It's the little details....

....that make the outfit complete. At least this is what Johnston said to me today.  I came home and found him dressed as Iron Man.  Red shirts, black gloves with a blue light up toy tucked safely inside the palm of the glove.  My kids seem to live in costume daily.  I have knights, police officers, princesses, spies, superheroes, etc walking around my house from the minute we wake up until bedtime.  Sometime I find them sleeping in the outfit they have made up.  I love my kids imaginations.  I love that they enjoy creating costumes and characters.  They make movies with my video camera that we all watch later together.  Kids imaginations are priceless and should be allowed to grow without limitations!  

Johnston was Iron Man today!

He even had the chest battery thingy that Iron Man has.  He will be buying a blue glow stick to make it glow so it's more realistic he told me.  I love that he taped this to his chest all day long just to have this small detail.  I mean...I had NO idea it was there all day long until he lifted up his shirt to show me.  I then understood what he meant by...the little details. 

Special Date Night!

Tonight I got home from a long day of errands and appointments to find Becca and Johnston had cleaned the house and put together a date night for Tim and I.  They had our blankets and pillows on the couch for snuggling, our favorite drinks on ice and even prepared a meal of munchies we could eat while we watched a movie together.  It was so sweet and they were so excited for us to sit down and enjoy their hard work.

 They made chips and dip which they ended up eating!  What a great presentation though!!! 

Also, a wonderful chicken salad!  This Tim and I shared and it was WONDERFUL!!!!  We love salads around here.

This had to be my favorite.  Onion and Chives Cream Cheese, little smokies, cheese cubes and garlic Triscuits.  Do you see the king and queen chess pieces right there?  Johnston said that it was Tim and I!  I love it!!! They put so much thought and effort into this.  They ended up eating this as well as the chips and dip, but the thought was precious!  We are just so extremely blessed!

Brothers.....

What is a brother?
Someone who is there
when you are hurting
He picks you up
and dusts you off again

What is a brother?
Someone who sees you are without a smile
And he gives you one of his
and gives you a hug too
just especially for you

What is a brother?
Someone who stands by your side
and holds your hand
when things don’t go well
He helps you understand

What is a brother?
A cherished friend for life
a brother by blood
A cousin or friend
But always by love

~Hydia Hollins

 

(Jameson 7 and Jensen 8 ~ Best friends!)

Thinking outside the box!

 Jackson was in the hospital a couple weeks ago and we were discussing the normal things people take when visiting someone in the hospital.  This became a pretty long discussion actually on why this was even something people did and all kinds of different questions came up.  It was a great discussion actually...not one I ever thought would be a discussion I would have, but very interesting none the less.

 One of the kids brought it to my attention that we are not a normal family...we are an "awesome family" *high fives all around* and that doing something normal would not do.  So instead of a bouquet of flowers the kids came up with a bouquet of balloons...and because it was Halloween they thought a pumpkin basket filled with candy would make a great "vase"!

Instead of a card they each signed a balloon!  It was very sweet!

I bought one of those tanks in a box at Walmart so the kids could blow up their own balloons before signing them.  There was a lot of balloons flying around and even a few squicky voices during the filling stage!  They really enjoyed doing this!

Jameson drew a picture of Captain America on his blue one.

Everyone even decided to get a gift card to a restaurant and tied all the balloons to the card before attaching them to the Jack-o-lantern full of candy.

Johnston did make a very good observation as we were picking out the candy.  He brought it to our attention that it didn't seem like such a great idea to bring a person sick enough to be in the hospital candy, but I told him that Jackson would be getting better and once he was 100% that candy would be fine to eat!

A Precious Dream!

 Today I was able to go with my friend to visit this little blessing who will soon be a part of their family!  He was perfect in every way.  Look at that face!  Precious!

 He has such an expressive face!

 Precious little bundle of joy!

 Look at his little scrunched up face after getting a kiss! So cute.  He will just have to get used to these, because I know for a fact he will be getting dozens and dozens every day very soon!

Little D-Man! You are precious in His sight indeed!!!!

Wonderful Wednesday!

 My girls found a new store....Rue 21!

Morgan found this shirt among many others that she LOVED! 

 Becca showing off the back of her jacket! She loved the lacy see thru back!

I love this outfit that she put together.  It was even more exciting that the two tops were on clearance and the colored skinny jeans were on sale!

We will most definitely be going again in the very near future.  The girls are saving their money up!

Triple Date Night!

Today started early!!!  We had Johnston's birthday party last night and a few of his friends and Becca's friend spent the night.  After they finished watching the Avengers they all went outside and played Avengers until about 1am.  So Morgan and I stayed up until they were all in bed which was around 1:30am and Tim, Justice and I had to be out of the house for our morning out by 8am.  I did not want to get up....I REALLY did not want to get up...but I did. 

We got our running around done which included a trip down to Lawrenceville, Buford, and Oakwood.  We had a nice lunch at La Parilla with Justice which was super sweet getting to spend that time with him.  We managed to get home in time for Tim to take the kids up to the woods near us and play on the trails, while I grabbed a power nap which was much needed!

To top of our very busy day we loaded up the kids and headed to our friends house to drop them off.  Today was our monthly DATE NIGHT!!!!  We have so been looking forward to this night with our friends!  Each month all the kids get dropped off at one families house to hang out, eat, play, do whatever they want to do.  It's about 15+ of them all together.  Then the couples either go to one of the others houses for dinner/movie/games/etc or we go out.  This month we all decided to try a restaurant called Pappadeaux in Atlanta.  Tim and I have heard about this place for many, many years and it's all been amazing reports.

We decided to head down early and have a little extra time just the two of us.  So we dropped the kids off a little early and went to the restaurant to reserve the table for us all.  Once we got down there we found out this place is HOPPING!!!!  It was a steady stream of people in and out.  Also, because of the high demand...no reserving tables.  You can only sign in and get a buzzer once your entire party is there and ready to go in.  That kinda blew our plan to make our friends wait time shorter, but rules are the rules right?  Thankfully they have a BIG outdoor patio waiting area with tons of benches and little tables, a nice fountain, and lights strung up everywhere.  We got a bench in the shade.  The weather was beautifully perfect tonight.  Not to hot in the shade with a nice gentle breeze.  We had so much fun just talking, and snuggling on the bench.  OH...and we had a lot of time to people watch!!!  There were some great things to see...from a lady with 10inch nails...yes...10 INCHES to an elderly couple who were as adorable as anything to watch! We had a lot of fun just being together.

I snapped a picture of us while we were waiting out on the patio!  I love this man!!!

 Amazing couple #1 that we get to enjoy date night (this is our third month of doing date night!!!) with.  Pat and April!  WE LOVE THIS FAMILY!!!  They are great parents of three really awesome boys whom we are blessed to have as our children's friends.  

 Amazing couple #2 that we get the pleasure of hanging out with as well.  Chris and Trina!  I am just so proud of them for how strong they are.  WE LOVE THEM!!!  They have three beautiful children who we are blessed to have as our children's friends as well.  

Trina told Tim she wanted to get a picture of him and his date!  Haha! The food at this place is AMAZING! Truly people..it was so good.  We all tried tons of new stuff which was so much fun.  I love trying new things.  I even tried a bit of Tim's 2lb lobster.  It was oh so yummy!  I had a wonderful stuffed shrimp and cajun red beans and rice that was....just....oh.so.yummy!

I am so thankful for my amazing husband and great friends!  I am truly blessed!!!!

Fun with friends!

The kids got their school done pretty snappy this morning so we could go and hang out with friends for the afternoon!  We have our annual pass to the Interactive Neighborhood for Kids (I.N.K) which we use tons during the school year.  (Not so much during the summer, because of how crowded it gets!)  One of the many perks to homeschooling is having places like YMCA, library, parks, museums, etc., not overly crowded!  Today was our first trip to I.N.K and the kids have been so looking forward to it since our last visit at the end of May.  We met up with some homeschool friends the Hayes family!!!

Becca visiting the restaurant thru the window!

Chef Johnston whipped up some amazing cuisine for all the customers! 

 

Jensen was the best waiter I've ever had!  What great service and big smile!

This is proof of his great skills!  Look at these happy customers!

The lovely Miss Gracie!  (Holly's bestest friend!)

The lovely Miss Holly!

Katie and Becca (BFF's!) showing their Deuces! 

Jensen playing with the train sets!

Jensen driving the train!

Judge Gracie!

Holly and a little girl they met were the jury.

Becca was a wonderful cashier at the local store.  Davidson and Justice were very pleased customers!

Becca and Katie....hard workers!

I.N.K. has a realistic store, dentist and doctors office, salon, music room, a real police car that the kids can get in and turn the lights on. There is a ton of different rooms for them to play in!  They love it!  It's amazing how fast two hours pass when fifteen kids are running around letting their imaginations run WILD! 

Puppy Love!

A couple months ago Morgan's puppy Mozart "Mozzie" passed away very suddenly.  She was extremely heart broken! Her Mozzie was the runt of the litter, but had the biggest personality I tell you!  Mozzie did everything with Moe, she even sat on Morgan's lap while Moe played the piano.  I know nothing can replace Mozzie and I wouldn't want to replace her, but Morgan has been talking these past few weeks about how much she missed Mozzie and so this past Friday I finally had enough saved up to take her to the Humane Society to see if there was any puppies available for adoption. She was SO surprised!  They had a new batch of Lab/Mix puppies that were about 10 weeks old.  She fell in love with this little precious thing!

BEETHOVEN "BayBay"

She is PRECIOUS!!!!!  We just can't get enough of her adorable little face.  We definitely have some puppy love going on around here!  Johnston's puppy Yoda loves having someone to play with, while my puppy Tinkerbell does not like her so much! 

 

 Johnston got some BayBay kisses!

 Johnston showing off his NO CAVITIES smile!  Got his teeth cleaned today and is good to go for another 6 months!

 

She loves to snuggle and be held like a baby.  I told Morgan it's sure cute now that she snuggles up on her chest to sleep, but fast forward a year from now when she's a full grown 50+ pound baby girl it won't be so cute and cuddly.  She is still going to enjoy every second she can now though!

 

 Becca even got in on the puppy lovin' tonight!  We love this new little Jeffries addition!  Welcome Beethoven!!!!