Just updates

It's already March of 2012.... wow, wow, wow. We have been busy little bees with school, work and starting the NEW business, Blanks Boutique!!!! Very, VERY exciting... I have been "secretly" working on this for a super long time and it feels so good to finally be out in the open and to see how excited the applique/embroidery community is. I took some major leaps of faith on this one and it's going to pay off.

The kids are just growing, growing, growing ... Hayden continues to say hilarious stuff and Garrett is catching right up. G is 15 months now and weighs right at 20 lbs. He loves animals (pigs are his favorite), being naked, and putting lids on things. He loves to play peek-a-boo and sing "Row, row, row your boat" and "Ring around the rosy." He's definitely a dirt/rocks/sticks kind of kid, but it's not going to stop me from dressing him in pretty little bubble rompers this summer. Here are just a few, random collages from iPhone photos over the past few months. I'm ashamed that we haven't even used the real camera much this year at all! But it is getting to be that season.... :)

Karate Kid

Hayden started taking Karate classes in October. He loves it and it is the perfect activity for him. This week he tested to move up and received his Orange Belt!

I've been getting some flack about the fact that Hayden is only in ONE extra-curricular activity. "But what about basketball? Baseball? Soccer?" people will say. He will "fall behind" if you don't sign him up. I see NO PROBLEM with parents that choose to sign their kids up for multiple activities, that is just not our vision for Hayden. First of all, we are not a very sports oriented family (Hayden included!). Again, nothing wrong with it, just not how we roll. He gets plenty of exercise playing outside, rock climbing with Dad, hiking, etc. Just because we don't put him in multiple organized sports does not mean we love him any less or don't want him to excel. He will start music lessons pretty soon (we are thinking guitar when he turns 6), but we really value our family time at home and don't want to be so busy that we are never here. We are busy enough! I have a rule of trying to never have any set activities on the calendar for Saturdays. (I don't mean birthday parties, I mean recurring activities.) Saturdays are the only day of the week that we can just do whatever we want whenever we want and we really value that! We had a sermon at church a few weeks ago about getting rid of "stuff"... how we all just have to have more and more and more stuff and he also talked about activities... how we have to have our kids in more and more and more activities and we leave no time for God and family. I was very happy that he touched on that and he pretty much said exactly what we feel about them. I was really happy to get that confirmation from above!