Cute Pic Post -- February 2016

After January's Sick Month, I was excited for February's Busy Month. We must have had 326 things we were hosting and/or participating in and it kept life full and exciting, but I was a little glad when it was all over. All awesome things, just a lot of things. Enjoy our month in cute pictures!

Kindergarten Round Up. Be still my heart!

Doing a livestream test for IF.

This one likes to touch someone at all times.
Can't sit on the couch without physical contact.

This one likes to grab my shirt and hang on.

Always sitting on someone.

And this is a snuggler baby. Loving on Nonnie.

Someone around here must be a little OCD like Momma.

I caught Carson all laid out flat like this one day and it shattered my heart. He just seems so grown up in this sleep position! And look at that puddle of drool. I'm always washing sheets for drool spots.

He smiles 98% of the time. A big toothy smile.

I asked AM for the diagnosis code. This wasn't even all of them!

"The trash is here!"

Working on valentines for our friends.

A sorta heart-shaped pizza for our valentines night in.

I love Cyndi's sense of humor.

cutest fireman you ever did see

I thought this was a banner. It was two halves of a banner. ??

I love when babies sit on their feet like this.

My Birthday... Seth started it off on the PERFECT foot.

I loved getting to see presents sitting up there for me. 

Where did I go on my birthday? Target, of course!

Officially in the Getting Into Stuff Stage

2nd Grumpy Picture Ever
It's really just him busy watching his brothers.

Outfit Picture

I love our morning snuggle bottle sessions. They'll soon be gone.

Isn't that what you look like when you eat food at the table?

Graham LOVES his Daddy.

Teamwork!

My birthday dinner with Anne Marie in town. LOVED THE NIGHT!!!!

Some pictures with Anne Marie before she left. The visit was too quick!

Next time, remember not to sit in front of her so I look twice as big.

Outfit Picture

We cleaned out the garage and I purged boxes I'd been hanging onto forever.

I also love a slouchy baby sitting.

peek-a-boo!

I've been trying to teach him the toys are inside the bin
and he did a good job this day of pulling them out.

more slouchiness

When it's raining and you're out of groceries and have to take the kids along for the trip, make them each carry a basket. Helps curb the wandering off!

We started praying over Christmas cards.

Finally got a haircut after months!

A little tracing and writing practice. I had him only do a few numbers here and there.

We decided that I would start taking the boys on a Mother:Son Date every so often, a one on one situation. The idea had been something we wanted for them for a long time but they finally seem at the age where it's appropriate to get started. The Dallas Children's Theater was showing a Frog and Toad play and Graham has been particularly a fan of the book since I got it for the boys, so we decided that I would start off by taking Graham to this, just he and I and then we would find an activity for me to do with Austin in a few weeks.

Brothers

Time to switch closets over since we had found the other box of 18 month clothes that had been missing. We ended up with too much stuff! We also took down the 24 months stuff and the next bag of shoes since Carson had outgrown everything! Anne Marie went home with a stuffed suitcase and I still have another box of stuff to send to her.

Chapters read The Royal We this month. I absolutely loved it!!! I couldn't put it down! It's a story of an American college student falling for the prince of England. I was on duties so I got college meets royalty stuff for the event. My Grandma LaPean's china, Arbor Mist, Shiner, cucumber sandwiches, brownies, Cheetos, fancy pastries from Tom Thumb. It was a great night and a good way to end the month.

The ladies posed for me with their tea cups.

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!