Courtesy of Erin...

Don't you just love it when your babysitter also happens to be an amazing photographer? I DEFINITELY do!

Of course we are thankful for her for countless other reasons. But, this is an awesome perk. :)

Soaking Up Saturday

Bless this food...

We are working on teaching Bryson about praying and giving thanks for our food before meals. He is so sweet! Now he always clasps his hands and waits for Jason and I to sit down and say a prayer before he eats. He smiles really big during the entire prayer {yes- I have been peeking!} and looks back and forth from me to Jason over and over again. Makes my heart melt!

Valentine's Day 2011

This last week...

This last week was a CrAzY one! Uncle Will came for a visit. Bryson LOVED playing with him. They played football...

...and read books.

It was great to see him!

***

I started a new Bible study on Thursday night. It is called "Apples of Gold". Each Thursday evening I will be going to some one's home where we will be shown how to prepare a certain meal from start to finish, let the meal bake while we are having our Bible study, and then all eat the meal together. Last week was so much fun. It turned out that all of my friends are in the Sunday night group, and Sunday evenings don't work well for us. Sunday is our family day and our time to get ready for the week. So, I joined the Thursday group and I didn't know a single person! It was so much fun, though. I am looking forward to Thursday already! :)

***

Friday I spent 9 hours in the home of one of my dying patients. When I arrived there were 14 family members, the preacher, and the music minister all there. The wife apparently plays the piano for their church, because she started playing hymns and we all sang. Everyone cried. It was an amazing and moving experience. I will never forget that rendition of "What a Friend We Have In Jesus" and "How Great Thou Art." I know that I was there for a reason. I took care of that patient and his family during one of the most monumental moments of all of their lives. What an honor. I hope that is how I go. Weird, I know. But so true. I will never forget that.

***

Friday night Bryson woke up at 2am with a temperature of 104.7 degrees. I took him to Urgent Care on Saturday morning, and they said he had a throat infection. AGAIN!!! We are SO tired of dealing with sickness around here! To make matters worse- Saturday was Sam's birthday party. That makes two birthday parties in four weeks that we have had to miss due to illness. AND- we could see the blow up bouncy thing {can't remember right now what it is really called!} in the Kenley's yard through our window. So sad!

***

Never fear- Granny is here!!!!

Saturday Granny got here right before lunch. Jason won tickets to the A&M Women's basketball game for Saturday night so Granny came to watch him. His fever was down by that evening, but we were exhausted. We skipped the game and just went out to eat instead. We had a great time and were so glad for an evening and a nice meal to ourselves. Granny and Bryson had a good time too!

***

By Sunday the fever was gone. Bryson opened up a Valentine's Day package from Grandma and PawPaw. He got a card that sings "Who Let the Dogs Out?" The Beards gave him a coloring book that sang that song for his birthday, and it was one of his favorite gifts {until he broke it shortly after getting it!}. He LOVED his card, and has danced and danced and danced to it!

He always sticks one arm straight up in the air and spins around in circles. We don't know where he learned this, but it is HILARIOUS!

Crazy kid!!!

Super Bowl 2011

We decided to have a few people over to watch the Super Bowl. I honestly cared nothing about the game-- I didn't even know who was playing! Our Sunday School class was having a party, but Jason had already invited a few work friends so we decided to stay home. It is also a lot easier for us to be at home, since Bryson goes to bed at 8:30pm. This way Jason didn't have to leave the party!

Here are the boys hanging out in the garage (aka the playroom!) before the party. Bryson got this basketball goal for Christmas, but I definitely think that it is at the top of Jason's favorite gifts for 2010.

 Bryson and one of his best buddies, Sam, playing. Bryson is really into dumping ALL of his toys out and spreading them all over the living room.

 We shut the garage door and let the kids play. We had seven kids running around, and I don't think they could have had a better time. It was loud, chaotic, and messy. We all had a blast. I walked into the garage to check on the kids at one point to find this:

 Bryson didn't have a plate but I notoiced that he was taking food off of each of the other kids' plates, and was eating more than I've ever seen him eat! Sam kept coming inside and asking for another piece of pizza for Bryson. After I sent the third piece out with Sam, I had to see what was really going on out there. They were all huddled around the picnic table sharing, and sharing a juice box as well. No wonder they're all sick all the time! They were being so sweet and sharing, I didn't have the heart to break it up.   :)

Crazy Kids!

 Lauren and Kyleigh

 The Kenleys

 Sweet Mia

 CUTE pictures that I couldn't resist posting. They were having such a good time!

I was giving Bryson a bath, and all of a sudden a little flash zoomed by me. I turned around to see Reagan, with not a stitch of clothing on, begging to get in the bathtub. In walked Jenny shaking her head and laughing. So, we had bath time together! Bryson LOVED it {and we knocked out two baths at once}.

We had such a good time. I can't even really put it into words. It was so nice to just hang out at home with friends. We ordered pizza and everyone brought something. We ended up having WAY too much food! I didn't spend my entire day getting ready for everything {for a change}. We cleaned the house, but it was nice because it really needed it. Everything was so relaxed.

We are so thankful for good friends and Super Bowl Sunday!

{although I definitely couldn't tell you who won the game at the end of the evening!}
Couldn't have been better!

Project Updates

I finished staining the board for our growth chart, and it was ready to hang on the wall. Jason hung it behind the door in our laundry room. I give him a hard time, but he really is a pretty good handy man. :)

 I LOVE how it turned out! It is exactly what I wanted (thanks, Erin, for the great idea)!

 A few weeks ago I decided that we (I) needed a change. So, I went out and bought paint for our living room. Our house is not very big, and the kitchen, dining room, and living room all run together. I have been wanting to separate these rooms for a while now, but I am very indecisive and didn't want to affect the resale value by painting crazy colors that other people might not like. I have finally decided that if we are going to live here, I am going to make it our home. Period. If we have to re-paint later, then we will. Not a big deal! So, I was going for a gray/blue color. The color I chose is Jubilee by Sherwin Williams. It definitely looked much more gray on the test spot on our wall. I wanted more of a gray color, but I am adjusting and have decided that I like it. I can always paint over it if we get tired of it. The funny thing is that I really don't even like the color blue! We are enjoying the change and have had fun mixing things up a bit! Here are a few shots of our freshly painted living room and some projects I have been working on (it is hard to tell what the color really looks like in these pictures):

 I saw the idea for these cute balls over here. I took some old candlesticks that I had, spray painted them, and voila! New decor! I also made a cute heart-shaped wreath using the same method.

 Heart wreath!

With most things marked off of my project list, I am really going to focus on finishing my Dad's quilt {his CHRISTMAS present!}. I also want to work on our blog book. No new projects until those things are finished!

********

Tomorrow night we are having a few friends over for the Super Bowl. One of my New Year's resolutions was to sit back and enjoy life more. I would usually be cleaning my entire house right now and probably baking up a storm to get ready for the party. Instead, we have told everyone that we will all be chipping in for pizza and I have decided that there is no need for my house to be spotless. Life is too short to stress out over these things. I used to spend too much time "getting ready" for life to happen. It's funny, but I've now realized that while I'm getting ready, I'm missing out. So, tomorrow night will be a true test for me. I can't wait!