Rowan's green shirt...

turned his eyes a really pretty greenish blue color. I had to take pictures. :)

Just the Boys

The boys have been busy growing up lately. I see it a lot in Cruz. He and Rowan both received ten dollars from Grammy and Grampy for Valentine's Day. I took them to Target to pick out a toy. Rowan the negotiator convinced Cruz that they should pool their money and get this cool new train track. Rowan assured me that he would share and so far, so good.

Cruz has his arm around Rowan in this picture instead of the other way around. Somehow, though he's a tiny thing, he's wearing some clothes that Rowan wore last year. He's also been very interested in sitting on his little potty. I am not quite ready to tackle that project yet. Maybe in the summer! :)

The boys just filled their kindness jar up for a second time. We are headed to Chick Fil A for lunch and playtime soon. Our church is hosting a food packing event for children in El Salvador and Guatemala. Children's Ministry has given each child a tube of mini m&m's. After the child has eaten the candy they are to try to fill the tube up with 56 quarters, enough to provide food for 94 hungry children.

 Roger and I made a deal with the boys that on the day when these are due back at church, we'll go to their kindness jar and exchange each marble for a quarter. The boys can load them into their m&m tube and bring them back to church. This was the most age appropriate way we could think of to help them "earn" the money. They were both eager to give up their special treat in order to help hungry kids.... "so they don't die" said Rowan. That kid has no filter sometimes.

The BEAUTIFUL New Floor

Our new floor was installed earlier this week and I love it. I feel like I can open the shutters in the office now. Before, all the sunlight did was illuminate the black spots on the carpet. I love the dark, richness of the wood, however, it does show every piece of dog hair and dirt. I'm still lovin' it though. We are missing a desk chair because our old one would have quickly butchered this floor. I REALLY want to get a cream colored upholstered chair. I'll update you when I find the perfect one. :)

Roger has some amazing connections through work and we have gotten some really great home stuff done thanks to those connections. I always feel more comfortable having people he knows and works with in our home. The boys love the floor too. One of the first things Rowan noted is that its "sooo slippery." The boys have been "ice skating" on the floor several times already.

The Dentist

Rowan had his very first dental check up today. He did so well. They told him he was the most well behaved 3 year old they've ever seen. He did everything that was asked of him without fear. He got his first set of x-rays too. I was amazed.

His dentist is pretty cool though. On the advice of a friend we are taking the kids to a pediatric dentist here in town and it was such a fun place. I wanted to stay and get my teeth cleaned. :) There are movies to watch, video games to play and tokens to collect. They also had about 10 different flavors of flouride/toothpaste to choose from. Rowan chose marshmallow and said it was delicious.

Rowan got a bag of goodies, a new toothbrush and three tokens to redeem for prizes for having such a good check up. The ladies in the office were so sweet to give Cruz a new toothbrush and a token too. Rowan says he can't wait til August when he gets to go back.

More Valentines

Our day of love was very lovey indeed. I am the room mom for Rowan's class so I was in charge of planning his Valentine's Day party. It went off perfectly, if I do say so myself and the little ones had a blast. I was brought back to my childhood days as Rowan opened the Valentines from his friends when we got home. He was so excited about each one.

Rowan was also a fabulous share-er and let Cruz enjoy some of his Valentine's treats.

The boys were so excited about the little treats in their Valentine's baskets but they were the most excited about the DVD full of episodes of their new favorite Disney Channel show, Jake and the Neverland Pirates. The boys watched all the episodes and then played pirates for the rest of the day. :) The boys received some wonderful treats from their grandparents too.

Roger and I celebrated by treating ourselves to a new printer. :) We haven't had a printer that works in over a year so this will definitely be a help to us.

Rowan's Valentines

Just thought I'd share Rowan's Valentines that we made for his class at school. I found the idea and tag via Pinterest. We printed the tags out on cardstock, found some little glowsticks at the dollar store and tied them on with a sparkly ribbon. Simple and unique!

Rowan was able to write his name on each one this year. He is super excited to pass them out at his Valentine's Day Party today. I'm sure there will be more pictures to share later.

Good Bye Carpet!

The carpet in our office is DISGUSTING. Seriously. I can't walk into that room without becoming depressed. Its sad because the rest of the decor is exactly what I want it to be. After whining about it for months we've finally decided to do something about it. We (and when I say we, I mean the installer guys) are putting in a beautiful new wood floor.

Roger and his trusty helpers tore off the trim and ripped up the carpet. Ironically the only photo I got has Cruz in it. Just for the record, Cruz helped for about 1.5 seconds. Rowan was the true helper who stuck it out. :)

Our new floor isn't coming until a week from Monday but Rog is out of town with his college buddies next weekend so we had to do it now. I can't wait to share the after pictures!!!! I have never been so excited about a floor before.

T-BALL: TEAM FIRE ENGINES

T-ball has officially started and Rowan is lovin' it. He loves that its more of a "taking turns" type of sport so he doesn't have to fight so much for some playing time. The baseball diamond is spray painted onto the grass and is adorably tiny. The bases are also spray painted and each fielding position is marked with an X. Rowan's favorite position to play when his team is in the field is pitcher. He likes that position because the X is the closest to the batter meaning that Rowan is most likely to field the ball. :)

This is very basic t ball. The kids use big foam bats and balls and don't wear gloves.

They are also not required to slide but our little overachiever decided it was necessary as he came to third base.

Wish this picture wasn't fuzzy but it shows Rowan playing his favorite position.

The team is so cute as they cheer for whoever is up to bat. Rog and I love to watch Rowan enjoying himself and to see him build his confidence as he learns something new.

Some "Rowanisms"

On our way home from the park today we were listening to one of our Bible verse C.D.'s. The song was talking about the Bible verse from Matthew that says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth..." 

Rowan: Mommy, what treasures do I have?

Me: Well, things like your toys, our house, your bike. All those things are special and Jesus gave them to us to enjoy but they aren't really what's important.

Rowan: Oh.

Me: Where should you heart and your treasure be Rowan?

Rowan: Umm... Earth

Me: No, buddy, remember what the song says?

Rowan: Oh... VENUS!!!!

We've been working on the Fruits of the Spirit verse lately as well and talking about the specific attitudes the verse talks about. One afternoon I asked Rowan to clean up his trains....

Rowan: That's not a Fruit of the Spirit, Mommy.

Me: What isn't?

Rowan: Asking me to do things I don't want to do.

In other Rowan news, he's a pro at writing his name now. He does the R uppercase and the rest of the letters lowercase. He can also write fairly small. Here is sample from a paper he brought home from preschool the other day. I also included his sample from September so you can see how he's grown!

Bowling

We took Rowan bowling for the first time on Saturday. It was actually for a surprise birthday party for Roger's project coordinator at work. She's such a sweet lady and has taken care of the boys before so we were super excited to take Rowan to the party. Cruz stayed home with the boys' favorite baby-sitter.

Toddler bowling shoes are the cutest thing. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at all tempted to accidentally leave with them. Don't worry, I didn't. :)

Rowan was super excited that the lightest bowling ball the alley had (6 lbs) was green!

Here is the score from the second game the boys bowled. Rowan (first R) actually got two spares! Roger blames the bumpers for his awful scores... :) It was such a treat to spend a night together with our big boy.

Big Night!

We were running around like crazy tonight! Rowan had his first tball practice. It was chilly and windy but like a typical kid, Rowan still had a blast. He has his first tball game on Saturday so stay tuned for photos! Right after tball, Rowan headed to the annual Dad's Night at his school. 

The theme was Dad is #1 and there were tons of sports/games for Rowan and Daddy to play together. Dads and preschoolers were also supposed to dress alike in their favorite sports team gear. Rowan and Daddy wore matching NVCA t shirts and Cubs hats. Rowan had so much fun showing off his Daddy. At the end of the night the Dad's got a little goody bag with a picture frame, key chain and little book their child made for them. 

Poor Cruz was devastated not to be included so he insisted on dressing like Rowan and Daddy. Cruz will get to participate next year though! I just turned in his application to be in the Pre School 2's next year. NVCA is such a blessing to our family. 

Trains

The stomach bug went through our house last week missing only Roger. This is the first time in 3 and a half years of parenting that we've had to deal with a child repeatedly throwing up.  We've had spit up and one time, Rowan threw up after Roger forced him to eat another bite of his dinner but those were isolated events. On the bright side, Rowan is old enough to know when he's going to throw up and make it into a bowl. I am thankful for that.

We are on the mend now. I was so excited to see Rowan playing trains today. Our little train lover doesn't take them out every day anymore. It makes me sad to think of this stage of his life ending because he has loved Thomas for so long. It was nice to see him setting up his tracks and driving his engines around after quiet time today. 

Now, we are off to the park to enjoy our beautiful day. If you haven't already, please see my post below and vote for Cruz! <3