January 2016

Making personal pizzas

 Doing the dishes happily together! Teamwork!

Ruby's preschool friends. L-R: Ellie, Ruby, Mason and Kingston.

saying goodbye to daddy!

 

Ruby had a birthday!

What a January birthday in Georgia looks like. 

Conrad got a "disgusting science" kit for Christmas. ew ew EW!!!

New Year's Eve party at the Chris and Alicia Jensen's house. They know how to throw a party!!!

December 2015

Pfefferneusen batter (first attempt, I later learned it needed a LOT more flour)

Pfefferneuse results after a second time making them

cozy under the Christmas tree

Conrad competed in River Ridge Elementary's School-wide spelling bee

We had fun watching him! He was nervous but performed SO well!!!

a little preschool Christmas program

Out to eat at P.F. Chang's in Augusta to celebrate our 12th Wedding Anniversary

Hayride through the Life of Christ. 

I heart this picture

Hanging up lights for Christmas

Bad photo, but Conrad's in there somewhere. He had an awesome coach for football. Go Eagles!

Our funny elf Cokey found us.

November 2015, Thanksgiving in Kennesaw, Georgia

Thanksgiving was so fun to spend it with my cousin Katie and her funny husband Nate. Katie is a classic gal with the sweetest personality and kind heart. We had such a nice time with them.

Playing in the backyard creek is what childhood memories are made from.

Ruby, Claire, and Amelia

Cole and Conrad (they look pretty happy to be asleep)

UNO

Top to Bottom: Claire (with a friend holding her up), Ruby, Amelia, Conrad, Ashlyn, Cole and Natalie. We love those kids!

Cole and Conrad in heaven. Me and Katie after our Thanksgiving morning run (over the river and through the woods, literally!)

We had a fantastic time spending Thanksgiving with family members and loved that our kids loved each other. Nate fried turkey, and then after we didn't eat it all, he decided to make refried turkey. (!!! it was funny! AND YUMMY!).

...

We've been in Georgia for about 2 1/2 weeks and we're loving it! The ladies all have their hair and makeup done when I see them jogging outside. I can instantly tell who is native to the area based on their Southern drawl. I will admit it is catchy and I catch myself from starting to talk like them after I have been conversing with a native. But it's so pretty. I love it. I love it. I love it.
Josh is back in STL finishing up his residency. He moved us all down here May 22 and flew back Sunday the 24th of May. The days we try to stay busy but the evenings it gets hard without something to look forward to (daddy coming home!). It gives me a greater empathy for single mothers and military wives. It also gives me an excuse to not do my hair and makeup. (yikes. making good impressions with my new neighbors!).
We are pretty settled in. We were able to drive to Columbia, South Carolina to visit my Aunt and Uncle the second Saturday we were here. We went to the Columbia Zoo and sweat sweat sweat. They were fantastic. Kim (the aunt) and Reed were so good with my kids. It was really nice to have help. Especially with "running Ruby." She runs everywhere.
We've had a little streak of bad luck, however. There was a pretty bad thunderstorm last week. The next morning the kids were complaining that the Xbox 360 wasn't turning on. And that the TV wouldn't turn on either. I was consumed with my own thoughts of how we were going to survive that day so I brushed it off until later in the day. Turns out our power surge didn't do it's job. SO we've been learning how to interact with one another! It is one of those blessings in disguise. The kids are playing more and are less grumpy. It was HARD the first 2-3 days but we figured out if we invite friends over that helps us. And a trip to the library where I checked out 27 kid books helps, too.
Then, unfortunately, today Cooper escaped. I haven't taken him on enough walks for him to know his way around the area and back to our house. I hung up some flyers around the neighborhood and surrounding area. It's posted on FB, also. We have a bad feeling about it, though. Not sure he's coming back. We will see, I guess.