120/365

Zach and his Mickeys
Zach still LOVES Mickey Mouse.
When we were going through Walgreens a few months ago, there was this huge pillow Mickey hanging at the end of the isle and Zach almost leaped out of the cart trying to get to it. This Mickey can now usually be found in Zach's bed, taking up half of the room!
The smaller Mickey is a talking one that John brought back for him from a business trip to Orlando, Florida last year.

119/365

One of the best presents we ever bought Drew was his Leapster L-Max! Well, we actually called it a gift from Zach to Drew...and he received it the first time he visited the hospital after Zach was born. It has been WONDERFUL for keeping both the boys entertained during times when we have had to wait. And even better, the games are educational!! Woohoo!! It is actually through some of those games that Drew learned his letter sounds so well. With well over 25 game cartridges he has practice on everything from letter sounds to math problems. Now Zach likes to give the games a try. He is still a little too young to get the whole gist on how they work, but he still has fun. :) I highly recommend a Leapster to anyone with a young child!

118/365

After Drew's soccer game, Zach was trying to help Drew get off his socks. It was quite the comical site! ;)

117/365

This past Saturday, I was in bed all day with a fever and achey body. Even though the fever broke overnight, and I was up and about on Sunday, I still was pretty tired. While I was sick, the dished pilled up and this was what greeted me on Monday morning... 2 sinks overflowing with dishes. :)

116/365

Truth & Training Group 2008-2009
Tonight was the final night of AWANA at our church. This above is a picture of the 3rd-5th grade group that I help with (I'm the class secretary) during the year.

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Construction has begun on the boys playset!! It looks like it will be a long, slow process. Especially since it seems to be raining most Saturdays.

114/365

This is something I wasn't sure if I wanted to include in our Project 365, but it is part of our year.

This morning, my friend, Angela called to share some horrible news with me. The restaurant we often visit , (and Drew & John's favorite) Nakato Japenese Steakhouse, suffered a terrible loss yesterday. The owner, Joe Nakato, passed away. Joe was there almost every time we visited the restuarant with a smile for us as we entered, even calling John by name. Even more amazing is the fact he was able to call MANY of his customers by name. Visiting Nakato's just isn't the same without Joe there. He will be greatly missed.

113/365

Teeth Cleaning Time
I love the feeling of freshly polished teeth and that was how I was able to start this Monday morning. I am so thankful that the Erin Williams from church refered us to Dr. Martins! Their whole clinic is so welcoming and makes you feel like you have been seeing them for years. Even better, its a wonderful Christian atmosphere.

112/365

Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day, Drew's class spent the afternoon planting outside their classroom. Zach and I joined the group for a gorgeous, sunny day out in the heat (79 degrees!). Drew was especially proud of his bean plant he has been growing in the classroom. Besides transplanting everyones' bean plants outside, they also transplanted some herbs and flowers. around their outdoor classroom area. Most of the afternoon, Drew maned the watering can...making sure each transplant got a proper drink in their new home.

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Chalk Drawing

After school this afternoon, we broke out the new package of sidewalk chalk I picked up at Walgreens last week. Drew was very excited to try his hand at drawing our house ;) You have the garage - complete with our car & van as well as a bunch of junk in it...the dining room window with arch...the porch and front door....and then the 3-bay windows of the master bathroom. And of course you can't forget the beautiful blue sky, clouds and sun. The shape below the house is an "airplane" shape he saw in the clouds...and if you look at the very top of the picture you will see blue arrows - to help show people how to get back to the driveway. ;)

110/365

Scratched Mario Kart Disc

Today I sent our Mario Kart disc off to Nintendo to be replaced. This past weekend, Zach shoved the disc into our VCR which left it with some deep scratches causing it not to work any longer. :( For $25, Nintendo will send us a new disc if we sent them the old scratched one. Not as cheap as I had hoped, but better than paying $50 for a new one at the store!!

109/365

Pastor Candidate

Today the Housleys candidated at our church. It was such a wonderful day!! Before leaving to pastor a church in Kansas 5 years ago, Phil was one of our associate pastors at PCBC...so they are no strangers to us. In fact, they had been at PCBC for around 10 years. We are praying for the God's guidance as our church votes next week on whether to call Phil as our new pastor. Selfishly I am hoping for this to happen! They are such a caring, Godly couple and I would love to have them back around all the time :)

108/365

This afternoon we surprised the boys with a trip to see "Disney on Ice" at the JQH Arena on the MSU campus in Springfield. They were both unsure about it at first...didn't really understand what they would be seeing. But once the show began Drew was immediately drawn into the story and said he loved it. Zach loved seeing Mickey, but the rest of the time he wasn't too into the whole thing.

107/365

Our new formal dining set is here! And it is all put together :)

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Busy Day!

The morning wasn't too busy for us, but right before taking Drew to school things started getting crazy. Starting with coming out from getting ready to take Drew, to find both the boys playing in the large box of styrofoam from getting our new dining set. Of course the styrofoam didn't stay inside the box...but was down the halls, into the dining room, living room and kitchen...AND both boys were covered! UGH!

After returning from picking Drew up after school, it was time to start baking. I made a batch of stollens for the pastor candidate that is visiting our church this weekend, so I had to get it mixed and rising before we headed back out to have Drew's soccer team pictuers taken. After pictures he had a game and then it was back home to finish up the stollens.

105/365

This evening I noticed the sound of running water when I went to close up the house. When I looked out the front window, I noticed they had turned the fountain back on in the pond across the street from our house. They haven't turned the evening lights back on yet (usually it switched between white, red and blue lights throughout the evening), but evidently they are thinking the cold snaps are finally past us.

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Yes, that is a TV in our bathroom. I said to John I would use the tub more if I could watch a movie while I was soaking. I have tried reading, but was worried the whole time that I would drop the book in and since I love my water HOT, the steam also messed the pages up. So he bought me a TV with a DVD player in the side. What a hubby!

103/365

The boys each received a Star Wars Clone outfit in their Easter baskets (from gma & gpa Stroud) and they LOVE them! They wore them most of Sunday and then put them on again right after breakfast Monday and wore them until it was time to get dressed to take Drew to school.

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Happy Easter!
These were SUPPOSE to be the boys' Easter outfits. But do to a very cold, rainy day...I ended up changing Zach into a long-sleeved shirt and pants right after this picture. After church we came home to eat leftovers from last night for lunch and then the boys had an indoor egg hunt in the basement (thanks to Grandpa Stroud hiding some of the eggs they had brought). The boys were very excited to find change in some and small candy bars in others. The "Easter Bunny" (a.k.a. mom/dad and gma/gpa Stroud) left them quite a haul.

**Drew picked out his own shirt & tie ;) **

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Easter Dinner with Family
With church on Sunday, we decided to do our Easter Dinner a day earlier. So on Saturday evening, Jen's parents, John's mom & step-dad, and John's sisters and their families joined us for Easter Dinner. The only picture I eneded up getting of any of the dinner preparation was of my dad cutting the turkey breast. Our meal: turkey, baked ham, broccoli rice casserole, cheesy hasbrown casserole, watergate salad, orange fluff salad, deviled eggs, pistachio bunt cake (thanks to John's mom), chocolate layer dessert, chocolate chip cookies (thanks to my mom) and gooey butter cookies.

100/365

Dying Easter Eggs! This was Zach's 1st time giving it a try and I think he ended up with more dye on his hands than he did his eggs. :)

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Drew's Class - Republic EC Preschool
This afternoon Drew's teachers had a Spring Party for the class and invited any families to join in. So after Zach got up from his nap, we headed back to Drew's school to join in the fun. While the kids made sundae's, Zach and I helped another mother to hide the eggs outside the trailers. After the egg hunt, the kids also had an egg race. They were split up into teams and had to walk down and back with an uncooked egg on a spoon. SO fun to watch and the kids had a blast.

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Drew made his bed this morning all by himself :)

97/365

With Wal-Mart so close to Drew's school, Zach and I often stop in for a visit on our way back home. In fact, almost every afternoon, when Zach & I are walking back to the van after taking Drew into school, he will often ask where we are going and then ask "Wal-Mart?" He LOVES going there.

96/365

Time for haircuts! When we went to Cookie Cutter's today, Drew picked to sit in a regular seat rather than one of the cars or airplane! First time in the "big boy" seat...while playing Playstation 2 of course ;)

95/365

Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

6 servings

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2 tablespoons oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 cup shredded carrots5 cups water

1 (6.2-ounce) package Uncle Ben’s fast-cooking long-grain and wild rice mix

10-ounce (1 1/4 cups) chopped broccoli

2 cups chopped cooked rotisserie chicken (the already cooked kind from the store)

4-ounces Velveta cheese, cubed

1/2 cup (4-ounces) Cheddar Cheese

1 (10-3/4-ounce) can cream of chicken & mushroom soup

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1. Heat oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and carrots, and sauté 5 minutes.

2. Add water, seasoning packet from rice, broccoli, and chicken. Bring to a boil, and stir in rice; reduce heat, cover, and cook 5 minutes.**

3. Add cheese and soup; cook, stirring constantly, 5 minutes or until cheese melts. Serve immediately.

**If you use the regular rice instead of fast-cooking, step 2 will take 25 minutes instead of 5 minutes.

Personally, I like to add more chicken, broccoli, carrots, & cheddar cheese than it calls for in the recipe. :)

94/365

Easter Egg Hunt at Republic Early Childhood. When we arrived the boys were able to have their pictures taken with the Easter Bunny. While we were waiting for the hunt to begin, the boys were able to participate in some activities Parents-As-Teachers had set up in the cafeteria. Then they split everyone into two groups 0-2 years and 3-5 years and each child was able to find 15 eggs. Most the eggs were filled with hard candies or Hershey kisses, but a few held special goodies. Drew found one that got him a Wal-Mart gift card...which he of course had to spend buying a new small Lego set.

93/365

An evening with friends. Tonight we went over to the Clarks' for dinner with the Walkers. We took cheesy hashbrown casserole and the leftover "poop" muffins.

92/365

Jumping! That is Zach's preferred form of getting from one place to another. He jumps EVERYWHERE!

91/365

April Fool's Day!

I started off the morning making chocolate muffin "poop" piles ;) Drew had no interest in trying them, but as soon as Zach heard they were chocolate he dug in...and begged for me.

For dinner I made "cupcakes"....rather meatloaf with mashed potatoes on top. TOO funny! Both the boys were all ready to dig-in to their "cupcakes" but weren't too excited about finding out they weren't cake after all. John wouldn't even touch them until he knew what they were. lol