C4K Open House & Auction 2016

Every year, we go to Christ 4 Kids to visit the classrooms and enjoy a short program and eat dinner. Last year it was cold and icey and yucky and this year it was almost too warm. The silent auction didn't seem as good this year, but I did win an Emler swim party that I'm hoping to reward Austin with for learning to legit swim this summer at lessons. The cost of the auction item was about what I spent on his last birthday (and cheaper than buying an Emler party), so I felt it was a good deal, plus the money goes to C4K. Each classroom has some art and decorations up and the parents are to walk through looking at everything they did lately. Then we leave the preschoolers with their teachers and go down to the gym to wait for the performance.

The theme this year was 40th Birthday party because, well, the school has been around 40 years.

Graham's class went first. I was excited to see him perform, he's always such a ham.

Here's a video of one of Graham's songs. The little brunette next to him with the super loud, but beautiful singing voice (lol) is Rachel, his best friend at school. Next was Austin's turn. I couldn't find his school shirt from this year so had to stick him in the one from two years ago that Cyndi gave us.

Here's a video of one of Austin's songs.

This little brother is so great about going with the flow.
Also, dimple alert!

They had a special ceremony recognizing the teachers and how long they had been around. Some had been there practically forever! ;-)

A special dart game to try to see about winning a prize. The darts that hit the balloons just bounced off! He tried both right- and left-handedly with no luck. They ended up just giving him one since it wouldn't pop on its own.

I love the school, I really do. I'm glad my kids go there. However, this Open House & Auction event is so cumbersome, takes to long, and has too much going on... I really hope they do an overhaul at some point. Each year I keep thinking it will get better and it never changes! gah!

Seth had to leave early because he had plans with the men from small group, so Kim and David helped me get the boys loaded into the car for me so that I just had to do the bedtime routine by myself (which is a task of epic proportions when you're doing it late after a long fun event like that). I've got the littles all registered for next year because our big will be going to Kindergarten!

Carson Dedication -- February 14, 2016

On February 14, 2016, we dedicated Carson to Jesus. We stopped dragging our feet since I realized that each boy will have been dedicated the February after he was born. At IBC, the bigs were each 4 months old because you hop on when they decide to do a dedication. Grace lets you choose which day and we happened to select a day when another family was dedicating their baby and it was nice to not be alone. They even moved it to the beginning of the service instead of the end so that we could feel better about bringing the brothers on stage and then taking them to class. The time on the stage went well except Carson pulled so hard on the mic that Pastor Andy ended up taking if off his head to speak into it.

Everyone met us at church to witness the dedication. We then went Flaming Buffet to eat lunch as a group. This didn't go so great because there was a huge line which meant it took longer to get seated which meant lunch took longer than it should have and Carson had been a trooper for so long and just couldn't hang on any longer. So I aborted lunch and took the boys home so I could get them changed and Carson down for a nap. David drove Kim to our house shortly after I left and then went back to pick up Seth. I'm so thankful for family that is so helpful when we need them. They just step into the gap and help without being asked. I wasn't expecting or asking her to leave lunch early, but I sure was appreciative.

After lunch everyone came to have dessert here. I bought a new blue tablecloth on clearance, put my lace square on top and added a few decorations I had bought at Party City. I also decorated the table with pictures of his life so far, aging him from left to right. Seth and Kim both commented that I had decorated quite a bit for this, but my only response was "I guess I was in need of throwing a party."

Nothing Bundt Cakes are DELISH!

IF: Sena's House February 2016

I'm a big fan of Jen Hatmaker, Jennie Allen, Christine Caine, and Ann Voskamp and a few years ago, Jennie Allen got a new conference for women started with some of my favorite speakers. The title is IF:Gathering. It comes from "If God is real, then what?" so the letters "i" and "f" are pronounced just like the word "if". They realize not everyone can go to Austin for the live conference, so they let people stream the content anywhere (those are called IF:Local). Two years ago, I did a local version at NW Bible Church, but then they weren't doing it last year so I went to one at a church in Coppell. I liked the Coppell one, but was disappointed in all the extra stuff they added which meant we missed some of the Austin content. My goal was to see as much of the Austin content as possible and I felt robbed of that. So I decided to just stream it myself in my home and invite some friends over to watch it in my house.

Seth agreed to disappear for a day and a half with the boys up to his parents house and I got the house cleaner to come the day of so I wouldn't have to worry about that. (Plus we were hosting like 47 things in February and we had just done the home reno stuff so dust was everywhere.) I posted in several groups on Facebook that I was doing it and on my own page. Three of the women who came were not women I knew, but had a relationship Kevin Bacon-style. The people in Austin give you all the notes you need to know how to do it and then during the actual event, I just chromecasted it to the tv. We met Friday night 7-10 and Saturday 9-5 with just a small break for lunch. Overall, I loved it and would totally do it again like this next year. IF I can get Seth and boys to go on a Manventure at the same time I need the house emptied. ;-)

Here are some pictures from the experience.

I carried this every where in the weeks preceding.

The night of, my house was clean, "decorated," empty and ready for the 5 ladies to show up.

Everyone is in deep thought.

This is what it's like, just watching the tv the whole time except the ?s.

During the break on Saturday, we went to Potbelly for lunch.

One of the sweet girls in the group sent me the week after.

If you're interested in joining me next year, I'll probably be doing the exact same thing. Let me know!

Cute Pic Post -- January 2016

December flew by with Christmas Activities, some sickness, and ending with my surgery. We had a good New Years despite my surgery that morning and then hit the ground running in January. We spent time with family on the 1st like we normally do, purged toys and books, finally found a home for Gran's piano, moved Graham into a big boy bed (from the toddler bed he had been in for the last few years), had some house renovations done in the family room, spent most of the month trading around colds and fevers, and then ended on a high note with lice. GAH!

Thankfully, I never got sick (post surgery would have been really bad), but all the boys had asymptomatic fevers followed by weeks of cough. Graham had two more ear infections (following the one he had in December), so I spent a lot of time at doctor offices or home with sick kids. And then when we spotted the nits, we had to go through days of using up all the hot water and nit picking (forever the term will mean something else!) and shampooing with special stuff. Graham still has some PTSD from the special stuff. Enjoy the month in pictures. lol

That Georgia.

In the middle of sorting and purging books, we had to read the most recent one gifted by Aunty Anne.

I'm trying to be better about Outfit Pictures.

The Daddle. I swear one year I'll actually keep it.

One of Carson's new tricks.

After over two years, we finally found a family that was extremely serious about taking Gran's piano. We chose what had to have been the coldest, windiest day to go to storage and hand it off to Paul's moving crew, but I'm glad that is off our shoulders. Seth sat down to play a few things and it still sounded great even after having sat in storage all that time. We pray that kiddos get to learn on it and that the love of music is continued for another generation.

We went to "Toys For Us" (as Graham calls it) to use the gift cards that Aunt Rory gave us and the boys had a blast picking out what they wanted. With the whole store at their fingertips, it became a serious case of ADD, but we tried to help steer them in the right directions. I think they're both happy with what they chose. Thanks Aunt Rory!

I find it is so difficult to get all three in one picture so when I saw the
bigs sitting on the couch, I plopped Carson in the middle and snapped away!

Milk Drunk

I'm so excited to host this next month!

By now this is old hat, but he crawls over and stands up!

Playing Patty Cake with a cute baby.

You can't see his face well,
but he thought this was hilarious!

We got Graham in a new, big boy bed from Costco.
We strapped it to the roof of my car and
drove home with the flashers on in the pouring rain.
What a memory!

Such a big boy.

Fever #1

All bundled up in his big bed.

During the home renovation stuff, we had no internet, so Cars it was!

Graham loves putting this plane together.

Thankful we have two living areas.
The Front Room became a giant mess.

Did you know that Noah took Cars and Planes too?

Go Jackets!

Carson loves playing with the "dangerous things."

Chapters read these; I'd never read TKAM. I disliked GSAW.

Our church service streams live online which was good because we had yet another ear infection. He hadn't been on meds long enough for us to go to church, so we watched from home. The boys joined us for the singing and then went to play while Seth and I listened to the sermon.

I was also working on planning for IF.

I recently found two of my books on record that I thought had gotten lost over the years--Rainbow Brite and Popples! I paid a guy to transfer the record onto a cd so that we could listen to them, and the boys loved it. I was practically crying I was so excited! The boys have a handful of their books on cd, from movies they are into, but I like doing Bambi and these to keep their horizons broad. I believe that's Austin on my lap, Fever #2.

We love watching AFV together.
Although, I'm starting to get worried about the ideas
it's planting into the minds of these sons of mine!

This is the boys doing some of their books on cd. I think Carson has the fever now, so that's Fever #3.

A quote I liked from the book I finally finished on Essentialism.

We went to the doctor (again) to check for anything more serious since they had all had fevers, Graham had an ear infection, and then all three had this nasty cough that lasted for weeks. Everything tested fine, so it was just a cold lingering on, but we had to start doing breathing treatments. Carson HATES a breathing treatment. Austin's a champ at this point!

The next day I tried doing it this way and got better results.
I just aimed the vapor up his nose while he played with stuff.

As a part of the home renovation of the family room, we got a bigger rug. These two pictures show exactly why I wanted a new rug. More floor space that people can enjoy. We also took the time to purge/sort some of our AV equipment. We got rid of surround sound stuff we never used and hooked up the Nintendo systems. The boys weren't very good at this one, but I'd much rather them play this over and over than the Mario games we have for Wii. It feels safer and less likely to affect behavior. (Sometimes Austin gets all over-dramatic and bounces around like Mario from playing it.)

Doesn't need a nap every day,
but I guess needed one this day.

Houston, we have nits. I called in the supplies to stores and had Seth stop on his way home. GAH!

We used up all the hot water for days washing everything. An awesome friend brought me some margarita, though, and I'll be forever grateful for that.

We decided to try on big brothers uniform and it fit great!
This is Graham's mad face.
I couldn't get a smile so I suggested a mad face.

Gorgeous January day calls for Nicos!