Field Trips and Class Parties

Wow!  This week has been non stop it seems with Aiden having all sorts of things going on at school.  On Wednesday I went with his class on a field trip to The Loop Pizza which oh my goodness has some really yummy pizza but I could eat their salads every.single.day seriously!  Then Thursday was the day before Spring Break so Aiden's class had an Easter egg hunt and a class party so Addison and I stopped by to get our party on for that as well.  Here are a few of the pictures I took from the past few days.

They let all the kids wear little aprons and then took them on a tour of the back of the resturant.  THEN came the fun part where they actually let each kid make their own little pizza!

Yes my little guy did pepperoni and black olives.  He's usually major picky like his daddy but takes after his momma when it comes to pizza!

Um this was taken right before he finished.  He ate the entire thing and has asked to eat at The Loop everyday since because according to him "they have the best pizza EVER!"

Easter egg hunt and then it was party time!

They usually fight like cats and dogs but here lately they have been extra sweet to each other and all about hugging!  So of course I had to take this for proof to show them when theyre older that yes at one point they did get along!;)

Aiden's Spring Break starts tomorrow and Im actually looking forward to getting the extra time with him being home next week......but then again ask me that same question next week and we'll see if I still feel the same!

Happy Friday y'all!

-Aletha

Wordless Wednesday

Follow Us Apps

Between the two of us we would not know what to do with out our smart phones! We can remember how cool we thought we were when we had pagers (come on you remember the pagers when your boyfriend would send you the message "143", don't act like you don't) teehee :)

Anywho, we are trying to make our blog numbers grow along with the number of our Daily views so we thought we would share with you some of our favorite apps that will help you follow us and get updates from us :) PLUS all the Apps are FREE so now you have no excuse not to check them out!

The first one is Bloglovin- this app is awesome you and stay up to date with all your favorite blogs including ours from your phones!Its a really easy app!  You download the app and then search for your favorite blogs, follow them and then everyday there are all the new posts in one spot!



Follow us on Twitter! We bother are very new to the twitter world but are excited to start tweeting more and learning more about it :) you can go under our pictures to the left of the blog to follow us on twitter! You can also get the app for your phone and that way you're always connected to Twitter.



Follow us on the blog.  On the left side of the blog all you have to do is click where it says Follow Us and then you sign up and can get updates that way as well.

And last follow us on Pintrest we love to share of our wonderful clothing loves, food loves and our big dreams and we would love to see yours! We are going to start creating our "own pins" and pinning them to the main boards with a link back to the blog so be on the look out :)



We love reading blogs and meeting new people so if anyone follows us on any of the above we are sure to follow right back! Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday

Anton and Jonah

Today we gonna make it short and sweet because we wanted to bring up two things!

First is if you could take a moment a pray for a little guy named Anton.  He is like our little buddy Jonah and has EB and was recently adopted to a sweet family.  HERE is his momma's blog if you wanna check it out and send some support and prayers their way.  Anton had a g-tube placed this morning and any surgery can be a big deal for an EB child so please pray for a smooth surgery for this little guy and for his family as well!

Secondly things are moving along with the Jogging for Jonah race and a date has been nailed down!  The date is going to be May 12 at Tanglewood Park in Clemmons, NC. This race will raise money for debra to find a cure for EB.  There will be a 1 mile fun run as well as a 5K.  Here's where we need everyone's help.  In order to make this race possible we need sponsors!  If you or if you know someone with a business that would like to sponsor the race please either contact us or you can email our friend Patrice(Jonah's mommy) at joggingforjonah(at)gmail(dot)com.  To get your company logo on the shirts and signage the minimum donation is $100 but any amount will be accepted.  Now if you would like to participate and run in the race like we will be doing you can contact Jonah's mommy again at joggingforjonah(at)gmail(dot)com and there is also the option to just buy a shirt if you're not a local.  HERE is Patrice's blog, she has done several post already with better details of the race and things like prices(we'd hate to give out the wrong info) so head over there if ya don't mind. 

So if you're a local please consider being a sponsor or a runner!

Have a happy Monday everyone!

-Erica and Aletha

Easter Inspiration From Where Else But Pinterest!

With Easter right around the corner we've been checking out Pinterest for

some cute and different ideas.  Here's what we've found.

Pinterest via Crafty Endeavor

Pinterest via Catholic Icing

Pinterest via Design Editor

Pinterest via Martha Stewart

Pinterest via Creative Decorations

Keep an eye out next week for this cute little idea!  We think it's perfect for little hands so we're gonna give it a try with our kiddos!

Pinterest via Lisa Leonard

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

-Erica and Aletha

What Have We Been Up To This Week?

Glad today is Friday and we've got pretty and warm weather this weekend!  This past week I've been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.  Why you ask?  Well between some new things I'm starting as well as Aiden.

After finishing school I would LOVE to work at the hospital primarily in Labor and Delivery so for awhile I had tossed around the idea of volunteering at our local hospital to just get in the environment and watch what the nurses' on that floor get to do.  So I went to my orientation a few weeks ago and then had papers and references to get and Tuesday this week I had to go to an interview.  Yes like similar to an I'm Getting A Job Interview!  They don't play with just letting anyone volunteer there which I understand and actually appreciate.  I go back next week for a 3 hour training and have to get a few TB tests and then I should be good to go!  I told them I was interested in L&D but also wanted to possibly do a little time in the NICU which they said was possible as well.  When they told me what I would do on that floor, one being sometimes helping out by holding a baby the entire time I was sold!  I'm so excited and can't wait to get started.  I've loved staying home with my babies all these years but getting back out makes me feel like a human again!! Any other stay at home moms feel like that?

Now onto Aiden....poor guy has been just as busy but in a good way!!  We decided to sign him up for Tae Kwan Do.  I signed him up without telling him until after the fact and when I did tell him he flipped out!!! I mean screaming and begging me to not take him.  Aiden is so shy and timid at times I knew he was going to lovingly need a push into getting into something like this.  I took him to his first lesson and he LOVED it!!  I mean afterwards he was so proud showing all his new moves it made me feel so good that he's found something he likes and on the same note they are all about teaching manners like yes m'am and no sir that I'm digging it so far.  Last night was his first "group" class before this the other lessons were just one on one to show the basics and I could not quit laughing!!  There are about 10 in his group and they're so tiny out there doing these kicks and punches, it was too cute!

Aiden has classes up to 4 times a week and once my volunteering starts I'll be doing that in the afternoon for a few hours once a week so I think our usual laid back schedule is gonna start getting crazy!  But that's ok, since I've stayed at home the weekends and the weeks just blend together so I actually like the fact that a weekend actually feels like a weekend!

-Aletha

God Moment

Where to start? I'm running on very little sleep over the past few days, I'm physically and emotionally drained. If you rememebr a little over a week ago, Mitch, Mom, Baby King and myself made a trip to the local hospital to meet with a Peds. ENT.

The saturday before the meeting with the ENT on Monday we just finished a 10 day med for a double ear infection. 3 days after the consultation King was up all night pulling at his ears. Mitch stayed home with him that Thursday and took him into the Doctor. She said he had a little fluid on the ear, and maybe a little virus. The rest of the day he was perfect, and King slept much better that night. Miller on the other hand was up all night (which he NEVER does) so I stayed out with the Milster on Friday with what I guess was the same bug King had the day before. Saturday we spent the day as a family at Tanglewood park (pictures to come later) ahhhh it was so nice to have the family time. Everyone slept descent that night. We woke up Sunday and headed off to church, when I picked Kingstin up from the nursery I could tell he felt warm (sorry for all the other babies that were in there as well, hope King didn't pass his friendly little germs to you!)

That afternoon King ran a HIGH fever all day, it would bounce between 101-103 all night and on into the night, needless to say that was pretty much a sleepless night for us. I stayed home with him on Monday and decided to call the doctor, she asked me to bring him in she would like to take a look at him, so i got ready and took him in, he had a bad infection in the left ear and a little pink in the right, and what she felt was a virus along with the infections. My first question to her was "will they do the surgery tomorrow?" she really couldn't give me an answer she asked me to come home and place a call to the ENT and let them know what was going on.

I got home and called them and had to wait for a call back! If you're a friend of mine on facebook, from my post you could tell I was a little stressed, the first few went a little something like this:

"Been up all night again with King running a high fever :( don't think it is his ears I'm thinking virus! Please pray that he will VERY soon be better, we have the tube placement surgery tomorrow and not sure if they will do it with a fever :( "

"King has yet another bad ear inf. plus virus! Have to put a call in to the ent to see if she will do the tubes! Pray that she will do the tubes"

"Ok prayer worriers! I have called the ent waiting for them to call back! Please pray fever will stay down and they will do the surgery tomorrow!!!!"

While waiting for the ENT to call I coverd that little man in prayers! I prayed that God would allow the surgery to go on if it was his will. About 45 mins after placing the call, a lovely nurse called me back. I explained everything his Dr. told us eariler and did she think they would do the surgery, she told me he was the first case and needed him to be there at 6:00am. She then told me we need to keep the fever down, she said that he could not eat or drink after midnight but i could give him Tylenol up until 5:00am but the fever needed to be under control.

When I got off the phone with her, I hit the floor and prayed to God that Kings fever would stay down at the temp. it was at that time which was around 100-101. Then i came to my loyal facebook and church friends and asked them to pray.

"As of right now the surgery is on! He is the first case and has to be at the hospital at 6:00am!
Pray that he only gets better tonight!"

Boy did they pray, I could feel the peace, then the night fell and his temperture went up, right up to 103 and it wasn't coming down, I stripped him down to diaper only, made sure his room was nice and cool, and did some more prayering over him, and asked one more favor from my pray worriers.

"Will everyone please stop and take a sec and pray for my baby king, Dr. Oked surgery tomorrow if fever is under-control, well his fever is back up high again! He needs this surgery and the devil is working! Please pray!"

By this time I was mad, and upset and I was allowing the devil to attack me. I didn't sleep much at all last night, I was getting up every thirty minutes to check his temp. with my cool little TEMPORAL TERMOMETER  (ooo you have to buy one of these if you dont have one, well worth every penny!!!!)

His fever stayed right around 102.5 or so. I was sick I knew he needed this surgery and I just knew in the back of my mind they weren't going to do it.

We got the boys up at 5:20 and I took Kingstins temp just one more time, it was 102.4. I was so upset. We loaded the boys up in the car and Mitch started to back out and then stopped and threw the car in park. I looked over at him and he had his head bowed and started praying out loud (I love that man) he prayed such the perfect prayer, his King, his fever, the Dr's and the nurses, he reached over and grabbed my hand and we where off to the hospital. We got there and found my mom, dad and mother-in-law waiting for us. We checked in and went to sit down and I pulled out my handy thermometer , I scanned his little forhead and BAM 100.00 NOT 102, not 101....BUT 100 I couldn't help but to run and tell Mitch, God heard me, God heard all my fellow prayer worriers, it was like God told me "Erica do not worry about tomorrow, I got this" it was an awesome God moment, AWESOME I'm telling ya.

It wasn't 5 mins later they took us back, to the holding room, we met with the Dr, three nurses and the anesthesiologist, and I heard the words i wanted to here, HE IS CLEAR FOR SURGERY! They told us to say our see ya later, and give kisses, the OR was ready for him, Mitch and I leaned in kissed that little cool forhead and handed him over, he did sooo good didn't even cry now me on the other hand....we will just not touch that subject :) here are a few pictures of him before he went back!

It only was about 30 Min. total and the doctor came out, she said everything went prefect and she cleaned out alot of infection in both ears (poor buddy), and then i was able to go back and see him, the nice nurse was rocking my sweet baby when I got back there, he was drinking apple juice and life seemed great. It was about three mins and all hell broke loose. He went crazy screaming uncontrollable, wouldnt drink anything and NOTHING would make him happy, after about 30 mins of that the Dr. came and ordered a shot to calm him down. When the shot was given, they allowed Mitch to come back with us and life was good, King was happy and feeling better.

We got home and got him settled and and he napped for a while,he even played a little!
That Afternoon I was outside pulling weeds out of the flower bed and I came in to get a drink of water Mitch was laying on the couch with king on his chest, the baby was only in a diaper Mitch had the fan spinning full blast and he said to me "he won't lift his head, he won't eat, he hasn't drank, and he feels like he is burning up! Should we call the Dr.?" I took his tempture and it was 103.9 ahhhhh I all but did have a panic attack not one of my kids had ever had a fever that high! I called our regular Dr. (gosh I love them all there) and they told me I needed to bring him to the ER! I then called the number the nurse gave me to call if I had any question post surgery, they told me to get him there now!

We threw it all together and off we where to the hospital! I posted on my Facebook for everyone to pray and yet again with out a doubt I could feel them! We got there and his fever was 104 they gave him meds before we even got checked into a room to
See a Doctor! We met with the Dr. And he felt like it was post surgery reaction which don't happen much (leave it to my kid) on top of having Infection in his ears before surgery and throw a little virus into the mix! But he was not happy about the fact that all he drank that day was a little apple juice that morning after surgery! We tried every cup in the hospital every drink the offer (even soda) with sureng, straw, nothing...I was so worried they where going to IV him and pump water into him! The kindness nurse walked bye seen the stress on my face and asked of she could help I told her what was going on and she said she would be right back! She walked back in the with a Popsicle, she took king and was able to get him to take a few licks of it! We kept trying and he would take a lick here and there (every little bit counts) the dr came in and took his temp! It was down to 100! Praise God! Miller stayed with my parents and Mitch and i went home, gave king more meds and put him to bed! We held hands and prayed as a couple, low and be hold to no surprise God shine is grace on us again, king remained fever free all night without meds thank you Jesus!!!!
Wednesday was a much better "back to normal day" We took him to the dr yet again because he had a rash on his belly, but she said it is Just a rash from the high fever and his eczema fled up!

Thank you all from the bottom of our heart for your prayers for my little baby boy!

God is good all the time! All the time God is good!!

Love y'all Erica

Wordless Wednesday

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

Tuesday Hurry Up!!

As most of you know my baby King has been so sick over the past several months with ear infections!

It's sad that I could be a Doctor when it comes to identifying rather or not his ears hurt! It starts out with him rubbing his head, then moves to rubbing the ears, then up and down all night. He will get these little blue rings under his eyes and he might get a touch of a clear runny nose, never a fever, never stops him from eating! He has had around 7 ear infections since November! We went to the ENT at our local hospital on Monday. I feel very at peace with her placing them, she is awesome! When the Dr. looked in his ears, she with out a blink of an eye said she could tell he has had his share of ear infections! Sweet King's ears have been infected so many times that they were starting to develop scarring. A film of skin was starting to grow over the drum. I was worried that his hearing was going to be affected but thank goodness it hasn't been! She told us she would like to get us in soon to have the tube placement surgery! So this coming Tuesday the 20th of March my baby will have tubes placed! I know this is a minor surgery, Miller had them and boy did they do wonders :) he was like a different kid. Miller was older when he got them, then King is now! Miller had a hard time waking up and was very confused and that was hard to handle! So I'm a little nervous about someone taking my sweet little baby away from me and him waking up confused! So if you could please say a prayer for the Doctors, King and myself that would be great!

Bless his little heart!

-Erica

Devil's Food M&M Cookies

The other night was the last night of our home groups our church has done along with the devotions and the house we were going to was doing a pot luck.  I signed up for dessert and after a busy weekend Sunday was here and I still hadn't fixed anything!! I searched through the pantry hoping I wouldn't have to take a trip to the store and I found a cake mix.....but definatley didn't feel like making a cake!  Looking on the box for what I needed I found this crazy easy recipe and it turned out so good I wanted to share it...plus keep it for future reference!! Here it goes :

First the indredients you're going to need is: 

1 Box of Devil's Food Cake Mix

2 Eggs

1/2 Cup of Oil

M&M's, Chocolate Chips, or Walnuts (all optional)

**Yes this is seriously all these cookies take!

First just dump the cake mix into a bowl and then add your eggs

Next measure out the oil and add in and stir all together

Here is where you can leave the mix as is or add in whatever you'd like.  All it takes is a handful.  I was craving some M&M's so I went with those but I can see other candies added in here.  Oh and I love peanut butter so maybe even some of those new little reece cups for a touch of peanut butter!!! (But you want something bite size)

Next roll out small balls of the mix and place them on a cookie sheet (please excuse my poor cookie sheet!  it's actually the piece of cookware that I use the heck out of therefore it looks like this)

Place in the oven at 375 degrees and cook for 8-10 mins.  Some I took out at 8 minutes and they were still a little doughy but give about 10 minutes and they were perfect.

  Place them on a cookie rack to cool down and that's it!!

I snacked so much on the bag of M&M's I could only take tasting one but they were really good!  Especially straight out of the oven!  This is one of those recipes that's so easy and requires so few ingredients it would be great to make with kids.

Wordless Wednesday

Watch Out!! Baby King's Walking

Since we really wanted to use this blog as a way to document moments from our little family's this week Kingstin started walking and it was caught on video so we had to post it here!!

  How sweet is that?

Happy Tuesday!

It's Finally Friday...

Yes it's finally Friday!!  Both Erica and I have had one of those weeks of being busy busy and just waiting for the weekend for everything to calm down!  She's been busy with work and I on the other hand have been busy getting some things in line for school and trying to start volunteering at our local hospital.

Other than all that my brother got to come home last week and was here until Wednesday.  He's been in the Navy since 2007 and we just don't get to see him very often so it's nice when he does get to come home!!  I hate that he lives so far away.  He's my younger brother and I feel like I've missed out alot on his life the past few years.  He went into the Navy right after we had Aiden so I've been raising children the whole time.  He recently re-enlisted and used to be stationed in Florida but has now been moved to Georgia so he's a tiny bit closer to home. Aiden and Addison go crazy when he comes home because he goofs off with them and he's just cooler than mom and dad apparently!

Here's the ONLY two pictures I got while he was here.....one not even being of him but his dog!  I know know super lame but in my defense my allergies were getting the best of me the last few days he was here and I wasn't feeling like doing much of anything!

(I took these on my phone so excuse the graininess plus Addison just can't sit still for more than 5 seconds!)

I had to get a picture of his dog because my parents have had him for the past 2 years so we've all grown attached to him and this trip my brother took him back to live with him again.  Before, he was getting deployed for 8-9 months at a time so my parents took him in so there wouldn't be alot of back and forth for the poor guy but since my brother re-enlisted there he will no longer have to be deployed!

We've got a busy and fun weekend ahead!  Hope everyone has a happy Friday!

-Aletha

Wordless Wednesday-Old School Edition

What If?

Our church has been doing a series called "What If?" and we think it has been so good we wanted to share. 

These past few weeks  this series has really made us look at ourselves and say are we really doing what we should be as Christians?  Are we reaching out to others like we should be?

Source

They started the series with a plain white chair and asked us all to think of someone we know that God has laid on our hearts that might not attend church or know God and add their name to the chair.  Last week the chair was completely covered with names. It was an amazing sight to see that chair filled with names but at the same time you couldn't help but get choked up at so many that don't know Jesus!  This got us thinking there are so many people even in our own family that yeah they know we're Christians and we go to church but do we take the time that we should to just stop and talk to them about God?  Even in our daily lives is God putting people in our paths for us to witness to and we're too busy to stop and take notice?

Source

This also hit home because we both have someone special to us that aren't on the right path and you get to a point that you try and try but you can't force them to change their ways.  So you somewhat "give up" trying to talk to them but is that what God would do?  What if God got tired of us being stubborn and he gave up on us?  We both added a name to the chair and are going to continue as we always have to pray that they will find their way back to church and get right with God. 

Hope y'all have a Happy Tuesday!!

The Good and the Bad

Our week in

the GOOD & the BAD 

Lets start with the GOOD

Enjoying Yogurt with family

Silly Faces with kids

Celebrating a speacial person's 83rd birthday

Our Toms and the pretty weather at the 1st of the week to be able to wear them

Family coming from out of town


And now onto the BAD



A nail in a tire 

Rainy weather all weekend

A sick baby boy

Very little sleep all week

Broken Keyboard

When you list it out at the end of the week, when your week seems BAD, no matter what, the GOOD always outweights the bad!  When sometimes you THINK you've had a "bad" week it helps to list out the good to appreciate all the blessings god gave you that week!

Hope your week and weekends went well

~ Erica & Aletha

Weekend getaway

This post was suppose to be up yesterday (Friday), but for some reason it didn't post, sorry to everyone that kept checking for a post and nothing was there :) hey better late then never right?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
This past weekend my handsome hubby and I were able to get away, just the two of us, without kids! We missed our boys VERY much but it was so nice to spend the time away just as husband and wife. We have not been away just him and I since Miller has been born. We have went off with friends and we have had nights that both boys have stayed at my parents but to go out of town over night just Mitch and I has been LONG over due!!

We left Thursday morning and headed to the beach andcame back Sunday afternoon. The ride down was sooo nice, the weather was in the mid 70's (perfect!). It was like we were in high school again we had the music up, windows down, holding hands and singing at the top of our lungs, it was like the old days!

When we got there we unloaded the car and headed for a walk on the beach, We normally go to the beach when it is warmer and there are thousands of people on the beach and kids everywhere, but not this weekend. There was maybe a handful of people on the beach, it felt like it was just us, GOD and his beautiful creation! Very peaceful! That night we got ready and went and had dinner at the best steak house in the world! It was wonderful... Let me say it again WONDERFUL to sit down at the table across from my handsome husband and order my food and eat it without having to entertain children or cut up food or feed the little one!

Friday we were able to sleep in and it was so refreshing! That day was supposed to be rainy all day with storms so we planned on doing a little shopping at the outlets! The day turned out sunny and in the mid 70's so another beautiful day! After shopping and hitting a few of the golf stores ( because I'm a good wife) we decided to go back to the house and make hamburgers and potato skins for dinner, we just relaxed and watched tv together( another thing we don't do much of together).



my cute new toms i got :)



Saturday we were able to get a round of golf in. I used to play alot of golf before I got pregnant with Miller and then I just quit so I borrowed some clubs from a friend and dusted off the ol' golf shoes and off to the course we went! We played the beautiful course of Tidewater, that course is amazing, such a pretty sight.

Mitch played wonderful as always!

And me.....well not so much!

This little guy lives in the pond on the 6th hole, Mitch has always talked about seeing him and this was the first time I got to see him, ( thank goodness for a zoom leans because homeboy freaks me out)

It was great to spend that time with Mitch doing what he Loves!!

We missed our boys and were ready to come home but it was so good to get away with the man I love!! This is something we are going to make a point to do more offton!

What's your plan for this weekend?

Happy Friday Yall

~ Erica