When Daddy's away...

...the kids get spoiled so mommy stays sane!

Tball

This is how we roll at Tball practice.

Minnie Mouse

Someone was excited...

We usually don't celebrate V Day, but something nagged me this year, so I've been leaving Jason little surprises and made him a gift. Rylan has been talking about the blocks at school constantly so we thought they would be a great gift to engage his creativity. A great V Day with the LOVES of my life.

Happy Valentines Day

Pizza Monster

She ate 3 pieces, pasta, and grapes. They didn't charge for her because "I know she won't eat a lot." Guess I should have told him she LOVES pizza!

Compassion

Our first letter from Juan!

So, have I told you lately...

that I have an absolutely amazing husband?  Seriously, he is the best!  He has had all kinds of surprises in store for me the last couple of weeks and I can't contain my excitement.  A few of the fun things that have been going on are:

1.  His group within Shell had such a fabulous year, that his boss' boss, is taking all of them and their spouses, sans kids, to the New Orleans Jazz Fest the end of April!  Woo hoo!  I am SO EXCITED! I have never been and cannot wait!

2.  Through Shell, he was able to get some tickets to the rodeo to see Tim McGraw in March!  Woo hoo once again.

3.  THE BEST ONE...On Sunday at church, Scott, our pastor, was giving announcements at the beginning of the service and was talking about the trip to Ecuador in August with Compassion International.  It will be a mission trip in which the group going will have the opportunity to tour the Compassion International Headquarters in Quito and see the inner workings, work at a Child Development Center on a project, have a day in the life of a family living in poverty, and then a fun day with your sponsored child if you have one.  He says, "so we had a few people sign up this week and one couple is celebrating their 10th anniversary the end of July (and I'm thinking, cool, someone else is celebrating their anniversary) and her husband thought it would be a great experience for them to go...Sarah and Jason Eckel will be going."  I think my jaw hit the floor.  CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!  I am over the moon!

Amazing things are going on right now in this family and I am so proud to be apart of it!  God is good!

Chef CJ

I think I may have a similar picture from a few years back :-)!

Can't get enough of this!

I heart...

There are only 3 in H-town and they are not close. This was a special treat today! My thighs LOVED them ;)!

Sesame Street Live

We joined the Harren Family for the 2nd day in a row! Day 2: Sesame Street Live. We love our Harrens and Callie Jae and Annslee are BFFs. They have the sweetest friendship and CJ talks about Anns all day everyday. We probably hear her name at least 30 times a day. Trying to capture their friendship is next to impossible, but take it from me, they LOVE each other. We are pretty fond of their parents too. Feeling blessed to have amazing friends.

First tball practice

Zoo Day

A fun filled but exhausting day was had with our precious friends the Harrens. It was a great way to end an already fantastic week. I'm already missing these types of days with Ry next year. Callie Jae had only one major meltdown which I guess is progress ;).

Little Picassos

Fun!

It's a making mess kind of day!

LOVE!

Ordered some new shirts for the kids. Dotsy does an awesome job!

We will we will rock you

Rylan heard the commercial, CJ took off her dress cause Ry had his shirt off, and the craziness began...

Day 1: Pioneer Woman's Best Lasagna Ever

So we are challenging ourselves to not eat out this month, except for our date night ;), which means meal planning and trying new things. I have created a spreadsheet with weekly meals and groceries needed for each week. I figure that if I can get about 4-8 weeks worth of meals planned, then we can rotate. Each week has a few days that remain consistent from week to week.

Day 1 was successful and J loved the lasagna. Pioneer Woman rocks!