My dear friend Mandy had a handsome baby boy named Graden Matthew on April 24th. She had to go see the doctor several weeks ago for a follow up appointment so I offered to watch her older daughter, Ainsley, for her for a few hours. I didn't get that many pictures but I had forgotten about this one and thought it was too cute to pass up, so here ya go Mandy!
Yesterday, I took the kids to Caleb's best friend Ashlyn's Birthday Party. They had a blast playing on Ashlyn's new trampoline. We had a wonderful lunch and cake from Carbajal Bakery...WAY better than Rick's in my opinion...Shannon, Ashlyn's mom always get her cakes from there and they are SO delicious! Dan stayed back at the house to get prepared for his parents to come and help build the fence. By the time the kids and I got back to the house, Dan and his dad had already started putting the pickets up.
After the kids jumped on Granny (literally) for about an hour or so, Dan's mom (Rita) and I put them down for a nap and sat on the back deck (I LOVE IT) and sipped on tea and watched the guys work. They worked super fast. They got both privacy fences done by 8:30!!!
Rita, the kids and I went to Wal-Mart and got some flowers to go on the back deck, and also got pizza for dinner. She also paid for a full tank of gas for the van....SO nice of her to do that! After dinner, Dan's parents took Caleb home with them until Friday. It will be a nice break to only have Ariel.
I am planning on getting tons done! I have two paintings that I want to get done for Ariel's room, my friend Casey is having a garage sale this weekend so I need to go through everything and get prepared for that, I have two meals that I need to cook this week for my friends who had babies last week, I would like to spend some time with my friend Shannon since her girls are out of town with the grandparents as well, I need to go to Fayetteville and meet my friend Kara for lunch and give her her announcements that I have yet to make for her (ooops! guess I need to do that, too!), I would like to go out with my sweet husband, oh and my friend Patricia is coming in town with her husband from Chicago on Friday and I will be driving them to Eureka for a wedding that she is in. Wow...that's a lot to accomplish.
I don't have pictures of the deck and fence yet since it is raining so I will try to get some soon! Oh and the ebay and craiglist didn't pay off the first time for my paintings. I have a listing on ebay again so we will see!
For some reason, weekends have been so stressful here lately. I am not sure if it is because we have so much going on each weekend or what but it seems that whenever Dan is home the kids get wild!! So today I decided to take a different stride on things than normal. I decided to stay home from church and just have a relaxed day with family.
Sweet girl!
I caught her reading Sleeping Beauty like this!
The "Tree Monster" at my mom's house...looks like it has a runny nose!
Caleb kissing the Tree Monster.
Truly a handsome boy!
Siblings in one chair.
She loved the water and throwing rocks!
Caleb and Dan trying to find Craw-dads.
(thought it was sweet that Caleb had his hand on his Daddy)
The boys found one!
Caleb Splashing!
Ariel touching the craw-dad
Well I decided last week that I wanted to do a painting a week to get some extra spending money for the summer. The pool will be open next week so I know I will need the money for that!! So...I have posted a listing on both craigslist and on ebay just to see what happens. I have had the listing on ebay for almost 7 days and still nobody has bought anything. I have one person "watching" but not sure that will lead to anything. And I just posted a listing on cragslist yesterday. I have received two emails from that but they were apparently both spam emails, suggesting that I list my items in ebay under a catagory known as "junk and hard to find items"?? Anyway, I will let you know how it goes!
It is inevitable that Caleb and Ariel will not live their lives with out freckles. Dan has freckles all over and so do I! Caleb is starting to get the big freckles on his back that his daddy has and he is also starting to get the really small ones across his nose. I just love small freckles on little noses. I am sure by the end of the summer he will have more! 
For those of you who do not know this, Dan and I have just graduated from Financial Peace University!!!
What is Financial Peace University???? Click Here...
Basically it is a life-changing program that teaches you how to make the right decisions with your money all lead by an awesome leader named Dave Ramsey. FPU encouraged Dan and I as a couple to get out of debt and since January we have been able to get all of our debt paid off and have been able to save a good nest egg for ourselves. We plan on living this way forever now, and it is something that we encourage many other couples to try.
In order to get our debt paid off, we sold our truck and were able to get two vehicles and still pay down debt. We paid cash for both which was an amazing feat for us!! Dave talks a lot about people selling the vehicles that they own when first entering FPU and by the end of the program purchasing old beater cars, formally known as "Dave Ramsey Vehicles". So that is the name of the two vehicles we have purchased.
We have the van, which we paid cash for when we first bought it. We now have a 97 nissan sentra and a truck (get this...89 Ford F150, one owner and we had a mechanic look at it and he said that it was in GREAT condition!) which Dan needed for work (I will be able to explain more about his work in about a week or so....we are going through some exciting changes, but I can't say anything about it yet...just keep praying for us!) So we own 3 vehicles that all together value about $8,000! Crazy to think that but Dan and I are happy with no payments...and we REALLY don't care what the vehicles look like at this point. The most important thing to us right now is to get financially secure using cash only! We are excited to see what God has in store for us!!
One bad thing about these two vehicles that we got is that they are both standard. I can only drive automatic!! Dan tried to teach me a few weeks ago but I haven't been behind the wheel again since then. Yesterday we had to take the van in to have the cooling fans fixed so I have been stuck in the house and just pray that I don't have to go anywhere because I would not be safe on the roads!
Here's Caleb testing to make sure the hood is safe!
And here is the nissan. This is the car that Dan drives to work and to do the paper route in. Oh and no...that is not our boat, it's our neighbors!
Caleb was invited to Malea Shoppach's 4th Birthday Party at Aspire Gym. It was so much fun! Dan was able to watch Ariel for me so I could spend all my time with Caleb. It was nice because the last time we were there, I had Ariel with us and I wasn't able to jump on the trampoline or help him on the bars and the balance beam as much as I wanted.
And in the foam pit....which by the way isn't the easiest thing to get out of!
On Saturday I met some dear friends of mine (Casey and William Lewallen) at Bogle Park and took some pictures of them. They were needing a few particular poses to go in their entry in their home and they weren't wanting to pay a whole lot for them, so I was more than willing to do this for them. I think I did pretty good considering I am an amature at the whole photography thing. Thanks Casey and William for allowing me to practice!
Dancing in a Dance Video
Dancing with Chuck E Cheese
Future GQ models...look at those pouty lips on both of them!!!
I am a little behind but I guess it's better to post late than not post at all. Two weekends ago, Caleb went and stayed at Granny's house and last Monday Dan, Ariel and I went to pick him up. We spent the whole day just relaxing with Granny and the family. We went to Dan's sister's house and she had baby chicks there. The kids were able to pet them and try to chase them with their hands in the cage. Ariel loved looking at them! That evening we went out to eat to celebrate Dan's Dad's birthday. He turned 54 on tax day. He was really touched to have all of his family with him for his birthday.
I tried so hard to get her to sniff these tulips for a picture but she would get like 6 inches away from them and then go "mmmm" and then walk away a second later. This is the best shot I got!
All their cheeks were puffed except for Ariel's...great picture!
Fit for a Lifetime is oficially over today and I had my final weigh in this afternoon.
I went down 10 lbs in weight, 3.5 inches in chest, about 5 inches in waist, 4 inches in hips, 2 inches from both thighs, and about an inch in each arm, and I went down about 5.5% in body fat. Pretty good for 12 weeks!
I will continue the program on my own with the help and accountablitly of my partners 5 days a week in the mornings so I still hope to get the rest of my body fat down. I have about 5% more to lose until I reach my goal...this may take a year but at least I am off to a good start.
The hardest part is the eating, not the working out. I really do enjoy being active in the gym even though it is hard when I hear that alarm at 5:15 in the am. I really need to get my eating under control again and I am sure I will start seeing even more results.
Our trainer is supposed to send some before and after pics so if there is a visual difference I will post them here.
On Thursday, I met Rita (Dan's mom) in Eureka for a late lunch with the kids. We had lunch in this underground restaurant called the Mud City Cafe. It was really good and so kid friendly! After we ate we went to the park in the center of town and walked around. These are a few pictures from the afternoon. Rita took Caleb home with her for the weekend so Ariel and I have really enjoyed our time together. I will be going to Harrison on Monday to get Caleb and to spend the day at the farm with the kids. 
Apparently these pregnant girls have all been drinking the same water!! We have had a ridiculous amount of girls from our church be pregnant at the same time and I have been to countless showers over the past few months and the showers won't be ending for a while.
This picture was back from January at Bunco. From left to right: Andrea (had Zachary a few days later), Shannon (due in June with Lydia), Mandy (due in a week and a half with Grady), Tiffany (had Christopher in February), Leigh (due end of May with Jordan), and Natalie (due in June with Isaiah).
This picture was taken at Mandy's shower. From left to right: Veronica (about 16 weeks pregnant in this pic with a boy), Leah (due in May with Asher), Natalie (with Isaiah), Mandy (with Graden (Grady)), Shannon (with Lydia), Leigh (with Jordan), one of Mandy's friends, Teresa (who had Henry about a week later).
And this one was at Leah and Leigh's shower last Monday night. From left to right:Veronica, Katie (due in June), Mandy, Leah, Leigh, Shannon and Natalie.
Caleb looking out the window.
A view of the inside of the train. This car was built back in the '40's.
Caleb and Ariel looking out the window
Julie Bland (friend of ours from Fayetteville), her sons Evan and Pearson and the three of us.
Conductor Glenn and the kids.
Sweet Ariel
Evan, Ainsley and Caleb all looking out the window.
Our try at getting a picture of the engine behind us. The kids weren't cooperating but oh well!
