12/365

Today I am so thankful that I have friends who make me get out of the house. Today Gale insisted that I come out to her house to take care of some of our photography business stuff. We normally meet at my house during nap time to work but Gale decided I needed to get out. (and I did) It was an absolutely beautiful day outside. We finished up our business quickly and then headed outside for a walk. The kids wanted to go check out the garden and then we headed for a walk down to the pond. The kids had the best time picking carrots, playing with Summer the deer and going on a walk. After our walk we ended up making a last minute trip to San Marcos to eat Chinese food. It was great.

The weather was so beautiful today that I decided we should skip dance class and stay at home and play outside. We haven't had a day like this in over a month and I just couldn't stand the thought of sitting at dance for an hour. We spent most of the afternoon outside riding bikes and walking around the neighborhood. It was pretty much the perfect day. The rain is supposed to move in tomorrow and it is going to rain all weekend so I am glad we made the most of it. Hope everyone else's day was just as perfect!

Walking with Summer.

Gale showing the kids how to pull up carrots.

Got one.

She did not like the dirt on it at all!

Tyler so proud of his carrots.  When we got home today they had to wash their carrots and both sat down and ate them all.  I am thinking that all vegetables will have to come from Gale's garden if you know what I mean.  ;)

Summer lovin...

A big carrot!

Heading to the pond.

Summer wanted to take a swim.

Such a beautiful day.

Carrots and a stick.

Beautiful reflection!

Jackson out for an afternoon ride.

Can you tell he loves John Deere?

Can you tell she loves Kitty cats???

Jackson can't figure out why I am always taking their picture.  He gets annoyed quickly!

11/365

Tonight I am thankful that we seem to be getting in swing of things and figuring out how function best without Jacob being here. That certainly doesn't mean it is easy at all but at least we know what we need to do to stay on schedule and we are actually fitting in some fun in there.


Today we decided to head out to the park. It is the nicest day we have had in about a week so it felt good. The kids actually didn't have to get all bundled up to go out and play. It was nice. (still cold but nice) After we got home we made some Rice Krispie treats had supper and then I let the kids use a cookie cutter to make a shape and decorate it with some icing I am wanting to get out of my cabinet. They had the best time with it. I think this is something I will have to do more often. Jaci is insisting that we save some for daddy to eat so I guess we will have to do that. (or make another batch) I did these with the fat free I Can't Believe it's not Butter spray and was a little worried about how they would turn out. I was pleasantly surprised at how good they were. Of course the calories in the marshmallows aren't great but at least they are a little healthier. :)

I'm off to finish up the laundry. Hope you all have a great week!
 

Little miss wouldn't let me fix her hair after her nap.  It is really crazy!

Ty happy to be out!

They were constantly in motion...made it a little hard to get good pictures.

This picture totally cracks me up.  Jaci has the hardest time getting onto this bridge because it is so slippery and it moves.  She hates it but it is the only way to the slides she likes so she has to do it.  If you have sceen the movie ELF with Will Ferrell picture the escalator sceen and that is pretty much what Jaci was doing.  TOO FUNNY!

Jackson swinging high.

Ty having fun.

Watching the boys.

My precious babies!

Making a snowman.

Yum.

Tyler wanted a star.

Which he of course had to decorate green.  (what other color is there?)

Jaci wanted a star too.

Do you love her hair?  She wouldn't let me fix it so she fixed it herself.  Lovely isn't it?  Oh...and don't eat anything with pink icing on it when you come to our house.  :)

Look what I did!

10/365

Today marks a week that Jacob has been gone. This is the longest that we have gone without seeing each other since we were married. It almost feels like when we were dating and living hours apart (aside from me having to take care of the kids and sell the house)...actually scratch that... it is nothing like that other than the fact that I miss him terribly and now live for the weekends when I get to see him. We are so ready for him to come home next weekend even if it is only for 2 days. The kids are finally to a point where they aren't crying for him everyday and I am to a point where I cry everyday. Funny how that works. Part of that is me missing him and the other part is the stress of being here without him and the fear of the unknown in the future. I have some wonderful friends here and it is going to be hard to leave them and the life we have created here. Although I know this is the best move for our family it is kind of hard to get past what we are going through right now. It will all work out in the end though.

I have to share a cute moment with Jaci this evening.  After I put her to bed I was downstairs cleaning the kitchen when I hear her over the monitor.  She has been calling me back up to her room 3-5 times each night so I just assumed she was calling me back up for one of her many complaints.  When I got into the hallway I could hear her singing about Jesus.  I stood there and listened outside the door and she was singing about Jesus creating teddy bears and Jesus being God's baby and they would keep the teddy bears safe.  I ran and got the phone and called Jacob because it was just too cute.  By the time I got back to her door she was on to Jesus making Twizzlers (the candy).  It was so cute but sadly Jacob couldn't hear her.  This went on for about 10 minutes.  Usually Tyler is the one carrying on about Jesus and God but I guess tonight Jaci was just feeling the need to sing. 

I didn't take many pictures today.  The kids are kind of tired of me taking pictures of them all the time.  We went outside for about an hour and played in the backyard.  I am so ready for the weather to warm up a little.  I usually love winter but this January has just been miserable in so many ways.  Usually here there is at least a day or two out of every week that is really nice in the winter.  That just hasn't been the case this year.  Hopefully the coming week will bring better weather.  I'm off to bed!  It's been a long day.

9/365

Today was a much better day than yesterday. I was in a serious funk yesterday and I think it had to do with us not getting out of the house for 3 days other than to go to carpool and me having so much to do to get ready for the open house. Cleaning with all 3 kids around is kind of like shoveling snow in a blizzard. I felt like all day yesterday (and this morning) I was just spinning my wheels. I did manage to get it all done and the kids and I went out for a little lunch at Chili's and then headed out to watch the Princess and the Frog. We LOVED the movie. It was so cute and had a really good message about working hard for what you want in life. It was a great twist to the classic fairytale. The boys didn't want to go see a "girl" movie but since there are the same amount of girls as boys now that Jacob is gone we won out. :) Guess what...they liked it.

The open house went well in our realtor's opinion. There were only 4 people who came by but one couple was pretty interested and stayed for an hour figuring up house payments etc. I really hope they are the ones. The people from last week ended up on qualifying for enough to buy our house so we were a little discouraged but hopefully someone will come along soon.

After we got home the kids were begging me to take a bike ride even though it was only 41 degrees outside. We made a quick trip around the neighborhood and then they were too cold so we came in and have been relaxing ever since. It is kind of nice. I'm off the give the kids a bath and get them in bed. I am in desperate need of a little downtime for myself. I think I will put in a good movie and enjoy a glass of wine. Cheers!

The kids ready to ride.

Jackson being cool.

Happy to be outside.  (even though it was freezing!)

Jaci and Kitty...I insisted she not wear her Hello Kitty boots because they would be too cold.

Jaci couldn't take of the sunglasses once we were inside.  (They are Hello Kitty too and she loves them)

Kitty cat had to try them on too!

8/365

I am busy getting ready for our open house tomorrow so I am going to keep this short.  The cold kept us in for another day.  We are all tired of being cooped up in here.  Tomorrow during the open house we will be forced to get out so that will be nice.  Not sure yet what we are going to do because it is still going to be cold but we will try to find something fun to occupy our time.  You can tell how thrilled the kids were tonight with me being up and busy.  Not much fun at all.  Tomorrow will be a better day.  Pray the open house goes well.  We are all tired of living like this and it has only been 6 days.  I'm off to clean some more.

Tyler's lizard box broke today...It was BAD.

And he wasn't too happy with me for taking pictures of him instead of helping right away.

Watching a movie.