Weekend in Review!

I decided I wanted a big change in my hair, so Friday morning I set up an appointment to get it done. My friend Meredith who works with me part-time in childcare, does hair, so I went to her. I got a lot of it cut off and put into a cute bob with a lot more volume and bounce. Then she put blonde highlights in. I knew I wanted to try it lighter. I was shocked at how much of a difference it was, but I liked it. Everyone else I seemed to show complimented me so I guess that's a good thing ;) 

Friday night my mom and dad kept the kids so Arnold and I could go on a date. Since I had the new hair and we were going out, I went one step further and went out to try to find something nice to wear. I found a pretty shirt with flowers at Kohl's to wear. Arnold and I had planned to go to dinner at Olive Garden, but they were already so packed when we got there, so we went to Carrabba's instead. We hadn't been there in a long time and I forgot how good it was! I had lasanga and was stuffed before I could finish it all! Towards the end of dinner there were people packed in there waiting on tables, and 2 men were leaning up against our booth and talking and being rude. I was about to say "HEY NOW! I'm trying to enjoy my date here!" lol. But I stayed nice ;)

After dinner we went over to the Family Christian Bookstore because I had a coupon. I picked up a book I'd been wanting that was on sale, and picked a new Karen Kingsbury book to get with my coupon. They even had a few of her books on clearance on a table up front so I picked up a few more. I left there with 4 new books to read, so I was a happy girl ;) Then we headed to the movies. The only showtime they had then was in the Big D theater, so we decided to pay a little extra and sit in the big, huge theater with the comfy seats. The movie was great and I had a fun time being out with my hubby :) Oh and on the way home I finally got to try one of the new lemonade freezes from Taco Bell! It was sour, but good!

Saturday morning we slept in, which was awesome!!! Then we got ready and headed to Mom and Dad's to pick up the kids. They had had a great time with their grandparents :) Brooke told me she had found a spider walking around in the guest bedroom and had her Pop Pop come kill it for her. She was still freaked out though and they ended up in bed with Grandma ;) 

After that we dropped them off with their other grandparents (I know that sounds like we don't ever spend time with our kids but it NEVER happens that way, we don't get alone time often, it just happened that weekend we had two things planned we needed sitters for!) We went to lunch at El Paso with some friends, Ashley and Tyler, that go to church with us. We recently found out that they live literally RIGHT down the street from us, and so we were excited! We love both of them already and think this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship ;) I see lots of dinners and get-togethers in the future. They are due with their very first baby in May, so we are excited for them! :)

After we picked the kids back up we took them to a local egg hunt. It was a dumb idea because it was COLD and WINDY that day, but they really wanted to go. We had to park at a church and walk to the park, so I was already tired and grumpy when we got there. The kids only found a few eggs because there were TONS of kids there. We didn't stay for any of the other activities because it was so cold.

That afternoon we took the kids to the movies to see "Home." I can't believe we ended up at the movies two times in one weekend. Once again, something we do NOT do often since it's so expensive, but the kids had wanted to see Home ever since we saw previews for it several months ago, and so we told them we'd take them opening weekend. The movie was really good! It was funny, and cute, and had a great message. At the end I swear I was tearing up.. there was a really sweet part. Even Arnold liked it. I liked it even more so because SHELDON COOPER was the voice of the little alien ;) Rachel cracked up a few times and it was so funny.. I love it when she laughs :) 

On the way home we stopped at the grocery store to get something to cook for dinner. Friday our fridge DIED!!!! Yes, it was pretty old, Arnold had bought it when he bought our house. We knew something was up because things weren't as cool and it was making a weird sound. So while we are waiting for our new one to be delivered (we picked a new one out Saturday afternoon) we have been storing our cold and frozen food at Arnold's parents' house. The kids are excited about our new fridge because it is a side by side and has an ice maker (doesn't take much to make them happy! ;) Arnold and I are however not that excited because now we have two big things to pay off with his bonus check and that was when we were expecting to get our iPhones! ahhh! I hope it somehow still works out we can get them!

Sunday morning I went to church to work. Seems like for some reason all the babies/kiddos were in a bad mood that morning because everyone was being fussy, grumpy or crying. It was hard to get everyone to calm down and play. One of the little girls I have watched since she was born moved up to the big girl classroom this weekend :( I was sad! It was strange not having her in there! Even though they aren't my own kids I get attached and we have bonds! I love those kiddos! 

Sunday afternoon Arnold mowed the lawn, the kids played outside, and we had tacos for dinner. I ended the evening with watching the Season 4 premiere of "Call the Midwives." I love that show!!! It is sad that nurse Jenny isn't on the show anymore, though. 

Hope everyone has an awesome week!!!!! :)

My new hair!!! I love it, but I am still shocked everytime I look in the mirror ;)

Ready for date night with my hubby! 

Eating some yummy lasanga at Carraba's!

Waiting in line for the movie, taking selfies! ;)

At the egg hunt on Saturday... it was windy!

Daddy with his girls!

Outside after we watched the movie! It was fantastic!

Taking selfies with sweet Easton on Sunday morning at work!

Shaylee was being my helper and trying to feed Ansley her bottle ;)

These girls were so sweet!

Arnold is in the zone! Doing what he loves!

Thoughts on Thursday!

I had heard so many things about this book and saw it was on the Bestseller list on Amazon, and it was supposed to be "The next Gone Girl." So I bought in on Kindle to read. I read it all in one day, and there were a few twists, but then I was disappointed with the ending. I was like "is that it?" It was nothing special. I was expecting more. I was sad when I thought it would be much better than that! Just a warning if you read it! Hope you like it better than I did!

Everyone knows I love the freeze drinks at Taco Bell.. their new one is Lemonade! I am going to try it next time I am near there. But why did they never come out with Pina Colada again?! That was my favorite!!!!

I mean seriously, when did she get so big?! She is 8 going on 18! She is such a pretty girl, and I told Arnold he was going to have to get a gun one day, when she starts dating ;) This is one of her new spring outfits. A few days this week were AWESOME! One day it was over 80 degrees. Then today it is rainy and cold. Why is the weather so bi-polar?!

Unfortunately Caleb and Brooke were home on St. Patrick's day.. with some sort of sickness. Brooke was throwing up earlier in the week. Caleb had a fever. About halfway through the day on Tuesday they were feeling better and playing again. So that evening I let them get on some cute outfits and play outside for a little while so I could take some pictures :)

Rachel was ready for school on St. Patty's day with her green shirt and bow! She picked the shirt out.. she had to have it since it had a kitty on it ;)

I saw these pop up on Facebook the other day. I thought these might be cute to make for Rachel's class for Easter! I am supposed to bring in a special snack the day of their party and I thought these would be cute to make for them to take home :)

We finally got Netflix back! I told Arnold I wanted it back so I could watch Season 3 of Call the Midwife. LOVE that show!!!! The best stories, and I am just mesmerized by the way they talk :) I end up crying half the time.. and I love seeing all the babies born! Anyway, Joanne told me about another show I needed to try. It was a show made for Netflix.. and it has the girl from the Office in it. I watched the first two episodes and thought it was so funny! 

I like setting up cute things for holidays and occasions. So the other day I found this table cloth, placemats, tray and bowl at TJ Maxx. I filled the bowl with easter reese's cups, and added the bunnies, which I found at Goodwill! I think rectangle shaped placemats work better on our table, for future reference, but oh well! We are hoping to get a new, BIGGER table in the near future!! 

Studying is much more tolerable if you are outside in the sunshine, right???? :)

~Since the weather was so nice earlier in the week, we took Sheldon on a walk around the block. His little legs were working hard to keep up. He was panting by the time we got home! Haha.. poor fella. But I think he really enjoyed getting some exercise.. we also took him to the park for the first time a few weeks ago. He was confused and barked at everyone who walked by.. but he got used to it after awhile. Everyone who saw him said he was so cute... :)

~I was happy because the other day I found 2 big bags of clothing that the girls wore last year. Some of the things still can fit them this year.. so I pulled them back out. I've already bought several things for Rachel this year.. looks like she has more than enough now... oops! ;) The stuff that didn't fit anymore on Rachel I washed, folded up, and got ready to hand down to her BFF, Kenzie. I love that someone else is going to get good use out of them. I don't know why I have such a hard time getting rid of stuff! I guess the clothes bring back memories (plus, they are so cute!) But believe me, Arnold was happy to see stuff LEAVING the house! haha! ;)

~I am supposed to work childcare tonight, and again on Sunday afternoon. I have tried taking a lot of shifts to save up money for this summer (my birthday party, Rachels, etc.) I can't say it enough how blessed I am to get to work with sweet kiddos, and some of my best friends!!! I am also looking forward to going to the park for playtime and a picnic on Saturday, with one of my best friends, Jessica, and her son!! :)

Weekend in Review!

Friday evening I went to work for the childcare at one of the church campuses. I was put in the 0-2 baby room, so I was excited. We waited, and waited, and no babies showed up! :( But, there were tons of kids in the other age groups, so I moved up to the 3-5 class. Actually, my friend Erika went home and let me take her place in that room. I am ever so grateful because I am trying to save up my childcare money for this summer! Anyway, there were about 15 or 20 kids in there and they were pretty wild, but it was fun. We fed them dinner and were trying to eat ourselves but every 2 seconds we had to jump back up to get them something. Reminded me of the days of having a newborn at home and trying so hard to sit down and eat once in awhile! ;) A couple of the girls wanted to play beauty shop and started playing with my hair and "styling it." It was really sweet. But when I tried to get up one yanked on my hair and pulled me back down, then they all jumped on top of me and said I couldn't leave... lol. They are so silly. Love my job!

Saturday morning we got up and went to a 1st Birthday party for miss Ansley! We watch her every week for lifegroup, and she is really special :) I can't believe she is one already! She had the cutest "milk and cookies" theme, and all the kids got their own little bottles of milk to drink and they had a huge assortment of cookies out. They also had pizza for lunch. And all the kids loved watching Ansley open her presents. I had taken Rachel with me, and she got to spend the whole time playing with her BFF Kenzie, so she was very happy :) She even said "thank you for bringing me Mommy, it was fun!!" :) 

While we were at the party, Arnold went into work for a few hours. Since it was a Saturday he let Caleb go with him. Caleb thought it was so cool, and got to have Dad/son bonding time ;) Arnold said he had to watch him carefully though, to make sure he didn't touch or break stuff! ;) Brooke spent the day with her BFF, Zoey, and later went to the movies with her and their friend Emma, and her mom. They went to see Paddington Bear. After Arnold got home from work, we rented Big Hero 6 and watched it with Caleb and Rachel. It was pretty cute.. but I ended up falling asleep during the end! haha. After that was over we went to dinner at Shell's BBQ. I love to go there every once in awhile and get hotdogs and cherry sundrop.. yum! After dinner we took Rachel to get her haircut.. we had been wanting to get it shorter for a long time. We took her to the JC. Penney salon. They did a great job and she looks adorable! 

When Brooke was dropped off to us that evening she said she had a stomach ache. She told me that day she had eaten chicken, slushies, nachos, popcorn... etc.. NO WONDER she had a stomach ache lol. But when we got home she was still feeling bad and went straight to bed, which is very  unlike her. She ended up waking up early the next morning and puking. She also had a fever. So we figured she had caught a stomach bug. So Arnold stayed home with the kids while I went on to church to work. 

I worked first service with Shana, so we got to talk and that was a lot of fun. We had a pretty decent crowd of kids in there, and everyone seemed to play well and not get upset.. so it was fun! 2nd service I hung around and helped out but didn't have to do much because I had 2 volunteers in there.. so it was another low-key service and I loved it! After church I went with Shana and Shaylee to lunch at PDQ. I haven't been in awhile and had one of their chicken sandwiches. It was fun getting to hang out with Shana some more. Since Arnold was hanging out at home with the kids and they were all just laying around watching tv, I went to Walmart all by myself, to pick up some things we needed. I hate going to walmart, but it was still nice getting to be out alone! It is a shame the kids weren't feeling the greatest, because the weather was GORGEOUS outside and like 70-some degrees, and we were all inside instead of out there enjoying it! 

Sunday evening I started reading the book "The Girl on the Train." It is one of the books on the top-selling list, so I decided to give it a try. I finished it up last night, and it was pretty good, but I didn't like the ending. A few twists, but nothing that special. But still worth it I think!

Joanne and I took our first work selfie!!!! ;)

The girls were having a blast playing with my hair!

With my honey at Shell's on Saturday evening for dinner.

Caleb with his cat he won at the arcade earlier that day.

Rachel showing off her new haircut! Cutie pie! 

We were playing around with Sheldon and put my sunglasses on him! :)

Cuddling up with my sweet Shaylee at PDQ after church :)

Erika with sweet Ansley-- the birthday girl!

She was chowing down on cookies!

The girls were playing dressup and having a blast!

Enjoying some cookies and treats! 

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I saw this floating around facebook and I LOVED it. This is so true. Motherhood is both the greatest and the hardest thing you'll ever do. I can only hope to be half as good as my mom was. 

Last night we went to dinner with friends! We were going to go to Ihop but they were packed from the free pancake day, so we headed over to Texas Roadhouse. Had a yummy dinner and got to spend time with friends, so it was a perfect evening :)

The kids had fun too, and it was kids' eat free night! They also got their own special cups to take home and balloons when we left. 

I had a blast working at church Sunday morning... and Monday evening. I love these little kiddos like my own! I couldn't ask for a better job, doing what I love! :)

Saturday evening I wore a new shirt and actually fixed my hair up, to go out with Joanne for girls' night! We wanted to go to dinner and a movie but we ran into some problems. Every restaurant in the area was packed.. I mean even more so than usual. We ended up at 4 different restaurants before we got to sit down.

Here we are at Applebee's. The shortest wait. And we finally got to sit down and eat dinner at 8:30pm (we had met up at 6pm!!) But at least I got to spend quality time with my best friend ;)

The weather has finally started being nice! Well at least it was Monday, and it is again today! The kids spent some time outside after school riding their bikes and enjoying the sunshine. I sat out there with them and it felt great. I  am so ready for Spring!

CONGRATULATIONS to my cousin Stephanie, who just welcomed her first baby into the world yesterday! Welcome to the Mommy club! Miss Lily Marie is just beautiful! I wish they didn't live so far away or I would have already been to visit them. I just love looking at brand new babies! Although it does give me serious baby fever! :)

I picked these cute kitchen towels up at Kohl's.. aren't they cute? I like different ones for each holiday, and when I saw these with owls, I couldn't resist ;) Owls and green.. two of my favorite things!!

~Brooke came home with her report card yesterday, and I was SO thrilled to see that it was a good one! She has been working so hard this year, after struggling so much and being though so much. Earlier in the year she was even making some F's, and we were just so worried. This report card had A's and B's on it, and a few C's. It's a complete turn-around. I was so proud of her and gave her a huge hug.. it seriously was one of those PROUD MAMA moments for sure! I hope she can keep it up til the end of the school year. She said she wants to pull those C's up and make the A/B honor roll at the end of school-- hey, it could happen! :)

~Hubby has been a wonderful help around the house this past week.. I don't know what's gotten into him! But he showed up at home the other day with several bags from Lowe's and did some home improvement projects and stuff... and he even worked on cleaning out Caleb's closet and organizing some stuff. I was so excited to see it all.. he is the best! :)

~I just took my last "regular" exam in my med class last night.. I made a pretty good grade! It was on the digestive system, and when I went to tell Arnold that I made a good grade, he said "wow, you really know your shit!" Sorry for the curse word, but I had to share that. It was hilarious. That's my hubby.. always supportive.. haha ;) My FINAL exam in the class is TOMORROW. I am so, so nervous. We learned 12 chapters in 8 weeks.. the class was shorter than regular classes. It was a lot of info to take in, and I hope I can remember it all for the final. Mom said if I do well she will take me out to celebrate on Friday. No pressure or anything right?! ;)

~This week at the kids' school is the BOOK FAIR!! I am just as excited now as I was when I was a kid ;) I can't wait to take the kids tomorrow afternoon and pick out some new books!!