! Five years of renting and moving around every 18 months, we're proud to say we can call this place home for a few years at least.

Mr. Fix It

In Cam's spare time, I usually find him doing this: fixing things that are broken, fixing something that's soon to be broken, or fixing something because he broke up in an attempt to "improve it and make it better." I love that he is such a Fix-It man! So, doing what he does best, whenever I saying something is broken, he goes right to work, and 30 minutes into his fixing, I found him totally dismantling this object... can you guess what it is!? By the way, after he put it back together it worked! I love my Mr. Fix It man!!

Helping me with Laundry...Well, Trying to Anyway!

Happy Birthday Daddy

If Cam had his way, he'd want me to get up with him every morning so I could make his lunch for work.... so since that NEVER happens, I figured I'd surprise him on the morning of his birthday. And instead of making him lunch, I made him cinnamon rolls, fresh out of the oven. I thought I was being sneaky leaving him notes on the counter telling him that there was a better breakfast on the table, and I even climbed back into bed before he got out of the shower and pretended to be asleep. But about 15 minutes later, I awoke to him giving me a kiss and thanking me for breakfast when he hadn't even been downstairs yet. Darn those good smelling cinnamon rolls, they gave me away! Despite that though, he was very appreciative of me making breakfast for him instead of embarrassing him at work with birthday balloons like Hallie and I do every year. There's always next year.... Happy birthday babe!