Superboys and Superman

 

Whew! It's been a busy week around here!  Lots of cookie orders!!!!

The boys have been pretty good and we've had a fun week!

Loved these superman cookies I made this week!  

More to come soon!!

Weekend Wrap-Up

We had a great weekend around here!  Friday night we chilled at home and ordered pizza for dinner.  Matt did homework while I caught up on my shows and researched vacation places.  Oh yeah baby!!!

Saturday I took the boys to run some errands while Matt took a take home mid term.  The boys were good and I enjoyed spending time with them.  

Saturday night we went to a MOPS couples date night at a friends house.  It was great to fellowship with everyone and just hang out.  We enjoyed playing pool, watching the olympics and playing games.  

Last night I went to dinner with some of my best girlfriends and had such a sweet time.  We laughed, we cried and we encouraged one another.  All of us are going through difficult times right now and it was just huge to have their love and support.  I love these women so much and SO thankful for their friendship.  

 

5 on Friday

It's been a little while since I've done 5 of Friday.  I just have random things to talk about today!  

 

We had a very welcomed sneak peak of Spring yesterday!  It was cloudy but 60 degrees.  It was the perfect day for a bike ride.  We all needed and enjoyed the fresh air.

I made these "practice" cookies this week.  I was testing out a new sugar cookie recipe plus working on my craft.  I used sweetsugarbelle's recipe with powder sugar instead of regular sugar and a few other small changes.  I'm searching for a cut out sugar cookie that doesn't spread.  I loved the taste of this recipe.  The cookies are so soft and chewy!  I just need to tweak it a little and it should be perfect. 

I've been looking at and debating for a long time if I should get a Kopykake projector to assist in my cookie decorating.  Last night I finally bit the bullet and ordered a kopykake projector!  I am super excited.  It will take about two weeks to get here but I cannot wait to use it.  It will make my cookies look even better and will be a time saver.  

I caught this sweet moment with Matt and Ryan tonight.  I love watching them together.  So thankful for a wonderful and loving husband. 

We have enjoyed watching the Winter Olympics the past few weeks. Matt is obsessed with all things olympics so he has it on constantly.  We've really enjoyed watching the ski jump, half pipe events, skating and bobsled.  We are bigger fans of the summer olympics but it's been fun to watch.  Now I'm just a little ready for my shows to be back on! 

Fellowship

 

It's been a good day of fellowship around here.  I have my usual Wednesday lunch at CFA with our friends Jennifer and Bret and Sarah, Rachel and Matthew plus my friend Brenda came with her three boys!  It was a fun and loud lunch date!  The boys had the best time playing and ran off some serious energy!

Tonight we had a date night while the kids were at church.  We went on a double date with the Krafts.  It was a great dinner and we enjoyed the company.  I know the boys had the best time playing with the girls and their other friends. 

It was a great day of fellowship and spending time with friends!  So thankful for all of them!

I made these sweet ballet cookies for my bestie Rachel's little girl Ana who turned FOUR years old on Monday!  She loved them and I thought they turned out pretty cute myself.  

Quality Time

 

One of my favorite books is "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman.  It's wonderful for marriages as you learn so much about yourself and your spouse and how they tick.  There is also a book called "The Five Love Languages of Children" and it talks about discovering those languages in your kids.  

I am pretty sure Ryan's love language is quality time (just like his daddy).  He loves to spend one on one time with Matt or I and he just gets so much when we take the time to give him our undivided attention.  Matt and I have decided that we need to be intentional about spending one on one time with Ryan at least once a week.  It can be taking him to breakfast/lunch, go on a walk, run an errand or go to do a fun kid friendly building project at home depot (they have special workshops on saturday mornings just for kids).  

Matt took Ryan to breakfast Saturday morning to the Pancake House and he was in heaven.  He got chocolate milk (something we only get on special occasions) and chocolate chip pancakes.  It was a fun time!  Matt said it was great to listen to Ryan talk and spend that one on one time with him.  Definitely something we will try to make time for each week.  

Happy Valentine's Day

 

Ryan's Valentine's for his friends at school!  I saw these doughnut designs weeks ago and thought they were SO cute.  I thought they would be perfect for Valentines so I just had to search for just the right printable.  

They turned out perfectly!  Definitely a favorite valentine!

This was Ryan's Valentine for his little girlfriend Jillian!  She loved it!

We had Ryan's preschool Valentine's party today.  Colton joined along like he was four years old, since he thinks he's four anyway.  

They had valentine treats, made  a valentine craft and played games.  It was a fun party.  

Me and one of my favorite valentine's!  He was so excited about his box of valentines.  He could hardly wait to open it once we got home.  

Since it was Valentine's day I thought it was a perfect day to eat lunch at Chuey's.  I am obsessed with their Queso dip.  It's so good and I could just about eat my weight in it.  They boys did great and always love eating chips and salsa.  

It was good food and good times had by all. 

Valetine's Cookies

 It's been a quiet and cold week here but I've been busy making lots of cookies!  I love making Valentine's cookies!  

I love making these mini conversation candy heart cookies!  I made these for Colton's MDO Valentine's party.  

I found these printables for the bags that say "Valentine - You Stole My Heart"!  So cute!  They were a big hit!

I made these cookies for the boys' teachers!  I thought they were so pretty!  I love polka dots on cookies, probably my favorite. 

I can't wait to post Ryan's Valentine's cookies tomorrow after his V-day party!  

Our Weekend

 

We had a great weekend!  Friday night Matt and I had a date night at Nada!  I totally meant to take a picture of us and remembered once we got home and changed into pajamas.  It was amazing as always and great to spend time with my honey.  

Saturday morning I took the boys to get haircuts and grab some lunch.  They boys did great and we enjoyed a yummy lunch!

Sunday morning Matt competed in his first rowing competition.  It was the Cincinnati Indoor Rowing Championship.  He competed in the Masters division.  

He hurt his ankle back last summer and started rowing for his workout.  He realized quickly that he has good numbers and is fast.  I have to brag on him a little bit here.  He had multiple people stop him at the gym and tell him how good and fast he is.  

So proud my hubs won BRONZE!!!  Way to go honey, we are so proud of you!  And for the record he was competing with men who have been competing for years and Matt has only been training for about 8 months.  

And this boy was so proud of the house he an daddy made!  Love him so!!!

Week of Healing

 It's been a good week around here.  Definitely a week of healing and thanking God for the many blessings in my life.  

On Monday my sweet friend Heather met us for a playdate at a huge indoor playground.  It was so good for the soul!  I enjoyed getting to talk and let the kids run and play.  

Tuesday night we got more snow, of course, so Matt took Ryan outside on Wednesday to help shovel.  He was begging to go out and play in it since he woke up.  He hasn't really asked to play in the snow much this year to which I'm thankful.  I would rather stay inside, drink hot chocolate and watch the snow outside the window. 

Every Wednesday my friend Jennifer and I take our boys to CFA after school.  School was cancelled on Wednesday but I texted her from the gym saying I was working out and could still meet for lunch. We met up and then 3 of my other friends showed up with their kids.  It was a full on party and we had the best time laughing and hanging out.  

On Thursday I had MOPS then the boys and I met a friend at Costco to deliver some ninja turtle cookies.  

We decided to just have lunch at Costco since we were there.  Of course no Costco trip is complete without some frozen yogurt!  Yum!!!

Not Our Plan but HIS

For some time Matt and I have had the talk about when we were ready to add another little one to our beautiful family.

Last summer we decided we were ready.  I didn't want to have a 'winter' baby so we started trying right around the time to have a 'spring' baby.

I've always said I wanted to space out number 3 a little more than 2 years.  Ryan and Colton are two years and twelve days apart.  I love that but I knew I was not ready to have another baby when Colton turned two.

We LOVE LOVE LOVE our boys and I love being a boy mom but it's been both of our hearts desire to have a baby girl.  I would LOVE to have another boy and would adore him and fall head over heels in love with another boy but there is this part of me that desires a daughter so much.

I did all my research and we began our journey.  Honestly I didn't think it would take very long since I got pregnant quickly with the boys.

This past fall, right after Thanksgiving, we found out that we were expecting baby #3.  We were thrilled and super excited to add this new baby to our family come late summer.

Immediately I had it all planned out.  I would get to spend quality times with the boys this summer going to the park, the pool, the zoo etc.... and our family would grow and things would be perfect.

Everything with my pregnancy had been going smooth.  I had just a little sickness in the beginning, a little heartburn but feeling pretty good over all.  We went in for my first appointment at 9 weeks right after Christmas.  We got to see the baby on the ultrasound and see everything looked great and things were progressing well.

Last Tuesday, January 28th,  I had my 13 week appointment.  The boys were suppose to both be in preschool but it was cancelled due to cold weather so they came along to my appointment.  Matt had to work but I assured him all would be fine and I would report back to him later.

We had not told Ryan or Colton about the baby and wanted to keep it under wraps a little while longer.  I asked the nurse not to say anything about 'a baby' and that they just knew mommy was coming in for a check up.

The nurse called us back and we got settled in a room.  The doctor came in shortly afterwards and made a little short talk before saying we would take a look at the baby with an abdominal ultrasound.

The boys were totally in to their iPad and leap pad and had no clue what was going on.  He started to scan my abdomen and declared that he couldn't get a good picture and it was too grainy to see anything.  He said we would need to do an internal ultrasound.

He got everything ready then pulled the ultrasound machine closer to him, towards my feet.  I immediately thought that was weird, I wanted to see the monitor of course.  I studied his face intently as he looked at the monitor.  He asked me when was my last ultrasound was and immediately I knew something was wrong.  He proceeded to say he was so sorry but that unfortunately, this baby did not appear to be measuring where it should and there was no cardiac movement.  The baby was only measuring 8-9 weeks.

My heart stopped!  I was shocked and stunned.  I didn't know what to do.  I couldn't cry, I couldn't sob, all I could do was sit there and think "my world just completely changed in one second".  After discussing everything with the doctor I had to round the boys up and finish talking with the nurse.

I honestly feel like it was God's provision the boys were there with me that day.  I couldn't totally lose it and fall apart.  I had to keep it together for them.  I had to take care of them and that's what I did.

I went in Friday morning for a D&C.  Clearly the baby had passed several weeks ago but my body had not reacted and still thought it was a viable pregnancy.

The procedure was quick and painless.  I had a wonderful nurse and all the staff showed so much compassion and gentleness to our situation.  I'm so thankful for that.

Our amazing friends kept the boys for us Thursday night and Matt's parents took them Friday night and part of Saturday.  We are SOOOOOO thankful for wonderful friends who have shown us so much support with cards, meals, help with the boys and especially their prayers.

I've come to realize that miscarriage is SO common and happens to so many women.  We have been so encouraged and loved on by our friends.

We don't have answers and have no idea why this happened but we DO know that God is still sovereign and He is still good!  We don't have to have the answers, He just calls us to have faith and trust.  I keep telling myself, out loud, that His plan for us is way better than any plan we can have for ourselves.

Jeremiah 29:11 is my life verse and I keep repeating it to myself.  "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, Plans to prosper you, not to harm and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

Yes, He will bless us with another baby, but we don't know when and we don't have to.  I know He has a plan for our family and I trust Him with all my heart.