15 Times

Ed made a list and we think Friday night was probably our 15th time to see Sawyer Brown. We have so much fun when we got to their concerts - we know exactly what songs they will sing (and every word to them) and pretty much have his "between songs script" memorized too. But we really wouldn't want it any other way. Everyone goes crazy the entire time - fun!

For Christmas, Ed got me a membership to their fan club so we could try and get "meet and greet" passes before the concert. We received notification on Wednesday . . . . .so we got our tickets signed and our picture with Mark Miller (can you tell I got up at 4:15 a.m. to get home from NY?!) before they went onstage. It was great - thanks babe!

Ed's dad and Jacki watched the boys while we were gone and we spent the night. This is what we woke up to -

We headed home around noon, ate lunch and everyone took LONG naps this afternoon. Naps are totally underrated.

2 trips = 2 books

I don't read "real" books as much I would like anymore - if I'm reading at home, it's usually flipping through a cooking/craft book or magazine. So when I take a work trip (quality time in the airport), I really look forward to reading and love that I get the chance to read/finish a book within a couple days instead of dragging it out for months.

And with two trips this month, I've been able to read a book from each of my favorite authors - Harlan Coben and Maeve Binchy.

Earlier this month, I read The Woods. Coben is the best at writing suspenseful page-turners.

And Maeve Binchy is my all-time favorite author. All of her books take place in Ireland and when I'm done reading one of her books, I actually miss the characters. I'm halfway through this one now and don't want it to end (although it will on my return flight tomorrow).

Sunday Dinner

Eating as a family is important. My friends liked to tease me about it growing up - there was never any question what time our family was eating (7:30, noon and 6) and I went home to eat lunch until I graduated from high school (our house was a block away). I loved it! And it was so nice to come home from church on Sundays and smell "Sunday dinner" cooking (Sunday dinner = roast, potatoes and carrots).

Our family eats together almost every night (although one of my goals for 2009 is to get better organized in planning our meals). And I'd like to get back to taking Brady to Sunday School more regularly and going to the "music" service, but I don't have "Sunday dinner" down yet.

I love this pic of the kids helping my mom cook on a Sunday morning before church (I have a couple great ones with my mom in them for our photo albums, but thought she might hurt me if I shared them on here since she's in her housecoat? :) They are so busy with their individual tasks (Brady still talks about the bloody meatballs Breckyn was making!) and loving every minute of it.

Good day

It's been a good day.

When the boys got up this morning, I started organizing Brady's room a little bit - with his room being the biggest upstairs he has the musical instruments, dinosaur/jungle toys and had a dinosaur tent set up (so it can get crazy). Ed came up and started organizing his clothes in the closet so Brady's room is looking good now.

Then I helped the boys with a science experiement kit "B-5" (my brother's family) gave to Brady for his bday. Brady loves science stuff and was really excited to try it out. We tried several water coloring changing experiments in test tubes and then the highlight was making "crystals" -

After getting groceries, eating lunch and putting the boys to bed, I fell asleep in front of the living room windows (in the sun) for about an hour - so nice! Then headed to 24 Hour Fitness for a quick workout (6 more days in my 2 week trial :). After nap time, we headed to Borders to use a gift card Brady got for his bday. He picked out a 3D "Spot What" book, Halloween book that came with a bat puppet and dinosaur hunting kit. That should keep them busy for awhile!

Dancing Pairs

SO excited about the new season of Dancing with the Stars! I was hooked on this show when Emmitt Smith won it (we even went to St. Louis and saw their tour - it was great!) and then the last two seasons (I think 2) haven't had anyone on there that I've really connected/rooted for so I didn't watch.

BUT the new season has so many people I like or at least think they will be entertaining. I like Nancy O'dell, Jewell, Ty Murray. And I love Julianne Hough and she's paired up with her boyfriend Chuck Wicks, so that will be good. And Denise Richards is paired up with Maxim (who is engaged to Karina, one of the other professional dancers on the show) - oh Denise, I saw one episode of her reality TV show and just felt sorry for her. A total turnoff so I'm interested to see if she handle dancing. And Steve-O - he's from Jackass, right? What else is there to say?!

Starts Monday, March 9th!

Day & Night

It's been a big day and and going to be an even bigger night for Brady. He's been working on his loose tooth for about a week now and shortly after brushing his teeth this morning I realized it was horizontal. So we got really excited and I told him today was the day - he was going to lose it! So he called Ed and told him and while I was talking to Ed, he got the tooth out!

He was SO excited. Seriously, even more exciting than Christmas! Who knew the tooth fairy was bigger than Santa Claus?!

He's smiling a little weird here because I wanted to see his bottom teeth (of course) and you don't see them when he smiles regularly

Creative Cafe

I won a giveaway on Creative Cafe's blog and it came in the mail today! Creative Cafe is one of my favorite brands of scrapbooking stuff and their website has a bunch of stuff I can't find locally and want to try. I love checking out Danelle Johnson's blog - she is a Creative Cafe team member and has great ideas for mini albums and organizing/printing/displaying photos (I'm pretty sure she's even from Kansas!).

And although I don't know the "technical" terms for the stuff I received, I DO know what to do with them :) I got a teal pen, 4 sheets of "overlay" designs (numbers, flowers, swirls), several big circle clips (to hold mini books together) and best of all, some very cute buttons (flowers, squares)!



And while I'm busy trying to catch up on my scrapbooking, I'm sure I'll have at least 1 or two little boys creating along with me :)