My Top 10 Favorite Things!

I was inspired by another blogger to blog about my ten favorite things.....so here they are!

1. Our Lord Jesus Christ and how Amazing He is!! He paid the ultimate price for which none of us deserve!
2. My wonderful family who bring so much joy to my heart!

This includes my wonderful husband, sweet Grayson, and beautiful Ella! Also, my wonderful parents, little sister and younger brother.....my wonderful in-laws and sister-in-law....and everyone else who I call family!
3. The ability to work with kids.....I hope to one day homeschool but right now I am really enjoying working with such sweet kids and amazing educators.
4. Lazy Sundays-I love being in my pj's and lounging around the house with my family....those Sundays are usually pankcake mornings too!
5. Starbucks Skinny White Chocolate Mochas and just the ambience of being in Starbuck's at night

6. Seeing other people happy brings joy to my heart. It's also good to have a humble, servant's heart...and I just love if I can brighten someone else's day or just be able to witness someone else's happiness.
7. The smell of Grayson and Ella after a bath....still use Johnson and Johnson's baby bath stuff
8. My husband's hugs and encouraging words when I have a rough day.
9. Groovy's -I have spent too much money there but they have the cutest stuff...
10. The feeling you get at Christmas when you are sitting near the tree and looking at the people you love around you, and think about what the day means (the birth of our Saviour), and realizing how blessed you really are...oh and the smell of all the treats baking in the oven...lol.

Our Growing Ella and Son, Luigi!

It has been a crazy couple of weeks! The Lord has been so good to our family. He is so amazing and gives us so much more than we could ever deserve! Praise Him!
We have enjoyed nice movie game nights with Grayson and Ella, and have just enjoyed having such wonderful family time. It's so amazing to see how the kiddos are growing. Grayson says things that just amaze us and Ella is doing things so fast already. She will be 4 months on the 24th and is already sitting up in bouncers and walkers. She was walking across the kitchen floor in her walker already! I can't believe that my little baby is growing so much! Grayson has been so inquisitive and asking us how to say things in Spanish. He just turned 3 and is so intelligent (okay, so we're biased...)......if only he could apply all of that brain power to consistently go potty. Lol!
Joey and I were blessed enough to go to a Revival Series on Saturday. It wasn't like a tent revival or anything like that....it was just a lot of amazing evangelists that spoke about how to witness. They were all so Godly and it was great to meet people who are so humble and that are such servants. We got to go out after a days worth of speakers and witness to share the gospel and the great news of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, after being there barely 30 minutes at a outdoor venue, we were asked to leave because someone had complained that the cross was offensive. The police walked us out and made sure we went to our cars. We were not doing anything weird or loud, we literally just got there. It was humbling and kind of scary that our county is changing so much. It is now so liberal that being a true Christian will soon be something that is hard to be. Please pray for those whose hearts are hardened. It was a great, eye opening experience though!

He was upset because I told him he may have to take it off!

Now back to the babies! I k now Grayson is 3 but he is still my baby, too! Here are some pictures of my son, Luigi! Grayson tells us we can only call him Luigi (from Super Mario Brothers) now and he wears his Halloween costume hat everyday.....he even slept in it! Also are some pics of Ella and her big blue eyes! Enjoy....

Short blog but I know you just want pics anyways!

Ha! ha! I am really sticking to what my blog title says....this will be short because I have tons of pictures I want to post and that's why most of you get on here anyway, right? We have all been doing great! Grayson celebrated his 3rd birthday last weekend and despite the heat and it being at the park, it was a huge success! Grayson loved every bit of it and that's what mattered! Joey just turned 26 this past weekend and he really enjoyed doing what he wanted to this year. Usually I feel like he has to go out and do something and we have to do a whole bunch but this year I realized it is what HE wants to do and I am glad I saw that because he said this year was the best birthday ever! His parents had a nice get together, he got to witness, and my parents made lunch and gave him a gift yesterday! Ella is growing and just turned 3 months and Joey and I are just loving our sweet little family! Grayson and Ella amaze us and we can't get over how great God is for blessing us so much with those two! Well.....here you have it...some sweet pics of some sweet kiddos!! Enjoy!

My Big Boy is 3!!!

My sweet Grayson Luke is 3 today! I can't believe it is already here! The past 3 years have been such a blessing and I look forward to so many more memories with our sweet boy! He is the sweetest, kindest, inquisitive, and most caring little boy! He definitely has his moments but he is a gift from God! Happy Birthday, Grayson!   Love-Daddy, Mommy, and Ella

Two Blogs in a Day!

It has been awhile since I have blogged so I am going to blog twice in one morning! I have one special blog for today and another one of random stuff I wanted to roll together!! So, here we go.....

Yesterday, I truly experienced one of those "parent feelings" I had never felt before. Grayson got an assessment from his daycare. At first, I was just glancing at it and it and didn't think much of it but then we got home and I started to look at it more and thought to myself...."This is like a report card!" It set in pretty fast....the paranoia. All of a sudden I went from, "Oh, that's neat!" to "Is he on level for his age?" There were two ways that the skills were assessed, either M for mastered or S for still working on skill. The top of the paper was basic skills, like:

Can they get dressed?
Do they use the potty? (He is still NOT going on the potty consistently so he got an S)
Do they use 2-3 sentences?
Can you jump with 2 feet?
Can you hop with one foot?

There were a lot more really basic things....and then the bottom was academics, like:

Do they identify all letters?
Do they identify all numbers 1-20?
Do they know all their colors?
Do they know all their shapes? (the shapes were square, triangle, circle, rectangle, heart, star, oval, pentagon, hexagon, octagon)

We work with Grayson a lot and he has known all of his letters and sounds since he was around 2 or 2 and a half so we thought he would do pretty well! He got M (mastered) on every skill (basic and academic) EXCEPT these:

He could not jump on one foot....He did not identify those rascal-like hexagon and octagons and the potty issue. So right away I thought...oh my goodness...is he on level? What can I do to help him hop on one foot?
The panic set in...haha! But then I quickly calmed down and realized that he is just turning 3 and he has plenty of time to work on those things! I was really proud of him but I wanted to share that experience because it was quite interesting to me because I understood where parents of my students came from when they got report cards!!!

Well I would like to leave you with some sweet pictures of Grayson and Ella! They are both getting so big and I am loving every minute with them! Joey just can't get over Ella....he carries her everywhere and is happy to have his sweet boy and a little girl!! Also, I am posting some great OWL finds. If you know me, you know I LOVE owls and we have them in our house and I did an owl theme in my class! I have always loved them and when I was a Chi Omega I loved them even more!! So here's a hodge podge of pics of owls and my kids...lol!

I love my niece's expression in this pic!

This dr. set has been Grayson's favorite thing lately!

Ella is getting so big!! She will be 3 months on the 24th!

Watching a Disney movie and enjoying popcorn in the office while we were having bible study!

Canton

This past Saturday, I had my first REAL visit to Canton's First Monday. I had been to one booth to buy a teacher sign once and that was it and left and the other time I just went to get a dog and left. So Saturday morning, I called Lauren (my sister in law) since she and her husband were in town and asked if she and Nana (Joey's mom) wanted to go to Canton because I really wanted to check it out. I got even more brave and decided to take Grayson AND Ella. I thought it wouldn't be as bad since I had Nana and Lala with me. Joey was not as interested in going and had yardwork to do.....well I must say that Canton is pretty neat but a bit overwhelming. It was also hard now that I have a girl......with Grayson I usually say..."Grayson, do you like that?" and he will say, "No, thank you, Mama!" He usually never wants much....he did, however, want food. I think he had sprite, a soft pretzel, some leftover funnel cake, some nachos, and ice cream. He is definitely such a BOY! Ha! ha! So buying for him was easy (and FYI-we usually never let him eat like that but I thought it was a special occasion!) But having a girl is tough....there are SO many cute things and you want to buy it all.....it was mostly all clothes. I usually get Grayson stuff at Children's Place because they have the cutest boy stuff I can find but Canton had TONS of the most adorable girl stuff. Luckily, I didn't see anything she HAD to have and I only took a certain amount with me but I will definitely be going back....and it helped to kind of scope it all out! At least the kids did great and they seemed to have as much fun as an almost 3 year old and almost 3 month old could have!!

Enjoying the Food!

Can't Go Back....

I was just thinking and wanted to blog....I was thinking of all the cute things that Grayson did today:
*He was reading his books making up words but saying the letters aloud!
*He was cuddling up to me with his adorable grin saying..."I love you, Momma!"
*He was putting on his Cars house shoes and kept coming up to me and saying "Happy Birthday!" even though my birthday is not until December.
*He held Ella's hand and gaver her kisses and then they watched Super Mario Brothers the cartoon on the couch. (He picked it out at Walmart today...he's kickin' it 80's style)

....then there's Ella...
*She got compliments almost everywhere we went today!
*She has been cooing and smiling up a storm...
*And I love feeling those little, baby feet!

It made me realize that you can't go back to this. These sweet moments with our kids, you have to just embrace and be thankful for, even the tiniest things! Tonight, Joey and I relaxed and just spent time with the kids focusing 100% on them and baked cookies and just enjoyed every second with them and it made me realize even more that we are so blessed beyond words.......