Home from a Girls Weekend to a Snow Day

So, this weekend I celebrated my amazing friend Christina's 30th birthday. She and my other amazing friend Sarah came to St. Louis and we had an FABULOUS weekend away! We did so many fun things that are hard to do with kids! We started out at Frontenac Plaza for a little window shopping and people watching! Then we moved on to lunch in Clayton at Il Vicino. Two words on that one: YUM and O! Then we headed to the Galleria for some real shopping! Christina and I love helping Sarah find new clothes. Since she has a job she needs big girl clothes! So, we help her:-) Then we went to our hotel right by the arch. The view from our room was just increadible! For dinner we went to Carmine's Steakhouse. Again... so tasty! We had a very... um... interesting waiter who gave Christina a very motivational speach informing her that his 30's were the worst decade of his life! Ha! But, he gave us free chocolate cake so we aren't mad! Then being totally us when we saw a horse and carriage we had to go for it. We took a horse drawn carriage ride around downtown. It was freezing and we were cracking up the whole time about everything but I think I will remember it forever! The next day we went to breakfast at St. Louis Bread Co. then shopping at Target and then finished off our get together with lunch at The Cheesecake Factory! Couldn't have been more fun! I love those girls! We have so much fun together. We say everything and anything that pops into our heads and laugh until our stomachs hurt. They bless my life SO much!

Max is a little dissapointed this morning because school is cancled. Poor guy loves to go. So, I am trying to make today fun at home. I am making cinnoman rolls right now while he is watching Veggie Tales. So far so good! Not sure what else today will hold. Maybe I will be a REALLY good mom and get out the Play-Doh... we'll see...

Fun weekend... sleepy mom!

The R's had a fun weekend. We went to Greensburg, IN to my nephew Blake's birthday party. We had a blast! But, all the traveling + kids not sleeping well has left me tired! We have a busy week this week. Friend2Friend starts this week! Woo hoo! Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks and our weekend!

Just love my girl! She is SO spunky!

Seriously? Don't you want to just kiss her until she cries? No? Well, sometimes I do on accident!

My little man looking just a touh sraggly (we got a haircut today that I need to get a picture of)

Max at the Magic House. He LOVED this part of the Curious George exhibit and cried for about 15 minutes wehen we had to move on so other kids could play too!

Max and Blake wearing their masks at Blake's Monster's vs. Alien's party!

Myles and Max... melts my heart!!

Sophie giving big grins to her favorite person in the world right now, Daddy

Max fell asleep at the party since he has woken up at 4:30am!

Have a great week! I know I plan to!

Home

As most of you know I love decorating. I won't claim to be any good at it but I just love painting the walls, hanging pictures, grouping, etc.... I have had a few people roll their eyes at my attention to detail as if it is all a vain endeavor to have the "perfect house". I admit like almost all women I have my struggles with vanity and trying to obtain total perfection but my home really has nothing to do with that.

I love to decorate my home because it is where our life happens. The most important moments we have as a family happen within the walls of, now, 689 Springfield Drive and I want it to be a place of beauty. You know the feeling you get when you walk into the cutest little coffee shop? A beautifully decorated hotel room? When you see a beautiful Christmas tree? We are all attracted to beautiful things. We feel a sense of peace and calm when we are in a beautiful place. And I think the home should be no different! Actually, the home should be the place where we feel the most peace and calm.

So, I do pay attention to the details in my home. Because, with each detail, I think about the people that will be blessed by them and the happy memories we will have with these details as the backdrop. I am not saying that having  a perfectly decorated home is the most important thing in the world. But, I do stand by my choice to attempt to make our home a beautiful place. And luckily for me I get to have the full time job of "homemaker" and intend to do just that... make our house a home.

I just love weekends!

and I especially love this weekend because it is a 3 day weekend for the hubs! We love it around here when Daddy has extra time off! It just makes everyone happier!

Our weekend has been great so far. Friday night I actually fell asleep on the couch at 7:30 right after we put the kids to bed. Oops! But, I think Nick had a good time playing video games and just hanging out! Saturday morning we went to Lowes to get paint and then we went out to lunch at 54th Street Grill. It was soooo yummy and the kids were so good! We had so much fun! Then we came home and Nick and I painted the playroom during nap time. Then we cooked dinner and spent the evening playing with the kids.

Today Sophie is running a little fever off and on so I decided she needed to stay home from church. So, the boys went to church (Max was sooo excited) and Sophie and I went to Dierburgs to get some things we needed for dinner tonight. We are having some of my family over and I am super excited. If I could just convince my sister to move to St. Louis it would be even better!

I will post pictures of the "finished" playroom later! I hope you all are having a great weekend!

Katie cooks thanks to The Pioneer Woman

So, I have been on a new recipe kick lately and I am having a blast! I love this blog and have been admiring all of her amazing pictures and yummy looking recipes! I actually really love to cook. But sometimes I get in a rut and start making the same things over and over again and I get bored and that is when we start eating a lot of take out!

Two nights ago I made this!

They were delicious! I served them over rice with some steamed broccoli on the side. Yum-O! Even my husband who doesn't really like shrimp loved them!

Tonight I think I will make these

They are called hot and sweet drumsticks and I think they look soooo scrumptious! Can you tell I am on a sweet and spicy kick right now?

Bring on 2010!

I am pretty sure 2010 is going to be one of the best years ever! How could it not be? My marriage is the best it has ever been! I have my 2 beautiful kiddos and will get to meet my 3rd this year! I am in my new house and we are finally getting settled! We have a wonderful new pastor at our church! And... well... attitude is everything and I want it to be a great year!

So, I love making New Year's Resolutions. And this year I finally convinced my husband to make some too! I have loved reading everyone else's resolutions so I thought I would post a few of my own.

1. Have one evening a week with no tv, computer, or other electronics and spend it with my hubs!
2. Stick to our envelope system using cash so we can save, save, save!
3. Cook more, eat out less. This includes getting back into meal planning.
4. Read the Bible everyday.
5. Start scrapbooking again. I MISS it!

Here are a few pictures from our wonderful New Years celebration! We went to Springfield and got to bring in 2010 with our best friends. The perfect way to start the new year!

The girls at Luigi's on New Years Eve

Ready to par-tay! I love these girls! And they love me... even though I don't have red hair!

The hubs and I ready for 2010

The Jenkins

The Jordans

We really miss our friends. It was SO good to spend time with them!

Slacker!

Wow! I have been such a blog slacker lately! I appologize to the 2-5 of you that read my blog! I am going to do a post (hopefully tomorrow) with some of our wonderful pictures from our Christmas celebrations! But, today is not that day! So, I will say that we had a fabulous Christmas! Here is the kids' Santa photo that just makes me smile!