Seriously?!

So my best friend comes to visit from Tennessee to stay with us for about a week and a half with her 3 kids. How is it, that in all that time, I didn't manage to take ONE picture of us together? Who does that? Oh...that's right.. ME!! I'm so mad at myself. I guess we're going to have to do it all over again...which is fine by me! I guess it's the time we spent together that was more valuable to me, like taking our kids and heading out to the beach, and let me tell ya, between watching 5 kids and our stupid beach umbrella that kept falling down, it was definitely trying, but it was worth it and we had tons of fun soaking up the sun and chatting it up like two school girls! Another highlight was staying up late and watching old 80's movies...who doesn't love Molly Ringwald!! Yes, next time....PICTURES!!!

Jepson's 9th Birthday!

On April 19th, my baby boy officially turned 9 and he couldn't be happier! I'm just now getting around to blogging about it and posting the pictures because.....well, that's just how I roll:)

The theme for his birthday was "How To Train a Dragon" since we saw the movie in 3D together as a family 1 week prior, and he was obsessed with "Night Fury" aka "Toothless" the dragon. It was a really cute movie, but I was reminded how old I am while watching the movie and getting motion sick...seriously?! I'm becoming my mother.

Anyways, Jepson is just a fun loving, energetic little boy who literally makes me laugh on an every day basis. It makes me sad to think this will be his last "single digit" birthday....*sigh*. Why do they have to grow up so fast?!


"Toothless" the dragon cake. It was a big hit!


He got a big boy watch.


This kid LOVES taking pictures and videos so he got a pretty sweet camera...I may have to borrow it!


And a birthday wouldn't be complete without a gift card to GameStop for the video-game lover that he is.

Funny moments

Jepson, our 9-year-old, struck up a conversation with us a few days ago and it was one of those funny little moments I just had to blog about. I have to write these things down so I don't forget, since the kids are getting older and I want to remember these things when I'm old and gray.

We were discussing our family values and our religion. We live by a set of rules that maybe most people don't adhere to. This is how the conversation went down:

JEPSON: We don't drink coffee do we mom?

ME: No, honey. Some people drink coffee, but we don't. Just like, some people smoke, but we don't. Some people swear, but we don't.

JEPSON: Yeah, just like some people are RICH, but we're not!

Todd and I were laughing SO hard! That kid kills me, I tell ya. He is so candid and funny all at the same time. Gotta love it!

Time Out For Women!

In February, I was able to go to a Time Out For Women conference in Orlando with some friends and we had a blast! It was a much needed break for us busy moms and gave us a chance to be spiritually uplifted and re-energize. We were all so excited to have a girls weekend together. Nice hotel, good food and good friends....yes please!! Thanks for a wonderful weekend ladies!




Dinner out with the girls at TGI Fridays...we ate WAY too much, but oh was it worth it!



More dinner fun with the girls.



We just HAD to get a picture of our super cute totes in front of the stage. Seriously, how cute are those totes??!!



The woman in this picture was an AMAZING speaker. She was so inspirational that the poor woman barely got a lunch break because so many people wanted a picture with her. She was awesome!

Recap

Wow...where did the last 3 months go?! I have a lot to catch up on, but for now...I'll just recap!

January 4th: My baby girl turned 10! Seriously, 10! I can't be old enough to have a 10-year-old...ugh!

January 14th: My parents and kid brother came to visit me. This visit included my very first trip to IKEA. Wow, could I spend all day in that store or what! And who can resist those swedish meatballs...YUM! A good time was had by all. I seriously miss my family and it sucks to be so far away from them, but I'm hoping some changes will get us over to the West Coast soon!

February: Ummm...I'm sure a lot of fun stuff ensued this month, but I'm having a brain fart. I do remember we tried to take the kids to a chocolatier store for Valentines day and NONE existed. We went to 3 different places and they all went out of business. That was a bummer, because how fun would it have been to get in on all that chocolate sweetness!

March 17th: St. Patty's Day!! The only holiday that I truly feel like I can own up to. The red hair, green eyes... I love celebrating my Irish/Scottish roots! Below is a picture of Todd's special "Shamrock Pancakes". He is the best! The kids thought it was pretty cool too.



I have been doing lots of painting and updating to the house. Todd actually asked me if I was "nesting"...lol! I will post some pictures and update you when I get my projects done. Hopefully, it won't take me 3 months!

Kidisms!

The other day, the kids and I were driving home from the grocery store and the following conversation ensued:

JEPSON: Mom, I want to be a vegetarian when I grow up!

BREIGH (the ALL-KNOWING older sister): Jepson, do you even KNOW what a vegetarian is?

JEPSON: What?

BREIGH: It's a person who ONLY eats vegetables! Don't you mean a VETERINARIAN? A veterinarian takes care of animals.

JEPSON: Yep! Veterinarian....that's my thing!!!

I had to laugh. Breigh's definition of a vegetarian isn't exactly correct either, but I had to laugh because she just couldn't resist imparting her knowledge on her little brother.

Shortly after this conversation ended, somehow we got onto the subject of money and things we could and could not afford and Jepson turns to me and says: Mom, if daddy cares so much about money, how come he didn't become a doctor?

LOL!! I tell ya, I laugh on a daily basis on the things that come out of this kids mouth. I told Todd this one later on that night and told him he got into the wrong business according to our son!

Family Photos

This is our attempt at Family Photos. I don't have any recent family photos of us and I think these actually turned out pretty good! We just set up the camera and tripod in our backyard and decided to just go for it!

What do you think?