instafriday

hello friday.

what a lovely, warm weathered week we've been having.
it does wonders for my mood.
plus, i ran on the treadmill this week.
i needed to exercise and needed some endorphins.
two birds. one stone. boom.

the boys are off of school today.
pretty fun to have a four day week right after spring break.
and i was so happy to sleep in after my benadryl drug overdose debacle. ;)

all of my instagram pics this week are in the out of doors.
woo. hoo.

last sunday we ate at chipotle after church.
we ate out on the patio so our hoodlums could run around and not disturb anyone.
isn't chipotle so yum???
my faves are the cilantro rice and chips and guac.
everything is so fresh. mmmmmmm.

ruby has now developed a crinkle up her nose smile.
and she grabs her feet constantly.
she cannot get more adorable.
not possible.

that's a full belly smile right there.

content and warm and happy.

tuesday afternoon.
ruby's first time to feel the grass {okay they're weeds, whatevs} between her toes.
she was enthralled.
she seemed to love it and i am hoping she loves the outdoors as much as her mama.

okay so maybe we should mow.

i think when you're on the verge of losing your nine year old in the lawn, it's time.

ruby also had her first time in the swing set swing.

she couldn't get out of there fast enough.

oh these sweet boys of mine.

we went to play at the park at lake fayetteville today.

we did a little walking on the trails until ruby had had it. 

there was a huge water snake below that the boys were watching.

i love the stair step of their heights right now.

i want to freeze this moment.

i am looking forward to a more time spent outside this weekend.

we are planning to get our yard whipped into shape.

what are your weekend plans???

won't you join in the instafriday fun?

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let this be a lesson to you all.

so today i felt like total c-rud.
all day long.

okay, let me back up.
on monday night i met with a friend for coffee . . . at 7:45 pm.
i was so sleepy that i'm pretty sure i told the same story twice.
i kept yawning and i'm sure i made no sense whatsoever in anything i was talking about.
i am old and tired. that's just the plain truth.

so, last night i was meeting a different friend for coffee at 7pm.
i was determined to be alert and present in the conversation, so i got a full caff beverage.
{monday night i had gotten decaf}

good news, bad news.

good news:  i was awake and we had great conversation.
bad news: i  could. not. fall asleep last night.
dang you mint chocolate chip frappe!!

i tossed and turned for hours and just could not fall asleep.
finally i stumbled into the bathroom and took two big swigs from the bottle of benadryl.
yep.
then i looked at the clock.
2 am.
holy cow, i was thinking it was going to be around 11 or 12.
i realized right then, that i was going to pay for that big benadryl dose so close to morning.
plus, i have no idea how much i actually consumed.
i do not recommend this. 
i was just guessing that a good swig of it was about a teaspoon.
i think i was wrong.

so it took me about another hour to fall asleep.
then, at 5:30 am, AJ tried to wake me up to go to my scripture memory group.
i just waved him off and mumbled something about only being asleep for 2 hours.

i finally drug my self out of bed at 7.
AJ sweetly made me a big ol' starbucks via to help me wake up.
the combo of that with my overdose of benadryl was no. bueno.
seriously, i was hung over on benadryl all day.
i felt gross and jittery and shaky and cloudy headed until 5:00.
cra-zay.

so there you have it.
a cautionary tale.
use a measuring cup.


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silver dollar city

we had the best weekend.
it was actually a 3 day weekend because aj took off work friday so we could head up to silver dollar city.  
we all had a great time.....especially the boys.
they had been looking forward to this for quite a while.
they'd seen commercials on tv and we were blessed to receive season passes for christmas.
they were pumped. 

i didn't want to drag around my big camera, what with the stoller, diaper bag, sling, drinks, four kids and all.
but, i was able to capture a few moments with my cell phone....not great, but they'll do. :)

the first day was still rainy and cold. 

in fact, it was even colder than we expected so we had to pay $14 to purchase these hideous stocking caps for sawyer and ruby from the gift shop.

oh well, it kept them warm and they were happy.

ruby was such a trooper...although she really does not like being cold.

we kind of had to tag team and take turns to let avery ride big rides and sawyer and fin ride younger kids rides.

finley was sweet and would ride whatever sawyer wanted. 

they both really enjoyed those rides. 

they were the perfect size for them.

this was avery's first time to ride a roller coaster and he l-o-v-e-d it. 

like, couldn't get enough, loved it.

i couldn't watch.

that's way too stressful on this mama to watch her baby flying through the air, held in by a lap bar.

 but he was so happy and loving every minute. 

the second day was beautiful and warm and made the day even more fun.

i love spending time with our little family all together so this was such a treat.

i think it was recharging for all of us.

ruby did really great and seemed to enjoy being out in the nice weather. :)

one of the boys' favorite parts was grandfather's mansion.

it's this really funny old house with all kinds of crazy rooms and slanted floors....like an old fun house.

they really loved those slanted floors. :)

i am looking forward to making lots of memories at SDC this summer. 

{especially if we take the less curvy route and don't have to stop to buy one carsick son a new pair of jeans after he has thrown up his entire breakfast all over himself and the car. yes, that happened. imagine a swagger wagon on the side of the road while two parents clean throw up with a handful of wet wipes. it was awesome.}

altogether, a great time. :)

happy monday, friends!

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instafriday

happy friday to you!

we have had a fun, crazy and w-e-t week so far.
thankfully it looks like we might finally dry out tomorrow.
i am ready to see the sun!!

so here are my weekly cell phone snap shots....just some tidbits of our days.

last weekend we ate at burger king to get the free fries & green ketchup.
avery was the only one who would eat the stuff.
it was pretty weird.
but worth it for the 6 bags of free fries.

on sunday we went down to the park.
it was sunny and warm.
the boys played and flew a kite with aj.
ruby hung out and gave me her standard mouth open wide smile every time i looked at her.

this vintage bread tin sits in our kitchen.

i love everything about it...the colors, the rust, the polka dots. it's awesome.

and it was my granny's. 

makes me smile and think of her every time i look at it. 

jamaiya and sawyer were stinkin' adorable dancing to the wiggles. 

we've had that vhs tape since avery was two years old.

seeing sawyer sing with the wiggles brings back so many memories of my little avery, watching and singing to the wiggles all the time when he was little.

so it has rained every single day of spring break...which is pretty typical, actually.

after cabin fever got the best of us, we headed to the library.

we grabbed books and videos and sawyer got to enjoy story time. 

i'm pretty sure sawyer's favorite part of the library is the computers right there at his level, ready to go with preschool games. 

his friend, Ford, was there too so they got to share a computer.

avery and i played scrabble in the afternoon.
it's fun to have a child old enough to play a game that doesn't involve whacking a plastic mole in the head.

one night avery and finley learned that they could "text" each other on their ds's. 

they were hilarious, sitting right next to each other, texting back and forth.

they were giggling and having the best time.  

yesterday the rain let up enough for the boys to go out and ride bikes.

it was great to get some fresh air and energy out. 

the rain came back in the afternoon, but i was able to curl up on the couch with a book & read. 

that is my very favorite thing to do when it's raining. 

okay peeps...have a great weekend....hope it's sunny and warm for you all!!

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spring break, day 2: rain.

yesterday, {day one of spring break} we met friends at gymnastic's joes for open play.

very fun. 

the kids ran and bounced and jumped and flipped for an hour.

then we made our way down to chic fil a and managed to feed 9 small children without incident.

day two of spring break has been spent indoors.
non-stop rain would not have been my first choice but it could be worse.
we could have snow.

so . . . we're making lemons out of lemonade.
we curled up on the couch this morning and watched dumbo.
we've done a bunch of crafts.

i read a stack of books.

i pulled out the tunnel and set it up for them.

they've played store and farm and danced to music....

and now. . . i have two asleep and four of us are watching, Jesus the Miracle Worker....it's a little weird, half claymation and half cartoon. 

but you know, it's got a good message. 

and the kids don't seem to mind the odd looking claymation people. 

and big bonus, i finished the hunger games book one. 

and i plan to start book two momentarily. ;)

i think we're supposed to have another full day of rain tomorrow. 

i think we'll have to venture out again. 

the library maybe? 

any other suggestions??

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monday afternoon

day 1 of spring break.
so far, so good.

we had a wonderful weekend with amazing weather.
we hung out with friends on friday night. . . always a treat.
saturday was our first completely free saturday in months.
it was a work day and it was awesome.
we spent all morning on the garage.
and miracle of miracles, we can both park in the garage.
it was such a great sense of accomplishment.
we filled our outdoor trash can. love that.

the boys played around in the yard and ruby was overseer in her stroller. :)

there were lots of little boy bike riding & wagon rides.
avery even rigged up the "bike ride" to his bike to pull sawyer around the yard.

he is such a good big brother.

he had a big kid job of picking all the pine cones & sticks out of the yard.

sawyer was happy to help out every once in a while. :)

i spent the afternoon cleaning the house and finally called it quits at 5pm. 

i earned my keep that day. ;) 

on sunday we had church and lunch and then i put the third coat of paint on ruby's high chair. 

i just need to poly it and add a seat belt and it should be ready to go.

there's been a whole lotta march madness going on in this house. 

and laundry folding......thankfully aj always folds clothes while he watches. 

so i am very happy to let him watch. :)

we have our little friend, jamaiya, here for a few days. 

the boys have had a blast with her so far.

painting, playing, bike riding, jumping . . . 

and in avery's standard fashion....he's doing a lot of this: 

he never tires of drawing. 

i love that kid.

and then yesterday afternoon, i downloaded this:

and oh mercy, i know why everyone is crazy about it. 

i'm on page 173.

i would probably finished already if i didn't like sleep so much...and didn't have 5 kids to take care of.  

and btdub, i love kindle cloud and swag bucks! 

i had $5 in my amazon account from swagbucks so it cost me 1 cent to download this.

and i put it on the kindle cloud so aj and i could both have it on our phones. 

so handy.

let's just say, i will not be reading blogs or looking at pinterest this week. 

:)

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well hey there

yeah.
i'm kinda fallin down on the job lately.
sorry for the lack of posts.
i'd love to say it's because i've been so busy cleaning my house from top to bottom and now it is spotless.
but that would be inaccurate.
life just gets a little crazay sometimes.
so here's what we've been up to this week....

aj texted me that pic last weekend while i was working at the consignment sale. 

he said they were doing bike races.

and he made sure to tell me that he had ruby's baby monitor outside.

he's a good dad.

handling four kids like a pro.

and not just handling...doing fun dad things like bike races up and down our long driveway.   

and how cute are those three boys?!

precious.

kelly, who leads our 4th grade girl's potter's house group with me, brought bible bingo last week.
it was rainy so they couldn't really play outside.
this was a hit.
honestly, they just wanted to win a prize and didn't really want to be bothered with the bible facts...but too bad.
they stuck with it and maybe they learned something along the way.
hopefully.
they were all engaged and happy, so that was nice.
some days you feel like you're making progress and some days you repeat to yourself, "never tire in doing good, never tire in doing good. . . "

her profile.

gorgeous. absolutely.

the many faces of sawyer.
this boy is a character.
he is always dressing up. . . always pretending to be a super hero or power ranger or bad guy or something.
i said, "show me a power ranger face, show me a super hero, show me a happy boy, etc."
this three year old boy brings us such. joy.
it makes me miss the days of avery and finley being that age.
but i am so thankful that my days with little ones are not over.
it is so. fun.

i love decorating this baby girl of mine.

my amazing friend, betsy, made these adorable st. patrick's day treats for the wet cement preschool kids.

{wet cement is the ministry of potter's house for children birth-pre-K. (i.e. my meliyah. :)}

she finds the best ideas from pinterest.

so cute and happy.

a free bouquet of beautiful tree cuttings.

right from our yard. 

flowers on the table make me so happy.

avery wanted me to take a picture of him wearing flip flops for the first time this year. 

he was pumped.

this child has ideas. 

and he is growing up so fast.

i forgot how happy this little girl was after several weeks of viruses...colds & pink eye gunk.

it's been so great to see her happy, happy face again.

she is a different child this week.  

so that's our week in a nutshell.

today is the boy's last day of school before a week off for spring break! 

this is the first weekend in months that we get to all be together for the whole weekend.

basketball is over. 

potter's house is off for two weeks. 

i am so looking forward to just being with my sweet family and hopefully recharging a bit. 

i am also looking forward to having all four of my kids together for a week and doing fun activities together. 

okay that's all i've got......blessings to you all today!

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top o' the mornin'

happy monday morning, friends.

hope you all had a lovely weekend.
i sure the heck did.
we had a really fun date night.
we enjoyed a long, un-rushed dinner.
we did some shopping at a resale clothing shop.....we don't normally love shopping but this was fun.
plus aj tried on random hats & shoes to make me laugh.... very tom haverford-ish. :)

we also had some great family time.
as our boys are getting older, our evenings are more hectic than they used to be.
i am craving time with them to just play and be.
one more week until i get a whole week with all four of my kids home!
{i can't believe i have four kids}
i'm excited to start planning some fun things for us to do. :)


if you know me or have read my blog for long, you know that i love shane & shane.
i heard this song on pandora the other day and deemed it AJ's song for ruby.
we watched the video early this morning.
yes, i was crying.
i'm including it here for you if you need a good cry on your monday morning. :)






okay, i better get going.
sawyer has an eye appointment this morning and if i play my cards right, we might be able to stop into the gap afterwards for the last day of the 30% off sale.
fingers crossed.





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our week

hi friends.

what have y'all done this week?

last weekend i shopped rhea lana's consignment event 
i found these, bad to the bone, vintage reeboks for fin.
i know.
they rock.
hate me.

fin loves them as much as i do.
and he looks stinkin' adorable in them.

baby ruby and baby john are in love and will get married one day.
they have a date every monday afternoon while the big boys are in piano and the 3 year old boys run around the piano teacher's yard.
and we only give them age appropriate toys to play with.

okay, for the love of pete, here are the bangs already.

not a great pic but you get the idea.

taken whilst basking in the warmth of a very sunny day.

{p.s. it was freeeeeezing and sleeting last night. spring is weird.}

avery has a project due to create a model of the planet of his choosing. 

he chose mercury.

we researched it together and created this model....using and old ball we had in the garage, homemade grayish dough and some gravel from the driveway.

it was a whole family project.
we were all in on it, so it was pretty fun.
avery even made a box to hang it in and he wrote facts about mercury all around the outside.

little painters.
they are sweet friends, these two.

i finally got around to slapping some paint on ruby's high chair.
it still needs another coat plus a sealer, so the after will have to wait.
i've been debating between teal, aqua, coral  or plum for the paint.
i ended up going with aqua like ruby's dresser mostly because i had it on hand and i wanted to get it done already.

we had asparagus for dinner one night this week.
aj and i love it.
it's healthy. we eat pretty healthy in this house.
not like organic, only health food store foods....
more like homemade "normalish" food.....not a lot of processed, already prepared foods....does that make sense?
and yes, we had drama by two out of three of our big kids.
they do have to eat everything on their plate when we're at home.
but we give them small, manageable amounts.
for example, they had to eat one asparagus spear each.
and one of my children took a big gulp of milk between each bite. ;)
two main reasons we do this....we want our children to learn to be grateful and thankful for what they're given.
we want them to be able to eat at anyone's table and have good manners and be able to eat whatever they're served.
if they're used to doing this at home, it will be no big deal when they go to someone else's house.
we generally eat dinner at the table every night that we're at home....with exceptions for sunday night picnic night or sometimes friday night movie night.
we enjoy {mostly :)} our family time talking about our days and also use that time to practice our table manners.
i'm not writing all this to say, look at us and how great we are!
i've just had several people ask how we teach our kids to eat anything so i thought i'd write out how we do it here. ;)
take it with a grain of salt and do what's best for your family and your kids. :)

okay so those are the highlights.

another highlight....we're going on a date tonight!

hope you all have a lovely weekend.

link up your weekly phone pics with jeannette at life rearranged....








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