Happy Birthday to......ME!!!

February 15th, I turned 32. It was a great birthday....thanks to my wonderful husband, family, and great friends! The Friday night before my b-day Andy took me out to dinner and a movie (which is my very, very favorite thing to do). We ate at Masa and then went and saw Valentine's Day, which I thorougly enjoyed. As soon as we got home Andy wanted me to open my presents. (He's not one for being patient. Sine he bought them that day he wanted me to open them.)

Here we are at Masa.

Here we are before going out. (with the boys)

Here is part of my present from Andy. Some new jeans from Buckle, which is my very favorite store for jeans. He also got me a top from there. Because he wanted me to have something to open on my actual birthday he went later that weekend and got me a few things from Ann Taylor Loft as well. Drew picked out a really cool necklace from there, and Andy picked out some great things, but they were PJ's and I wanted "real" clothing so I exchanged them for a really cute dress and skirt. On my b-day my good friend Tara brought her 2 kids over and watched my 2 while I went to the mall for 2 hours to do all of my exchanges. It was wonderful!!! Thank you Tara!

Fruit of the Spirit

At Bible study our teacher talked about the Fruit of the Spirit this past week. She has mentioned it other times, and I thought it would be such a great scripture to work on with Drew. I decided we would make a poster with the verse on it and a bowl for the fruit. Drew helped me to come up with what fruit to use, then I wrote on the back of each of them one of the "fruits" so that, for example, the grapes are "self-control". When I see Drew exhibit one of these fruits he gets to go and put the fruit in the bowl. At the end of the day we talk about what fruits he exhibited that day. He gets a little treat for each fruit. (this week it's 1 M&M/fruit) He thinks it's fun! We also came up with a little song with motions so he can learn the verse. We've been performing it each night for daddy, and practicing it in the car when we go places. If I could ever figure out how to upload a video I would show you, but for now, just close your eyes and picture it in your head. :) I wanted to share this because I LOVE getting ideas from other moms on sharing the Word with my children, so maybe this will spark some ideas for some of you other moms, or maybe you can share some of your ideas with me. I'm always eager to hear and learn....

January at a glance

It's been awhile since I have posted here, so I thought I would try and give you a quick overview of our month. It's been pretty cold here, so we've stayed home a lot more than we usually do, which has been a nice change of pace for us.

Knox has to do EVERYTHING he sees Drew doing, which is really cute, but also at times difficult, because he wants to take every toy Drew has. We're working on it (about 50 times a day!) Here is an example of what I am talking about. Drew was climbing up the outside of the stairs, and therefore Knox had to give it a try as well.

Knox found Drew's hat on the floor and put it on himself. I like how he decided to wear it a little to the side, and may have to try that on Drew next time.

My Mom and Dad were here for a visit, and while they were here we celebrated my dad's 54th birthday! I know I am in pajamas (which I always am when I'm not leaving the house), and the boys don't have shirts on (because we had lasagna), but at least my dad looks nice!

One afternoon we went to the Florida Natural History Museum, which has a lot of fun things for the boys to look at. Here are my parents and the boys at the top of the paddle boat.

Drew needed some new underwear, and since I won't let him wear "cartoon-ish" outfits, I let him pick out fun underwear. He loves transformers, so we found transformer boxer briefs. What else do you do with new underwear, but put it on your head??

Knox learning to read. (just kidding)

Most days I still have Drew take a nap (more for me, than for him probably). But, some afternoons I'll allow him to stay up and do "school" with mommy while Knox is napping. While I put Knox to sleep he'll go downstairs, get out his work book, put pillows on the floor for us to lay on while we work, and wait patiently. The other day, we were talking about helping in his workbook and they instructed us to make a "helping hand" for Drew to wear when he was a helper that day. By the time Andy got home, his hand looked like this. I didn't even notice....Andy did. He asked, "why is he wearing a hand like this?" (if you can't see clearly, the middle finger is the only one left up)

The circus was coming to town (which Drew and I ended up going to), and to promote it they had clowns come and do a show at the library. Both boys loved it! If you look closely, you may be able to see Drew's clown nose.

Drew has been teaching Knox how to pray with him before meals. Now if Drew doesn't start quickly enough, Knox will go "uh, uh, uh" and fold his hands, until Drew gets the picture.

With all of the cold, we've been enjoying many fires. Here is a picture of the boys enjoying a fire before bed time.

When Andy gets home from the gym he always allows Drew to listen to his music, but not to be left out here is Knox joining in.

I hope you all have had a wonderful winter, and with Valentine's Day coming up this weekend I thought I would leave you with a verse about love.

This is one of the first verses Drew ever learned, and this week we decided to work on it with Knox. (i think it will take awhile;))

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and strength." Deut. 6:5