Cute Pic Post -- February 2015

February was a rockin' month! The IF:Gathering was in February, which is my once-a-year time away from my home duties and dedicated time to spend with God. I did it at a local church in Coppell this year (NW didn't have it) and though IF was good, I wouldn't say that I'd attend that location again. They seemed to want to put on their own conference and use some of the IF material, when all I wanted was to hear all the IF speakers. These ladies are the blogs and books I follow, so missing Jen Hatmaker, Ann Voskamp, Shauna Niequist, Jennie Allen, Christine Caine, etc was a major let-down to me. I'm not sure the lady leading the conference in Coppell even knew some of them because she'd refer to one of these big-name-people-I-adore as "that girl." I'll be looking to do something different next year. Maybe host one for friends at my house? ;-) Given all of that and aside from Seth having to work that weekend and us calling in very-last-minute help from Nonnie & Gramps, it was a smooth weekend of me getting away without really getting away (aka spending any money).

I started off celebrating my birthday with some friends on the 9th at PF Changs. These two gals and I can shut.the.place.down! We meet at 6:30 and at 9:45 a waitress asked if she can get us To Go cups for our waters. ! Alrighty then... we get the hint! lol. We finish paying and then stand outside talking until like 11:30. Seth had joked he wanted me home by midnight, but it nearly came true, I was only home a handful of minutes ahead of his "curfew" for me. Anyways, at some point in the meal, I tell our waiter, Matt, that we're celebrating my birthday and he gives us the biggest slice of chocolate cake I have ever seen. 6 layers, this thing was. So we each ate 2 layers and it was more than enough dessert for the three of us to share. I shudder to think of the calories in that thing!

On my actual birthday, Seth cooked dinner for me (as is our tradition--birthday person picks the meal, the others cook it), and we had a chocolate cake for dessert. Just a box cake in a 9x13, but it was delish! As a part of the Spofford Adult Birthdays tradition, we went out with Kim, Cheryl, and Spencer on the 21st to Seasons 52. (David was sick and unable to join us.) Having mentioned we were celebrating my birthday that night (as if it wasn't obvious given all the presents I was opening), each person got to pick their own free dessert (Seasons 52 does little mini desserts in like a shot glass size)! Then, lastly, we had a date night as a part of our Date Night Swap-ing we do with the van den Dools on the 28th. We used a gift card for Texas Land & Cattle and got another free dessert--a warm brownie with ice cream upon mentioning my birthday. I officially had three birthday steaks and three free birthday desserts over the course of this month. February was good to me! (Except this nasty back and hip pain!)

I also traded in some junk gold and silver jewelry for cash which we then spent on essential oils and a diamond cross necklace for me. (The necklace was at Seth's suggestion! He figured if I'd gotten rid of all this jewelry I didn't want, I should have a timeless piece in place of some of the value.) We both love having the house smell nice and so even if we aren't sold on the actual health benefits of oils, we were interested in diffusing things to make the house smell nice. I do believe in a few now, because we've used them and seen the results, but I'm not making a case for all oils. Just FYI.

In short, the bi-polar weather left us stuck inside for a good many days and even though I had a great time celebrating my 34th all month long, I'm ready for spring! I can handle three of the four following variables: belly, 2 boys, back pain, and rain. I've literally skipped stuff because it's pouring rain and cold and I just cannot get enough energy together to make it happen. Even for this homebody, there's a limit to how much staying home I can handle!

Here are some pictures from our February:

The quote that has stuck with me the most from this year.
Thanks, Word Swag!

PF Changs dessert!

There was a lot of this.
I've started doing Movie Education Mondays.
This is not to be confused with watching educational movies,
but rather I'm schooling them on movies they need to know.
You know, the classics like Annie, Mary Poppins, and Sound of Music.

This was an Outfit Shot, but works also as Belly Shot.
Sorry for the poor lighting.

We fed ducks with friends at Mallon Park one day.
Funny-to-remember: after explaining that we needed to tear pieces off the slices,
Austin and Grace did a great job.
Graham, on the other hand, just tossed in the whole slice. lol

He says "Hello? Thijs!?"
"Thijs" is short for "Matthijs", his best friend.

After a few months of wondering what the heck was up with our electrical problems,
we called a professional. He started with this plug, and it was the culprit!
When he took it out of the wall, sparks were flying!

All smiles and wearing red for his school party.

Heatwave and Chase ready for action!
(Austin IS shorter than Eric,
but he's also not standing up straight here.)

We had so much fun at Matthijs' birthday party!

Picture Day 2015. Matching Outfits.
I'm at such a place of not being able to plan ahead,
I picked these outfits the night before.

We were expecting a house full that evening,
so they took a rare Thursday Afternoon nap.
And I found Austin asleep just like his Daddy--leg up in the air, sound asleep.

He might be 4, but he likes his sleep like his Momma.

On our way to celebrate my birthday with the Spoffords.
I love that I get to grow old with such a good looking man!

What's Who's the best seat in the house? Daddy!

It got cold. It snowed. We movied.

A break in the weather and we headed out for haircuts!

SUCH a ham, this one!

I had $7 haircut coupons,
but Seth thinks even $7 was too much to pay for these cuts.
I think my plan is to do every-other cut myself and use major coupons the other times.
These are what you'd call "Got our money's worth" cuts. 

Taking a stuck-inside-again funny selfie for friends.

Major thanks to Amazon for these boxes!

Here's a video of the box-usage.

After a huge delay, our kit finally came!

And here's an adorable video of Graham driving his car home from the park one day. So cute! I think we might need to work on keeping his eyes on the road ahead of him. lol