V-Day

So I know that I am soooo behind in blogging, but I wanted to get this posted while I have a minute. Last night We had a valentine's party with a bunch of friends. It was so much fun! I got the idea from my friend, Kendra's, blog who did it a few years ago.

So we all met at my house, where I read the guys the rules, took their wallets, gave them their uniforms

and sent them on their way. they had to follow the clues using keys that they each had on their keyrings,
here they were supposed to shoot free throws (pretty sure they didn't)

(the clue was in Rod's mailbox)


They also had to complete certain tasks like:
1. buy your wife a present using only the funds provided- we gave them a bunch of change, they went to the dollar store & came back with some interesting choices.



And I'm not sure how thrilled the people working at the dollar store were with 9 guys in matching shirts paying for stuff with pennies!



2. obtain flowers for your wife without spending any money. I was impressed with the creativity! Some of the guys brought flowers they had picked from somewhere, and some of the guys brought flour from the kitchen. I didn't get pictures of the flowers as most of them didn't make it through the night.

3. At one stop they had to make us a card with my SIL's stamp collection.

There were some very nice cards. Our boys are mucho talented! Maybe Shannon can talk Rob into sharing his poem.

After they got back, we gave them the candy bouquets each wife had made while the guys were gone

and then ate dinner made by my fabulous friends, Jamie and Jenni! Thanks again you guys! And we watched a slideshow of every couples pictures set to every couple's songs. It was so fun to see everyone's pics from when they were dating or first married. Let's just say fashion and hairstyles have come a long way! Here are some of my favs (better to ask forgiveness rather than permission, right?)


After the slideshow we played "How well do you know your wife?" kinda like the Newlywed game. While the boys were gone, we asked each girl 5 questions and then videotaped her answers. Then we asked each husband the same questions and played his wife's answers to see if they matched. Great questions, fabulous answers, but my fav part was watching my sweet hubby's struggle with not wanting to answer cuz he gets embarrassed easy and wanting to answer cuz he wanted to win. So fun- and I learned a LOT about my friends, maybe too much in some cases! Congratulations to Josh and Jamie who were 5 for 5.

I am so thankful to have such fantastic friends to have so much fun with. Thanks everyone for coming, I had a blast! And thanks all you hubbies for being such good sports.


Here are the girls in their cute shirts:

Here are our "gifts" from the guys

***okay I realize I did not put the pics of the couples up yet. Hubby wants to take me out for valentine's so I will add them tonight or tomorrow***

I finally used my Cricut

So I have a ton to catch up on, and that was my plan for last night, but then a little princess's fever got a little too high for my liking and we had to visit the ER. Turns out she has bronchiolitis (basically a cough and fever) and there is really nothing we can do except keep her fever under control and give her lots of extra love.

But I just wanted to post this before I forget- because I am just so stinkin' proud of myself being all crafty! I saw this on some blog (that I can't remember) and wanted to make one for us. I did some googling so that I could give proper credit and it seems like the original idea came from here

Anyways, so for FHE a couple of weeks ago we talked about family rules and how rules help us and keep us safe and Mom and Dad are not just trying to be mean with the rules. Then I had each of the kids write a list of rules that they thought we should have in our family. If my scanner was working I would upload them, because their lists are pretty precious. Some of my favorites were:
Zach- don't say bad words, take care of your brothers and sisters, don't brag
Hannah- listen to Mom and Dad, go to bed when your parents tell you to, do your chores
Jared- hold your pencils right, Mom and Dad should kiss each other, put your toys away.
(you can tell the things that we harp on them about from their lists) So then Kerry and I sat down and decided what we thought we wanted as family rules, using the kids lists for inspiration and here is what we came up with:


I love it! We tried to keep the rules broad enough so that more specific things can fit under them, but we'll see. I might need to adjust as the kids get older. So I now love my Cricut and had a lot of fun making it. In typical Amber style, though, it's not finished. I couldn't find my mod podge last night. So, when Becca feels better I am off to Wal-mart to get some and then it will be so pretty hung up in our front room

here are the rules incase you can't read from the pic:

Burgess Family Rules
work hard. play nice. do your best.
If u use it put it away
say your prayers
be honest, be clean, be polite
don't waste your time or your money
listen to Mom and Dad
take care of your brothers and sisters
Hug Mom
Laugh at Dad's jokes
Always choose the right

I didn't measure right so I left off "don't say bad words" Hopefully it won't become necessary to add it. OK so I will update soon. I have all of December plus a New Years trip to Vegas, and a fun shooting trip, and probably tons more to post about.