Christmas Eve, Christmas Morning & Christmas Day!

Merry Christmas...a Little Late!

Hi! Just wanted to share that I hope each and every one of you had the Merriest of Christmas's yet! I tried to take a little "blog leave-of-absence" but realized that I hadn't wished you all a Merry Christmas! I hope you had a very blessed time spent with friends and/or family...and that we all remembered the true reasons for our celebrations.

We started celebrating with my side of the family on Sunday...it was a fun day! We all got to meet our sweet little niece/cousin/granddaughter Maria...what a precious little girl! Check out the photos below! We started the day by eating...what else?!?! We played a little right/left game, sang Christmas carols, my Dad read the Christmas story, and then we exchanged gifts. The rest of the day was spent visiting, snacking & playing games.

Christmas Eve day Rob was off, which he usually isn't. He and the boys went and got wood for our stove while I went up to Siemer's Appliance to visit and do a little Christmas celebrating. That evening we went to our Christmas Eve service at church, and then we went to Shoguns for supper afterwards. What an experience! An expensive one, but fun...they prepared our food right in front of us with flames of fire, a volcano, and catching food in our mouths! We then went home to open gifts with the boys. After sprinkling our reindeer food, we went to bed for some much needed rest!

Christmas Morning! "Santa came and he ate all the cookies and drank all the milk!"...was what we heard just a little too early!!! The morning was spent playing with the toys from Santa and from the night before...just a relaxing time amidst all of the clutter/mess/etc. in the house!!!

Christmas Day in the afternoon we went out to Rob's parents and family. Rob's mom, grandmother & I enjoyed some time visiting while the boy's all played outside with Matthew's new metal detector. By evening everyone had came and we enjoyed great food, opening gifts & playing games. Fun Times.

Rob went back to work on Wednesday...the boys and I have just been hanging out at home, watching movies, playing outside, etc. Trying to get the house in order somewhat...we'll get there!

Wishing you all the best in the New Year that is fast approaching!
Becky

Christmas at the Mueller's - 2007

Matthew's 1st Grade Christmas Party!

Photobucket Album

Jacob's Pre-School Christmas Party

Matthew's Christmas Program, a "DUH" Moment, Etc.

Tonight was Matthew's Christmas program at school. He was a shephard and looked so proud to be wearing his "shephard's" costume. The kids did a great job singing...this year the verses & the chorus's were all part of their memory work for the last 4 weeks (instead of Bible verses) so they really knew all the words to the songs. It was awesome and Matthew actually sang!!!

After the program we decided take the boys to Dairy Queen for some ice cream. We went thru the drive-thru because we were headed to the Jackson park to look at the lights. Me and the boys ordered...and Rob decided he didn't want anything. Well, when we got up to the window to pay, Rob had changed his mind. He asked the cashier if he could "have" a chocolate cone, in addition to what we had already ordered. The gal said, "well, you're gonna have to pay for it". Duh...Rob just looked at me and I was like "what??", and Rob just turned to her and said, "I was planning on it". If you didn't get a little chuckle out of that, I guess you just had to be there!

Last night I went with my scrappin' girlfriends to Bella Italia to eat (our group of 6 (sometimes more, sometimes less!) have been rotating crop nights now at each other's homes for probably 4-5 years now, maybe longer) and exchange Christmas gifts. It was a fun night...even though I had to cut it short because Rob also had his Union Christmas party last night.

Tomorrow is Jacob's "Happy Birthday, Jesus" party at pre-school...and then Matthew's is on Friday. Friday is the last day of school until January 3rd...yippee!!

Need to get teacher's gifts ready...have a great night!

WICKED at the Faboulous Fox in St. Louis!

It is called the FABULOUS Fox for a reason...IT IS FABULOUS! My friend, Amy, and I had tickets for WICKED last night and it was absolutely incredible!!!!! I would definitely see it again! I grew up watching the Wizard of Oz...and this was about what happened with the witches before the Wizard of Oz. It is playing until January 6th, I believe...if you get the chance...GO!

Before the show we had a little time to do some shopping, although we completely amazed ourselves by not spending much money! We had dinner at a fabulous Italian restaurant just down the street from the Fox...can't remember the name for the life of me! Scrumptious!

We had plans to stay at a Drury and then shop some more Saturday, but weather forecasts of anywhere from 2-10 inches in St. Louis urged us to go ahead and drive home after the show. Got home around 2:00 am, I think. Even though it was only a day...it was an awesome little getaway!

Rob just left with a buddy to go up north...yes, he's headed for bad weather. They are going to go hunting in the morning and then head home by 3:00 tomorrow afternoon. I'm excited for him to be able to go...hope he gets the BIG one!

The boys and I are having a movie fest this afternoon! Popcorn, soda, oreos...what more could you want?!?!

Have a GREAT, rainy Saturday!
Becky

Just a few pics of our day today...

Photos in Order from top to bottom:

1) Matthew is reading our Bible verse for the second Sunday in Advent.
2) Jacob & Matthew with our Advent wreath.
3) Miss Calli Jo taking a little snooze after playing in the tree!
4) Some yummy cinnamon rolls that were delivered to our house today by the Franklin's..Thanks!
5) A layout kit that I completed today while everyone was either napping or playing.
6 & 7) The boys' playing with their fire station & castle...this keeps them occupied for hours because they continual change how they build it.
8) Rob taking a much-needed Sunday afternoon nap!

Have a GREAT week!
Becky

For My "Scrappin" Buddies!

Good Morning!
I came across this awesome 2-page layout this morning as I was reading a fellow blogger's post. Thought this was the neatest way to record your family's holiday season. Even if you don't have a ton of stuff on your calendar, which we don't, you could record favorite traditions, Bible verses, etc. The journaling boxes are so great. Thought it was cute and wanted to share. Kelli Crowe is the gal that designed it. Have a Great Day!

This is the BESTEST day EVER!

That's what Jacob said today when I picked him up from a birthday party! A little boy from church was turning four and they were having a CARS-themed party...that is right up Jacob's alley! They went tractor-tipping in the little boy's backyard and his Daddy was Frank the combine...Jacob just thought that was awesome. Jacob's been sleeping for an hour now-the party must have wore him out!

This past Wednesday I went to Matthew's class to help make Advent wreaths. I've got a photo posted. The kids had so much fun and it was such a mess! Each child got
1 and a 1/2 of the big shredded wheat biscuits and they mashed them up in a ziplock bag. Then they dumped it in a plate, we poured glue on it, and green food coloring. We then shaped the "mess" into a circle, just like a wreath. The kids put four birthday candles on it, and then another mom and I hot-glued red berries and red bows on it. They turned out so cute. We light the first one tomorrow!

Last night my friend, Carinsa, and I had a night out together. We ate at the Olive Garden first and then we headed to my church where our ladies' ministry had a program about being "Intentional" with our kids at Christmas and making baby Jesus the focus of all that we do in celebrating. It was a fun night. There were booths set up with all kinds of ideas, books & fun things to do to help accomplish the main focus of Christmas. Lots of ideas...one that I'm going to do with our boys is have a small package wrapped up for each of them (and one for Rob & I too) that says, for example, To: Jacob, From: God. Inside I'm going to put a picture of Jesus in it and tell the boys that Jesus is the best gift of all. I also found these neat little coins today at Gospeland bookstore that has the nativity on it and on the other side it says, "Jesus is the Reason for the Season". I'm going to put them in the little packages as well.

Happy 1st of December to you!
Becky

Fun Little Recipe to do with the Kiddos!

Little Holiday Pretzel Treats

Ingredients:
Bite-size, waffle-shaped pretzels
Hershey's Kiss or Hershey's Hug
M&M's candy


Step 1
Heat the oven to 170º. Set a number of bite-size, waffle-shaped pretzels (one for each treat) in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, then top each pretzel with an unwrapped Hershey's Kiss or Hershey's Hug.

Step 2
Bake for 4 to 6 minutes (the white chocolate will melt more quickly), until the chocolates feel soft when touched with a wooden spoon. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and quickly press an M&M's candy into the center of each Kiss.

Step 3
Allow the treats to cool for a few minutes, then place them in the refrigerator to set, about 10 minutes. Place handfuls of the candies in clear plastic bags and tie on colorful ribbons.

Getting FURTHER and FURTHER Behind...

in my blogging! Hope you all had a very Thankful Thanksgiving! We enjoyed a yummy lunch at my mom and dad's and just hung out there the rest of the afternoon. Rob & my Dad watched most of "It's a Wonderful Life" while Mom and I browsed the after-Thanksgiving sale ads and I did some word search puzzles. The boys just played. That evening we went to Rob's parents for supper and ate some more yummy food.

That's all for tonight! Got to get to bed!

Just a couple photos...

of Jacob's Thanksgiving party today at pre-school! And, a photo of a turkey that Matthew made in school last week. Maybe a longer post tomorrow!

Ten Random Thoughts/Things That Happened Today

1. Rob left for work at 6:50 am. I fell right back to sleep and woke at 7:40. Got Matthew to school (with his shower taken, by the way) at 7:54. We live 1 1/2 miles from school. This happened only one other time and Matthew was to school on time at that time as well!

2. I absolutely love a rainy, fall day.

3. Jacob & I played 3 games of CandyLand today and 2 games of Diego.

4. Our school, St. Paul, collected over 500 boxes for Operation Christmas Child!!!!

5. Had the boys circle some things in the Lego catalog to put on their Christmas wish lists...needless to say, I have LOTS of choices!

6. I fixed spaghetti w/garlic bread for supper. Always a hit.

7. Will be doing most of our Christmas shopping on-line this year...so much easier and lots more choices.

8. For those of you with kids, I got a neat little idea from my sister, Elizabeth, today, on doing a "moving" nativity with your children. Basically, at home, you set up your nativity like you always do, leaving Mary & Joseph and Baby Jesus, out of the nativity. Each day then, you put Mary & Joseph in a different spot and let the kids find them...basically to symbolize their travels. Then on Christmas Eve, they arrive at the nativity. Baby Jesus appears in the morning. I thought that was so cute and such a fun way to relay the message of what happened on that first Christmas.

9. Looking forward to substituting for Matthew's teacher on Friday & Monday!

10. GREAT mail day!

Recap of a FUN, BUSY Weekend!

Friday night started off with a fun craft night that a good friend of mine put together! Rob and the boys stayed home and watched movies and went to bed early! Here's a photo of what we made. The first project, on the left, is a Christmas card holder or mail holder...I didn't put the handles back on yet so it's missing those. The second project was a Christmas planner...although I think I'm going to use mine for displaying photos, we'll see. It was a fun night with about 10 ladies showing up! Thanks, Julie!

Saturday morning, Rob & Matthew got up around 4:00 am to go deer hunting...they didn't see a thing except for squirrels. Went to pick Matthew up around 8:30 am...he'd had enough! Rob continuted to hunt the rest of the day. That afternoon I took the boys to a bowling birthday party...they had so much fun.

Then, as soon as Rob got home we headed to some friend's house for supper and to plan an adult only trip! We had so much fun...we got a map out and just looked it over and jotted down a few places that we're considering and are going to do some research on!

Today we played cards, put together Operation Christmas Child boxes, and now the boys & Rob are at AWANA at our church. I'm spending my alone time doing laundry, straightening up around the house, and just stuff like that!

I've got another recipe to share...would be great for dessert at your Thanksgiving dinner!

Pumpkin Crisp

1-15 ounce can pumpkin
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 box butter-flavored yellow cake mix (I used BC's Super Moist Butter Recipe Yellow)
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup butter, melted
Cool Whip

Stir together the first 5 ingredients. Pour into lightly greased 13X9 inch baking dish. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture; sprinkle evenly with pecans. Drizzle butter evenly over pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hours to 1 hour and 5 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven, and let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature with Cool Whip, if desired. Makes 8-10 servings.

Heather...the last recipe that I posted for muffins...I took some out of the freezer and just let them thaw...they were as if I'd just baked them!

Have a great week!

MMMMMMM...You Gotta Make These!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 cups oil
2 cups brown sugar
4 cups sugar
Beat Together, Then Add:

8 beaten eggs
1 1/2 Tbsp baking soda dissolved in 1/3 cup warm water
4 cups pumpkin
7 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ginger
2 tsp cloves
2 tsp nutmeg
4 tsp cinnamon
Mix, Then Add:

1 cup warm water
3 cups milk chocolate chips

Bake @ 350 degrees for 15-20 (mine actually took about 25) minutes...as soon as they start to brown. Do not overcook.


I have my last batch in the oven right now...I halved the recipe and it made 34 muffins (cupcake size). They were so yummy I had to have two with my milk tonight! They would be excellent to freeze as well.

One-on-One Time

I LOVE nights like these...don't get me wrong...I LOVE spending time with my whole family...but nights like these are special...spending a little one-on-one time with my boys. Rob needed to go out to our farm and plow some fields...Jacob really wanted to go so we let him since he doesn't have pre-school tomorrow. Matthew was totally fine with that...he was like..."Mom, let's play some kickball and drink hot cocoa!" Well, if you know me...you know I LOVE hot cocoa! So, after Rob & Jacob left, we played kickball outside for about an hour. Then we went to the library to check out a couple of books & videos. We came home, did some math homework, ate, and drank hot cocoa while watching about an hour of Superman. It was then time to do some reading...and work on spelling words. Then, we watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving, which is a hoot by the way, and then it was bedtime. What a fun night for Matthew & me!

Good Morning! I just spent a few minutes reading a blog from a fellow scrapbooker who is also a Mormon. I wouldn't normally post comments from an LDS Conference, but this one really struck me this morning. It was directed to parents about the time spent as a family, by Elder Dallin Oaks, LDS General Conference, October 2007:

Some of our most important choices concern family activities. Many breadwinners worry that their occupations leave too little time for their families. There is no easy formula for that contest of priorities. However, I have never known of a man who looked back on his working life and said, "I just didn't spend enough time with my job."

In choosing how we spend time as a family, we should be careful not to exhaust our available time on things that are merely good and leave little time for that which is better or best. A friend took his young family on a series of summer vacation trips, including visits to memorable historic sites. At the end of the summer he asked his teenage son which of these good summer activities he enjoyed most. The father learned from the reply, and so did those he told of it. "The thing I liked best this summer," the boy replied, "was the night you and I laid on the lawn and looked at the stars and talked." Super family activities may be good for children, but they are not always better than one-on-one time with a loving parent.

Family experts have warned against what they call "the overscheduling of children." In the last generation children are far busier and families spend far less time together. Among many measures of this disturbing trend are the reports that structured sports time has doubled, but children's free time has declined by 12 hours per week, and unstructured outdoor activities have fallen by 50 percent. The number of those who report that their "whole family usually eats dinner together" has declined 33 percent. This is most concerning because the time a family spends together "eating meals at home [is] the strongest predictor of children's academic achievement and psychological adjustment." Family mealtimes have also been shown to be a strong bulwark against children's smoking, drinking, or using drugs. There is inspired wisdom in this advice to parents: What your children really want for dinner is you.

One more thing!

Matthew got his "behavior" card turned today at school. He was acting like a cat by meowing. His teacher said, "Matthew...we don't act like animals in class". It could be worse...what was he thinking!?!? :)

Happy Halloween...Night 2!!!

Wanted to share a few more photos of our Halloween fun...night #2.

Happy Halloween!

Just a few photos from our evening...have a few more places to go tomorrow night! And, for those of you that I told that Jacob was going to be Spiderman...well, he changed his mind today and decided to be a hunter! Matthew was Luke Skywalker. We had a fun night!

4-Year Old "Fact of the Day"

"There aren't any squirrels in China."

This morning when we got home from preschool Jacob & I were looking thru his papers and I was admiring a picture he made of a tree with a squirrel sitting under it. Then, Jacob informed me that..."There aren't any squirrels in China." I proceeded to ask him where he had heard that and he just said "I just know it, Mom."

Kids are just AWESOME!!!

Hunting & Other Stuff!

Our weekend started off with a fun Halloween party on Friday night...Jacob & I went while Matthew & Rob got ready for hunting. At the party we went on two hayrides, ate some yummy hotdogs & roasted marshmellows, and Jacob LOVED the tunnel! Thanks for a GREAT time, Heather and family!

Saturday morning Rob & Matthew left early to go deer hunting...it was youth weekend. They didn't see a darn thing. They went again early this morning and Matthew came home with his first kill...a squirrel! He was so excited...I think Rob will fix it for the boys for supper. I think I'll have to pass on squirrel!

Not much else going on here this weekend...we're headed to AWANA at church this evening and then over to my mom's for dessert! Should be fun...her friend, Else, and her husband, Paul, have been visiting here for 3 weeks from Germany. They are leaving tomorrow so mom wanted to have everyone over to see them before they go.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! It's gorgeous outside!

Our sweet little niece, Maria

Just wanted to share a few recent photos of Maria...she's about 11 lbs now! In the bottom photo I think she looks just like her Mama! What a sweetie!

1st Parent/Teacher Conferences of the Year

We just got home from parent/teacher conferences for both of our boys. They went great...both boys are doing great in school...Matthew in 1st grade and Jacob in pre-school. It is so funny how our boys are so totally different in a couple of areas. At Matthew's conference, we were asked to encourage Matthew to respond a bit more verbally...he's always been pretty quiet in school. Jacob, on the other hand, has "no problem wanting to answer any and every question"! Matthew is not crazy about singing and Jacob loves singing! It is so awesome how God gives each of us our own personalities and uniquenesses. Even though Matthew & Jacob are quite different in certain areas, they are both the same in so many others. For instance, they both love to play superheroes, to read and be read too, to play outside and get extremely dirty, and they both love playing at the farm. We're proud of you both, Matthew & Jacob...and we love you so, so much!

One more thing...Happy Birthday, Elizabeth (my sister)...hope you had a FANTASTIC day!

In HONOR of...

having absolutely nothing to post about...I'll just post what I'll call a "random list of 5's"!!!

1) 5 Things I LOVE about Fall:
1. Cool Weather
2. The Changing Colors of the Leaves
3. Hot Dog Roasts & Roasting Marshmellows at the Farm with my family
4. Halloween & Thanksgiving
5. Fall Decorations like pumpkins & scarecrows

2) 5 of my Favorite snacks:
1. Chocolate, chocolate & more chocolate!
2. Popcorn
3. Cookies with M&M's
4. Apples w/Caramel Dip (my mind is on FALL)
5. Cheese Doritos

3) 5 of my Worst Habits:
1. Spending WAY to much time on this computer!
2. Not drinking enough water (I'm working on that!)
3. A daily habit of not exercising (I'm working on this too!)
4. Eating too much chocolate
5. Not making our bed right after we get up...it's always made...but it might not get
done until 10 am!

4) 5 Favorite Foods:
1. Pizza
2. #17 from El Torerro's (Mexican!)
3. Spaghetti
4. Tacos
5. 8-can soup

5) 5 Places I've Been:
1. Walt Disney World (3 Times but one of those for work!)
2. Big Cedar Lodge at Branson
3. Washington D.C.
4. Las Vegas (can't count how many times...all work related!)
5. Jamaica & Cayman Islands on a Cruise

6) 5 Favorite Memories:
1. Our Wedding Day
2. Both of our boys' "birth" days
3. All vacations with my family
4. Simple things like riding 4-wheelers, bonfires at the farm, etc.
5. Any days where we are just hanging out at home doing NOTHING!

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

We had a pretty calm weekend here. Rob was in the fields all day Saturday & Sunday baling our last batch of hay...I think he square-baled about a 1000 bales...he was busy! Saturday morning the boys and I headed to a few garage sales in their Aunt Cheryl's neighborhood in Cape...they found a few interesting things! After that we went to the Fire Truck Rally at Capaha park and walked around and looked at all the firetrucks, ate some yummy food and played at the play area. We then headed down to the river...I couldn't remember the last time that I took the boys down there. We just found a little spot to play right down by the river and the boys played, threw rocks, looked for "treasures"...we spent about an hour there. Matthew had his last soccer game Saturday afternoon...Matthew said they've won every game this season...I've never kept track...but he sure did! Saturday evening Rob finished up a little bit early so I took the boys out to meet him and they all took a ride on their 4-wheelers. The boys had so much fun.

Sunday was church and then AWANA that afternoon.

Hoping for a calm and uneventful week!
Becky

The FURMINATOR!!!

For those of you that know me, you know that I have a geniune love for animals...particularly cats & dogs. Our cat, Oliver, is about 9 years old...we got him from the Humane Society when he was about 6 weeks old...he was just a little furball...my friends at Southeast Hospital's Accounting department can tell you what a little cutie he was! Anyway, he has grown into a beautiful, long-haired cat...and quite honestly, one of the most beautiful cats I've ever seen (I'm a little bit biased!) His long hair is just like cotton...when you pet him the fur flies. And, he really takes care of himself...he's never had a matting problem at all. Well, when we were at the vet a couple of months ago for a checkup, the vet used the FURMINATOR on him and I was completely sold on it! When you comb him with it, it like goes down deep in the fur and pulls out all the loose stuff...and, believe me, Oliver has a lot of it! Well, that day at the vet I could not afford to purchase one since I had to pay the vet bill...but, low and behold, the other day on the Q (QVC for those of you that don't know!) they were offering one on easy pay!!! Easy pay... THE WAY TO GO! Anyway, I purchased one and it arrived TODAY! I used it on Oliver and he wasn't that impressed...but, he'll get used to it! I'm just rambling but just wanted to share that if you need a FUR ELIMINATOR...get the FURMINATOR!!!

What a BUMMER!

This past weekend Rob took our bull up to a sale in Farmington...we got what we paid for it 4 years ago so we were pleased. Anyway, he lost his cell phone up there (some guy at the sale barn found it) so I told him that Jacob and I could run up there on Monday to pick it up. Of course, I didn't mention that I happened to want to go to the scrapbook store on the way to Farmington and also the one in Perryville! Rob said that he would call at 9:30 am from someone else's phone to tell me where the sale barn was. So, Jacob and I headed north...Rob called just as we were at the St. Mary's exit and said that we didn't need to go! Several of his bosses were going to Farmington for a bid and they could pick it up. (he thought we were LEAVING at 9:30). So, I thought...BUMMER...we turned around and I wasn't too upset because I knew that we could stop in Perryville. We got to Perryville and that store is NOT OPEN on Mondays!! COMPLETE BUMMER. So, we headed to get fresh milk and then headed home! I was kind of sad!

For those of you that live around here, my nephew, Joshua, will be on the Heartland Science Lab at 5:00 pm on KFVS doing some Halloween experiements...on Wednesday of this week. Try to see it if you can!

Continued & New Prayers Needed

Just wanted to post that I received a link to a progress report of a sweet little guy, Colton Holloway...he's actually our boys' 2nd cousin (I think that's right!) He just got his traech removed and he needs prayers for a peaceful night tonight and a successful day tomorrow. The link is www.carepages.com and it will ask you to sign up and then it will ask you put it his name and there you would put: coltonltp

Also, please continue to pray for Kate Lipke...I mentioned her on an earlier post. Here is a link to her updates. www.caringbridge.org/visit/katelipke
Hope that link works...you'll need to sign up there as well, I think.

Thanks for praying...our God is an AWESME God.

Becky

Photo's from Jacob's Birthday Party

Little Halloween Project

Trying to get in the spirit of October! It's really difficult when it's in the upper 80's and low 90's! Hopefully temperatures will soon start to get a little bit cooler. Completed this little project today while Jacob was busy playing with all of his little farm animals. It was super easy and didn't take much time...I thought it turned out kind of cute. A photo of the boys will go in the middle space where the orange paper is.

SORRY!!

A BIG "sorry" goes out to my few but faithful blog readers! I vowed at the beginning of this journey of blogging that I would post every couple of days or so and now it has been almost an entire week...AGAIN. So sorry!

I feel like I'm slowly beginning to come up for air. I had a deadline this past Monday and I had lots to do to make it. Being the head room parent for Matthew's class (yes, when no one else signs up I guess I'm just a sucker!) I've also had to be the contact person for the 1st grade's auction stuff. St. Paul has a huge fundraiser auction each year and each class is asked to have an oral auction item, as well as several small "signed" items for the silent auction. My wonderful team of moms from our first grade class was just all gung-ho this year...which I LOVE...so we got together several things for our silent auction. One thing that I did was create an 8X8 album of the first grade class...it turned out really cute but has really consumed a lot of my time lately. It was really simple, actually, but time-consuming. Funny thing is...I made it and will probably bid and try to win it at the auction!

Also these past few weeks a friend of mine, not a close friend, but a friend that I've know thru MOPS and now thru St. Paul where her son and our Jacob are in pre-school together, had a sweet baby girl that has heart problems. Little Kate and her family need so many prayers right now and I've been trying to do my part. When someone goes thru something like this it really tends to put things in perspective. I've been doing so much thinking lately and just trying to be more grateful, more aware of the time I spend in prayer, and the time that I spend doing things for others...including my family. If you have a minute, please say a prayer for Baby Kate and her family...she is at Children's Hospital in St. Louis.

Rob's been busy putting hardwood down for our steps...it's coming along and looks really, really great.

Just realized I never did post pics of Jacob's birthday party...will try to do that.

Now, I'm headed to bed! Good night!

Still Trying to Play Catch-Up!

As my title states, I'm still trying to blog about things that happened last week! We celebrated Jacob's birthday last Thursday with a pizza party at the park. We had about 40 people come to celebrate and the kids had a great time riding their bikes & scooters, playing at the playground, and eating pizza & cupcakes! We always love to get together with family & friends...we need do it more often!

My kitchen is now painted a deep red! I LOVE it...and it's growing on Rob! He has the painting to do down the steps, but he decided to put hard wood floors down the steps before he painted. So, he's in the process of that now! Hopefully, someday SOON, the kitchen will be COMPLETELY finished!

We knew this day was coming, we just hoped it wouldn't happen this soon. We had to call Flori Air Conditioning & Heating. We've got some major things going on with our air conditioning (it's working right now, thank Goodness!) and our whole unit really needs to be replaced. We're going to sit on this for about a week and decide what to do. It is such a major expense but one that we will really need to incur before winter. Bummer.

Our sweet Calli is in heat. She is annoying and yet sweet at the same time. Her appointment is on Friday to get spayed and declawed. The day can't get here soon enough. Enough said!

Time to pick up Matthew...have a great night everyone. Hopefully I'll post some pics of the birthday party later this evening or tomorrow.
Becky

More Photos!

Couple of pictures of my trip last Saturday with about 40 other ladies (including about 6 of my good friends) that LOVE scrapbooking! We went on a charted bus tour to St. Louis and visited 3 scrapbook stores, did make-in-takes, shopped, shopped some more!!, and had lunch on the Hill at Zia's. It was a fun, fun day!

Trying to Catch Up!

Wanted to post a few photos of Matthew's soccer game last Saturday...it was the only game that I'll be missing this season...He had a crowd come to watch...Rob, Jacob, Rob's parents, my Dad, and my brother, Paul, and his wife, Kristi. I heard it was a fun time!