playing catch up

we had kind of a crazy week with a lot of snow,  freezing cold temps, a sick boy and a little fun too.

Monday we celebrated Martin Luther King Day by taking a picture of these sweet brothers, holding hands without a care in the world about the color of each other's skin.

LOVE

Tuesday was Robb's 29th birthday, we FaceTimed with him right away in the morning and he told us that Grayden had his first snow day!

All that snow made me tempted to book this 10 day cruise for $299, practically giving it away!

At night we went out to eat as a family for Robb's birthday to Carinos. 

Notice the little hand sneaking a bite off Robb's plate! 

 Wednesday was another COLD day. I was on a full out cleaning frenzy, finished up every last bit of laundry, gave the boy's bedrooms a good deep clean and other misc. stuff. 

Thursday I wanted to make up from the day before since the boys didn't get much attention from me with all the cleaning I did. With the help of Pinterest, we did lots of fun playing with paint, snow inside and made dominos trains.

Suddenly Grayden threw up out no where, poor boy has only thrown up a couple times in his 3.5 years of life, its so sad to see him so sick. 

He was feeling pretty bad for about 10 hours. Thankfully by Friday morning he was back to his normal, healthy self. 

However, I was feeling a little iffy. Robb stayed home so we could all recoup from a long night. We kept Gray home from school, just in case. It was his first day absent. 

By evening, I was thankfully feeling back to normal. We enjoyed a family movie night watching Toy Story 3. 

Saturday we finally make it outside to play in the snow! 

Robb went out a got us dinner from Arby's and picked up a Redbox movie for me and then he went out to dinner with some of his friends. 

Sunday afternoon we had a blast playing outside by my parents house and riding their snowmobiles.

 

Weekend Wrap Up

My weekend kicked off with girls night freezer cooking party, new recipes will be added to our freezer dinner recipe blog later this week ;)

The boys went to watch Jenna play at her basketball game.

Saturday morning we went to the Fillmore open house, the boys were in John Deere heaven!

At night we went to Lowe's and ate dinner at Panera Bread. 

Sunday we went to church and Sunday school, I helped in the nursery at the evening service. While the boys Sadler napped we tacked the toy population problem! Feels so good to sort and purge out the junk!

I just love the weekends, hope you had a great one!

Insta Friday

Our week in phone pics

I'm absolutely LOVING my devotional book for this year, "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young. 

Each day's devotion is short and sweet but packed full of great stuff. I've been keeping a notebook about what I'm reading each day, and its hard to not just rewrite the entire thing! SO good!

This day's devotion instantly made me think of adoption and our precious gifts from God.

We've been super into puzzles lately, dorky family fun!

they caught the puzzle fever too!

We had gorgeous weather last weekend, the boys enjoyed some time playing outside

Taco pie was a huge hit for Grayden, the sour cream however was not so much! Can't blame him!

Grayden is such a perfectionist, he insisted that his tracing was too squiggly, but I disagree!

momma forgot Sadler's beloved paci when we ran some errands on Wednesday, so he sucked his thumb instead, so sweet!

I received the first 2 blankets in the mail for "Brenham's Birthday Project". I am so touched each time a new one arrives on my doorstep. What an honor it is to be his mom!

I think I've replied to all the emails and comments so far in regards to sending a blanket, if you haven't received a reply, please try again!

Please tell me someone else's child has done this too?!

Throwback Thursday, sweet baby!

I also wanted to share this picture of Robb and I from a few weeks ago at our friends "Holiday Hoedown" Party. We had such a blast dressing in our Western gear and being with friends;

these are a few of our favorite things...

A few of you asked me to share what everyone brought to my favorite things party, and I would be happy to share!

I brought my favorite daily moisturizer. It's the up&up brand from Target. I use it everyday after I shower and before I put my make up on. It's oil-free, super light and blends in easily. I also love it because it treats and prevents breakouts! Less than $4 at Target!  Along with that I gave Aussie "3 minute miracle" deep conditioning treatment, you can pick that up anywhere, Target, Walmart, etc for less than $3. I felt a little guilty being a hairstylist and promoting a non-professional hair care product, but you can't beat that price and it works wonders on dry, damaged hair.  And the smell...AMAZING!
My sister Lisa brought Diet Coke and coconut syrup to mix for an amazing tropical flavored drink. It's so delicious! You could also try it in coffee.
My sister Mindy brought a HUGE can of CHI hairspray, smells divine, it's one of the things I choose to get.
Anne brought large drying mat for dishes. A hot item for sure!
Angie brought a punch card for 3 Zumba classes, LOVE! And her favorite flavored water "ICE," and a pack of licorice.
Rochelle brought a jewelry organizer that hangs in your closet, another popular one! She ordered them from Amazon.
Heather brought Bath and Body Works 3 wick candles, a favorite of mine too!
Susanne brought personal hair trimmers for all your trimming needs!
Tricia brought "12 benefits" hair product, one of the things I received and also love it!
Pinterest loving, creative, Val brought a storage tub full of ingredients to make homemade cleaners with.  I snatched that up and can't wait to put the vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, etc to work!
Emily brought Redken 18 hairspray, I've loved that for YEARS, too!
Alyssa brought hand-held cheese graters and cross bracelets, another hot pick!
Lydia brought cupcake stands, so cute!
Heidi brought candles and reed diffusers, love a good smelling house!
Lyndsey brought large puzzles, perfect hobby for the Winter months!
Amanda brought adorable baskets for all your organizing needs! ;)


Such great finds, it was so hard to choose what to get when everything was so amazing!

Favorite Things Party

Friday night I hosted my second "Favorite Things Party."

It was a great night with some of my favorite people and our favorite things!

 Everyone took 3 of the same of their favorite thing along with an optional favorite appetizer or dessert. 

When it was time for the exchange everyone talked about their favorite thing that they brought and told everyone why they liked it. I then drew names one at at time out of a bowl, once your name was called it was your turn to go up and choose a favorite thing from the table. We did 3 rounds of that so each girl went home with 3 new favorite things!

Such a blast and I already can't wait until next year's party!

Insta Friday

First of all, thank you so much for the incredible response so far to Brenham's birthday blankets, I'm truly touched by your donations in his memory! I think I've replied too all your emails, if you haven't received a reply yet, please try sending it again!

Now, onto the last couple of weeks of Insta.gram pics, in no particular order.

We went to the Ice Carving Competition downtown last week Friday, it was cold but really amazing!

my big laundry helper ;)

a couple weeks ago Robb and I nailed down all the pieces to the train track onto the train table in hopes that if it was always put together, it would get played with more. (thanks Ryan and Rochelle for the great idea!) 

It worked! Sadler's been playing with it more than he ever has and I love not having to put it together all.the.time!

grayden had fun putting all his ABC magnets in order, he did it all my himself, just needing help with the U and V!

doing a little prep work for my favorite things party a couple days ago! can't wait!

at least its being played with! :)

this boy is just too cute!

we skipped church a couple Sundays ago to avoid all the germs that seem to be everywhere, and had a little cousin play date at Grandma and Grandpa's house instead!

Grayden was so sad when I found the horse match while playing his Memory game, I think I know where he got his competitiveness from!

Sadler quickly swooped in for a hug!

My last client of 2012 donated 11+ inches to Locks of Love! Way to go Elyse!

I'm loving these olive green pants I just got at Target ($22.99, noticed them 30% off today!) They are fun but also neutral and can be worn with so many things! I wore them 3 times last week!

Have a great weekend, everyone! I'm looking forward to hosting my second 'favorite things' party tonight! Can't wait to share about it next week!

blessed to be a blessing

As I mentioned before, one of my goals for 2013 is to give more.
 I had the opportunity to volunteer at a local rescue mission Tuesday night and I jumped at the chance to put that in action, and give an hour or two of my time with 3 other moms in our Moms in Tow group.

It was a great experience and I'm looking forward to more way to give as the year goes on. If you too are looking for ways to give back this year I have an opportunity that may interest you!

Some of you long time readers may remember "Brenham's Hat project" we did in honor of Brenham's 1st birthday. Together we collected 154 baby hats to donate to the hospital Brenham was born at. I was so blessed by the many people who donated hats in memory of Brenham and I know those that received the adorable hats where blessed too.

This year as we approach Brenham's 5th birthday I thought it would be nice to donate baby blankets to the NICU at the children's hospital in his memory. So, I'm reaching out to you readers again for some help! If we come together and each donate a new baby blanket we can bless so many moms and dads with new babies in the NICU by making them feel loved and gifting them with a sweet blanket for their precious baby.

If this is something you would like to do in honor of our sweet Brenham's 5th birthday just leave me your email address in the comment section or email me at katielubbers @ hotmail dot com with "Brenham's Birthday Blankets" in the subject line and I will send you our address where you can ship the blanket(s). If you are local we can work to arrange a pick up/drop off time. We will start collecting the blankets now and plan to deliver them to the children's hospital at the end of February.

Thank you so much in advance for your help!

Cruising 101

I’ve received a few questions about our cruises so I thought I would do a quick post to tell you more about them.

We really like taking cruises because we always get them for a great deal, and it’s a great way to see different countries in one trip. I’ve done 5 cruises ranging from 3-5 nights and have been to the Bahamas 3 times, Belize, Cozumel, Jamaica, and the Grand Cayman. They’ve all been Royal Caribbean cruises.

 

The two cruises I’ve been on this past year were both booked within a month of the sailing date. You can get awesome deals if you wait last minute! Once I found the cruise we wanted to take I would check the price online multiple times a day, and watch for it to get so low that I didn’t dare wait another day to book it in case it would sell out. Just for an example, the last cruise I took was 3 nights sailing to two stops in the Bahamas for $139 (not including taxes, tips, shore excursions, etc) a person. That includes all your meals as well. We always get the cheapest room because you spend such little time in your room that it doesn’t matter to us if we get an ocean view or not! It’s pretty easy to book everything on the cruise line’s website but a travel agent would make everything even easier, especially if cruising is new to you.

We don’t get sea sick, but if you’re prone to motion sickness they do have wrist bands that help with that, and I also see a lot of people wear special stickers behind their ears that I assume are for sea sickness too! You can feel the ship move and for a few days after the cruise I feel like I’m rocking but it doesn’t bother me.

There’s lots to do onboard the ship, every ship has it’s own different features that you can read about on the website. The ships we’ve been on have had rock climbing walls, ice skating rinks, the flow rider, a sports court, multiple pools and hot tubs, a work out room, running track, spa, casino, a theater, mini golf course, and lots more. We’ve never cruised with kids but there are also activities for children onboard. There is entertainment each night with dancing shows, comedians, magicians, etc. We’ve never been bored, that’s for sure!

 

Let me know if there are any other questions, I’d be happy to answer them in the comment section. All this cruise talk makes me want to go again ;)