So Many Reasons

Father's Day yesterday turned out much nicer, and bigger, than we had anticipated. Scott had purchased a meat smoker a few weeks ago and was dying to try it out. So what started out as smoking some ribs, somehow turned into a huge menu. Luckily, my brother called and said their plans had changed and they were on their way over. Otherwise, I'd be eating leftovers this entire week.

After some good ol' family time, many laughs, too much food, including some very yummy desserts, we decided it was time for Scott to open his presents. I'm trying to make it a point to give him one handmade present each year, in addition to his purchased gifts. Last year I made him a mini scrapbook, which he loves, keeps in his nightstand and looks at quite often. This year I wanted something a little different, something that tells him the many reasons he's such a great daddy to our children. I wish I could take full credit for the idea, but I saw something kinda like this a couple years ago in a scrapbook magazine, and added my own little twists to it. And as it turns out, it was his favorite gift:
So, first I stamped the kids' hands (holy cow,... no easy task with a 3 month old) on white cardstock. Then I asked Isabella what types of things she likes to do with her daddy and I wrote all those activities around the hand. Some of her favorite things were doing puzzles, playing chase, going to the park, doing his nails (hee, hee; sorry Cakes,...) and many other reasons why he is the best daddy ever. With Sam's hand, well a lot of those were reasons why I think he's such a great daddy to Sam. Anyway, then I matted them, framed them and added a picture of the kids. He loved it and immediately asked if he could take it to work, and this my friends, makes my heart happy.
And now I have a request, one which will involve much prayer, meditation, or any other form of spiritual connection you practice. Please send some relaxing, happy thoughts my way ASAP. You see, Scott left for California on a business trip bright and early this morning leaving me here with the kids all by myself until Friday afternoon. Now, I know many of you have husbands who go out of town frequently and are used to this, but I don't and I'm not. So, any happy thoughts you can send my way will be well received and much appreciated.

I do have quite a few activities and outings planned for this week so that we're not all couped up in the house looking at each other's faces (not that they don't have beautiful faces to look at) and driving each other crazy. Hopefully, that will help to get us through the week. And if you notice an unusually high number of postings this week it's because I promised Scott pictures of the kids every day (oh, the pressure,...).