Mom Heart Conference

Last weekend I had the opportunity to get away ALL BY MYSELF for three nights. It is really going to be hard for me to put into words what that weekend meant to me and what I took away from it. First of all, I hadn't been away for some girl time in almost 3 years and it was glorious. Second of all I attended my first Mom Heart Conference. I decided that every year I MUST go back! Now for those of you who aren't familiar with Mom Heart, it is pahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifrt of the which is Sally Clarkson's family ministry. Sally Clarkson is an incredible writer and speaker to mothers. I was also able to spend some great quality time with two very dear friends of mine from San Diego. Man I needed that! I was introduced to Sally's books right after I had Adalyn and she has encouraged me and inspired me through her books ever since. But sitting in a room with 800 other like minded mommies while listening to her in person was honestly moving. God has truly blessed her ministry and He showed up in such a real and honest way. So much of the conference was about spending time with God, on a daily basis so that as mothers our hearts and minds are in the right place before those little munchkins demand every part of our being from the next 12 hours! Obviously I have learned this over and over again and put it into practice over and over again. But it's time I start over and make it the first priority of my day. I want my children to love the Bible and to love spending time with their Savior and although they see me reading my Bible a couple of times a week I need to model it MUCH more than that. God has been moving in my heart for months now and leading our family closer to Him. This weekend was just what I needed to reconnect and be reinspired to love my God first and foremost and to be with my children and read to them everyday and play with them and talk to them and listen to them and teach them about their Creator! I want so much for my girls and I want Jeff and I to do the very best job that we can possibly do, but we need God with us every step of the way. I am so thankful for my husband, for letting me sneak away for a few days to get refreshed. I am so thankful to my God who made me the mother to my sweet sweet girls and who promises to never stop loving me. I am more than blessed! So to all my mommy friends reading this, you should really really consider going next winter to one of her three conferences! You won't regret it!

Happy Valentines Day

We had such a fun time this year with Valentines Day! We did all sorts of fun things leading up to Valentines Day.

We sorted and graphed conversations hearts. And maybe we ate a few :)



We practiced making patterns while making heart necklaces and bracelets.




We made and decorated heart cookies.



And the girls wrote their names on their valentines for all their friends at dance.


On Valentines Day Daddy surprised the girls with a couple of little gifts, while I "tried" to make heart cinnamon rolls.




And he surprised me with this invitation attached to a gift bag that held a fabulous bottle of wine. This was so sweet and I was really surprised. We don't usually do much for Valentines Day so I felt very special.

Then we headed off to dance. The girls had a little party there and got way to much candy, but they had a blast!




That night Jeff did indeed cook me a fabulous steak, and we enjoyed a quiet candlelit dinner in our own home! With delicious wine and chocolate covered strawberries to top it off. It was very sweet, it was very romantic and I loved every minute. Thank you Jeffrey for going out of your way to make me feel special.

Here are our sweet girls with their roses from Daddy.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I celebrated my 32nd birthday this week. Yikes! It's kind of weird to be well into my 30's. I just don't feel that old. I really enjoyed my day, spending it with my girls. It really was just a typical day in the life of me, but I love my typical days and I love spending time y with my girls so it was all good! Jeff had to leave for work before we all woke up, and we had to get out of the house to get to dance, so needless to say nothing exciting happened for breakfast. The girls have back to back classes at dance so every Tuesday we spend two hours there, then we usually go to Subway for lunch. The girls, knowing it was my birthday, asked if we could go somewhere special for lunch. "Special" is a little different when I have the girls by myself and we have to get home for naps so we ended up at Wendy's. NOT special at all I am aware, but they have story time and a balloon lady who face paints and makes balloon so kind of special, for them at least. We even ran into a good friend from church!

That evening, Jeff was able to get away a little early from a training class he was in, and we went out to dinner to Pei Wei, which is one of my favs (and easy and quick with the kiddos). At one point, as I ran Adalyn to the bathroom, I thought we were going to have a puker on my birthday, but we managed to make it home with nobody getting sick. She fell asleep on the way there (which is never good) and then she continued to complain about her tummy and saying she needed to throw up, but luckily it ended with that!

We then headed to Cold Stone, and took some ice cream home for later. I opened some presents when we got home, enjoyed some sweet cuddles from my girls and ended the night snuggling on the couch with my hubby watching "The Notebook". Overall a great birthday indeed!

The girls after dance and after getting their arms painted and their balloons from Wendy's. They were pretty excited. Who's birthday was it again? :)


After we got home I of course had to get some pictures with my cute girls and my sweet hubby!



Time for ice cream and presents!





That night, as I was cleaning up the kitchen before I went to bed, I saw these sitting on the counter. It got me! Although my birthdays aren't the way they once were, now that I have little ones at home and a I don't really get much of break. I was kind of feeling sorry for myself that night, but then I saw these cute itty bitty shoes on the counter. How blessed am I?!! This is what I prayed for! This is what I dreamed about as a little girl, as a teenager. I wanted to be a mommy, and I wanted and dreamed about being married to a wonderful man who would love me more than I deserve. And that is what God gave me. I'm 32 and I am exactly where I prayed I would be. So thank you God!

Just Because...

I love this face! She makes me smile and her sweet personality melts my heart. I'm so blessed to be her mommy!

I took this a couple of days ago. The big girls were upstairs playing quietly together in their room and Avery and I had some one on one time, just the two of us which is pretty hard to come across! We just sat playing blocks, reading books, and little hugs and kisses in between. I love this cute stage!

Weekend with the House's

I love my sister, and I love what God has done with our relationship. I think back to our teenage years, and how we couldn't stand each other. We wanted nothing to do with each other, we said hurtful things to each other, and we were NOT friends! But now, fast forward 15 years, past lots and lots of painful times, God has brought us closer than ever, and I am so thankful!

This past weekend we went to San Antonio to celebrate all the January birthdays and see their new home. We had so much fun and the girls wore themselves out playing with their cousins. Saturday morning we all went to watch Korben's first basketball game in which Brenton is the coach. It was so very cute watching Korben play and try really hard to NOT touch the basketball. We had lots of laughs. His sweet big sister even made a little sign to hold up in the bleachers to cheer him on!




And sadly this is where the pictures end. I get so mad at myself when I forget to take more pictures. Well that night we actually got to go on a double date and left all the kiddos at home with a sitter. It was so fun and quite possibly my most fun double date. We went to dinner and then like most date nights we all sat around trying to decide what to do next. Finally a decision was made and we headed to Dave and Busters (which was about a 20-25 min drive) only to get there and notice it was slammed with people. We (meaning Lisa :) ) decided we didn't want to go anymore and we drove back in the direction of their house. Later we ended up at Krispy Kreme for a free donut which happened to be next door to Chuck E Cheese. We still all had the idea of playing games in our heads and we thought "why not go to Chuck E Cheese?". I mean, it's cheap to play games only, and we could actually play some of our own games without little ones pulling at us! Sounds strange, yes I know, but we had so much fun and we laughed so much that night. Ahh, good times! I so wish I had my camera that night.

I am so thankful that we all live relatively close to each other now and we actually get to see each other more than once every other year!

Sweet Conversations

I wish I could say that these two sisters always have sweet conversations, but unfortunately that doesn't always happen. But on this day in particular they at least appeared to being having a sweet sister moment.

I got them a snack after nap time and told them to go eat it outside. We have such gorgeous weather lately. A few minutes later Jeff peaked outside and got a little chuckle. They had found their chairs, pushed them together, and were just sitting there together, talking and eating a snack. It was so sweet. These two are really the best of friends. Yep, they fight, but they love each other so much and love to play together. This little moment reminded me of another time they were having some sweet sister time about two years ago in this post. Where did the time go? Look at how little they were!
I love these two, and I love the sweet relationship that they are building!