surprise valentine visit

Tonight Lolly & Pops surprised Pearson and came over to deliver his Valentine! He was so excited to see them!!

He walked right up to Pops to open up his little Valentine. 

He thought the foam bath letters looked pretty cool!! 

Before we gave Pearson a bath we watched a couple of videos of our funny little man with my parents.
This one is of Pearson jumping on a little trampoline at the girl's house that I nanny for. 

This one is of Pearson singing Ho Hey in the car the other day.  He does this every single time he hears this song!!  Even while we were listening to this video he was singing HEYYYY, HOOOOO!!

This one is of Pearson dancing to "In the Jungle"at Story Time today.  I really need to get a full video of him doing this, because he is so funny when he does the whole song!! And just like the other video, he danced and danced while we were playing this video.

After Pearson put on a show, dancing and singing and telling us his letters, we put his new bath toys to good use!!

Thanks Lolly & Pops!!

wild about you + {a free printable}

**I had all intentions of getting this post up last night, but I got a ticket yesterday afternoon so I had absolutely no motivation to do anything......except watch The Bachelor.  Ha!

You know you have a true toddler when they love a food one day and then hate it the next!  A little while back, I bought a huge tub of animal crackers at Sam's because he loves eating them at Mother's Day Out.  Of course, after I bought the huge tub of animal crackers he decided he didn't like them!! Of Course. When I saw this cute valentine on Pinterest, I knew it would be perfect for all of little friends at Mother's Day Out and MOPS, and a perfect way for me to get rid of my giant tub of animal crackers that my son won't eat!!

I just needed to spruce up the label a little bit.  I saw some other cute ones on Pinterest that had zebra print and leopard print in the background, but they seems a little girl.  I decided to just go with the zoo animal theme and I think they turned pretty darn cute!!

So if you have an abundance of animal crackers like I did and need a cute little valentine for your little one, here is the printable for you!!

**These are spaced a little funky (with a space on top of each of them) so you can cut the big space above the picture,  fold them over a baggie and staple them. Or of course you can cut them all the way out like I did and back with colored paper.  Either way, I think they'll be pretty cute!! 

{To download, Click so the image pops up in a new window, Right Click, Then Save & Print!}

meal planning monday

Monday: Talapia with Shrimp Bayou Sauce, Rice, Broccoli, Rolls

Tuesday: Spicy Sausage Pasta & Salad

Wednesday:  Pei Wei Take Out

Thursday: KITCHEN CLOSE FOR VALENTINE'S DAY

Friday: Queso Smothered Chicken with Orzo & Salad

Saturday Breakfast: Sausage Balls

Saturday Lunch: Sandwiches & Chips

Saturday Dinner: Cornbread Taco Casserole

 Sunday Lunch: Pizza

Sunday Dinner: Dinner w/ Small Group

10 on 10 {february 2013}

10 pictures on the 10th day of the month!

{Document a snapshot of your life & find beauty among the ordinary things in your day!}

This morning Pearson woke up a little earlier than normal so he hung out with Daddy in bed while I got ready for church.  

All ready for church.  Pearson loves going to church.  He can even says "chuch" now when we tell him we are going to church. He loves his teacher Ms. Marie and he loves playing with all of his friends.  

I went to check on him after ABF and they were having snack.  I just love this little table that they have in their classroom. It just cracks me up to see all of their little feet hanging out!

I normally work in the preschool as a hall coordinator every Sunday, but today I had the morning off to go to worship. I haven't been to worship since August.  I didn't realize how much I missed it.  It felt so good to be back.  

After lunch we headed to my parent's house for lunch with the whole family.  I posted the rest of our pictures from our afternoon at Lolly & Pops here.  There were just too many cute ones not to share. 

Pearson has discovered the piano at Lolly & Pops house and he loves to play it!!

Once we got home, I put Pearson down for a nap and I finished up Pearson's Valentine's for his MOPS teachers and MDO teachers.  I think these heart shaped strawberry and red velvet cake cookies turned out so cute.  I'll have to post the recipe for them later this week. So easy and so yummy!!

Matt trimmed up the trees and did some other yard work while P-Man was napping.  

Pearson only took about an hour nap so he was a grump when he woke up.  we decided to snuggle together on the couch and watch a Mickey Mouse.  That definitely put him in a better mood.  This kid LOVES Mickey Mouse!!

After playing for a little while we headed back up to the church for small group.  We had an extra small group tonight, but it was nice to chat with the girls and talk about our spiritual goals for this year.  

And that's our 10th in a nutshell!!  

sunday lunch

This afternoon we headed over to my parent's for lunch with all of my family plus both of my grandma's.  We had such a fun afternoon with all of the family. 

This picture is a little blurry, but I still love it! I just love my Mom and Grandma. I am so thankful that I live so close to both of them so that we can all see each other often.

Carson was so funny. He kept saying, "We boys stick together." He wanted all the boys to sit at the kid table with him.  Pops sat with him, but Pearson hasn't graduated from the high chair yet!!

Oma made a delicious banana pudding.  Pearson climbed right up into Nonnie's lap to eat some.  I don't think Nonnie even got a bite because Pearson was eating it all.

After lunch, Pearson and Olivia serenaded us with some lovely piano music. 

Pearson showed Oma & Joe his stellar puzzle skills.  They were quite impressed. 

 Nonnie wanted a picture with all of her great-grandkids.  This was the best we could get. 

It's quite impossible getting a 4.5 year old, an 18 month old and a 19 month old to all look at the camera.  See what I mean.......

 While we were playing the piano, doing puzzles, and having a little photoshop, Pops was doing all the dishes all by himself!! What a guy!!

Sadly we had to head out before everyone else did because Pearson had to go down for a nap, but we sure enjoyed our afternoon with family.  

yard work

Yard work is definitely not my thing.  I would scrub toilets over yard work any day!!  

Matt does all the yard work around The Link Home, however he doesn't really enjoy it either.  Thankfully, it looks like little man is going to enjoy yard work.

Here is he is happily mowing the yard.

And I can't even begin to tell you how much he loved raking the patio off.  

 I am sooooooo looking forward to Spring so we can have more fun afternoons of "yard work".

animal sounds

weeeeeeeee!!

A few weekends ago I bought this little playset at a garage sale for Pearson for $30.  These things are $140 new, so I thought it was a pretty good price since it is in great condition!!

He absolutely loves it!! And the weather has been great lately for a little playtime in the backyard.

I just love watching him play in it. 

When he gets to the top of the slide he says "Go"!

 Then he scoots the top of his little body forward and says, "Weeeeeee!!"

And then repeats it over and over and over and over.

meal planning monday

Monday: Leftover Chicken & Potato Florentine Soup

Tuesday: Creamy Pasta Bake, Garlic Toast, & Green Beans

Wednesday:  Chicken Salad Sandwiches & Chips

Thursday: Dinner w/ The Janes

Friday: Talapia with Shrimp Bayou Sauce, Broccoli, & 

Saturday Breakfast: Sausage Balls

Saturday Lunch: BBQ Apple Chicken Sandwiches & Chips

Saturday Dinner: Queso Smothered Chicken with Orzo and Salad

 Sunday Lunch: Slow Cooker Stroganoff and Broccoli

Sunday Dinner: Free Papa John's Pizza

a super fun super bowl

Every year we go over to Matt's sister's house for a fun Super Bowl Party.  All the guys watch the game upstairs in the media room while the ladies hang out with the kids and eat!! Good food is what Super Bowl parties are all about, right?

This year we also had a "Foodie Bowl" where everyone brought different dishes.  We all voted during the 4th quarter and the winner went home with a prize!! We also play Squares every year too.  The squares were a quarter a piece so we spent $3 and each got 4 squares.  I ended up winning the 1st and 2nd quarter so I went home with $10.  Not to bad!!  

Before the game started, Pearson got a front row seat for the singing of the National Anthem.  That was about all of the game he watched, because he was so excited to play with all of his cousin Ethan's toys!!

Pearson played outside on their swing set for the first time. Emma was so sweet with him.  He was loving all the special attention that she gave him!

Pearson also spent some quality time with Grammy doing some puzzle.  He was definitely showing off how he knows some of his letters.  At one point he couldn't find the "L" that went in the ABC puzzle so he got the boot from a pirate puzzle and tried to place in in the ABC puzzle since it looked like an "L".

And of course he was being a little silly too!!

Pearson loves every second he gets to spend with his Grammy!!

While we were playing downstairs Pearson really took to Pops (my BIL's father).  Even though it's not Pearson's Pops I guess kids just know a grandpa when they see 'em. 

At half time, I passed Pearson off to Daddy so I could watch the only part of the game I care about.  The Halftime Show!! I thought Beyonce did great.  One of the kids at the party was calling her Feyonce.  I thought that was so funny!!

Pearson stayed up way past his bedtime, but he and Ethan had a ball playing together.  It just makes my heart smile seeing them play together!!

 I'm so thankful that we have family close so we can see each other often and have fun traditions like Super Bowl parties each year!!

And now that football season is over that means we are one more day closer to 

BASEBALL SEASON!!!!

just me & my hubby

Last night we dropped off Pearson at the the church for Parent's Night Out.  The first Friday of the month is quickly becoming my favorite day because I love date night with this guy!!

It's so nice to get away and know Pearson is well taken care of by the sweet ladies at our church, so we can have a kid-free date night.  And it's especially nice to be able to go out to eat with my hubby, have good uninterrupted conversation and not have to cut up food, share my food or pick up messes (or sippy cups) off the floor!!  We decided to go to Sicilano's Taste of Italy for dinner because we had a Groupon.  

Check out that total!!

 We split the Combo Plate which had Chicken Parm, Veal Parm, Eggplant Parm, and Lasagna.  It was so good, but I seriously could have just eaten the rolls. Y'all these rolls are the bomb! I am not even going to admit to you how many I ate.  It's a little embarrassing!! If you have never been to Taste of Italy, you should go just to try the rolls!!

After dinner we hit up SweetMix again to get another Bananas Foster Crepe.  We have decided it's going to be a Parent's Night Out tradition since it's so close to the church.  

We definitely had a wonderful date night together!!

Until.....

I realized (when we were about 5 minutes from our house) that I had left my purse on the floor at SweetMix.  I quickly called them and thankfully they had it behind the counter.  They said when I picked it up I just had to identify what the purse looked like and what was in it.  Matt ended up dropping me and Pearson off so I could put him to bed then he drove back over to there to pick up my purse.  Such a sweet hubby!!