Switcheroo Weekend

So, don't know if anyone is actually reading this with my infrequent posting, but I'll try anyway.

We were going to go camping this weekend. However, we decided on Friday morning that the weather was just not going to cooperate this time. It was definitely worth losing our one night deposit to not have to battle a couple of days in the rain and then dry out all of our gear when we returned. We didn't get to go camping at all during the month of April, so we are definitely ready to go again.

Well, we now had a free weekend. Jake had a game Friday night, but that was our only scheduled event. We decided to do our Switcheroo Weekend. Yes, I have to thank Donny and Kendra for the idea. It's a great one!

Saturday, D and I went to Grapevine Mills Mall to play Lunar Golf. D has been begging to play, so this was the perfect opportunity. On the way, we stopped at QT for him to choose a drink and a treat. I also bought REAL bubblegum. What a day already! One of the big highlights for him at the mall was getting to eat at the Food Court. I cracked up that he thought it was pretty special. He chose Burger King. We played two rounds of Lunar Golf. Thankfully we were just playing for fun, b/c D basically just scooted the ball at each hole until it eventually made it into the cup. We had glow in the dark necklaces and all of our clothes glowed in the black light. What more could we want?

While D and I played golf, J wanted to put together his first model airplane with Paul. First, they stopped to eat lunch at Taco Cabana. Then it was off to Hobby Lobby with a coupon in hand! They found a P-51 Mustang model. It was quite the afternoon for J building the model alongside Paul. When D and I returned, they had just finished building it and were getting ready to paint it. Today, they added the detail paint and all of the decals. J is so extremely proud of his model. I think this will be a fun activity they will continue to enjoy together.

So today, we switched kids after church. D wanted to build his own model, too. After church, they ate lunch at Taco Bueno and made a trip to Michael's (again, w/ a coupon). I think it's hilarious that Paul visited both Hobby Lobby and Michael's during his time with the boys! They picked a Star Wars model that was a little simpler than J's. At first, Drew didn't quite understand the point of a model, since you can't take it apart and rebuild it or even play with it! After all of the building, they headed to DQ for a treat.

J and I were off to Game Works at Grapevine Mills Mall (again!). I don't even like the mall, and I ended up there twice in a weekend. First, J and I ate at Panda Express. D is not a huge Chinese-food fan, so we don't eat it as often as we would like. After Panda Express, I took J to Starbuck's! What a treat for both of us. He LOVED his decaf caffe mocha, who wouldn't, right? Then it was time for Game Works. We had a fun time playing video games together, taking turns, and letting J show me how to do each one. Normally, on switcheroo, we do more outdoor activities, but this weekend's weather wouldn't cooperate with us. I am so glad we had a free weekend to spend some individual time with each boy. It's so good for our relationship with each of them.

So that's our switcheroo!

D is Six!

Well, it's been a month, so I guess it's time to post something. I have the perfect topic...D's birthday.

D turned 6 on Friday. He had quite the day taking cupcakes to school. Then we had Pizza Hut pizza and watched Bolt for our pizza movie night, which is EVERY Friday night. The big deal with the Pizza Hut pizza is that normally, I'm too budget conscious about the pizza and always pick up Papa Murphy's. D watches the TV commercials for Papa John's and Pizza Hut, and he's "dying" to have one of those instead. He's so "tired" of Papa Murphy's. SO, for his birthday, he had the chance to pick, and Pizza Hut won. He was so thrilled to have Pizza Hut. Of course, he doesn't know it, but I picked their cheapest Pizza Mia pizza, and honestly it didn't taste any better that Little Ceasars. I'll probably never get that one again, but he loved it just b/c it was from Pizza Hut!

Here are some fun things about D:

D's 6 Favorite Foods:
1. Hot Dogs
2. Macaroni and Cheese
3. Bread
4. Cheese
5. Bananas
6. Cheese Pizza

D's 6 Favorite Toys
1. Lego
2. Action Figures
3. Nerf Guns
4. Tinker Toys
5. Wii
6. Playstation

D's 6 Favorite Vegetables
1. Carrots
2. Broccoli
3. Celery (w/peanut butter: Ants on a Log)
4. Cottage Cheese (I told him this was dairy, but he wanted to add this to the list)
5. Green Beans
6. Peas

He thought it would be fun to add a couple lists, so the toys and vegetables lists were his addition.

Last night we had a family dinner here at the house to celebrate D. He picked out the menu of Lasagna and Garlic Bread and a Lemon Cake. I added a salad and then carrot sticks to round it out, but D informed me that he didn't have to eat any vegetables on his birthday. I agreed. I haven't made a lasagna in several years. I don't know why, but I hadn't. It was so delicious. However, in his excitement for presents, D didn't eat much of this greatly anticipated lasagna (he's been talking about lasagna at his birthday meal for MONTHS). I asked him after dinner,

Me: Did you like your lasagna?
D: No
M: I'm sorry, I thought you liked it
D: I don't know what happened. The last time I had it, I LOVED it!..........Oh, I know, someone else made it.

(Yes, the last time we had a lasagna was when someone brought us lasagna during our move process when the class was bringing us dinners. So apparently, my homemade one just didn't measure up! haha)

Now to the Lemon Cake. It was DELICIOUS. If you like lemon, you'll love this cake. If someone wants the recipe, I can put it on here. Just comment that you want it and I'll post it. I hadn't made it before, and it turned out great. I'm always trying out new recipes on people, so I'm always a little nervous.

Now on to something sappy. Here are 6 things I LOVE about D.

1. His freckles
2. His eyelashes (both of my boys have these amazingly long and thick eyelashes that curl just right!)
3. His ability to call a spade a spade. Everything for this boy is black and white. You definitely know where you stand with him. He's not going to sugar-coat anything. Although we are constantly working on this in developing people skills, it's great knowing that D is his own man!
4. His laugh. Oh, that boy has a great laugh
5. His very dry sense of humor. He always has a zinger that gets us all laughing.
6. His determination. When he decides something, he will accomplish it.

So those are some things about D. I have more to write, but it's time to pay attention to the kids! They've finished playing Wii today. Now it's breakfast and then off to church.

Quite a Compliment

FYI-I started this post almost 2 weeks ago.....


Last night was Chick-Fil-A night for the boys' school. They do it every month on the second Monday. This time the boys asked if we could eat inside. Often, if it's a little later and really crowded, we just drive through and take it home. However, everyone wanted to eat there, and it was not too busy yet, so we did.



We were all having a good night together. You know how sometimes, no matter how hard you try, how prepared you are, your kids will just fight/argue/disobey....etc. Well, this was a good night. We were laughing, talking, and just having fun together as a family. There was a lady in the booth behind us, reading a book, who occasionally would smile at something silly the boys were doing. At the end of her meal, she came up to our table and gave our boys a huge compliment, saying what a blessing they are. Also, she said that we were all very blessed to have such a funny daddy, giggling boys, silly mom, etc....Obviously we had been doing quite a bit of goofing around during dinner. She was heading to a Bible Study and just wanted to let us know that it was a joy to watch our family interact.

Anyway, it was great receiving a compliment that our family could bless her just by being joyful to be around. It really hit me that the LORD has really blessed us with one another. I know that I've used "bless/blessed" too many times in this post, but I can't really find another word to describe it. We are so thankful for one another, and it is great being reminded of that.

Also, I tried to talk with the boys afterwards about what it was that made our family stand out to her that evening. I pray that it was Jesus living in us. I enjoy reading Becky Brooks' blog and seeing how they emphasize with their boys that they want others to see that their family is different b/c of Jesus in them. I tried to highlight that with J and D. I don't know if they fully understood what I was trying to get at, but I tried.


Well, I'm so glad we decided to eat inside for Chick-Fil-A night. Who knew that it would be such a wonderful night?!?

Ahhh, Small Group and Baseball

Well, God is good. It has been a good week at the Davis house. From the title of this post, you can see we have had two major activities this week. The boys are starting baseball for the first time. J's first practice was Wednesday evening, and it went really well. We think the coaches are a great match for him. He's so excited about it. For that, we're very thankful. D will have his first practice over the weekend. We are looking forward to fun times learning a new sport and the opportunity to meet new families in the area.

The second exciting thing was that we attended a small group for the first time tonight, and it was a perfect match. Long story, but the girl who invited us, I knew in college. She was really good friends with twins who lived on my floor when I was their RA. Anyway we played intramural basketball together my junior year. In fact, I have a picture of her in my college scrapbook. So thankful for that connection. It was really comfortable tonight for the study and the boys had a good time with the other kids.

So, for me, these have been two great things. After we moved to M---, I really enjoyed the complete downtime. The three months before we moved here were so completely hectic, and I was drained emotionally and physically. I was extremely thankful for that time as a family to not be pulled in a million directions. It was a relaxing time for us to focus on our family and regroup. That being said, now I'm going a little stir crazy. I am needing connections. I'm needing to meet "girls". I'm needing to get out of the house. I'm needing some more things on my to-do list, b/c apparently I have become completely apathetic about some things. I am much more productive when I have a little bit more on my plate. I'm slightly lazy right now, looking at the house and thinking, "oh, I'll clean that tomorrow; I don't have anything else scheduled" Of course, I keep putting off the cleaning until the next tomorrow.

So, I'm excited about these connections. We are being intentional about getting involved. It takes time. You have to be open to new friendships, but you can't appear too needy/clingy. There is a fine balance being the new person in the group. So, if you're thinking about me, pray for these new relationships.

If I Were President

Today D brought home a paper from school he wrote. I will type it as he wrote it including b/d reversals.

If I Were President:

nuber one pareins go to deb earlly
Kids Stay up late
Kids can play vidyoegames every bay
all toys are Free
every Day of school is fuNN
in raeding your parins tell You the wored

Don't you love it? It certainly brightened my day.

I'm still here

So, apparently, I only feel the need to post about once a month or so. I know I should do a better job with this, but it just doesn't always happen.

I've been slightly obsessed with Facebook lately. However, I'm a little frustrated with it. Twice now, I've worked on those little notes that everyone sends around like the 25 Things or the questions about your firstborn. So both times, I had finished the lists and was selecting the people to "tag". During both times, somehow I clicked on the wrong icon during the process, and it all disappeared! I couldn't believe it. I tried to go back to it, but it was gone. The strange thing was that the text was gone, but the people I had tagged were still there. AAAGGGHHH. After that I gave up. I thought about trying to rewrite it, but I get a little hung up on what I wrote the first time and can't recreate it. So that's my Facebook frustration.

In other news, J had an economics fair at school yesterday. It was a lot of fun. They have been studying economics and the role of producers and consumers, so the project was for them to decide on something to produce, market and sell. J decided on W--- Cookies (W----- is the name of our school). He was able to write an advertisement and make a commercial that was played for the whole school on their video announcements. Also, he made the sign for the booth. I was very impressed with his organization skills and time management. He didn't procrastinate and was working hard at remembering each part of the project to make certain that he had completed everything. I baked the cookies on Monday while he was in school, and then he decorated them that night. The whole school was going to get to come and shop at the sale, so we practiced what to say to our customers and how to figure out the total and count back change. The teachers were very smart. Everything was to be priced in $.50 increments to help the kids be very independent. Well, it all went so smoothly. J sold out of his W------ Cookies and then he began helping his other friends sell their items. It was a great project for the kids. They learned so much about economics. I have pictures to post, but they're not uploaded yet. I figure I should post this first and then come back to add the pictures or else it might never happen.

So, that's what is going on here in the big M!

Better Late than Never

Okay, so Holly reminded me that I should update my blog. I didn't realize it had been so long. In the blogging world, I feel pressured to upload pictures, but I never feel like doing that. I figure no one really wants to read my ramblings without pics to look at, too. So, Holly, you asked for it. Here's an update.

We have found a church. God is so faithful. We visited The Branch, the satellite church for Farmers Branch. It's been right under our noses the entire time. Of course, we always knew that it was an option, but we just wanted something closer. We were hoping to be able to connect with people from church who also live in M---. Well, after talking with Philip and Aimee about our dilemma, they really encouraged us to give it a try. We are so glad they planted that seed in us. We were so excited to try it, but with traveling over Christmas, we had to wait until this past Sunday. It was amazing. Of course, it reminded me so much of RHCC that it felt like home immediately. We will be going to the orientation class this week. We will also get involved in trying out a small group this week too.

We are so thankful the LORD allowed us to go through this time. It gave us the opportunity to search for what was important to us. We really discussed each church and what we liked or felt was missing for us. It was so amazing how Paul and I were completely in synch with one another with what we desired from our church. That is a complete display of God's faithfulness. One thing I prayed in this process was that neither Paul nor I would feel that we were compromising in finding our church home. Each of us had things we desired in a church family, many were the same, but we placed a different priority on others. From the first prayer during service, Paul and I knew that we were in the right place.

The other amazing part was watching our boys during service. They were engaged in the praise and worship, and they also seemed so comfortable. Both of us noticed their behavior that it showed they felt it was the right place, even if they were unable to articulate that.

We are obviously thankful for this next phase in our move to begin. We have truly felt a void during this time where we weren't weekly connecting with a church family. To all of our RHCC friends, remember what an amazing place it is. Truly amazing.

So, that's it. We continue to become more familiar with M--- each week. Baseball signups are happening now, and the boys want to play. That will be fun.

Hope you enjoyed the post!