My very own Valentine

Valentine's Day always takes a back seat in this house to my birthday! However, I couldn't let today go by without giving a shout out to my very own Valentine... the hubs.

My top 5 favorite things about Nick Ramsey....
5. He is bald. I love it. I think it is hot.
4. He makes me laugh all the time and is the funniest person I know.
3. He is an amazing dad and strives to be better all the time. He truly has a heart to love and serve our family.
2. He is my best friend. There is no one I would rather hang out with... and I seriously get excited everyday when he calls and says he is on his way home from work.
1. He loves Jesus and truly has a heart to live a life that glorifies God. I am inspired by Nick's attitude towards service and his heart for others.

I love you, Babe! There is no one I would rather live this crazy life with!

My afternoon.

I am spending my afternoon getting a certain little princess ready for her night out on the town. Nails are done and now hair is curled. Her Daddy is taking her to a Daddy/Daughter Valentine's Dance. Is there anything sweeter than that?

Recipe: Baked Monte Cristo Sandwiches

The only thing better than a super easy recipe is a super easy recipe that is delicious... and the kids will eat it! This recipe was a real winner with all 5 of us which sadly, hardly ever happens.

Baked Monte Cristo Sandwiches

Ingredients:

1 package puff pastry (2 sheets)

16 pieces of thinly sliced deli ham

8 pieces of swiss cheese

one egg

optional: powdered sugar and your favorite jam, or if you like savory opt for a good quality mustard

Directions:

Thaw puff pastry sheets for 40 minutes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Cut each sheet of puff pastry into 4

On each square put one piece of swiss cheese and 2 slices of ham

Fold puff pastry into a triangle and seal edges with a fork

Scramble one egg and brush the tops of each puff pastry triangle with a fork

Bake 20 minutes or until golden

This is a great base recipe and you could easily switch out toppings and sauces, types of meat and cheese, etc. The sky is the limit!

Where did January go?

Can y'all believe it is February? I still can't get over it. January has just flown by.

 But, I always welcome February because that is when my birthday is! Yep! I am a Valentine's Baby! And what is even crazier... so is my mom. I was born on her birthday! It was always so fun growing up... for me... she had to spend her birthday at Chuck E. Cheese...

I finally uploaded a bunch of pictures from my iPod touch to my computer (secret: I don't have an iPhone... I don't have a smart phone at all. My thrifty husband refuses to pay for a data plan. But, I can use my iPod for all of the apps so I still look like I am with it.). Do any of you use Instagram? It is my favorite! Here are some of my recent pics:

I hope everyone is having a happy Tuesday!

Children

Sometimes I want to write a post and I just can't get the words out. And then sometimes I realize that someone else has already done it for me! This post totally touched my heart and said so many of the things I had been wrestling with lately... Motherhood is Calling (and Where your Children Rank) by Rachel Jankovic. 

It was an amazing read as I have been wrestling with the fact that definitely as a culture... and even as a Christian culture we do not truly believe that children are a blessing and that motherhood is a high calling. And I have realized that while I love my children intensely I have been believing that children are not a blessing but a job. That motherhood is good... after you have done other things... 

I found this post so affirming because I constantly get comments in the grocery store about "having my hands full" and while people rarely mean anything by it, it does get in your head and make you start to believe it. Everyone has this idea that the perfect family is 2 children. When we had our third I got more negative comments than positive ones. It was so disheartening. And I am almost positive that if we had more a lot of people would be less than supportive. Which, honestly, I think boils down to people not believing what God says about children.

I do not think you have to have 20 children to believe that children are a blessing. But, I do think we need to look at our hearts and motives and search our hearts as Christians and mothers and determine if our beliefs are lined up with what God says.

Psalm 127:3-5 "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate."

Bullet Point Friday

• I am so excited that it is Friday! I just love weekends. I am going to a baby shower on Saturday and we were invited by some friends to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday. Now I am just trying to decide what delicious snack to bring for the big game.
• Jack has been waking up a lot in the middle of the night for the past few weeks because he is getting some teeth. I can tell he is feeling better but he is still waking up so last night Nick and I got a little tough and went in to check on him when he cried but never got him out of bed so hopefully we will have all our kids sleeping through the night again soon.
• We have started attending a new church (for a variety of reasons that I won't go into) and we have been beyond blessed. We have been so welcomed in and made to feel like part of the family right off the bat. This church is truly an answer to prayer and while there are no perfect churches we feel right in the middle of the will of God right now and that feels awesome.
• My birthday is in 11 days. I will be 28!
• I started a one year Bible reading plan back in August and am still doing it! This is a HUGE victory for me! 
• I think most people know this but I haven't officially announced it so I guess I will go ahead and say that the Lord willing we are going to be homeschooling next year. I am so excited. Last week I read the book Family Driven Faith (awesome book) and it was great because it really confirmed everything I was feeling.
• We don't have anywhere to be today which is very exciting... and my house really needs me home all day. This place quickly becomes a pit when we are out and about a lot.

Well, that is all I can think of for now! I hope everyone has a blessed weekend!

Some updates

In case you didn't see it on Facebook here is a pic of my new haircut. I love it! The only problem is I am kind of having a difficult time learning to style it myself! I need to keep practicing! But, I absolutely love having bangs and having a real "hairstyle" helps me from feeling like a frumpy mom.

And speaking of not being a frumpy mom... I lost 4 pounds my first week of Weight Watchers Online! I am thrilled! And it is totally motivating me to keep going.

It is also officially the last day of TV free January. We didn't do as well as I had hoped with having sick kids throughout the month and Jack's teething keeping me up at night for the past few weeks. But, honestly, even with those factors, we watched way less. My favorite habit that we broke (with a few exceptions) is watching TV first thing in the morning and through breakfast. It has been great starting off my kids day by chatting over breakfast and a few times they even asked me to read them Bible stories while they were eating. It was awesome. The other nice part has been because they watch a lot less we are much choosier about which shows they watch. We have tried to find shows that are beneficial instead of just "neutral".

And in totally unrelated news, we went to Culver's last night for dinner (which was tasty but I only had 6 points left for the day so there was no delicious Butter Burger and frozen custard for me!) but it ended up being kids night. Look at these cute balloons the super talented balloon artist made for them!