Book Character Day at School

Today was "Dress like your favorite book character" day at school. And no doubt, it wasn't as easy as I had hoped it would be. First of all, I couldn't come up with costume ideas for any book characters from Emery's actual favorite books. So I went through each of her existing costumes until I could think of something (or google something) that I thought would work and we landed on Strawberry Shortcake (although we don't own and have never read an actual book about Strawberry Shortcake)! And although that costume is size 12 months, we made it work and Emery was happy happy!

I instantly thought of Max from "Where the Wild Things Are" for Case because that really IS one of his favorite books. So last week I ordered a cute Max costume that I found on sale and paid extra for expedited shipping and a guarantee for it to be here on time. But alas....the snow storm up north delayed FedEx and it did not arrive on time. Thanks to Facebook, a friend of mine came to the rescue with an extra awesome (and homemade) Wild Things costume! It was so cute and we even had the perfect shirt to finish it off. It was like it was meant to be! Case was happy, so Momma was happy too! Whew!!! What a relief! Amy Turman, I owe you one...or two! 

This pic of Case's class cracks me up! Love that his teacher sent it to us!

And thankful that Emery's teacher got this cute shot of her since I failed in my 25+ attempts of taking her pic this am before school!

Happy Heart Day

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day around here! I slipped away from work to attend Emery's party at school and it was so much fun. Another perk of working two minutes away from the kids' school. 

Case's class also had a small party but I didn't stop by. His room is a lot smaller than Em's and not conducive to hosting a lot of parents. I'm planning to attend another event at his school later this spring instead. 

I arrived a bit early and slipped in without Emery seeing me. It was fun to just sit and watch her listening quietly to Miss Leslie tell the special Valentine's story.

Nursery Rhymes

SNOW…Finally!

It wasn't much and it melted by 1PM, but we will take what we can get in Memphis! Hoping for more this week and fingers crossed that it's enough to go sledding down our big hill!

Throwing snowballs

Lil' sis giving it right back!

A little snow didn't stop the Barbie Mustang!

Snowball fight with Daddy!

Teeny snowman building

MAM Boys

It's been almost three and half years since these four guys came into our lives. I can't believe that two of them (CJ and Mickey) are just a few months away from their high school graduation. Time is flying by. Every year I make them replicate one of the very first photos I took of all of them. They hate it (of course) but I have loved looking back to see how everyone has changed over the years. In this first one, Case looks like such a baby still. And I was only a few months pregnant with Emery at the time. And now the kids are so big and so are the MAM boys! Everyone is growing up so fast!

left to right: Mario, CJ, Caleb and Mickey

Case sure has enjoyed playing his new Wii with the boys. They have some pretty intense Mario Kart competitions.

We've enjoyed watching three of the guys play on the same ball team this season and this past Friday was CJ's senior night. He was named Sheffield High School's "Mr. Basketball" and he ended his last regular season with a great game! So proud of this guy! 

Mario #3 (Sophomore) & CJ #1

Emery and Emory clearly not very interested in the ball game. Typical!

It was so great to have so many people there to support CJ during his last home game as a Sheffield Knight. We have been blessed with a wonderful church family. All of these fine folks (and many more not pictured) have loved on and mentored these boys along side us the entire way. It takes a village and we've been fortunate enough to be a part of a great one!