God is soo good!

I was dreading paying sales tax for the new car...but since we traded in two the cost was under $300.

Plus I just found out that this is a 3 paycheck month for me...and I have extra cash from my health insurance not being withheld from the 1st.

Adam and I have been pricing childcare for summer, and yes it's astronomical for three kids. At least we have a CD with $ that was going to be for our grand trip in 09' but will be using it for the boys summer childcare. That's life, at least we had saved it and have it to use for such a good cause. Can't wait til age 12.

Louise McCollum is done with Chemo and we are singing Gods praise in this situation. I am so happy for Steph and their entire family.

Prayer request we have the Alston family with a baby Corbin @ children's (Heart murmur) and mommy at Baptist recovering.

And Nancy's mom Mrs. Carol hasn't been well.

Please keep them in your prayers.

It is proven that God works in amazing ways.

Gone and past

Christmas has gone and past.  The decorations are down and this year we didn't take a camera anywhere...including our own home.  We decided to just sit down and enjoy each and every moment.  We didn't set out the presents from under the tree; All organized and anal and in a row by size of course.  We let the boys go under the tree in the morning and hand them out one at a time.  All 5 of us sat on the floor and laughed and jumped with glee.  It was a GREAT Christmas.  Then of course follows the traditions of every Grandparent over here at our home for Christmas Breakfast.  Then off to Granny C's (which she's in LA) Adam and I cooked burgers for all.  Then off to Papaw & Nanos to have "Clean out the fridge".  Everyone gets what they want over there.  A little bit of this a little bit of that.  

On the gifts of course they were all small...the boys received NEW BEDS for Christmas early.  The screams for Axe body spray was hilarious and that sound will ring with me for a while.  My favorite gifts would be the bamboo sheets (oh yes!) and the new warm up suit.   

The day after Christmas Dylan & I stayed in our Jammie's took a shower and got in a different set.  We didn't leave the house!  It was great.  

The next day we got out and went for Breakfast at Cracker Barrell and had a day full of shopping.  When we sat down to eat our server asked the boys, "Did santa bring you good stuff", the boys sat their puzzled staring at Adam and I, like (What do we say?) they just nodded and giggled.  

I hope each of you had time to sit and enjoy the laughter with your families for Christmas and slow down as much as possible.  

new cars

So we bought a new car this weekend. We traded our two little cars on a new civic. Yes we still have two cars...we kept the suburban. But now just one car payment and two insurance payments.

I turned the finances over to Adam to review for the upcoming years budget. This is a BIG step for those of you who don't know me that well. He came up with the idea of doing this car swap...I felt lead to agree and we are saving over $200 / month...say bye bye medical bills.

We are also getting better gas mileage than the VW rabbit or the Hyundai...36 mpg on the HWY. WOOO! and there is more leg room in the back for our ever growing boys.

This is a drastic step to debt reduction. I feel the weight lifted off and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm ready to snowball as Crown puts it.

Dads vs. Lads

Today was our first experience in the "dads vs. lads" soccer game. Jacobs classic soccer team players charged the field. The dads stormed on afterwards. It was the best laughter I've had in a long time. Old men falling on their rears, fat men trying to run, the best for me was the many toe balls. Plus all the dads are involved in their sons lives and each family hasn't been separated by divorce. A rare thing now days.

Of course the lads won...it's rigged, BUT there were 3 dad's who wanted to win. A game is just a game. It's for the boys confidence. One tackled a kid and sent him to the bench. One kicked the ball so hard it swooshed past my boys head and one of the other dad's said, "hey man, that's too hard". The other man just was pure annoying telling the ref that the calls were wrong (which they were, it's rigged, get over it).

It ended in a Penalty kick game; each child was to score on his father and then the father score on the child. Adam kicked HARD. It hit Jacob's foot and Jacob and the ball went into the goal. Gary, another Dad said, "that's borderline child abuse" we all just laughed, of course Jacob was not hurt, other than his feelings. Only two dad's score during the PK's. Adam and Gary. We told Jacob how cool is it that your dad kicks butt!

Adam did a scissor kick and one of the kids said "that was wicked!" We had snacks at half time and the end...chips, sandwiches, fruit, cupcakes, brownies, gummies (fruit snacks), etc...it was good fun!

We ended today as we do most every Sunday night, quick dinners, extreme home makeover, spending time together laughing, just us 5. We all were piled in our bed (a full). Yes Adam, me, all three boys, a golden retriever, a cocker spaniel...and we were quite warm and cozy and Dylan won some reindeer ears from church this morning and put them on the dog. I thought it was too cute. Dylan lost one of his big front teeth tonight the other is a wiggling, will be singing "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." Soon we will have three boys with big teeth. Babies goodbye, tweens hello.

Pictures are all the dads with their sons including coach and refs. and a great shot of Adam in pursuit of Jacob and the girls and boys.

Jacob's Thankful

Okay, so I know I'm a poor mom because I went through my kids backpacks this morning instead of Tuesday :). Kobie had a homework sheet that we did very quickly before school. The rest of the graded papers I left to sort through later.

I'm sitting at home and going through the papers and this was the sweetest thing.

Jacob wrote a Thank you note to tell people that he's thankful for them.
Here are his words:

I am thankful for my friends. My best friend is Tyree Madison. He helps me do math problems and I help him too. We do everything together.

I am thankful for my mom and dad. They help me with my homework. My dad plays with me a lot. When my mom is sick she still works as hard as she can.

I am also thankful for my soccer coaches. If I did not have soccer coaches I would not be such a good soccer player. Soccer coaches take out my anger because soccer is fun and they help you so you can play better.

I am thankful for God because he made me and he made my brothers, mom, and dad and every one else. God also made the earth and everything else, just like soccer.

Kobie wrote:
I'm thankful for football and family.

I haven't seen in anything in D's bag.