Bonefish and Babies

I am behind again. This is not from last weekend but the weekend before...Mom and Dad came up to watch Ramsey play basketball. We had lunch at ZaZa's then came back to our house to play and watch the Razorback game. We were playing Florida (I think) and it was not pretty so we left and went to Bonefish. We had a great time and James was pretty good while we ate!  Ramsey and John love Bonefish!  The Bang Bang Shrimp and bacon-wrapped scallops are two of their favorites!  They ate a ton at ZaZa's and a ton at Bonefish!  I don't know where they put it!

Trying to keep James busy at Bonefish.  That is an undertaking!

 John's "Michael Jackson move".  Isn't that nice.  When he first did this, Berry asked him what he was doing and he said, "My Michael Jackson move."

It was great to spend all day Saturday with Bop and Berry!

We had a busy Sunday too!

Sunday morning we went to this sweet baby's baptism.

And Sunday afternoon we went to this sweet baby's first birthday!

James played with this sweet dog, Max at the birthday party.  James loves dogs.  More than Ramsey and John.  I do wish the boys had a dog to play with and grow up with, but I just can't do it right now.  We feel free when we leave the house!  Something we had not felt in years before Lexie passed away last year.  Plus potty training...I can't even bring myself to potty train James!

Love those lips!

Fun, cute, first birthday!  Happy Birthday, Andrew!

Family Valentine Party 2012...Part Four

On Valentine's night, we always have a little dinner at home with the kids. A Valentine's party really! We give the kids their Valentine's from us, we eat dinner and then have chocolate cake.

Chocolate cake!

Valentine dinner.  Fillet, asparagus, couscous, and olive bread.  I hardly ever cook steaks.  We used to cook them all the time, but not much more.  I'm not a big steak eater, but Corey loves a good medium rare steak. I thought it would be a great treat for Corey and the kids!  They love steak!

James got Valentine books, a balloon and chocolates!

Chocolate covered strawberries!  Yum!  I just noticed the asparagus still on his plate!

The big boys got an iTunes gift card, a balloon, and chocolates!

My boys and me!  Boy, James sure does look nice is his old pajama t-shirt and mismatched pants!  Oh, well, earlier that day he had on a cute red long-all.  I missed that photo opportunity!  John made a sweet Valentine that I am holding.  Ramsey wrote Corey and I a poem.  They read...

 Daddy
My Daddy likes to fish.
Catching a big one is his wish.
My Daddy is very smart.
He has a big heart.

Mommy
My mommy is fair.
She has beautiful hair.
My mommy is cute.
She has nice boots.

Hugs and kisses,
Ramsey

Valentine Party...Part Three

The boys had great Valentine's parties! John came home with this big bag of Valentine treats...

Ramsey had a great Valentine's Party last week! Boy, they had a lot of sweet treats! They played Valentine Bingo, made a Valentine canvas, and ate lots of goodies!

Ramsey drinking his love punch!

Some of the great treats and yes, there was more!  They also had heart shaped cheese sandwiches, marshmallow pops, and a treat basket full of more goodies for them to take home.  All the treats were homemade (not by me, I brought the Krispy Kreme Valentine donuts!) and they were delicious!

Ramsey's friends making their Valentine canvas art.

I painted 8X8 red canvases for the boys and pink for the girls.  Then they took  heart shaped scrapbook paper and their picture and decorated it the way they wanted.  We put Mod Podge on top to  seal it.  I thought they turned out cute!  I told the kids they could hang them on their bedroom door, wall, cabinet door, or could put on a little easel.  I took this one of John up there as an example of what they could do.

This is the one Ramsey made.  We can hang them up every February!  I made James one too!  Can't leave him out!

This was the one for Ramsey's teacher.  The girls were pink like this with a pink ribbon.  Hers was kind of done last minute and this was the only picture we had of the class from the zoo!  Other than the one in their Halloween costumes!  

The kids are all so sweet and get so excited about school parties.  I love helping out and watching their excitement.  I am also glad to leave!  It is exhausting!  I am very thankful for teachers...my mom included!  They have such a tough job!  I think 3 is hardwork!  I couldn't imagine 15 all day!  

Be Mine Valentine...Part Two

John is still very into pirates. So, of course he wanted pirates as his Valentine's this year. John is VERY specific about his treats he gives his class. Always has been. He wanted his picture from Halloween dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow on his Valentine. So we found the perfect ones for him...

When we got them in the mail, John thought they were too small!  Ha!  So we went to Hobby Lobby and HE picked out some scrapbook paper for me to mount them on.  He thought the black and white hearts looked like a pirate valentine. 

Also John's idea was to give his friends "Pirate Booty" and gold coins.  He loves Pirate Booty (probably because of the name) and Kroger has these cute little individual sacks.  I suggested to lets just do the chocolate gold coins but he begged to give them Pirate Booty too.  I must admit, I think it turned out really cute! 

The finished Valentine treat!

"YOU ARRR CUTE!  LOVE, JOHN"

John was super duper excited to take his Valentines to school.  They were just perfect in his eyes.  (Miss Bonnie, Sorry for being late to school.  I was busy taking pictures!) 

Ramsey requested frog Valentines.  He actually said he wanted fish Valentines, but we couldn't find any so his second choice was frogs.  Ramsey had to take a box to school so his friends could deliver their Valentine's to him.   

So we made this cute frog holding one of Ramsey's Valentines. 

This is the front of Ramsey's Valentine card.

And the inside.  Ramsey found that HUGE bull frog back in the summer and I remembered the bull frog pictures I took of him when I was needing a picture for his card.  As I was going back through the pictures I saw the one of him kissing the frog and knew it was perfect for his Valentine.  Ramsey was a little hesitant at first and wanted a picture of him just holding the frog.  I think he was afraid that his friends would laugh about him kissing a frog.  Finally he decided to go with that picture and he was glad he did!  All the kids in his class loved it!  They kept asking him if he really kissed the frog.  Ramsey would reply..."Maybe"...with a big smile.

He was proud to take his frog box to school.

I got the teachers thank you/note cards and attached a little note that said.  "Thank you" for being a great teacher!

Happy Valentine's Day...Part One

I took this picture after church on Sunday.  Ramsey and John made Valentine cards and attached this picture to them.  I still haven't mailed them all!  As long as they get to them in February, it's OK!  They just made a handful to send to grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc.  So that's how our Valentine's week started...with some BROTHERLY LOVE! 

Sunday Party!

On Sunday we went to church, ate lunch with friends and then went to another birthday party at the ice skating rink.

Ramsey had fun running around and skating with his friends.  I even put on some skates and tried my turn on the ice.  At first I could not even stand on my skates and I kept wondering what the problem was!  Finally I realized they were way too big and traded them in for a smaller size.  It made a big difference.  Blame it on the skates!  Ha! 

Whoaaa!  Don't fall!

We were both worn out after the party!  No rest for me though...I had to get ready for Valentine's Day!

Basketball, Birthday, and Bisons

We had an extremely busy weekend. It was nonstop and a lot of fun! Saturday, Ramsey had a basketball game, next a birthday party and finally a trip to Searcy to visit Harding, Corey's Alma mater.

Aunt JJ came to Ramsey's basketball game, as usual! 

Still in uniform we made it to Andrew's 7th Birthday Party at the rock climbing center!  It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it.  We don't have much experience rock climbing.  Ramsey has done it once before, but not John.  John was sooo excited that he was going to be able to climb! 

Ramsey going up.  He was a little more hesitant than I thought he would be about touching the top, but he finally did it!

Here goes John!  I wasn't sure that he would be able to reach, but he was determined!

Mr. Mitchell was very nice to be patient and talk him through his first climb.

Look how high he is!

Back and forth taking pictures between the two.  Ramsey making it up again!

John climbing again this time with Corey's guidance.

Touching the top!  He was not scared at all!

It was a fun birthday party!  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the birthday boy himself!

Next on to Harding...

Corey graduated from Harding and is the head of recruiting between his firm and Harding so we headed to a game!  The boys changed clothes in the car and we were ready to cheer on the Bisons!

The boys in there Bison shirts.

The boys had a blast, ate popcorn, nachos and hot dogs, and got to cheer the Bisons on to victory!