SPRING BREAK!

This year we actually got to celebrate the awesome-ness that is SPRING BREAK! Justin was able to take a few days off...NOPE that was NOT a typo...its for REAL!!

Please enjoy our week in pictures!

We were SO BLESSED to be able to spend SIX DAYS at my aunt and uncles river house. They are so so so kind to let us use it. Our family has built the most amazing memories there.

Braxton's BFF Xander was able to come and they had the most fun coloring (and eating) with chalk!

Bryce gave Landon and impromptu rock concert...

Then they celebrated the SUN with popsicles and a slip and slide! They SO badly wanted to swim...but well...The FRIO River was cold :)

The highlight of Bryce's trip was s'mores...maybe Ms. Courtneys fave part too!!

When we got home...our sweet Bryce was off to his surgery. He had his 3rd set of tubes, tonsils out and adnoids out. Out little patient got to get in some snuggle time with little brother Brody. How could you not feel better with this sweet little guy lovin on you??

We had a SUPER fun craft day with the Fickey & Simmons crew! Look at all the fun shirts we made!!

Bryce

Bryce

Me!

Brax

Brody

Then my little man crew got to celebrate with our SUPER friend SUPER ELI on his very special 3rd birthday! His mama did a great job!! How cute are my Super B's??

Brody checking out the telephone booth...he wouldnt let anyone else in :)

Super Sam!

These little besties are Triple Trouble!!

Most precious moment of the day! Brody got an escort from the cutest blonde at the party!

Then we headed over to another party! Little Layne turned 4!! The boys had a BLAST just running around like little crazies! This picture shows just how much fun Brody had...by this point in the day he his shirtless :)

Surgery Smurgery!

Brody got to go on a ranger ride!!

Then stopped for a quick golf lesson with Mr. Thomas :)

Fun friends on the patio make for a great birthday celebration day!

And we finished off our week with a family day in the backyard! Spring Break... I heart you!

A few things to be praying/excited about:

1. Our mission trip is official! We are going to the Yucatan June 20-27th. More specific prayer requests to come on that.

2. One Less 5K

3. That this last surgery for Bryce will be the LAST surgery for Bryce.

4. We have SIX friends that are engaged! YAY!

information overload

March has brought so many things. It has been a whirlwind to say the least. I have had so many pictures and updates and posts that I have wanted to share...but it has just never been a good time to sit down and get it out there. SO...get ready for some update overload :)

My longtime best friend was in a terrible car accident two weeks ago. My heart was broken...thank you to all who prayed and prayed alongside me for a quick healing! I am SO happy to report that she is HOME! She is going to ROCK her wheelchair and I just know that with her serious determination she will be up and at em in NO time! Bryce has already offered to get her a horn for her wheelchair...like the one on his bike!

My friend, Cara, has gone home to Heaven today. She no longer suffers and is healed.

Psalm 30:5
Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Psalm 34:18
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit

Psalm 37:39
The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD; he is their stronghold in time of trouble

Psalm 48:14
For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.

I have prayed and prayed for this sweet family and will continue to lift them up. There are so many questions that come from a death of a sweet young person with young children. It is not fair...it just doesnt seem right...its just cannot be right. But the Lord says it is. I was taught recently that EVERYTHING filters through the cross and we are NOT meant to always understand His plans while we are here on earth. In a world of instant gratification...we cannot google heaven and see what it will be like. We cant text God and ask him when he has planned for us to come. We cant mapquest the directions on how to get there. This is something we really have to WAIT for...wait??? That is not something that I am so great at!! This is what FAITH is. I have learned in the past few weeks that FAITH has so many more meanings than I was giving it credit for. It does not just mean I believe...the end. No way jose! I dont have an answer to so many things...but God does...and I gotta be OK with that. Patience is hard. Waiting is hard. Not knowing why is hard.

I was so blessed to be able to go on my church womens retreat in Fredicksburg! I left feeling so rejuvenated and refreshed!! I had some pretty fun roomies too :)

Was it a coincidence that the theme for the weekend was FAITH HOPE LOVE?

God...your timing is so cool.

We had our house painted! Here is what it looked like during...SCARY! Did i take before and after pictures? Of course not...that would have been too cool. Bummer to that.

Pop Pop got to come and visit!!! YAY to that! He just finished his super Cowboy trailride trip to the Houston Rodeo and was able to come see us after. We took the boys + our cute friend Hudson to the Zoo! It was the most perfect weather and we had a BLAST!

The childrens area is amazing. We hung out in this little area for hours.

Brody was a huge fan of the goats. He loved loved loved brushing them!

Braxton also enjoyed the goats! He called them "puppy!"

A hippo butt. If you have not seen one...you should. Kids can look at them and laugh at them for a LONG time. Plus its air conditioned in this spot. Perfect.

We also had some time to sneak away to the park while Pop Pop was here! I am not sure who had more fun...the boys or him!

This picture really deserves a post of its own. Justin and I are so proud to announce Bryce's Baptism. It was the most special day I can remember! I felt as happy and filled with joy as I did on my wedding day. I was full of emotion (and of course cried like a crazy) and so incredibly PROUD! Our Bryce has asked for awhile to be baptized and we wanted to make sure he knew exactly what he was doing before he did it. Boy did he!! He spoke with both Childrens Minister and our Senior Pastor. His heart is so soft and filled with the spirit. I admire his love for the Lord. I am filled with joy, pride, love and relief!!!

SO MANY of our AMAZING family and friends were there to celebrate with us!! My grandparents, aunt and dad were all there....sweet Katie came from Houston too! Our row was filled with very dear friends and the whole church rejoiced with us! We celebrated the whole day with so many wonderful friends. We are so blessed to have so many people who love us and love Bryce and understood just how special this day was! He got so many fun books and Bibles and devotionals! He even got some cool stuff in the mail from family!

I never knew how awesome it would feel to have my son declare that Jesus will live in his heart forever! He stood before his peers and declared Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior! He was washed in the water. AMEN!!

Now....moving on to something silly :) Fatty having a snack!

It is SPRING!

RODEO TIME! Some friends were so kind to invite us several times to the SA Rodeo! Much different than Houston lol BUT still SO SUPER FUN!

Bryce and his buddy eating cotton candy and watching the bull riders!

my sweet toder bug..he just loves to wear hats!

Now...I promise not to cram such exciting/crazy news into a post again. The moral is that during the storm there is always a rainbow. During the hard and scary times...God shines down un us. He loves us no matter what. He loves us more than ANYONE else does! He listens to our questions...he answers...sometimes. He holds us tightly when we are sad. He lifts us up when our hearts are heavy. He blessed us with the amazing gift of prayer.

Jeremiah 29:11 (New International Version, ©2011)

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

hooty hoo!

1. Do you make a budget and keep it, or just fly by the seat of your pants?

uh oh...well the hubby is the saver/responsible one. that is why i have a little job...i make the FUN money...and what is the FUN in a budget??!! ;)

2. Do you do spring cleaning and if so which month?

i do little spring cleaning throughout the year. sometimes i wake up and it just happens to be a throw everything OUT type of day! i feel like i am constantly shuffling closets around here...bryces to brodys to braxtons to the giveaway/sell box

3. Are you a yard sale lover and do you have them and go to them?

i super love yard sales. justin HATES them. i love having them because its just fun and i like to people watch and i like to make money of my junk even more. justin hates them because he has to drag all of our crap-ola out into the driveway and i usually end up buying all of our neighbors junk.

4. What do you take when you have a headache?

coffee or a coke zero

5. Name 3 things that you feel lucky to have in your life!

my faith, my family and my friends! i am blessed to the moon!!

PS: hold on to your britches...i will be posting about bryces baptism soon!!

In My Shoes

My sweet friend, Mindy, has the most amazing blog. She is such a great teacher...that gal has lots of wisdom. I am always brought to such deep thoughts by her post..HA...YES...I can have deep thoughts :)

A while back I wrote a guest post for her blog series about Brody. Well that was a piece of cake. Brody is super fun to write about and talk about and brag about :)

This week she asked me to write another guest post...this one was harder. This time the series was about the death of a parent. Yuck. I didnt know where to start. I really really didnt know how to end.

There was so much more I wanted to say...but I just didnt know how. I prayed and prayed that it would make sense. It makes sense in my head...but would it make sense to others?

I have not reread it yet (because that is just how i do things...i will look at it tomorrow) but i feel comfortable that my feelings were clear.

I would love for you to read it...and the rest of her blog for that matter!

Thank you friends for walking along side me! Thank you for your encouragement! Thank you so much for being in my life!

Blog Post - Click Here

hoot

1. What did you get/give for Valentine's Day?

we gave the boys balloons and lots of yummy treats...including smores for dinner! we gave daddy this weird back therapy thing that he wanted and the boys gave me a spa day (thank you groupon!). pop pop sent me flowers...get out of town...he is the best. we also had all the neighbor kids over to make frames for their mommies! it was super fun/messy. the boys gave their teachers the most yummy and delicious organic lotion and moppets workers some homemade rose infused soap! it was fun to get sweet valentines from the kids in my class too! i love those guys.

2. Do you have a vacation planned in the next couple of months or in the summer?

i am going on our womens church retreat early march, we are taking a family staycation to the river house for a week (yes! justin is taking like more than one day off!!) during spring break, i have preschool retreat in april, we are still planning our mission trip in june, we have a houston wedding in june and of course mops convention in august!

3. What is one thing you do to pamper yourself?

sleep

4. What sparks your interest to other people's blogs?

if it is realistic. like...crafts that are possible etc.

5. What kind of a mood are you in today?

our kids are sick...so i am in a nurse mood today. gotta get this guys healthy so we can leave the house!

happy valentines and a lot more

So hold on to your hiney and get ready for some information overload...

1. Braxton has RSV. Its bad news bears. Many of you remember Brody's experience with that. Bad.

2. Brody is funky. Just not himself today.

3. Bryce cannot hear...again :( He will be getting his THIRD set of tubes, tonsils out and adnoids out (AGAIN because they grew back...gross) on March 17th.

4. Bryce is getting BAPTIZED! He was Christened as an infant and now he is ready for the real deal. His love for the Lord is through the rooftop and he has been asking for quite some time. He is so precious and we are so so proud!

5. Valentines Day was lovely! I had 4 of the cutest Valentines I could find! Each of the boys had a special Valentine that they gave a special treat too. We ate s'mores for dinner, painted picture frames and made pink owls out of craft foam and felt. The daddy helped them spoil me a little too :)

6. Bryce got to go to the rodeo for the first time! Pics of that to come soon...but all i can say is...he had the time of his LIFE!

7. Justin made the Dean's List.

8. My throat hurts.

9. My Dad is gearing up to ride in the Saltgrass Trail Ride. So...if Bryce has ever told you that his Pop Pop is a cowboy...well its kinda the truth! Our very own Desperado will start in Cat Springs and head in to Houston...we are hoping to be all better ASAP so we can head to town and watch him ride!

10. I hands down have the BEST friends in the world. BEST.EVER. I am continuously blown away at how giving and kind my friends are. They are continuously the hands and feet of Jesus. Kind words, a helping hand, prayers, encouragement...I am crazy blessed.

thats about enough for now...i am going to post some pretty hilarious/sad pictures of my sickies later. so be on the lookout for that :)

etsy

SO....I could get lost and lost for hours and hours on etsy. Its my most favorite place.

Check it out etsy.com (if for some reason you dont know what i am talking about). I love to get inspiration from these site...but the most fun thing to do is buy other peoples CUTENESS!! Check out this new store I found from Night Owl Crafting!

I ordered some wedding gifts from there TODAY!! Umm and of course I bought a little something for myself too :)

Kiki Creates

How FUN!!

a snow day at the mac shack

I love at home days. I love out and about days too....but there is just something special about a SNOW DAY! Yes...it "snowed" Yes...Texas is like shut down (well not Toyota of course) Yes...we are STILL in our pajamas! Amen to fleece!!!

this was our first pic of the day! poor lucy girl had to potty in the snow!

Bryce's first snowman!! His name is Mr. Pickles. Please be aware that his jets helmet is on his head and those fruit loops are EYES. He was going to have a raisin mouth...but Brody ate them. Poor Mr. Pickles is now long gone. He did last a few hours though!

Big Brother Bryce threw some snow balls at the window! Brody was really confused...

So we bundled him up and let him check it out for himself!

He scooped snow with my wooden spoon. Brax watched from the window because he didnt want to put shoes on :)

SNOW!! Please notice that we could only find ONE of his gloves...so on the other hand is..a sock!

three angels watching sesame street in warm jammies

when the babies went down for a nap bryce and i made this! he said he would like his pop pop to live here. pop pop better go on a diet!! bryce can hardly wait for his pop pop to get home from work today and check his email for pics of mr. pickles!

then...we were still bored...so we built a tower. we had to redo it like 10 times before we could get it to survive long enough for a picture! so in closing...i heart this snow day!!!

TODER'S FIRST FIELD TRIP!

Sweet Brody Todey had his very first field trip this week! He got to go with his adorable classmates to Boerne Gymnastics! He had SO much fun playing with his friends and running around through the obstacle course over and over. His cute daddy even got to come see him play for a few minutes! He got to have a pizza party after and then went back to school for a nap with his most favorite teacher in the WORLD!

Brody loves preschool SO much. Each day we realize more and more how our prayers on "where to put Brody" are answered. "Mainstreaming" him is what we are going to continue to do...for now! His development is really amazing. He had his BIG evaluation last week and...drum roll...he is currently 28 months and he evaluates at 23 months. I dont know about you...but I think that is pretty crazy awesome. Praise God. I am so thankful for our insanely wonderful therapists. His Occupational Therapist and Speech Therapist are part of our family now. They encourage us in so many ways...and they love our little boy to pieces.

Some of you may know that we have struggled on where Brody will go next year. The public school systems are available to take over his therapy when he turns 3. Basically that means...when Brody turns 3 (which is the beginning of next school year, when bryce goes to kinder) he would start going to school 5 days a week for half days. We have prayed and prayed and thought and thought about this....conclusion is Brody will not be participating in PPCD (that is the name of the program) at this time. There are so many factors that were involved in that decision. We specifically prayed that God would speak clearly on this decision to us....we prayed that in His timing we would hear His answer. And I really am confident that we did. Thank you to all of those who encouraged us during that decision making time! So at this time...Brody will continue at FBC preschool! Who knows what God has in store for our little muffin later on. But for now...its FBC and private therapy. The BEST news is that he gets to stay with the most FABULOUS teacher in the universe next year. Hip Hip Hooray for Mrs. Kathy (or me kaky...as Brody says!). Everyday I get on my knees and give a shout out to God for giving us the most perfect and precious little boy he EVER made. (you can argue with me on that...but you just wont win ;)...)

I am praying that we can figure out a way to get Brody into gym class. It is so good for his development and muscle tone! Just not sure what I would do with his cute brothers during his class. We will see :)

Here are some pics...

he did this about 97 times.

he was determined to get over this!!

i dont know why...but this makes me think of him as an old man lol

sorry the pics are a little crummy...they are all from my phone!

so exciting!

So my super amazing (and one of my faves) friend is in the process of adopting a baby!! Please check out her blog to see how you can help!!!! I am so excited to pray alongside my friend and support her in any way I can...now hurry and go see!!!

(ps: she even trusted me to create the logo! i feel so fancy!)

Katie's Blog

Please also head over to another sweet family's blog to see their story!! Bryce took some money out of his "skateboard fund" to send to this sweet family for the puzzle piece fundraiser...and we actually have never met them! But someone with such a big heart has to be awesome...so go visit this one too!

Peterson Blog

hoot!

1. Are you married/in a relationship/single? For how long?

7 years ago I met the cutest man in the world. We got married and had the three cutest little boys in the world.

2. What do you do for a living? Do you enjoy it?

a. wife to j mactastic b. mommy to the three macaronis c. preschool teacher to 4 year olds at FBC

and i am pretty in love with all of the above!

3. In what state do you live? Where were you born and raised?

i am a texas girl all the way!

4. Do you have children? If so, how many? If not, do you want them?

bryce and brody and braxton

5. Who is your favorite blogger to follow and why?

oh my. i am inspired by so many bloggin mamas. i love to read about what is going on with other mommys in similar boats as me. i am in love with blogs that have something super crafty/practical to do with my kids. i love moms that are going the extra mile and following God's voice! and i love blogs that post cute pictures of fun with their kiddos :)

reading with bryce

bryce and i really love to read together. he is learning to read himself now and thinks it so fun when he recognizes words or can stop and sound out words on his own.

each night we read two books together after the babies go to bed. it is such a sweet time. he gets to pick one book and i get to pick one book. he usually picks his childrens bible that he got from preschool last year. i pick something silly.

my mom and dad saved ALL of my books from when i was little. ALL OF THEM.

we have quite the book collection over here....because i was always quite the worm.

my favorites were the sesame street collection...like ernie gets lost and grovers bad awful day. i still have my wheres waldos books (which bryce and justin love to do together) and all the dr. suess books and so many others.

my mom had me write my name and phone number in all my books. this is hilarious to me. like...if someone found my book were they really going to call me to return it? probably not. but so still cute that she had me do it. written in the front of many of them is my name and the year i received the book.

one of the BEST books we dug out the other day was this...

i so so so love these amelia bedelia books! what a silly lady!! did anybody else read these??

and what do you know??? the first page had this written inside :)

Now Brody LOVES to read too. ALL DAY. He gets a book (his books are in a special box...they have pages that cannot be ripped...he still gets excited lol) and plows me over so he can sit on my lap. I can be in the middle of a million things and he will just plop his booty on down. He loves books with pictures of animals. He likes to make their noises and if there is EVER a kitty on the page....he kisses it.

i am looking forward to so many more years of reading to my cute boys. i love how they slow me down.