February Week Three

Thumbs Up:

• Mike and I had a super productive weekend. On Saturday while he was outside changing my air filters, brake light, and spark plugs, I was upstairs installing two ceiling fans in the kids' rooms. Mike also built the raised gardens in the backyard and relocated the grass that he dug up to the front yard and fertilized. It feels good to DIY sometimes!

I went into the garage to flip the breaker and this is what I found!

Glad he knew what he was doing!

Jackson's new ceiling fan. He picked out a baseball and basketball pull to accessorize!

• If I haven't mentioned it before now, the kids are crazy about the Frozen movie soundtrack and we listen to it all the time. They have all the songs memorized and burst into song at the most random times. Anyway, while I was getting ready this week Kennedy was singing Let it Go and I had to take a little video to share! Jackson is the singer of the family, but I think K's picking up on it pretty well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAlh-kNa2GI&feature=youtu.be

• We've had some amazing weather this past week/weekend and enjoyed a lot of outdoor time. It's supposed to cool off starting today, but it gave us all something to look forward to! The kids love doing sidewalk chalk, so we've been doing a lot of that. I only let them chalk on bath nights though; I think you can see why!

COVERED in chalk! I just noticed when I uploaded this that you can see Jackson in the background in timeout - ha!

Jackson standing in front of my artwork - it says Best Daddy Parks Here with an arrow!

Too busy to smile for me!

Thumbs Down:

• Mike and I were so sad that we couldn't make it back to Lubbock this past weekend. The Raider Awakening Retreat had it's 50th retreat and there was a big push for alumni to come back and participate. A lot of our great friends and family made it out for the occasion and it would've been great to see everyone like old times. Raider Awakening is a Christian retreat put on by the students at St. Elizabeth's University Parish at Texas Tech University. It is what brought Mike and I and many other couples together as well as strengthening our relationship with Christ. Makes us feel old to think that Mike retreated on RA #26 and I retreated RA #29 and they're already on 50! Doesn't feel like that much time has passed.

Favorite Things: Back to the house! This week it's on to Jackson's Room! His room is actually designed as a bonus room, but we put him and all the play room stuff together. It is seriously huge and I don't know many other 3 year olds that have 52" TV in their room either! He's definitely one spoiled little boy.

Like any huge room, you have to have your own entryway!

Finally put Mike's old baseball cards to good use.

 I meant to post this a while back, but this is where all the lovely Christmas cards you sent us are now. We pray for a different family each night!

Huge closet too!

The 'art' corner!

I think he knows he got a good deal too!

February Week Two

Thumbs Up:

• Snow Days mean lots of "togetherness" and family time. We've been enjoying all our time together watching the Olympics! Figure skating is of course my favorite, but you can't help be drawn to all the events. The amazing athletic ability of the competitors is out of this world. The Olympics, like the military, always make me feel super patriotic too!
• Another thing I finally accomplished thanks to the snow days was making a flight suit purse. I've wanted to make one since I saw them online like 5 years ago, but back then Mike had no suits to spare. Then when he finally gave me a couple old flight suits I didn't have the time. Thankfully, he agreed to watch the kids one day while I worked on the purse. I think it turned out really well.

• Mike and I have never been big on celebrating Valentine's Day. I try to make it more of a 'fun for the kids' kind of day. I remember growing up that my Dad either wasn't around due to Stock show season or we were with him at the San Antonio Stock Show during Valentine's Day and my sister's birthday which is the day after. He always did something a little extra for Carey and I separate from our Valentine from both he and Mom. I always thought that was special and he still sends his own card, treat, or both to me for Valentine's even now. My Daddy will always be my forever Valentine! I hope K can say the same about Mike when she gets older.

• I finally got a haircut! I didn't do anything drastic, really just a trim. It's crazy when you have kids the things that go by the wayside because it's just hard to get them done. I hadn't gotten my hair trimmed since August when I had my parents to watch the kids for me. It was a nice treat!

Thumbs Down:

• The van passed 100,000 miles last month so the time has come to do 'scheduled maintenance'! We forked over quite a bit of money for a new timing belt, new tires, flushed power steering, flushed transmission fluid, new spark plugs and cabin air filter. We should be good to go for a while. The truth is I absolutely love my car and I want to keep it running in good shape as long as possible, so really it's a small price to pay. I just would have much rather gone on a shopping spree with that money!
• I really hope our family is on the mend. Jackson has had a couple 24 hour things last week, I had the upper respiratory stuff two weeks ago and Mike had some type of food poisoning yesterday. I'm just ready to have all of us healthy for a little while! Thankfully Kennedy is strong and healthy!

Favorite Things: I'm taking a break from house pics this week to share LOTS of pics from our holiday weekend trip with Mike's squadron. We left a little late for the trip due to road conditions, but had a blast the short time we were in Boone, NC. Our cabin included all the folks that are in the same instructor course as Mike.

Jackson with his 'adoptive parents' for the weekend, Atlas and Slammer! 

Pretty sure Jackson has a huge crush on Atlas and wanted her to do everything with him!

Draino and June. The kids loved playing with June. I think she was a little overwhelmed by them!

Kennedy spent most of her time finding snowballs with Diablo.

Jackson just wanted to eat snow!

After the kids went to bed the adults participated in some extracurricular activities! Apparently if you have Everclear and a lighter you can blow fire! Slammer, photographed here, has it down to an art form!

Mike's was actually way better than this, but I just caught it at the tail end.

February Week One

Thumbs Up:

• We had a bunch of snow days the end of January and the kids LOVED playing in the snow, making snow angels and a snow lady, eating snow, and trying hot chocolate for the first time. It's so much nicer to play in the snow here versus Mountain Home because there is no wind. Jackson really didn't like missing school, but it was fun to enjoy the weather while we had it.  Looks like more snow is in store this week too!
• Finally christened the house with guests for a Super Bowl Party on Feb. 2. Too bad the game wasn't very entertaining, but the company was fabulous!
• Mike and I enjoyed a nice date night on Saturday and went to dinner and a movie. We saw Monument's Men. It was very good and educational. I hadn't heard of that story before. 
• Kennedy has pooped on the potty twice now. I don't see her really being potty trained just yet, but it's a start! I think whoever said girls were easier than boys to potty train didn't know what they were talking about!

Thumbs Down:

• Our weather here has been depressing recently we had a few days of snow then rain then clouds with maybe one day of sun thrown in there over the past couple of weeks. Really looking forward to sunnier warmer weather. Hopefully that will happen soon! Though I guess I can't really complain after looking at the news of whats happening in the rest of the country!
• Mike's plane was diverted to Virginia last week due to weather and they had to stay the night there. It was just bad timing. Literally as I was answering the phone call from Mike saying he wouldn't be home for one maybe two nights due to weather, Jackson was in the bathroom throwing up! Thankfully whatever Jackson had passed quickly and Kennedy is super great at entertaining herself! I was very ready to have Daddy back home the next night though!

Mike shoveling off the trampoline!

First time trying hot chocolate was a success!

Jackson just wanted the marshmallows!

In addition to eating snow, Jackson went along the fence line and ate all the icicles too!

Two days after the snow had fallen it was just perfect for snowman building!

Favorite Thing: Upstairs Common Area

This house has a great loft in the upstairs that all the bedrooms and bathroom open up into. We have all of Mike's awards displayed on the wall which is something we've never had the space to showcase until now. Mike bought me a keyboard for Christmas and that is where I play music. We also have a nice desk/office space and craft table for when I get motivated to get crafty again! It's a very nice 'bonus' space!

We left a spot for Mike's stuff that he will get from our time in Mountain Home in case you were curious about the blank space!