Pajama Day/Spirit Week

Yesterday, Colby's little preschool class had Pajama Day. The kids and teachers always look forward to this day. The kids had been doing bear crafts during the week and reading bear books. On Pajama Day, the kids were able to dress up in their pajamas and bring their favorite stuffed bear. Colby's bear is named Big Bear. Original, I know. He has a smaller bear that he aptly named Little Bear. Colby had a fun time and I was just glad I didn't have to dress him that morning. They should have Pajama Day more often.

Dalton had a fun week at school as well. His school had spirit week this week and some of the days were Western Day, Sports Day, and Tacky Day. Thursday was Tacky Day, as pictured below. Don't you just love it when you pick your kids up from school and you absolutely HAVE to go to the grocery store and your kids are dressed all crazy like this. It's like you feel like you just want to explain to every person you see in the grocery store why your child looks the way he looks.

Two Down

Well, Big D (Dalton) lost another tooth. That's 2 teeth in less than a month. Details are a little sketchy about exactly how it came out, but apparently he was playing inside the gym at school when one of his classmates pushed him off of a scooter or something, and he fell and hit his mouth, knocking out his tooth. His tooth was a little loose to begin with but not loose enough to even attempt pulling it. I figured he'd have a couple more weeks before it would be loose enough to pull. Anyway, he was a big boy about it. No tears or anything. One of Dalton's teachers brought Dalton to Shane's class to show him what had happened because Dalton was really excited about it. Big Boy!

So Thankful

I've been meaning to write about this back around Thanksgiving, but I just never got around to it. I just wanted to brag on God for a little bit. God has been so good to us. He has overwhelmingly blessed our family. Just looking back over the past few years, it is amazing what He has done for us. When I was pregnant with Dalton, we decided I would stay home with him instead of working. That was a big chunk of income we wouldn't have, but we had saved and the housing market was still going strong and we believed God would continue to provide for us. HE did!! A little while after having Dalton, Shane decided that he wanted to get back into teaching and began taking classes to get his Master's degree. Then we had Colby. Finances began getting a little sticky with more bills with Shane's college and two kids, but we continued to believe God would provide for us. And HE Did!! Then, about this time last year, we were really stressing about what to do financially. As Shane would say, this boat wasn't sinking, but it had a slow leak in it. The appraisal business was really starting to slow down and it looked as if I would have to go back to work although we really were hoping I'd be able to stay home with the kids at least another year. Shane was almost finished with his degree and was trusting God to be able to teach full time because he wanted to get out of the appraisal business. It really looked like there would be no way financially for Shane to be able to teach and still allow me to stay home with the kids. I just couldn't see how we could cut Shane's salary once again and survive on a teacher's salary. We were trying to trust God for this, but I know I wasn't really believing He'd come through on this. But HE Did!!! God came through for us when things were starting to look dim. Now Shane is teaching full time and is really enjoying it. He's much happier and is less stressed out than he used to be. I'm still home with the kids and may even stay home another year. God has been so gracious and kind to us. We are so undeserving of all that He's given us. Such grace. He has blessed us more than we could have imagined.

Camping Out

Some of the gifts we received this year included a tent and some camping accessories. We are wanting to begin going on little camping trips with the boys in the future. So, of course we had to try it out and have a little camp-out in the backyard. The boys were begging to do this and were too excited about it. We played an exciting game of Chutes and Ladders and then went to sleep. It was pretty chilly out there, but the boys never complained about it. I think they loved the "adventure" of it.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! (a little late)

Well, it's been a while since I've updated the blog. It seems like so much has happened during Christmas that I've felt like I've gotten way behind in writing on the blog, so instead of writing a lot about what all we did, I'm just going to post a few pictures and maybe a few comments about them. We had such a wonderful Christmas this year though. It was so great to have Shane home during the past 2 weeks. It just seemed like Christmas was more relaxing this year. Also, the boys are at such a fun age now, they just loved everything about Christmas it seemed. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year's (all 2 or 3 of you that read this). :)

Dalton was excited about getting a new bike!

Colby and his dinosaurs

The carnage of our living room in the aftermath of Christmas