My Sweet Valentine

So it has been a whole week already since my Valentine surprised me for the first time ever and I'm already working out the finer details of how we can make that happen again! I got a text from my man at about 4:00 telling me to be ready to leave at 6:00 with an over night bag packed for the both of us! I knew I was not going to be given any answers so I immediately followed through with the request and sure enough my husband walked in the door at 5:45 with gorgeous roses and a grin that showed he had done something cool. We left our five little ones with their big brother (thank you B!!!!) and just.... left! He had ordered Olive Garden take out (one of my favs) and then we wound up at The Grand Hyatt hotel right off the San Antonio river walk!
I feel it important to note that in just short of ten years of marriage, we have spent exactly three nights away from our home and children. One night for our "honeymoon". One night for a sunrise wedding service for one of his friends in Austin and one at the condo 15 minutes from our home. Over our TWELVE YEAR relationship he has never surprised me with pretty much anything and MAN.... did he ever pull it off this time!
We had such a great time together. I don't know how we've made it this long with out ever doing something like that and we're determined that we will never wait that long again. We're already trying to see what we can make happen for our ten year anniversary in April. We're hoping New York City. :) Walks around a fancy four star hotel lobby, late night walks on the river walk in beautiful weather, lots and lots of uninterrupted talking, laughing, kissing.... it could only be just as good if not better in New York right?
Thank you sweet Valentine. We needed it. I loved it. I love you.

Magic In the Air

This past Friday I got to go to school with the boys as part of their "parent week". We were able to visit in their class rooms and see some of their daily routines, eat lunch together, be a part of their Valentine's parties and go to a magic show with them. It got tricky at times trying to split my time between each of the boys but luckily it all worked out great and I didn't have problems with overlapping. They all wanted me to stay longer with them which makes me feel horrible but the whole thing worked out great. Call me crazy but I really do enjoy spending time with them and being a part of their lives.


Trevan and Brayden's show was at the same time but their teachers let me sit with both of them. Trev thought it was "cool" and Brayden's brain is still in over drive trying to figure out how the magician did those things. "I know there is no such thing as magic" he says. "Just Mommy magic. But I've just got to learn how he did that!"


This is Rylan's sweet face at the magic show. It's alway nice to see him not think so hard and just laugh like a little kid.

What is scary is realizing that all 5 of my little ones will be in the same school at the same time in just two more years! What will parent day be like then? Maybe they will have perfected cloning by then.

Rewarding Rylan

The same weekend as the Evan and Trevan post, Rylan had a pack meeting for Cub Scouts and was advanced to the rank of Bear. It took longer then we thought it would but that was because he worked very hard for his awards and made sure they were each done exactly right. He was done for quite a while minus the backward roll! Who would have thought that a backward roll could stump him! He kept at it and along with everything else in his book he completed it 100% and got to advance.


His Cub Master put together a really cute game for him play since he was the only one earning awards that meeting and advancing a rank. Rylan had a lot of fun with it.


That same morning the elementary school had an awards assembly for the previous nine week grading period and Rylan scored his yellow star for the all A honor roll (an unbroken streak!) and his blue star for excellence in behavior (also unbroken streak!). They wear them on their school shirts and the classes get awarded as a whole for the class each Friday who has the most. It's a fun incentive thing they have going on and we are happy to say having Rylan in your class always significantly boosts some numbers!
What can I say? He's just an A-MAZING kid! Thanks Jakers for working so hard and making us so proud. We love you.

Happy #4 Birthday Haven

There are not enough words in any language to describe our Haven. You just have to know her to understand who and what she is and man.... I love knowing her. So here's happy birthday to one of the most energetic, spicy, full of life and love little girls I have ever known. You are so much a part of my soul and heart and never a day goes by that I don't marvel in the wonder of.... you. Love you little Gracie Girl.

Together Trevan and Evan; it's always better than heaven

This is the song these two boys sang all last weekend. "Together Trevan and Evan; it's always better than heaven." You know they are good friends when they felt this way despite Evan badly breaking his toe on Friday! My friend Nina and her husband had to take a quick trip back to Maryland last weekend for a funeral and I got to keep her kids for the short period but.... The first day wasn't half over before the call came from Evan's school saying he had dropped a rock on his foot and was in a lot of pain. I went over there 45% thinking the little guy was sad knowing his parents were so far away, 45% thinking he just wanted to get here faster so he could play with Trevan and the last 10% was thinking, "Gosh. I hope it's not bad." To sum up we spent the afternoon in the urgent care where he was xrayed and the Doctor there wouldn't even touch him. They wrapped it up in a cast and referred him to an orthopedic surgeon where he has since had surgery and pins etc. Needless to say I was 90% wrong and Trevan and Evan got to spend their weekend watching movies and playing video games but hey... even that is better than heaven for them. Evan was in a lot of pain that first night and Trev was such a good friend. He never left Evan's side. When someone would come near them he would shield Evan with his body to keep them from getting near his foot. When Evan would try to go anywhere Trevan was in front of him clearing the way. Trevan wouldn't even sleep in his own bed! It was a sweet thing to see. Neither of these boys are the biggest cuddlers but last Friday was a different story for them both. Anyone could see that they have a special little friendship going on. Let's hope it goes on and on and on....

Jumpers

Haven has a little friend that is just two weeks older than she is and we got to go to her super fun birthday party a couple of weekends ago. (Yes I'm just getting around to blogging it now!) The boys got to go too and we all had a great time. Payten is constantly jumping on everything so this was pretty close to heaven for her. These are just some fun pics of the day. Thanks Kendall for having such a fun birthday party at such a fun place. I love being your friend!