Valentine's, A Visit, and Renewal

The last couple of weeks have been full of important memories and, most of all, full of family and love.  My in-laws renewed their vows at their 50th wedding anniversary!  Lance and his brother Link

planned a lovely reception for them and it was followed up by a great gathering at our house that night.  It was sort of like a mini-wedding in terms of getting to see so many family members on both the Tate and Vaughn sides.  I got to meet several of Lea's family for the first time, and it was great as usual to be in the company of the Vaughns, including Link and Deanna, Lyndi, Mamaw, Aunt Jean, and Aunt Pam.  It was quite touching to celebrate the wonderful marriage that my in-laws share, and the lives that have benefitted from their testimony.  

We were blessed to have Link around for another week after the party.  I am thankful that he is a morning person, so he happily got up with the boys and made them breakfast every morning!  Thanks uncle Link!  Of course the boys loved having him around and were constantly clamoring for his attention.  I'm pretty sure he didn't mind.  One of the best moments was our trip to the creek on his last day here.  Sticks, rocks, and boys!!

Another great memory from Link's visit was our great barbecue adventure.  We have always wanted to try Franklin's, a world famous foodie mecca, but were daunted by the need to line up early in the morning.  After all, I hardly have that kind of time to do nothing!  But we finally went for it and left the boys in good hands.  We arrived at 9:30 and felt pretty optimistic as we approached the line that trailed around the building.  We were quickly told that our projected service time would be 2pm, and later that we would likely not get any food.  Ok, so we quickly gave up and left.  However, redemption was right around the corner as we decided to try La Barbecue, a restaurant owned by a chef who had trained with Franklin.  I'm so glad we did!  The wait was easy, there was free beer (I didn't have any).  The brisket was definitely the best I've ever tasted!

Valentine's day also happened this past week.  I'll be honest, its not my favorite holiday.  It just causes so much pain and heart ache for so many lonely people.  Boo hoo!!!  But I am required to play along because the kids seem to enjoy it (the candy, that is).  I volunteered to make cookies.  It was fun and I think they turned out well!  Benjamin also made a gift for me and packaged it up himself.  It was my favorite Valentine's gift.

Finally, Sawyer had his first day of school at Bright Beginnings. He's not officially in school yet because they don't have room for him, but he spent the day there as a drop in when someone else was sick.  Evan was a sweet big brother, and it brought back sweet memories and Evan's first day joining Benjamin at school.  Sawyer did great and did not even cry.  He was ready to explore!

So much went on in the past couple of weeks that I left me feeling well, kind of like this:

TWO SNOW DAYS!!

As usual, there was a lot going on around the Vaughn house this week.  First, we finally got the pool covered with a safety net.  It has been in the works for a while, but it seems that it kept getting delayed.  Now, however, it is on and not going ANYWHERE.  The pool is no longer naked, but it is much safer.  We can now relax a bit more when we are outside with Sawyer.  Phew!

Before:

After:

Of course, there were also the "normal" parts of our week that involved Evan just being cute, and Benjamin getting crafty.

Then there was the great "snow" of 2014, and a day off of school!  Despite there only being a quarter inch of sleet, Evan proclaimed that it was a "snow wonderland".  The boys couldn't wait to get outside to explore this foreign matter, but it was not long at all that they were back inside trying to get warm!

Then back out again:

Trampoline ice angels:

The boys also enjoyed collecting snow and having real "snow cones".  I made some coconut flavored syrup to pour over them.  I recall making something like this back in 1985 when we had tons of snow in Austin.  We used Kool Aid mix back then....

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Lance had his birthday over the weekend, and it was pretty much his "birthday weekend", with two awesome dinners Friday and Saturday night followed by a small party with our life group and Bananas Foster.  Unfortunately, I only have pics of one small aspect of Lance's birthday extravaganza.  We had a delicious meal at Barley Swine.  I can't remember exactly when the below dishes were composed of but I think the first one contained fois gras butter and pork belly, and the second one contained whey panna cotta and grapefruit sorbet.  Wowzer!  The food was absolutely amazing!

Benjamin also lost his tooth over the weekend, it was his second.  He handled it like a pro, unfortunately the tooth fairy did not.  She was out of cash and had to give him a box of whoppers leftover from Christmas.

Sawyer was motivated by the focus on teeth and took it upon himself to brush his own.  Maybe its true what they say about the third child...

Finally, my blogging week ended with another snow day!  It was not at all as big as the last one, but there was enough ice on the roads in the morning to cancel school.  There was not enough to play in :(  But I did get a pic of icicles dripping from the end of the palm leaves.  Cool!

This week's Happenings

Wow, the weather has been gorgeous around here.  BUT..... the cedar pollen levels have been the highest in recorded history.  That being said, I have had to hide indoors for the past week.  So it was a good time to work on my newest pet project, decorated sugar cookies!  I volunteered to make some "girly" cookies for a friend's baby shower.  Little did I know that they were expecting close to 60 people.  On the positive side of things, it was fun trying out my new hobby and making some beautiful cookies.  On the down side, boy does it take a lot of (uninterrupted) time.  I think they came out pretty great, but there are a few things I'd like to iron out.  My friend Janet also brought a gorgeous cake to the shower.  I'll have to pick her brain for baking tips!  But the most important thing is that the shower was a celebration of a beautiful gift from God, baby Lucy.  I was so happy to share in my friend Sarah's joy of her baby girl, who she has waited for over the course of five difficult years.  Praise God!

Another happening in the Vaughn house has been the institution of a new reward system that we started to get the boys more motivated toward positive behaviors.  We got two clear jars and started rewarding the boys with marbles for good behavior.  Its been most helpful with Evan, had been pretty oppositional in the last few months.  He can now be excited about his positive behaviors and feel good about the progress he has made.  We rewarded the first round of marbles with lego kits.  Gee, I wonder how many of those we will go through in the next 15 years!!??

Evan has taken to photography ever since Benjamin gave him his old camera (we gave Benjamin one of our old cameras).  He is so cute going around snapping shots of all of us and saying "good one!".  He sure does take a lot of good ones ;)

Poor Sawyer has been sick for what seems like about a week.  Unfortunately, like his other colds, this one went to his chest and he has needed breathing treatments.  The positive news is that his illness seems to bring out nurturing behaviors from his brothers.  Benjamin soothed him in his crib, and Evan made him a "get well card".  The little guy was so miserable.

Lance also got to take part in Benjamin's Kindergarten class project when he joined another dad in helping the kids design and build a model rocket to play in.  This complements what they have been learning recently about the solar system.  I was actually there at the same time helping with an art project.  If I hadn't been so focused on the kids, I might have thought to take a picture of Lance!  Well, I guess he could also have taken a picture of me ;)  Anyway, the man in these pictures is the father of Cade, one of Benjamin's best pals.  We share a lot in common with this family, as they also have three boys about the same ages as all of ours!

Wow, as I've written this post I'm impressed with all that we did this week.  We are going to have to rest for a few days since we also have a lot on the horizon.  I will leave with a picture of the week.  Here are my precious boys wearing the necklaces that Benjamin got at the grocery store with his saved up money.  So sweet that Benjamin got one for Evan!

Evan's Birthday

Evan turned four on January 3rd.  We'd been talking it up for a while and I think he was pretty excited.  Since he is the middle child, we try to go a little out of our way to make him feel important.  I hope it is working!  He started the day with some yummy chocolate chip pancakes, followed by a visit and present opening with Amma and Papa, more present opening with Granmom, Grandad, Mamaw, and Megan, and finally a dinner with all of the Vaughns.  Lance and I had planned to take him to Dave and Busters without the other kids, but he decided that he would rather hang out at home with his new toys and extended family.  We tried not to feel too rejected ;)

Evan had a great birthday party the next day.  He had chosen Locomotion, a bouncy house located near our old neighborhood.  Quite a few friends from school were able to make it, and so did our old friends Sarah and Bryn.  I made strawberry cupcakes with vanilla frosting, decorated for a winter theme.  I also tried my hand at decorating sugar cookies for party favors, and I think it turned out pretty well.  Evan definitely got his share of sugar, especially when his daddy got him an ice cream sandwich after the cupcake!  Happy Birthday Evan!!