Birthday Hanukkah

Both of my kids are celebrating birthdays this week ... and I totally had to look up how to spell Hanukkah. Here's the schedule:

Monday: Claire's birthday. Family fun night at Chuck E. Cheese.

Tuesday: Cookies at preschool for Claire's birthday.

Thursday: Cookies at mother's day out for David's birthday.

Friday: David's birthday.

Saturday: the Big Birthday party at Bounce U.

Whew, I'm tired and it's only Monday. Here are some pictures from our night a Chuck E. Cheese.

Claire stayed far away from the "real" Chuck E. Cheese, but she didn't mind giving the plastic, less creepy version a big hug.

David liked playing with the plastic Chuck E. Cheese too.

Will and David eating pizza.

Claire and me (just to prove that I was actually there).

David loved the whack-a-mole game, but he had to work hard (with both hands) to swing that mallet.

David very quickly learned how to put the "money" in the machine. If they had a game where you had to put coins in a slot, he would hit the jackpot.

Claire and Will playing air hockey ...

and riding the jet ski.

Menu Plan Monday: April 12-18

It's been a while since I did menu plan Monday, but I have been loosely menu planning every week. We would never eat any sort of coherent meal if I didn't.

Nothing too exciting this week ... I cooked a lot last week and over the weekend, so I have a ton of leftovers. This means no cooking for me this week (except reheating). I did find a new breadmachine wheat roll recipe that I want to try and we had a yummy taco salad tonight with taco salad dressing. I also made my favorite peach cobbler recipe from Paula Deen and it is a breeze to fix ... it took me about 10 minutes to put together while I was cooking dinner and then we stuck it in the oven to bake while we ate. (I have also made this with fresh blackberries and it is DELISH!)

Monday: pizza at Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate Claire's 4th birthday

Tuesday: Leftover chicken/rice casserole (I will post this recipe later ... it was yummy!), green beans, rolls

Wednesday: leftover shrimp kabobs (this recipe will come later too), wild rice, salad and rolls

Thursday: Leftovers hamburgers or taco salad for Will ... I am eating at Chuy's with my old bible study group for a belated birthday celebration for myself and my friend Melissa.

Friday: I think we are meeting some friends out for dinner this night? If not, I have leftover flank steak, roasted red potatoes and salad. (I told you we had a lot of leftovers!)

Saturday: I would like to make these yummy apricot bars for breakfast ... still trying to find a healthy "bar" breakfast that the kids will eat. They both eat chocolate chip granola bars for breakfast almost every morning. We are eating out (or picking up) dinner with Will's family after the kids' birthday parties.

Sunday: Our Sunday school class is having a belated egg hunt after church so we will pick up something quick to take for our picnic lunch. (Our pre-Easter egg hunt was rained out.) For dinner we'll have breaded tilapia (from the freezer), mixed veggies and rolls.

Check out other menu plans here.

Friday Favorites: Rita's Rolls

My sister and I named these rolls after Will's mom because she made them at Thanksgiving last year and they were DELISH! She gave me the recipe then, but I didn't get around to making them until Easter lunch this past weekend. They were easy-peasy to make. Here is the recipe.

1/4c. sugar
2c. warm water
1 pkg. yeast
Stir together and let sit for about 5 minutes.

1 egg
1-1/2 sticks melted butter
4c. self-rising flour
Mix about with yeast mixture. Cover and refrigerate until ready to bake. Bake in muffin tin at 375 for approximately 20 minutes. Yield: 24 rolls. Can keep in refrigerator for up to two weeks (so you don't have to bake them all at once.

NOTE: These rolls look more like muffins when they bake. If anyone has ever lived in Tuscaloosa, these rolls taste like they rolls they serve at the Diner.

Check at other Friday Favorites on Hillary's blog and sign up for a really cool giveaway.

It's All About Love!

I am posting this story below from our church website (edited to protect anonymity). Will and I have long been members of the West class mentioned in the story and were honored to know and love this couple (and learn a little about God's love in the process). I love that they are willing to share their story and I know that God has great things in store for their family.

From "had it all" to "lost it all"—one couple's journey to freedom

Once upon a time, there was a lovely young couple who lived in sunny Florida and had “it all.” Homes, cars, boats, art, vacations—they enjoyed lots of leisure time, entertaining and all the trappings of success. Then the real estate crash of 2007 happened, and they lost “it all.”

That’s where their “Journey to Freedom” begins…

Even as the trappings were sold off or repossessed, Patrick and Beth still felt no freedom but it had already begun. They were mired in debt and possessed by regret. They grew apart and wondered if they’d lost even more than “it all.” There seemed to be nothing left.

“This is when the phone calls and the mail were filled with people looking for money we owed them,” Beth said. “We had our SUV repossessed and we could no longer pay for our own home. We were selling off all of our possessions...to just keep afloat. Patrick began drinking daily and using sleeping pills to get him out of reality.”

In January 2009, Patrick, bankrupt and dejected, moved to Tennessee alone to start a new job and, hopefully, start over. Beth, his wife of nearly 10 years, stayed behind in Florida to manage the sales of their failed retail store’s inventory and the contents of the home they’d acquired during the market boom of the early 2000s.

Though the tasks each carried justified physical separation, both knew the arrangement was a thin veil over a marriage cracking at the foundation. In the process of losing material possessions, Patrick and Beth started losing each other as well.

“I relied on the gym and my girlfriends to avoid going home to face reality and avoid phone calls,” Beth said. “Patrick lost over twenty pounds during his depression.”

New to Tennessee, Patrick joined the local YMCA in effort to gain back some bulk and get healthy again. There, he saw a posted invitation to join a group called, “Journey to Freedom.”

“Had he known it was religious-based, he would’ve never gone,” Beth said. “After the first meeting, it became clear that it was a class strongly based on faith. He figured that it must be something he needed, so he continued to go. This introduction to God was no accident.”

Meanwhile—750 miles away in Florida—Beth met Christ for the first time and became a believer at the same time her husband did. Unknowingly, she and Patrick each began individual “journeys to freedom,” in perfect step, though on parallel paths that God clearly intended to converge once again.

The couple reunited in Tennessee and, renewed as man and wife, soon learned they were expecting.

“We started the search for a church,” Beth said. “Also important to Pat was to find a good group of guys to do general outdoors stuff with. We started going to different churches and knew we would know when we hit the right church. The first time at B. Baptist, we knew this was the one. We can’t explain it—we simply looked at each other and knew.”

Patrick soon connected with “Men in Action,” a men’s Bible study group filled with fellow outdoorsmen, led by Mike C.

So fledgling as Christians, Patrick and Beth asked Mike to meet them at the church bookstore one Sunday morning to help them buy a Bible. In all their years of purchasing so many things, this was one item they’d never bought before.

After the stop by the bookstore, Mike and his wife Darlene introduced Patrick and Beth to the West Sunday School class. This was another God-anointed fit for the Patick and Beth. They found true friends and a supportive community at every turn at B. Baptist—so vital in nurturing the root system of their newly professed faith.

Living in Tennessee made it tougher to financially do life. At one point, Patrick even delivered pizzas at night just to make enough. As a result, Beth’s mom offered Patrick, Beth, and their newborn son Gavin a chance to move to Wisconsin and live in her basement while they got back on their feet.

They decided it was their only option and left mid-January of this year to begin a new chapter of life.

“The West class at B. Baptist had a goodbye party for us, and…they raised over $2,500 for us,” Patrick said. “This was very hard for both of us. For one, we never thought, in a million years, we would be that needy family. Second, we had only known our friends in the West class for a short time.”

Before they left, Patrick began sending resumes out both here and in Wisconsin. He said, “After a long talk with God one evening, the next day I was offered several positions in the industry I was once in.”

Today, their journey continues in Madison, Wisconsin. They’re still in touch with their B. Baptist friends from the West class and “Men in Action,” though they’re now sharing their testimony with friends at their new church.

They’re also sharing that testimony every day as they raise Gavin. Patrick and Beth welcomed their new son into a family in which Christ is the center, having “it all” means nothing at all, and the Journey to Freedom is led by God’s hand.

“So you see—God really has been a part of our lives,” Beth said. “It simply took us losing everything to realize what’s important.”

While I was sleeping ...

Here is a somewhat quick round-up of the first 2-1/2 months of 2010. [When I took my little bloggy break.]

{okay ... now that I have finished this post, it's really not quick at all. Please bear with me.}

We celebrated my niece's 4th birthday with a super-fun snowman party, complete with scarf and mitten making, manicures and a showing of the movie "Happy Feet".

Happy Birthday Evie!

(On a side note, I made Evie's snowman shirt and gave it to her for Christmas. I appliqued it on my regular sewing machine. Maybe I will post a tutorial soon.)

We also celebrated Claire's friend Baker's birthday (his parents are close friends of ours) at Bounce U, which is always a good time.

David had a blast on the inflatables. He kept Will very busy.

Baker & Claire.

Our friends Spencer and Max.

Happy Birthday Baker!

And, we celebrated RiRi (Will's mom, Rita) turning the big 6-0, with a family party at her house. It was fun to get all the little cousins together for the first time in a long time (maybe ever?).

My sis-in-law Brandi ... she made this lovely cake.

Chef Mark and Chef Joe ... cooking up the birthday meat fest.

The birthday girl opening her gifts.

All the little cousins.

Our family with Aunt Sissy and cousin Val in the rear.

RiRi and DiDi with all their grandkids.

We also went to many other birthday parties of Claire's classmates (who all have birthdays between February and April). I'm now officially broke from buying birthday presents, although I did run into a great deal on age-appropriate games at Target one day ($7/each) and bought up the rest of the little boys' gifts. I'm glad when Claire starts real school, her classmates' birthdays will be more spread out through the year and not concentrated in a three month period of time.

We also celebrated Valentine's Day. I felt horrible on this day and actually stayed on the couch most of the day. Thank you to Will for picking up a little gift for the kids and picking up some ice cream cookie sandwiches from Cold Stone Creamery for me.

(A sewing tip ... when you pick out an old machine applique to put a new applique on a shirt, make sure the new applique completely covers the old applique or you end up being able to see all the little needle holes. This dress had a large Christmas tree on it and you can still see where the bottom of the tree and trunk were sewn. Claire did not wear this outfit out of the house.)

Oh yeah, and somebody found his sister's slippers and refused to take them off!

Don't forget about the snow ... we got a lot of snow this year. Three different snows in fact (but we only played in two). I think I am going to petition for a refund from my kids' preschool for the month of January we had so many snow days. (Just kidding of course, that refund would never happen.)

This snow barely covered the ground, but it was enough to do a little sledding on the grass. David was not a fan!

Claire clearly enjoyed herself.

The next day ... see, not much to get excited about.

More sledding.

After playing in the snow, we enjoyed hot chocolate and made paper snowflakes. David will drink anything out of a straw.

The next snow at the end of January was much more substantial. I think we got around 6 inches (?) topped with a nice layer of ice, which made sledding fun.

Our next door neighbors.

Lots of sledding that day.

David preferred body sledding and with that nice layer of ice, it worked pretty well for him.

Our family.

Our house.

Sledding with daddy.

We dug up some snow from underneath the ice and made a snowman.

In the beginning of March, it finally warmed up enough for the kids to get outside and play. Claire finally got to ride her bike that Santa brought for Christmas and David has become quite good at riding Claire's scooter. [He is getting his own blue scooter for his birthday this month, which will hopefully prevent any future fights over the pink scooter.]

I think that brings you up to speed on our family so far this year.

16 weeks

Here is the baby bump at 16 weeks. (I've never taken a picture of myself in the mirror before, but nobody else was home. This is our master bath and I am thinking now that it looks pretty blah.)

I went to the doctor this past week and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat. Yeah!! Very exciting!! Also, I had only gained 1 pound since my last visit 4 weeks ago ... I have the stomach virus to thank for that. And the fact that I am no longer having to eat something starchy every two hours to hold the nausea at bay. This was very exciting since I had gained 8 pounds from what I normally weigh at my first visit (at 12 weeks). Yikes!!

I am now into full-fledged maternity pants. But I am okay with that. I love the elastic waistbands. Why don't women wear pants like that all the time? I can still wear most of my regular tops if they are long enough ... most maternity tops are still a little big for me.

I am feeling much better, but I am still very tired. Sadly, I am not sleeping well. I sleep like a rock until about 4:00 a.m., when I wake up starving and desperately needing to go to the bathroom. I usually end up going to the bathroom and trying to fall back asleep, but I am too hungry, and then get up and eat a bowl of cereal. (How is that for a run-on sentence?)

As far as cravings go, I am all about some oranges right now. Specifically, orange juice and orange slices. I really like cheese too. And Mexican food. And Jersey Mike's club sandwiches. I am not eating a ton of sweets this go 'round, which is very different from my previous two pregnancies (I once at three pieces of cake in one day ... that is insane, pregnant or not.) I'm not sure what that means in the old wives' tales of the sex of the baby, but that is just how it is this time.

I go back to the doctor on April 28 for my ultrasound. Please pray that the baby will be growing and developing as it should. We haven't decided it we are going to find out the sex or not this time. We found out with my first two, but since we have one of each, I thought it might be fun to be surprised this time. But, my super-organized, Type A personality is dying to find out. It will probably be a last minute call.

Happy Easter!

Here is our family pic this afternoon. The kids still had their church clothes on, but Will and I had already changed. (Our neighbors were out of town this morning, so we didn't have anyone to take our family picture until we got to my sister's house.) I love the face David is making in this picture. We were pooped after getting up to be at church before 7am this morning. But it was totally worth it. The service was AWESOME!

The kids made the art below at preschool this past week. I love it! It truly depicts the true meaning of Easter, not bunnies, eggs and candy, but the death and resurrection of our Savior.

The lyrics of one of my favorite praise and worship songs tell this story in a very powerful way. The last verse is my very favorite ... I get choked up every time we sing it at church.

In Christ Alone

(by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty)

In Christ alone my hope is found He is my light, my strength, my song

This Cornerstone, this solid ground Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What heights of love, what depths of peace When fears are stilled, when strivings cease

My Comforter, my All in All Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh Fullness of God in helpless babe

This gift of love and righteousness Scorned by the ones He came to save

‘Til on that cross as Jesus died The wrath of God was satisfied

For every sin on Him was laid Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay Light of the world by darkness slain

Then bursting forth in glorious Day Up from the grave He rose again

And as He stands in victory Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me

For I am His and He is mine Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death This is the power of Christ in me

From life’s first cry to final breath Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell, no scheme of man Can ever pluck me from His hand

‘til He returns or calls me home Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand