Valentines 2019

It's been just a bit since we've let you know what has been going on in our lives...needless to say, we are in the thick of it raising our kiddos!! As Ferris Buller once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it!!" We are trying to not miss any of it and it's crazy how much time has passed and we are closer to having kiddos leave the nest than having them here at home!

The tradition of the 12 Days of Valentine's has continued - the family would NOT let me forget to do this one!

 Day 1: Heart cake. Elizabeth helped me this year! I am really enjoying the kids as they are getting older and having them help and learn in the kitchen!

Day 2: Double chocolate and cookies and cream fudge hearts. 

 Day 3: Chocolate PB M&M cookies. Celebrate for sure!

 Day 4: Lava Cake kisses. These were a new find this year. Rather yummy!

 Day 5: Kit Kats

 Day 6: Six packs of six Sixlets!

 Day 7: Hugs

 Day 8: Mini heart sugar cookies.

 Day 9: Reese's PB hearts

 Day 10: 5 Hershey's hearts and 5 Hershey's Strawberry filled hearts. Unfortunately, the strawberry one's were NOT good! There was something just not right about the strawberry flavor. Note to self: DO NOT buy these again!

 Day 11: M&M Cupid's message - These babies are 3x the size of normal M&M's but they taste just fine 😄

Day 12: This day is always fun to just get a collection of fun items. My favorite item was the Lovable Gummy Lobsters!! 

Caroline made us a wonderful dinner: Spaghetti with meat sauce, Caesar salad, grapes and cheesy garlic biscuits. For dessert, she surprised us with Chocolate covered strawberries!! She is a lovely gal and I'm so glad she's a part of our family.

Jonathan and Elizabeth will be heading off this weekend for a retreat with our church youth group. They have 55 kids going! While we are excited for time with our "bookend brown-eyed kids", we will miss our "middle blue-eyed kids". It's a balancing act every day to work, exercise, take care of house stuff, ministry and family activities. 

Matthew lost yet another tooth today making it the 3rd one in the last 2 weeks that he's lost. He has some big gaping holes in his mouth!

I would love to paint the picture that we are the perfect family and it's all rosy at the Cribbs' house. Parenting is not for the faint of heart! We have been having some challenges lately, but are sticking to our faith and doing our best to lead our kiddos. There are days when I think back to the preschool days and think, 'boy, were those easy!!' We went from the physically exhausing days to the mentally exhausing days. Hopefully, a few years down the road we'll be able to look back and say, 'Look! We made it!!' We don't just want to survive these days, but flourish, grow and enjoy them!

Be sure to check back... hopefully, it won't be 5 years until my next update 😬😲