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!

My name is Haven Grace

Prayer time is more than a daily thing around our house and still it seems like there just aren't enough opportunities for everyone to "get a turn." The boys are all at school during the week so for breakfast and lunch the girls switch each days who says which prayer. I'm telling you all of this to explain that Haven gets ample opportunity to pray (not to mention their personal prayers as well) and one would think she has gotten the technicalities of it down by now but... She kept closing her prayer without saying the "in the name of Jesus Christ" part. For months I corrected her and we went to the next day knowing that she would get it right this time. SO... a few days ago, we were at the table and it was again Haven's turn to pray and again she ended with the appropriate "Amen" omitting the "in the name of Jesus Christ " part... again. But this time she adds, "in the name of Haven Grace, Amen."
So now I ask her... "Haven? !?!? Why would you say that? You're supposed to say...."
She then cuts me off to interject her reply of, "Mom! My name is not Jesus Christ! It's Haven Grace!"

The logic of such little ones never ceases to amaze me. I guess our next family home evening lesson should be about the difference between signing a correspondence and saying a prayer. In any case, I have no doubt that Heavenly Father hears the voices of his precious little ones regardless of what they say before the "amen." I rest assured he knows Haven Grace's heart and am ever so grateful she's learning of his.

Little Buddies

Trevan is my nurturing guy. Brayden is my guy who needs it. We have a long driveway leading down to the house and Rylan is the first to get off the bus and sprints down the driveway. Then comes Trevan with Brayden. I don't know exactly what it is but Trev must have some intuition into Brayden and follows through with it.
Pictures like this I just don't want to forget.

Sweet Dreams

Every night before I go to bed I check in on my babies just to get that last minute reassurance that all is well in dream land. More often than not this is how I find my girls...



Looks like all is well in dreamland.

Special Day

On Sunday Spencer and I got the opportunity to go with Bryan to receive his patriarchal blessing. Moments of those "spiritual highs" have not been coming as often as they used to so I was (and still am) very thankful to have shared that experience with my two big guys. There was a moment when our Patriarch asked me to share some things about Bryan and it caught me off guard. I immediately teared up as I thought of what I wanted to share. I have been with this kid for longer than I have been with any one in my entire life. His life has not always been easy and I know I was far from the best Mom at times so I marvel at how awesome he is and I'm glad I had the chance to put it all right out there for him to hear. I don't think I do that enough. I honestly truly do feel so blessed to have shared his life journey with him this far and can't wait to see what's just around the corner.

Braydenism

As a Macy's clearance rack is to me; so is Home Depot to my Brayden. Spencer is building some new movie shelves so when he asked Brayden on Friday if he wanted to go get the wood with him on Saturday, he could hardly sleep. So yesterday he asked me when it was going to be time to go and this is how the conversation went.

"In a while babe. You excited?
""Yes. You want to know what the best part about Home Depot is?"
"Sure do". I say.
"The very huge doors at the front. I mean, how do they make doors that tall? They must have a very very huge motor on them. You know what my favorite part about Home Depot is?"
"Tell me pal."
The have very huge rows of all kinds of wood and tools and paint. You get to buy some stuff from the Home Depot guys and then.. listen to this part Mom.. it's the best. You buy all the wood you need and then you get to bring it home and BUILD STUFF!"
"That is very cool Brayden. Is your Daddy the best builder in the whole world?"
"No. I am because last week I built a huge mansion house out of my soft blocks like the one I'm going to build for you and Dad when I get bigger."

Let's just say I'm banking on that one! Thanks Brayden for being the coolest six year old out there. Love ya big guy.




P.S. Brayden lost his front tooth on Thursday. I think it's adorable when that happens. Keep smiling Bradyen Boy.

Girl's Day Out At The Zoo

Man! Going out to big busy places is a lot easier with just two girls! My good friend Nina (who also has three older boys of her own) and I took our three girls to the zoo today. We left with no stroller, did not have to visit the reptile house, never had to yell "Hey! get down from there!", and simply got to stop and smell the roses. It was a beautiful 83 degrees today and we had a really good time. We took the train ride first then ate lunch and then went animal watching. Once again I'll state that we didn't even step foot in the reptile house. :-) Instead we stopped for plenty of photo ops (notice the owie below Ella's eye. She's still learning to look out for those "flying books" around the Draper house.) and our girls got to be little models today. We had a lot of fun.