Happy Valentine's Day

We had the strangest, most beautiful snow today. The flakes were HUGE and it stuck really well to all the tree limbs because it was so wet. Quite different weather than we have been used to in February in Texas. I love it...still, even after a record setting snow fall year in KC.

We are so thankful for new friends who live super close to us. To celebrate Valentine's Day, we invited some of our favorite people over to decorate.

Meredith~Ben~Brandon~Hampton~Allie

The 3 year olds hard at work!

Allie

Mere

Brandon

Hampton (check out his tongue :))

Ben

Ben and Brandon are twins who are 3 months younger than Hampton. They moved in across the street along with their mom, dad and little sister Katie, who is about 3 months younger than Lucy and Reid. We have really enjoyed getting to know them and look forward to lots of fun outside when the weather warms up.

Allie and Meredith and their little brother Peter live one street over. One of my precious friends in Dallas, Courtney, is good friends with their mom Mindi. Courtney told me she had a friend who lived in OP. Come to find out we are neighbors. Mindi and her family have been such a blessing to us.

Hope you have a happy Love Day and celebrate the One who loved us more than we can imagine.

School V-Day Party

I saw these super cute valentines in a magazine, so I decided to make them for Hampton's school party. Ben thought I was crazy to put that much effort into it, but he willingly helped me assemble them. It never crossed my mind that Hampton's valentines would be the only homemade ones handed out. A bit of a let down when I opened his mail truck and found only super heros and princesses w/ their coordinating pencils. Oh well.

I thought they turned out really cute and Hampton was excited about giving them to all his school buddies.

I love this boy!!!

As a parent, sometimes you feel like what you do isn't working...like you're beating your head against a wall when you're teaching, training and loving your kids. Once in a blue moon, you catch a glimpse of hope. Today was one of those days. When I dropped Hampton off a school today, his teacher said she wanted tell me something sweet that Hampton said. The other day they were learning the nursery rhyme, "Humpty Dumpty." They were putting sequencing cards in order to tell the story. When they came to the end Mrs. Nash asked the class what the last card represented. They all replied, "All the king's horses and all the king's men, couldn't put Humpty together again." Hampton looked up at his teacher and matter of factly said, "You know, God is really the best at fixing these kind of things." I was so proud and so thankful for the Lord's faithfulness! It's glimpses like these that keep a mommy going.

I have been meaning to blog this story for a long time, but keep forgetting. Hampton is really into pretending he is Bibleman, a superhero in the "Lord's army." He has learned all the peices of the Armor of God and often suits up in full armor to fight the "evil doers." Several weeks ago, Ben and Hampton were playing in the bounce house. Ben was tripping Hampton and Hampton was using his sword (of the Spirit of course) to try and chop Ben's legs. Mid-game Hampton ran to the corner, bowed his head and prayed, "Dear God, please help me beat him."

Hampton, you are such a blessing to our family. Our prayer is that you will always turn to the Lord no matter what the circumstance. You are precious. I love you SO MUCH and I am so proud of you just the way God made you!