I'm going to be an AUNT!!!!!!

Ted and Allison are expecting a little bundle sometime around September 8th!

We are so extremely excited for them. They have been patiently waiting for this little blessing for a long time. You can check out all the details on Allison's blog here.

I now know how hard it was to make our family wait until our children were born to know if we were expecting a pink bundle or a blue bundle. I can't wait to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl so I can start shopping! I guess it will be about another 12 weeks until we know and I can't wait.

Congratulations Allison & Ted!!!

I LOVE this kid!

...and she's not even mine!

I'm sure I'll have lots of fun stories after "teaching" at the preschool for a few weeks. I'm in the 3 year old room and I really do love that age. A challenge? Yes. But, never a dull moment.

Today was my first Friday to be there. Some of the kiddos only come on Friday, so we had some today that I'd never had before. One little girl and I played and read books. Then, she looks up at me and says "Is your mommy picking you up today?" in the sweetest little voice. I tried to explain to her that I was a mommy and I'd be picking my kids up today. She was a little confused as she really thought that I was a new kid in the class. I figured that I had explained it well enough and she had understood that I'm a substitute teacher in her class for a few weeks.

Fast forward about an hour...

Our little class heads out to the playground and we pass Courtney's class coming in from the playground. Courtney runs and gives me a hug and we talk for a second and then keep going.

The little girl stops me. Looks at me so sweet and says, "Is that your sister you were hugging?!"

I LOVE her. She thinks that Courtney and I are sisters! She innocently believes that I am 3!

So sweet.

I must play make believe way better than I thought I did. ;)

Hi!

Hey everybody! I gave the blog a new look today. I'm in the process of giving our house a new look, too, so I guess it just spilled on over to here. I can't wait to show you the new stuff we are doing in the house. It's not all here yet though, so I'll wait until it's all done.

A few random things...Garrett was sick today. He's got a respiratory virus. Hopefully it doesn't stick around long. He coughed allllll night. Which = being awake all night.

I was supposed to start a little stint today working at the kid's preschool for a little bit while a teacher is on maternity leave. Hopefully Garrett will be well on Thursday so we can go. I guess that's why I found myself with extra time to spruce up the blog today. I had organized and was ready for a few weeks of not having much spare time without the kiddos. It's amazing how organized I can be when I have to be!

I got something really cool today and I'm so excited....you'll have to check out my photography blog later to see!!!

Hope your week is off to a great start!

Justin's Christmas Gift

...and mine, too!

We usually don't get each other Christmas gifts, but this year I asked Justin what he would want and he said a weekend trip for the two of us. So, I planned the trip and let him open up the destination on Christmas morning. I ended up having to tell him that we were going somewhere for four days in order for him to take off work in a timely manner. But, he didn't know the exact destination until Christmas morning. (or so he tells me, but I do know that he was checking the history on the computer and had it narrowed down to a few spots...crazy guy!)

Here's a few pics. I'm going to try to scan the good one from the camera people of both of us when I get a chance.




We spent 3 nights in Lake Tahoe last weekend and it was wonderful!! This is definitely one of the(if not THE) most beautiful places we have ever been. We skiied two days. It had been so long since we had skiied that I was worried that I wouldn't remember how. It was like riding a bike, though. SO fun!

A special thank you to both our families for watching the kids for us while we went on our trip! XOXO

A little of this and that

I scrapped a little today....these aren't that clear of pics, but I promised Sondra I would post them. ;)

These are from last year's snow...Garrett was not a fan!





Courtney with her Noah's Ark drawing. This is a girl Noah with kitties on her ark.



And then Garrett decided to make himself a kitty.

Finally...

I know, right? It's about time I post some Christmas pics! These are Christmas morning and they are all out of order, but cute still the same. ;)

This one sums up the kids. Garrett takes each gift and opens it, plays with it, studies it. Courtney rips through all her gifts in record time and then goes back later to check them all out.



Trying on his clothes after he opens them. Seriously....he opens and then takes in everything a gift has to offer before he moves on to the next one. I love that about him. (new Thomas underwear that he had to try on...Santa knows he's about ready to use the potty)



Big sister showing him how it's done.






This is one of my favorite pics from the holidays!


Stay tuned....I'll post Justin's Christmas gift pictures soon!!!! :)

Little Turtle Guy

Garrett fell in love with the sea turtles when we were at South Padre. We were regulars at the sea turtle rescue place. I found this little stuffed sea turtle and he got it for Christmas. He LOVES it. I was so excited to find a stuffed sea turtle. You can find a regular turtle anywhere, but a sea turtle was a diamand in the rough. I found it at the local christian bookstore of all places!

End of the Holidays

Courtney starts back to preschool tomorrow. We enjoyed our last day of what still felt like the holidays today. She and I had a tea party, Garrett played choo choos, we watched football and had a fire going.

Tomorrow we get back to regular schedule. This will be nice in a way, but after a day like today it makes me kind of sad. Next year Courtney will go every day and I'm already starting to miss her and she's not even gone yet! Garrett is going to miss her terribly as well. They play together pretty much all day. I'm going to miss that. It's so funny to watch them. Especially when they are playing "pretend" and start fighting over who they want to be. Lately they play Maggie and the Ferocious Beast. Garrett gets mad because he wants to be Maggie sometimes, too. It is hilarious!











I still need to share Christmas pictures and I will do that soon!

xoxo

A few things...

I guess it's no secret now that I love anything to do with pictures.

Now here's something that you can love about pictures...9 cent photos at Kodak Easyshare Gallery!

This is the lowest price they've ever done. I always get everyday album pics here because I have had the best luck with them turning out great for a great price. I'm behind on getting my albums up to date, so today is the day that I'll hopefully get ahead with this great price. You can get them delivered to your door or to a local store (to save on shipping). Easy.

Let's talk about project 365. I know that 365 pictures is quite overwhelming. I do know some people that are doing Project 52. One picture a week. I think this is a great idea. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Here's my challenge to you. Get your pics off your computer and put them in albums. My kids get all the albums off the shelf at least once a week and look at them. They LOVE to do that. I'm not talking about beautifully scrapbooked albums. Just albums with pictures. Hobby Lobby has very reasonably priced albums that have the journaling lines on the sides if you choose to write a little.

I'll get off my picture bandwagon now. I just think it's so important to do a good job saving your memories whether it be in a simple way or in an artistic way.

2/365



4/365


3/365 is on my phone. I've got to find the cord to get it on the computer.

Happy New Year!! & Project 365

Happy New Year!!! I love when the new year rolls around. A clean slate.

I'm sure there are lots of things to accomplish in the new year, but I just haven't figured them out yet. I will share a few with you though. I can't put them all in writing because I have this "thing"... where if I say I'm going to do something or I write it, then I have to do it and backing out is not an option. So, with that said, lots of things float around in my head when thinking about new year's resolutions, but not many get talked about unless I'm ready to commit!! It's the weenie way out. There's no doubt.

A few things to share. I love to scrapbook. Becky Higgins with CK has created a Project 365 kit that organizes how you can take a picture a day and journal a little about it. (there's just one problem...the kit is sold out so I guess I'll have to be creative and make my own album) I decided this would be a fun way to keep up with this year. I KNOW it's going to be an awesome year with lots of great things to remember. Whether it be a life changing event like Courtney starting school or just an everyday event like washing dishes...I'm going to get it all in the memory book.

That leads me to the next thing...keeping up better with my blogs. I have this one that I do an ok job keeping up with. I'm sure you'll get lots more posts with the project 365 going on. Maybe some overkill so I'll apologize in advance. I also started a blog for my church ladies group. I don't do an ok job with keeping up with that one and I am going to do better. If you ever want to stop by that one and check us out, feel free. Just go to my profile under the Sarah Circle blog. If you have a great book study that you have been a part of, please go to comments and share it with us under the January 1st post. Thanks!

I'll leave you with the first picture from my Project 365:



The kiddos were at Nana & Papa's tonight so we met Allison & Ted for dinner! (and yes, that dessert was yummy!)