February...

It is hard to believe that February is coming to a close. It means we are one month closer to spring although with the days we have had lately here in New Jersey it seems like it is spring already. It has been an extremely mild winter, which was wonderful for me. Here are a few pictures from our month:

I do childcare at a gym up the street from our house on Monday mornings for 2 hours in exchange for use of the gym, which I am actually stopping in the middle of March because of my schedule. Anyway, Brayden enjoys going with me and playing with the kids that I watch. This is his friend Matthew, who actually goes to our church. They enjoy playing together and this particular Monday they made the table behind them which was called their "Award Table". It was a team effort cleaning it up.

Valentine's Day - Jason surprised me with this message below on my kitchen window for Valentine's Day. It is a "sweet" reminder every time I stand at my kitchen sink.

The kids enjoyed their gifts and chocolate. MeMe made the cool heart bags below. Sarah a new watch and heart shirt. Brayden a Bumblebee transformer and Spiderman figure.

Brayden wrote his name for the first time the other day. So proud! He wrote the B and the A not in the right order, but hey it was without my help at all. Then for the rest I wrote it on a seperate sheet and he copied the letters. I think it is a great start. He is set to start Preschool in the fall, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Sarah was "Student of the Month" for January. They had an award ceremony at school where she received a certificate from the Principal and her teacher. Below is Brayden's thought of the whole ordeal, a little boring.

May the Force be with You...

Last Saturday Jason took the kids to see Star Wars Episode 1 in 3-D. With the release of the movie our theatre hosted the event with Star Wars characters, face painting and a lego project for kids to work on. Brayden got a picture with lots of the characters from both the dark side and the light side of the force. Darth Vadar never showed his black helmet, but Darth Maul (the scary looking one below who looks like he is smiling but those are just his black teeth) was happy to pose with our young padawan.
For the lego project, each child had to match single lego colors to a block to help create the movie poster. Brayden is into legos lately, so this was fun for him.
Next movie we want to see is "The Lorax". Brayden is a little crazy about this movie right now. He can't wait!! Almost every day he wants to watch the preview. I can't wait till we can see the full movie.

Home Again...

Brayden got home from Maryland on Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. We all couldn't wait to see him. I think his first words to me were "Mommy, can you look up Cat in the Hat on the iPad?" LOL. I missed you to buddy.  :) It sounds like he had a great time with cousin Sophie. I hear Uncle Kyle even gave him some boxing lessons. A big thank you to Grandma for taking him. This mommy was happy to have him back in his own bed last night.

We enjoyed a quiet house for a few days. Thursday and Friday I got to do whatever I wanted. Well, almost whatever I wanted, not like going to the spa or on a shopping spree. Instead I was content to do a lot of reading. I finished one book, started another and stayed up to date on my James bible study and 40 Days in the Word. I also watched the first season of one of my new favorite shows called "Downton Abbey." It is a PBS Masterpiece Classic show. I know PBS and Masterpiece sound kind of lame, but this is really good. My parents told me about it and after watching one episode I was hooked. It deals with a wealthy English family in 1912 and how they and their servants deal with life and the war.

Ahhhh! It was nice. I love my little guy and can't imagine life without him, but I must admit to have a break for a few days I think was good for us all.

Near and Far...

This week our kids are near and far...

Brayden left yesterday morning to go with Grandma James to Maryland to see Uncle Kyle, Aunt Christy and cousin Sophie. They won't be back until Friday afternoon. This is the first time that Brayden has been away from us for this long.  He was so excited to go, no problems.

It sounds like they are having a great time and the cousins are having fun being together. This mommy is doing okay with my little bear being gone. I have been busy the last 2 days so haven't had much down time to miss him. The next 2 days are free and looking forward to doing whatever I want. I know I will be anxious to see him on Friday though.

Yesterday we got a wonderful note from Sarah's principal saying that she had been chosen to be student of the month for January for her class. We are so proud of her. We are taking these couple of days while Brayden is gone and enjoying time with just Sarah. Last night she got to go on a date with Daddy. They went to dinner, a bookstore and out for a favorite treat - frappaccinos. 

Will keep you posted on how the rest of our week goes. 

JBQ...

Sarah had her 3rd Junior Bible Quiz match today of the 2011-2012 season. This was the final match for our Northeast region and she finished 8th overall for the season. There are approximately 40 kids who quiz in our region. She has two more matches that she will compete in, one that is an invitational later this month and then state finals in March.

She loves being a part of JBQ. Not only does she enjoy learning questions about the bible, but she loves being with her friends. Below are her friends Emma, Gabriella and Cayla.

To celebrate her accomplishment we made Oreo Truffles tonight. Yum!!

Celebrate Good Times...

Once a year, sometimes twice, me and some of my girlfriends who scrapbook get together to spend the weekend scrapbooking. We have been doing it for 9 years now and it is something we all look forward to. My friend Michele's parents have a cabin in Greenwood Lake, NY which is the location we go to. It is about 30 minutes from my house. In the past we have made a couple road trips out of the weekend to Maryland and Pennsylvania to friends homes who join us each year but have moved away.

It is a weekend of getting away from everything, scrapbooking our memories which is digitally for me, eating some of our favorite snacks (we even have some food traditions we have to have) and being with the girls.

We had a lot to celebrate this year, hence the party hats, blowers and leis. We always like to make our group shot fun. Our friend Lisa just came through 4 months of chemotherapy for a rare form of cancer called gestational trophoblastic disease. Plus, 3 of the girls are pregnant (Susie, Christy and Amanda). Unfortunately Christy and Amanda couldn't make for the weekend because they were sick. We missed them being with us.

This time around we got several inches of snow on Saturday. Thankfully it was a light snow and could easily clean off our cars. It sure was pretty coming down.

We have such a great time and lots and lots of laughs. I always leave the weekend relaxed and refreshed. This weekend was no exception.

Brayden Bear

Our little guy has been sick this whole week. Sunday night he started with a fever. I took him to the doctor on Monday thinking maybe he had a left over ear infection from a couple of weeks ago, but his ears were clear and the strep test came back normal. The doctor said it was viral and he should be over it in a couple of days. However, his fever has continued throughout this week, up and down, up and down. He also get really congested and the cold went into his right eye, so it is all red and watery. I decided to take him back to the doctor today just to double check him and sure enough he has a double ear infection and will go back on antibiotics. She also gave us some eye drops to help with the redness of the eye.

He has his up and down moments. He will have a burst of energy for an hour or two and then crash. Even as I type this he has fallen asleep on the couch and is snoring away. I feel so bad he is so stuffy.
Thankfully he took his first dose of medicine tonight and we should be on the road to recovery.