Mondays are Daddy days

It is no secret that Jake is a Mommy's boy. He is a little more outgoing now and loves his time with his Grandparents. But a lot of the time he is still a mommy's boy. When he was younger he always wanted mommy(which I am perfectly fine with).

As he has gotten older he has become more of a Daddy's boy. I love it and love to watch them interact together. The time they spend is precious. Jake gets so excited when Jason comes home and even when he is just talking about his Daddy. Seeing his eyes light up with his Daddy is around makes it all worth it.

Jason is usually home on Sundays and Mondays. Sunday we are all so excited to spend time together as a family, but on Monday Mommy can do nothing. Jake only wants Daddy(at least until bedtime). Jake wants his Daddy to put him in the car, get him out, hold daddy's hand when he is walking, Daddy to play with him, & anything else Jake needs/wants can only come from Daddy.

Now that the weather has been so much nicer here in Georgia Jake really loves that he gets to work in the yard with his Daddy.

I truly love the bonding time they are having and it is such a huge blessing to see them together.

Mondays are Daddy Days!!!

Daily Moments (2/13-2/19)

Would you believe I have a picture for every day this week & even some days have more then one. It was actually kind of difficult to pick which pictures I would share this week.

Sunday-February 13th-You don't see much of my extremely handsome husband. I love him!!

Monday-February 14th-Happy Valentine's Day!! This year I let Jake cut out his own heart shaped pancakes. Then Jason had strawberry jelly with whip cream on his. Jake showing off his Veggie Tales movie he got as his present.

Tuesday-February 15th-Jake loves jumping on the trampoline at Nana & Pawpaw's. He was taking a little break watching Pawpaw work in the backyard. So cute!

Wednesday-February 16th-A visit to Daddy's work. Jake loves putting cheese in the auto-cheeser. Of course he only gets to do it for his pizza(not actual customers).

Thurday-February 18th-The weather has been amazing every day this week. Jake has been outside ALL day. Today we had a fun play date at a train park.

Friday-February 19th-Cold Stone with your cousin always makes for a fun Friday. Yummy ice cream!

Saturday-February 19th-Wawa"Aunt Heather" took Caleb & Jake to a horse farm today. They were able to pet lots of horses and even got to feed one. But of course just running around on the farm and playing in the barn were favorite activities.

Faith into Action

Giving, not showing favoritism, putting our faith into action. I have recently been doing a study in the book of James. Studying a couple verses a day really helps to make time to focus on what the verses are saying. We are using the S.O.A.P method to study each of the day’s verses. Using this acronym gives specific things to look into in each verse. The A for application has brought these last couple days into light.

“In the same way faith by itself if not accompanied by action is dead.” James 2:17
When reading this verse and focusing on the application I really had to stop and think. Am I putting my faith into action? Am I actually doing things that would show my faith?

After this week I have felt so convicted. Am I not doing enough, or am I not doing as much as I could, or should be doing. Then I think where can I go & what can I do? It all seems so daunting…the world both locally around me and way farther then I will ever know there is so much need. And when seeing all this it is hard not to wonder what difference can I make?

On the Good Morning Girls blog this week, Angela   posted a video and in it she said it is not our job to  save the whole world that is up to God. But we can make a difference in one person’s life. How true this is. Even with such simple things like a kind word, or other bigger things like helping someone financially.
It is not about saving the world it is about putting our faith into action however God is calling us in our life. This realization has had me asking what it is I am supposed to be doing. But I also think I have gotten stuck in the asking instead of just acting. There it is again putting my faith into action. I know that if I just act God will make it all work for his good.

And don’t think that putting our faith into action has to cost a lot of money. I have kind of had in the back of my mind that we give as much as we can. But there are so many things we can do to just help and not have to spend so much money.

I follow the blog Give Every Day. The Sheaffer family recently sold everything they had bought an rv and left their comfy life in Arizona to travel across the US giving every day. Of course this sounds very extreme and obviously God is not calling everyone to pack it up and travel the country. But reading their blog post of what they have done that day to give has opened my eyes. Because they were doing this on such a huge scale I anticipated their daily giving to seem so impossible to the average person living their comfy lives at home. However, each day I have been pleased to see that their giving has been so doable while leaving an  impact. They have been doing things like leaving a thoughtful comment on a blog or for an author, donating a few items to a food bank, buying a small gift for a cashier & volunteering time at a local not for profit. Anyone can do these things!!

So what are you doing to put your faith into action? I would love to hear how you give or volunteer. We are taking the leap to put our faith into action. We will be actively looking for ways to give. 

Daily Moments (2/6-2/12)

Finally a daily moments posts. I didn't put one up last week. I think I only had 2 pictures from the previous week so I didn't even put up a post. But I do have almost a whole week of pictures to share this week. I am missing a picture for Saturday, but still pretty good for a week of pictures.

 Sunday-February 6th-Superbowl Sunday. The only picture I took from our superbowl day. These are the super yummy sliders we made. Some of them had swiss cheese with mushrooms and onions, some had no cheese, and some had American cheese. Yum!!!

Monday-February 7th- What is a trip to Dick's Sporting Goods if you don't get to play with all the golf clubs and practice putt?

Tuesday-February 8th-Chick-Fil-A Dates are so much fun with Jake. I really enjoy hanging out with my sweet boy. And of course he loves to play in the play place when we are finished eating.

Wednesday-February 9th-Enjoying the fire. Jake loves when we have a fire in the evenings. And says "he wants to sit & get warm and cozy." You see the book on the corner of my coffee table? "One Thousand Gifts:A dare to live fully right where you are" by Ann Voskamp. This book with change your life! Just a little side note.

 

Thursday-February 10th-It snowed again in Georgia! Although, this was a very mild snow it started later on Wednesday evening the ground was mostly covered Thursday morning and by late Thursday afternoon the snow was gone. But seriously I am SO OVER the snow!!! If I don't see snow for 2 more years I would be a happy girl.

Friday-February 11th-We made heart shaped smore's today. We used cookie cutters to cut graham crackers into hearts. Dyed marshmallow fluff pink & melted chocolate. Spread hearts with the marshmallow and melted chocolate sandwich together with a stick in between the two. We refrigerated for a few minutes so that they would harden and the stick wouldn't fall out. A fun pre-Valentine's day treat.

Life Song

I recently read on a blog(here) about giving your children a life song. A song you could sing to them throughout the day or at bed time. A song that would become comforting to them when they heard it.

Although, we didn't come up with a life song for Jake when he was born. In fact it wasn't until the middle of last year that I heard this song and new it was my song for Jake. I think the message is great and "simple truths" everyone should live by.

I have been looking for a life verse for Jake as well. Do you have one for your children? What is it? My life verse is Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." This is something I picked for myself several years ago. I know that once Jake is on the course of his own spiritual journey he will probably pick one for himself too. But I would like a verse that we have chosen for him as a child. Please share in the comments your child's life verse, your life verse, or any suggestions for a life verse for Jake.

Here is the song we have been singing!!!
These Are The Words I Would Say-Sidewalk Prophets

Free Flavor Friday

Several weeks ago I received an email from Coffee-Mate coffee creamer talking about a free flavor Friday party. Be sure to visit their website for great offers from coffee-mate. I filled out the application and to my surprise was selected as a party host. When I filled out my application I selected the game night party pack.

My kit arrived with Cranium and a very nice poker set. Along with instant coffee and single serve creamer packets. And a guest favorite coupons for FREE coffee-mate.

We had the best time at our Free Flavor Friday party. Cranium had to be the most fun. The game was full of fun and action. For those that wanted to play, we split into teams and the laughing until we cried began.

Of course during the party we all enjoy coffee and delicious creamer. I had the favorite french vanilla and then added in a new one White Chocolate Caramel Latte. That quickly became everyone's favorite and I know a couple guest were planning to use their free coupon to get a bottle of this for their own home.

Lessons Learned

We recently redid Jake's room and gave him a big boy room! There are always lessons to be learned during these things. Here are a few we learned during this short little redo project.
Sometime I should listen to Jason on paint choices. He wanted to go with a darker color & I wanted to go with the color that looked most like the bedding. Turns out the gray I chose looks a little to light.

Everyone tells you your kids will grow so fast. Giving Jake a big boy room really hit that home. I honestly try and enjoy each minute with him because I know every time I blink he grows a little bit and seems a little older. Giving him a big boy room 4 years after finding out we were pregnant(almost to the day) made for some tears on redo day. Kids grow way too fast, but you will never understand this until you are in it. 100'S of people can tell you this while you are pregnant, but it just doesn't have the same meaning.

Don't ever use border!! Well, I suppose if you never plan to take it down it might be ok. Taking down the 1 strip of border Jake had going around his room was the hardest(physical) part of redoing Jake's room. And then trying to paint where the border was provided to be another struggle. Several coats of paint later and it looks fine now. But NEVER use border!!!

It was very bittersweet giving Jake his bog boy room. Converting his toddler bed(which had been converted from his crib) into a full size bed was exciting for him, but pretty sad for us. His full size bed is so big and theoretically will be his bed until he goes away to college(crazy...to picture a big teenage boy in his full size bed when he looks so small in it right now).

Jake loves his room and his big boy bed and even a week later still refers to it as his big boy bed instead of just his bed. And as this week has gone on I have grown to really enjoy reading books to him from his bed instead of his rocking chair, cuddling on his bed before he falls asleep, and accepting my 3 year old big boy that he is.

Big Boy Room

We redid Jake's room this week. We converted his crib to a toddler bed about a year ago(maybe more). But he still had all his nursery stuff in the room. We decided the time was right to convert his toddler bed to a full size bed and give him a new big boy room.

To say it was a very bittersweet day would be an understatement. Surprisingly it was very emotional to take all the baby stuff out of his room. It was very sweet that he was in the room helping us some of the time.But my goodness I just can't believe how fast time goes by.

The baby room-

The Big Boy Room

Daily Moments (1/23-1/29)

The last week of January here is a peek into our week with our Project Life Tuesday link up with The Mom Creative.

Sunday-I didn't take a picture today

Monday-January 24th- Warm winter days are so much fun to play in. Jake loves blowing bubbles and I like how this picture catches him in the act.

Tuesday-January 25th- I guess Jake got a hold of our camera. It was so funny to upload my pictures and see this. There were several that he had taken. Of course all with his finger in the picture too.

Wednesday-January 26th- Snuggles with Daddy in the morning are the best. Jason usually doesn't get home until after Jake is in bed so the mornings before he goes to work are always precious time.

Thursday-January 27th-"Snowball" Toss. We balled up several of Jason's pairs of socks into balls to resemble big snowballs. (Got the idea from here.) And Jake would grab a "snowball" and run it back to the other basket when I said stop or go. He loved it and soon was coming up with his own games with the sock balls.

Friday-January 28th- (bad picture...taken with cell phone) Some mornings when I go into get Jake I find him in his chair reading books. So sweet to secretly listen to him read what he remembers from the books.

Saturday-January 29th-(another not so great cell phone picture...I look so shiny) Jason & I date night and out celebrating my mom's birthday. So great to have wonderful Grandparents to watch Jake while we go out.