"Carrie, Sawyer is outside by himself..."

We had a great time last night with our Thursday Night group at John & Ashton Kruses's house. The weather was just gorgeous so we were able to sit outside and enjoy it! Later on in the evening it did get pretty stormy-just another welcomed sign that SPRING is here and that summer is just around the corner!

Brandon and Sawyer playing some form of poker-it's funny that no matter what game it is that Sawyer comes up with for you to play, it always ends up with, "I WIN!!"

John & Ashton~Thanks for a great night! Ashton made a really yummy dinner of crispy ranch chicken, herbed potatoes, cheesy rice, salad and scotcheroo (sp?) bars for dessert!

Laney and Baby Nolan

We have started planning on a camping trip to Niobrara that our Thursday Night group would all go on together in June. So there was much planning/debate last night about the best spot by the river, how many tents to take, who is going up on Thursday or Friday, should we do group meals were each couple is responsible for one meal, are we going to bring the dogs, should we bring a gun (we shut that one down pretty quick), who wants to go canoeing and who wants to tube, are there showers and whether or not it's OK to poop behind trees.....

We were also celebrating Nora's 1st birthday! This is her opening her gifts from us-Girlie Clothes! I don't think it's any secret that buying clothes for girls is a lot more fun than buying them for boys...the selections at the stores even tell you that-there are fourteen racks for girls and three for boys! So it's always fun for me to get to meander around the girls section whenever I get the chance! :)

So, we're sitting inside just about to watch, "The Office" when Jessy goes, "Hey Carrie, Sawyer is outside by himself." So I look and there is Sawyer, out on the front porch scaling the beams!
What a BOY!

While I'm thinking, "Oh my goodness, he's going to fall and we're going to end up in the ER.." Bill is like, "WOW Man!!! That's cool! Good climbing!"
Oh! Two days ago, Sawyer was jumping on his bed and jumped right into the window sill and the blinds! So now his face looks like he got attacked by a wildebeest.....ahh the joys of having a little boy*

John decided to take Sawyer on a quick little bike ride around the dinning room...

This is what happens when you ask Chase to help Sawyer get his shoes on.....

An almost 2010 UNO Graduate

Bill Bryon Rollins

2010 UNO Graduate

Bill will be graduating from the University of Nebraska Omaha
on May 7th, 2010!
Please join us in celebrating this graduation milestone at his parent's home.

4723 N. 134th Ave
Omaha, NE 68122

Open House will be from 6:30 to 8:30 that evening.

Run with Endruance

"...let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish."
Hebrews 12:1

"Keep going.....You so got this!"
This is the mantra that goes through my mind when I run. Running used to be so easy. Back in high school I was involved in sports from 3:30 p.m. till 9:00 p.m. Running for hours on end was normal and expected, but seven years later running is dreaded but a needed release at the same time. I got back into disciplined running about a year ago with a friend of mine, Jamie whose daughter Kendyl comes to our home for day care. We live close and we would meet at the round about in the mornings for a quick run before work.

It was nice to get a head start on the day and we felt so accomplished having run miles and miles while most of the city was still sleeping. As I would trudge up the huge hill back to the house and see most of the homes on my block still black and silent I would think, "Man, I've been up for hours experiencing the day before you've even thought about waking up! There is so much beauty and life in the morning!" I feel that same way for people that haven't found God. They are still going through life asleep and missing so much yet so unaware of it. You have no idea what life is like with God until you've gotten a taste of it~once you do, you'll be hooked.

I had been running for pleasure, but that has turned into a driven focus for the Lincoln Marathon. We will be running the Lincoln Half Marathon (13 miles) this Sunday. It's something that we've been looking forward to but now that it's just around the corner I'm nervous! I'm not sure why I'm nervous...maybe it's just that I'm excited but my mind is having a mix up on what it's feeling....Anyway, if you think of it, say a little prayer for us on Sunday morning!

The grill is on fire!

Our Thursday Night group was at Brandon & Laney Leeder's house this week. The boys were out grilling some barbecue chicken when we hear , "Ok! The grill is now on FIRE!" Nothing exploded and most of the chicken wasn't burned and the guys all still have their facial hair....crisis averted....

Before watching, "The Office" we had to sit through the NFL draft.....yuck.

We found some pretty cool sunglasses in Chase's new truck!

Ashton and Sawyer reading some golden books.Me & Laney

And the evening ended with Arliss doing a Whip It......

I love Weekends!!

Sandra (our foreign exchange student who lives with us) had her closing ceremony at UNO on Friday afternoon, so luckily I was able to have my friend Arliss come and watch my day care kids so that I could attend! I was excited that I was able to go because her last ceremony for school was while we were in Brazil over Christmas break and we missed it...Anyway, it was so fun to meet all of her friends from school and she was actually one of the MCs and she did AWESOME! Congratulations Sandra on completing this school session!

We also were waiting for LOWES to come and install our new carpeting for the basement in the morning and then have Nebraska Furniture Mart come to deliver our new furniture in the afternoon! We had planned the timing out so that the carpet would be down and ready to go for when the furniture arrived.....but of course the carpet guys were waaaay late (I thought that kind of stuff only happened in Brazil....) so the furniture arrived and had to be put in the garage on top of all the old carpet that Bill had torn up because of course it was pouring rain all day! About thirty minutes later the carpet installers came and started tackling the basement. I had called to complain abut the carpet guys being so late and what an inconvenience it was for us that they agreed to have them move the furniture from the garage to the basement for us when they were finished.

This was the first step-the padding. If I had ever entertained the thought of getting blue carpet, this put that to rest....

Then they started laying down the carpet, hot gluing the seams
and stretching it tight.

The finished product!!
It's really soft and being as how it's on the darker side,
it'll hide dirt from the kids and Phoebi.

Saturday we spent most of the day doing home improvement projects, which isn't all that fun but you feel so accomplished when it's all done! Then in the evening Sawyer went to his grandparent's house for a sleepover and we had some friends over for dinner. The Swansons, Whites and Leeders came over for lasagna (I made one regular one and one with spinach, sun dried tomatoes and four cheese) Lasagna takes up so much time to make, but the end result is SO worth it!

James, Brandon, Bill and Chad

Stefanie, Arliss, baby Nolan and Laney

Nora (James & Arliss's baby) was enjoying her lasagna naked in the high chair....life is good!

No better way to break in the new carpet, then to have a bunch of people over, with two babies, and eat on it! And yes, it is the summer, but we had the fire place on....

We had Mocha Java Cinnaom Rolls with ice cream for dessert...

Good Friends: Stefanie, Arliss, Me and Laney*

We played Loaded Questions and I don't think I've laughed so hard in months! Thanks for a GREAT game guys!!

Brandon & Bill faced off on a few games chess. (the gorgeous walnut and cheery chess board with the cast iron figurines was a
birthday gift for Bill from Brazil!)
Bill & I were talking about what a true blessing it is to have a group of really good friends to spend time and share our lives with!

Play Dough

Today is a pretty blustery day....it's been windy and drizzly....meaning we all have to stay inside. So we decided to get out the play dough and get creative!

I just know that I'm going to find little bits of neon play dough smushed into my carpet and onto the bottom of my socks....but who am I to let mushed in messes get in the way of the next generation's creative flow? :)

Ali & Sawyer hard at work.

Bulldogs Baseball

We ended up deciding last minute to go to Uncle Alex's baseball game. (Alex is Bill's younger brother, who is a sophomore at Burke High School here in Omaha) We don't get to make it to as many games as we would like to due to busy schedules. We were excited to catch a game last night!

We were really excited to see that Uncle Alex was just getting up to bat when we arrived! I think we might bring some bad luck with us, because he ended up getting pulled right before he was up......what a disappointment!!! We are always hearing about how awesome he does in his games but I guess we got there a little too late.....

Sawyer spent most of the game EATING. He had a ham and cheese sandwich, a bag of chips and dried pineapple chucks, a cheese stick, crackers and some juice. (I think some of the chips got stolen by Nana & Papa though.....)
The other day when we were walking down to the park with Phoebi, Sawyer was watching some of the neighborhood kids (high schoolers) playing basketball in their driveway. As they were just messing around, one of them took a shot and totally air balled it.....Without skipping a beat, sawyer yells out, "MISSED!".......talk about embarrassing...I was just waiting for Sawyer to get pounded in the face with a flying basketball. Anyways, so I was a little nervous about him yelling out, "MISSED!" at one of the players if they swung and missed at last night's game, but he kept it clean!

This was kind of funny because right under the sign there were sunflower
seeds strewn all over the ground.....

Mommy & Daddy enjoying the game.

It got pretty chilly as then evening wore on...and we ducked out early so we could get Sawyer to bed. Nope, that's a lie. We left because Alex wasn't playing anymore and we were cold....
Uncle Alex we love watching you play and hope that Sawyer will follow in your cleat steps! :)

Lemonade Anyone?

Sawyer and his ladies....(Ali & Payton)

Eagerly awaiting some customers....

Lemonade $0.50 Cupcake $1.00

Getting some business from Payton's mom.
Sawyer can't wait to get his hands on that money! :)

Sawyer and Dane counting up there loot....$9.00!!!

There were some pretty cool ants living in the cracks of the driveway...

My house smells like a french fry...

Today was a pretty quiet day for day care because some of my kiddos were gone, so Sawyer and I decided to make Chocolate Caramel Crumb Cupcakes (try saying that ten times fast). Baking is one of Sawyer's favorite things to do because most of the time he gets to be pretty hands on and licking the spoon at the end makes it even better!

It still amazes mt how you can take all these ingredients, some of which taste horrible on their own and when you put them together......AMAZINGNESS!!!

(You can find the recipe on the "Recipes from Posts" page
in the right hand column.)

These cupcakes are to die for....they like a fudge brownie with a dollop of caramel cream cheese in the middle and then topped with a chocolate pecan crumble!

So this Thursday Night get-together was at our house! We wanted to do something a little different this time, so we decided to make dinner a little game. We had each person meet promptly at our house at 6:15 p.m. and everyone picked a name of a fast food place out of a hat. You had twenty minutes to go to that place and order a meal with a $7.00 minimum in place. Once everyone got back, I placed all the different meals into these numbered bags and had everyone draw a number. You ended up with the meal in the corresponding bag!

It was SO fun!!! There was a little bit of trading that went on for those that didn't eat onion or mushrooms or didn't like mayo. But in the end, everyone ended up with something they liked!

Among the the choices were: KFC, Burger King, Apple Bees, Pepper Jacks,
Chinese, Popeyes, McDonalds and Taco Bell.

I went to take the trash out and when I came back in the house...oh my word! It smelled like a grease pit! With all the different kinds of food smells combined, it really made for a good wiff! Thankfully by this morning it all aired out just fine! We were joking that they'll probably be doing some study on American obesity by going through people's trash in our neighborhood this week and when they hit our house, they'll think they've hit the mother lode! :)