New Toy

A couple of weeks ago, my long-awaited new camera arrived on my doorstep. Unfortunately, things have been quite busy around here and I just haven't had much time to learn how to use it. (I mean, the 500 page manual alone took me a week to read...haha....no, seriously, it did.) So today, I decided I'd MAKE some time to get outside and play with my fabulous new toy. Here are a few shots....



C'mon mom- when can we stop posing for pictures and go play?! My poor kids!! :)



{I HEART MY NEW CAMERA!!}

Just Sayin'.....

If you are in a store, happen upon these new washable colored bubbles and think they are a good idea.....

You may want to consider the following before buying them:

-They are VERY dark and brightly colored....not lightly tinted, as I thought they'd be.

-They are messy, messy, messy! (Your kids will LOVE this....you, not so much!)

-While they ARE "washable,"  it may actually take several washes to get the color out of your child's clothing, shoes, off of their skin, your driveway, patio table, and anything else they come in contact with......

This may include your pet. I'm just sayin'.....

*Just so you know- I will probably let the kids play with these again, but ONLY if they are wearing swimsuits and I have a water hose in hand! Consider yourself warned! :)

The Boys' Big Day

Sunday was quite the busy day for us...not only was it Brian's birthday (the big 3-9), but it was also Mason's basketball awards banquet at church....

Someone was VERY excited to get his 2nd basketball trophy. I remember being about Mason's age and thinking that a trophy was the best thing ever....I love that he's at this stage now!

Getting his trophy from Coach Larry. Look at that sweet smile....definitely a Proud Mommy moment!!



"Oh yeah, I almost forgot to pose for my photo op!"



This picture makes me laugh. He was about to walk back to his seat and then remembered that he was supposed to stop and pose for a picture. (Yes, the quality of this pic is really terrible, but I still love it!)

After much-needed Sunday afternoon naps, the kids and I surprised Brian with a birthday dinner at Tsunami. The sunset was absolutely beautiful and we tried to get a few pictures in the parking lot before the sun set completely....we were only mildly successful.....

Brian and the kids LOVE to eat at Japanese/Sushi places. Allie loves to (attempt to) eat all of her food with chopsticks....let's just say this can get pretty messy!



 



"YAY! I got three grains of rice this time!!!"


And now for the moment we've been waiting for....the arrival of the sushi!! (and just for the record this HUGE plate of sushi was shared by Brian, Mason, my sister, and me.)



 
Mason can seriously down a LOT of sushi....just like his daddy!! :)

  

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful husband a girl could ask for! Here's to many, many more!!! :)

Our Week In Review

{This was actually supposed to be posted last week but I ended up getting a virus on my laptop...yes, another one! I gotta say- nothing frustrates me more than getting a stinking computer virus. Ugh! But thanks to a great friend, who knows how to "fix" computers, I am back up and running today! Yay!}

So here we go....Our week in review:

 Allie and I spent lots of time playing dress-up in her "new" room. She even got her princess dolls in on the action and took them on a pretend trip to the "royal mall" for shopping. She cooked this idea up all by herself and I thought it was too funny. It wasn't until later, while watching Cinderella (the movie), that I realized she had confused the royal ball, with the mall.....priceless!

I have been working out with a personal trainer since October doing group training (boot camp-style). Don't get me wrong, I've been more than happy to lose some inches and gain muscle/definition...BUT, the scale has hardly budged this whole time....maybe a pound or two, but nothing to write home about. So this week I got on the scale for the first time in a few weeks and realized that I had finally dropped 4 pounds! That may seem like a small number, but to me it was big and I was really happy about it.....until my husband walked in the door with these:



Seriously.....did we really need this many boxes???


Our chocolate lab, Reese, had to go back to the vet this week. She's been suffering from some sort of eye allergy for the past few weeks. Her eyes started looking much better last week but as soon as we stopped applying her eye drops, the allergy came back and turned into an infection. Poor dog! :( So, we're having to keep her inside (in her crate) for the next two weeks until we can get the infection cleared up. I am not loving this. I mean I love her, but the dog smell in my house.....not so much.



Get this- we have to go to the pharmacy (you know, the one for humans) to get her prescription filled. This is definitely a first...ha ha!



We took the kids to Edventure for a preview of the Disney Live Magic show. They loved it! Plus, they got to meet Goofy and the Magician at the end. Mason went right up there and got his picture made with them.....Allie, on the other hand, was completely terrified of Goofy! (Let's hope she gets over this before we go back to Disney!!)

I made a surprise visit to Mason's school to have lunch with him. (Well to be honest, I sat there while he enjoyed his lunch....I couldn't quite bring myself to eat the cafeteria food!) We both enjoyed our little 20 minute lunch date....something I will make time to do more often!

Remember those awesome thrift store finds? We went and picked them up this weekend and have been working on getting them sanded and painted. Here are a couple of "before" pics.....I will post the "after" pics when we're done. I can't wait to see how they turn out!!!

Mason had his last basketball game of the season on Saturday and our little man scored two baskets!!! We were so excited for him! He has come such a long way since last year....Way to go Mason!!!


"Throw it to me- I'm open!"





Mason has the ball....





He shoots! He SCORES!! Yay!!!!

 

And finally, the thing that I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for.....the thing that I  prayed we could somehow find the means to afford.....the thing that has been on backorder since November........the thing that will change the way I take pictures and help me become a better photographer FINALLY arrived on our doorstep.....

Yes, inside this box is MY NEW CAMERA!!!!!!!! This camera is amazing and I can hardly wait to start using it! God is GOOD (all the time!) and some things are most definitely worth the wait! 

And now that our week has come to an end, I am off to go read my 500 page camera manual....woo-hoo! :)

A Day Off...

We had been looking forward to our 3-day weekend for quite a while and I was very thankful to get to spend some extra time with Brian and Allie....Yay for President's Day! We had planned to take the kids to the zoo, but unfortunately, Mason had to go to school for a snow make-up day....Boo! So Brian, Allie, and I spent most of the morning searching thrift shops and antique stores for some furniture for the kids "new" rooms. We scored something awesome for Mason, which he is super-excited about!! (I will do a post on our "finds" tomorrow.) When 2:30 rolled around, we picked our little man up from school, skipped naps, and headed off to Riverbanks Zoo to enjoy the rest of our day off.....


Mason loves the maps they give you when you enter the zoo....he likes to keep track of where we are and where we're going the whole time. I'm not sure why I find this amusing, but I do! :) 

This goat was so cute....just chillin' on his wooden platform.

Then he got tired of being photographed.....thought he was going to come after me there for a minute! 

Checking out the chickens.

I have forgotten what this plant was called, but I loved the little yellow flowers....they smelled sooo good!

And, of course, the BEST thing about the zoo might just be......

the ICEES!!!