$5.00 deal that was almost a no deal

I was so excited because I found a $5.00 coupon for Walgreen's last night from a blog. You only had to spend $20.00, however, it could ONLY be used on 1/31/08. Those of you that really know me, know how cheap I am... honestly, I don't know that I've spent over $20.00 on a pair of tennis shoes in 10 years, ask my cousin Amy:) So, I sent the coupon link to Cam and asked him to print it out and I printed one out just in case it was a possibility we would get to go. I really, really wanted Cam to go after work but hated for him to go out of his way because it's ugly out and it would put him getting home at least 30 minutes late:(
WELL.... he calls and says that the renters had our check ready and wondered if we'd like to stop and pick it up, funny thing, the rent house is a couple of blocks away from Walgreen's. So, I was like, "great, did you print the coupon?" Cam says, "No". Ugghhh.... I'd tried to figure out every way to get to Walgreen's without loading the kids up tonight (in wintery weather) and making a trip totally out of the way. Cam just thinks it's funny that I'm aggravated. I said, "I'm really upset, I don't want to talk right now" and I got off the phone. Well, I fume for a bit over missing out on a $5.00 coupon (that I planned to use on Prilosec and all of you who've been pregnant realize how much I NEED indigestion medicine). Then I get a call from Cam..."I'm in Walgreen's, what do you want?" I said, "do you have a coupon?"... Cam.... "Yeah, I went by the library and printed one off". Needless to say my indigestion and blood pressure were all better:)

Parker's new theme song

Cam has been calling Parker "Parky Park and the funky bunch" because of his thuggish lifestyle:) and the boys seem to like it! Here's a video (from my cell so it's not great) of the boys singing it.

Sleepy Wrap Giveaway

DE Review is giving away a Sleepy Wrap. I'm really hoping to get one for the new baby. Check out this link to find out how to get your name put in the drawing. 

Freckles, Etch-a-Sketh, and compliments

We have the sweetest puppy that I like to call Freckles because of the sweet little spots all over her nose. She likes to come in and warm up and she's a super snuggler. Isn't she so cute??

Tonight we bought both of the boys an Etch-a-Sketch. Andrew has been wanting one for a few weeks. They were mesmerized by them! While we put up the groceries they stood just like this in the kitchen:) It's the quietest they've been all day.

Parker has been giving away some sweet compliments lately. This morning he came in and told me, "I like your shirt, your pants and your head". He then went to the living room and told Cameron, "I like your shirt but not your pants". It was so cute:)

Sports Center Fun..

We went to the Sports Center this morning to let the boys play. It's been sooo cold here we haven't really been able to go outside. Andrew reminded me of Forrest Gump he ran and ran and ran! Parker had a lot of fun, too. However, he got a little tired and decided to watch a Yogi Bear episode I had on my iPod:)

I'm so excited because it's suppose to be in the low 60's for the next few days. Cam is really upset about it. He's desperate for winter weather. I'd love to see some snow but if it's not snowing, it might as well be warm enough to go out:)

Across the street

Who knew taking pictures could be so much fun??

My mom had donated to the fire dept so we got some pics taken today of the boys and Jacey. When we got home I wanted to take a few before the boys went down for their naps. As we were pulling up to the house, I noticed how pretty the hay field looked and thought it would be the perfect place:) The boys had the best time!!! I thought, "Wow! What cheap fun!!" 

Our new bunk beds and our first baby gift:)

We got the boys a new bunk bed. They're not sharing a room just yet but will be very soon. Right now Andrew is sleeping on the bottom bunk and Parker is still sleeping in his room. We'll probably not let them use the top bunk for sleeping for a while. They LOVE their new beds:)

The coolest part is underneath the stairs are built in drawers. We really needed this because we are so lacking in the area of dresser drawers.

Also, one of my student's moms, who has also become a dear friend:), bought us our first baby gift. Isn't this the sweetest outfit. It came with a matching blanket and a little hat:) Parker and Andrew were soooo excited about it! 

Top 5's

God has blessed my life so much with three amazing fellows. I thought I'd share my 5 favorite things about each of them (beginning with the youngest first:)

5 of my favorite things about Parker

1. I love the way his eyes light up when I tickle him. It's one of the sweetest sights I've ever seen and I'm sure I'll never forget it.

2. I love his expressions. He has a vivid expression for every emotion!

3. I love his passion about EVERYTHING! He loves life and his excitement for it oozes out of him!!

4. I love hearing him say "MOMMY" when he first comes out of his room after sleeping. It's honestly as if we've been apart for years:)

5. I love to hear his sweet, squeaky voice. For those of you who've been privileged to be around Parker much, you know just what I'm talking about. 

5 of my favorite things about Andrew

1. I love how much he loves me! He absolutely adores his mommy:) and his favorite thing is snuggling up to me!!

2. I love his eagerness to learn new things. He's constantly asking how to spell words.

3. I love his compassion for others. He always ask about the kids in Africa and about a special student who we've prayed for a lot. He's made this student cards and even put some money in an envelope because he knew this student didn't have much. 

4. I love listening to him sing. His favorite song right now is Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty. It's so much fun singing songs about the Lord with him.

5. I love his calm, sweet spirit. 

5 of my favorite things about Cameron

1. I love his calm spirit, very slow to anger.

2. I love his desire to die to himself daily.

3. I love to watch him be a daddy to Parker and Andrew. They have so much fun with him!

4. I love his sense of humor! We could laugh about anything together:)

5. I love how much he loves me and strives to be better daily.

Trusting Him...

Cam and I have been struggling with the decision of whether or not to send Andrew to Kindergarten next year. They've changed the age requirement for Kindergarten in Arkansas to a new cutoff date of Sept 1 instead of the 15th. I was under the assumption that it began next year and Andrew's birthday is Sept 2nd so he would miss going by one day. I thought it was a blessing at first but then worried it might not be good for Andrew to wait another year. He's definitely ready academically. Mrs. Mindy has been teaching him preschool and he's learned so much and I worry if he sits out another year he would be so bored when he begins. I've really been praying about it a lot and was beginning to stress a little about having to make the decision. Then the other day I was talking to one of my friends whose daughter is struggling a lot with severe learning disabilities and I reminded her that God's sole purpose for each of us, including her sweet child, is to glorify Him and He's not worried one bit about her daughter's inability to do math or science as well as her peers. Her daughter does such a wonderful job glorifying God by spreading joy to others. After our discussion, God gently reminded me that Andrew's sole purpose is to bring Him glory and whether we choose to place him in Kindergarten next year or the next is pretty trivial in the big scheme of things. 

Well, it turns out that the cutoff date of Sept 1 doesn't begin until the 2009-2010 school year so Andrew technically is suppose to go to Kindergarten next year. God has really given Cam and I such a peace about this and we're so excited that Andrew will be going to Kindergarten. He's going to love it and the big plus is that I'll be teaching at his school in a classroom down the hall. What a wonderful blessing!

We still could use your prayers for our childcare situation for next year. Our nanny is worried that caring for an infant will aggravate her back so she's unsure if she'll be able to watch the kiddos. Please pray that God will give her wisdom to make the best decision and that He will provide a loving nanny for our little treasures. He's been so good to us in this area. Mrs. Mindy will have been with us for 3 years at the end of this school year and we've been soooo blessed. The boys absolutely love her!

5 Weird Things About Me

Anna tagged me to say 5 weird things about myself so here goes...

1. I hate being a passenger in the car... I'm horrified we're going to wreck. (Cam commented, just put you're the worst back seat driver in the world) *There are a couple of legitimate reasons.... 1. I had a bad wreck several years ago when a lady pulled out in front of me and 2. I've yet to meet someone who drives as well as me:)))))

2. I hate food. I really don't enjoy eating much at all. There are very few things I like and the really bad part of this is I'm hypoglycemic so I HAVE to eat all of the time!!! 

3. I wake up often in the middle of the night scared because of things I've read on FoxNews.com or seen on 48 Hour Mysteries:) but yet I'm addicted to both of them!!

4. I'm usually way overexcited about most things. Cam always tells me to turn the enthusiasm down a bit:)

5. Although I'm the pickiest eater in the world, I love to eat pickled eggs dyed pink with beats at Easter time:) and I also love Egg Custard Pie!

I tag Lanna to post 5 weird things about herself:)

** I honestly had a hard time coming up with weird things about myself, I had to reread Anna's blog just to get an idea of what weird really was:)

Could it be??

Now Cam and I have thought for a while that Andrew was quite artistic. I mean check out his Pirate Ship....

Well last night we went to a basketball game and my dad was there (yeah, practically free babysitting since they sat with Papa all night:). We took Andrew's magna doodle because we knew he'd get bored. We were right, he drew and drew and drew. Last night after we put the boys to bed I looked in the floor and there was the Magna Doodle. I was amazed, I said, "Cameron, come here... did you draw that?" Cam said, "no, I didn't". I said, "don't you think that is really good for a 4 year old??" He said, "Yeah, that's super good for a 4 year old". I got my camera out started taking pictures and thought could it be that Andrew is a prodigy? I mean our son, a prodigy:)? About that time Andrew came out and saw us taking pictures of the masterpiece and I said, "Andrew, did you draw that?" He said, "No, Papa did". We didn't know what was funnier that we thought Andrew drew it or that Papa's drawing could've passed for a 4 year olds:)

Sweet sayings...

I thought I'd jot down a few cute and insightful things the boys have said over the past few days. 

We've been using the Naughty Towel technique with Parker (which has worked superbly with both boys as they go through their tantrum stages). We just introduced it to him the other day and he is not fond of it so after I put him on it and walked out of sight he started saying, "This isn't my seat, what.... I don't sit on a towel, I sit in my chair *as he pointed to his chair* why am I sitting on a towel in the floor?? It was so cute. Later that day he asked, "mommy, why did you go out and buy the naughty towel?"

Andrew and Parker had some pretty deep questions after church on Sunday. Andrew heard the story of Adam and Eve in class and was asking about Jesus being our savior and he asked, "Does Jesus live in everyone's heart?" I said, "no, not everyone accepts Christ as their Savior"... He said, "mommy, why doesn't God put Jesus in everyone's heart?" I thought what a simple, yet profound question. We talked about how there are a lot of things we won't fully understand until we get to Heaven. Parker in the meantime was piping in with his questions and he said, "Why did God be mean to Jesus on the cross?" I explained that God gave us Jesus as a Savior, which meant Jesus had to die on the cross for our sins but then He rose and is no longer dead. They then had questions about the devil and Parker wanted to know why he doesn't live in Heaven. I told him that the devil is constantly trying to battle against God, even in our own lives, how he tries to get us to disobey God and so on. Parker, with an angry face, said I'm going to get the policeman to go arrest that devil and throw him in jail!!! 

On a more crude note (and we have a lot of them since they are boys:)... Parker was in the tub the other day and we heard him flush the toilet and when we went in and asked what he flushed he told daddy, "a poot" Cam said, "did you poopoo?" Park said, "NOOOO... I didn't poopoo, it was just a poot". About 5 minutes later he hollers for daddy to come back to the tub and help him find and put another poot in the toilet. Cam had to explain to him how we can't find them because they're invisible (most of the time) ** Cam doesn't think the story is as funny as the fact that I'm writing about this on our blog:)

What a busy day...

Cam and I bought a new King bed and mattress because we figured a family of five is going to need it:) So we started putting it all together last night around 8:00 and finished in time for the news. This morning we took our old bed to Cam's moms house for her guest room. After that we went grocery shopping. As I was putting away some of the groceries, Andrew opened up the paper towels and when I turned around I saw his gun tower that he had built:)Then I decided to clean, clean, clean.... thanks to Anna and her FlyLady post. First thing I did, which FlyLady recommends is "shine your sinks" I spent forever shining my sinks in the kitchen!! Then I cooked lunch, dusted, cleaned out all of the old tapes and rearranged the entertainment center, did laundry, hmmmmm... I know I've done more than that. I mean honestly I can barely walk my back hurts so bad... surely I've accomplished more. 

Well anyway.... Cam took a pic of me with the boys to show how big my tummy is getting:) Parker was kissing my belly (the baby). I am 22.5 weeks along and honestly have had the hardest time walking all weekend. I'm worried my back is going to totally give out on me... but hopefully not:)

Great Giveaway...

You should check out the great giveaway at this Flip Flop Momma Blog. They've got some great Land's End stuff for the wee ones. Click here to enter.

The Wonder Place

This morning I took Andrew and Parker to the Wonder Place. They had the best time. It really is a cool place for kids to use their imaginations. Parker over the past few weeks has been making a lot of angry faces, mostly kidding and they are quite funny but he's been using them some on strangers. Today some bigger boys were throwing balls really hard into the water table and they kept splashing Parker in the face and he was NOT happy and gave them the worst mean look he could make (btw... he's not making a mean face in this water table pic, he was making a "burrr it's CoLd!" face). Andrew loves the River Market and kitchen area. Who knew you could do so many fun things with dairy products?:) As soon as we got home they said, can we go back now??

O my darling...

Parker learned a song from their play laptop and started singing it tonight:) It's not great quality because I used my cell phone but it's still extra cute. He also said his memory verse Romans 3:23 All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. This verse has been so handy when I lose my cool with the boys and have to apologize for raising my voice. What an invaluable lesson for them to know that mommy and daddy sin, too, and that we would be nothing without God's grace and forgiveness. 

Flash Back....

Today Andrew and Parker were sitting on my lap looking at some old baby pictures of them:) Every time I would say "look Parker/Andrew there you are when you were a baby", they would both take turns making fun of each other saying, "hahaha, you wore a diaper". They were so funny. Their pics are so sweet and make me sad to think of how fast they are growing. I wish I could just bottle them up and keep them this way forever. **The first two pics are of Andrew (one with our Precious Theo:) and the next ones are of Parker, one was of him eating his first graham cracker:)