I totally did a 5K last Sunday....

I've been choosing my words wisely when telling people...cause I figure saying "i totally did a 5k" sounds much more impressive then "I totally walked a 5k" ;)  The past few years my mom has gotten way into walking 5K's and i've been so proud of her....but continued to let that be "her thing"....until her birthday came around and she asked my brother and I to do a 5k with her ON her birthday (March 10th)...well now I had no excuse not to do one!  Jake joked with me all week leading up to it that I should be "training" and with just days leading up to it we realized that my only somewhat athletic shoes I have are packed deep in our storage unit...no I didn't train one bit and thankfully my mother-in-law wears my same shoe size:)  The run was a St.Pattys day theme benefiting leukemia   There were tons of people dressed to the nines in their green gear...tutus, leggings and even a man running in a kilt! Us however just tried to stay unfrozen!  My brother and I would run every once in a while but we mostly just walked right along side my mom making fun memories! We walked it in 46 minutes! We were not the last the cross the finish line...that was our only goal!! HA! :)

a couple of before photos (right after we stuffed ourselves with pizza...should have thought that one through)

walking up to the starting line...

                                  as we past by the start they had bag pipes playing...AWESOME!

                                             mom crossing the finish on her birthday!...

                                                 so proud of her participation medal:)...

after photo with our medals and my brothers green beer:)...

Chancy Boy...

I have had many puppies and kitties come in and out of my life...but only one sweet dog was apart of our family from beginning of life to the end of life...his precious precious life.  We got Chance when I was in 7th grade and my brother Matt was in 2nd grade. My brother really wanted a puppy so it was technically his dog and he had to go through all the "he's your responsibility" moments from my parents...so my brother loved him dearly!  He was in our lives for 16 years and we knew the day was coming but i NEVER expected to come home for Christmas, walk in the door, to my mom in tears saying that today was the day that we needed to put Chance down.  He had a really rough night the night before and was in so much pain... It was one of the hardest things my mom and I have ever done and I was so much more emotionally then I thought I would be:(  On the joyful day of going to pick out a cute little puppy...you never think of how hard it will be at the end of their life.  We are all at peace that it was time and that he is not cold and in pain anymore!  We love you Chancey Boy, rest in peace.

officially 'that family'...

So this summer we were taking 2 VERY long road trips in May one was 7 hours and one was 16 hours!  It got us thinking about the fact that because we want 3 kiddos we knew soooome day will will have to jump on the 'mini van' wagon so why not go ahead and get one before our road trips (other wise we would have to rent a van because Heather would be travailing with us and Heather affectionately called our car the 'clown car'....yeah it was REALLY small).  So in March we put our car on craigs list, months went by and we had NO interest!  So jakes dad rented a car for all of us and we moved on with our trips.  We got home and jake kept it on craigs list on and off, but since no one ever called on it, i completely forgot we were even 'trying' to sell it!  Then the night before labor day a lady emailed jake wanting to see it!!  Jake spent 3 hours the next morning cleaning it up for her while i scowered the internet for vans...but she NEVER showed!!  Then just a few days later another man called and came to see it...he loved it...but didn't offer us a very good price so we turned him down (we weren't even REALLY trying to sell the car anyway;)  then that night another family came to see it!!  SO weird right!! 6 months on and off craigs list with no interest then 3 people in one week!!  Anyway, they loved it and made us a great offer so jake met him at his bank the next day (yesterday) and BOOM my car was sold!! Well thankfully I have always kept a 'cars' savings account through ING and had been saving for this 'someday' van for quite a while (that's obviously savings that is on top off the money we would get from our payed off car)... so of course my late afternoon was searching all over auto trader and Craigs list...i found 3 i seemed to like, 2 at one place in south Dallas and one RIGHT down the road at David McDavid Honda (a HUGE dealership here in the area). So around 4:30 yesterday afternoon we head down, though Dallas traffic to see these 2 vans that were in our price range that were AWFUL!! grr i was pretty discouraged and by this point it was getting late.  But we go see the one at the dealership and it was AMAZING!!!  we probably played the 'game' all wrong...even piper during the test drive was saying "Mommy my like it! can we take it home!?".  So after the test drive and the back and forth game to get the 'right price', and the explaining to about 8 people 'no, we do not want to finance, thank you' (ugggg i HATE it!) and one LARGE personal check later...we are officially a mini van family!!!

i told jake...now all we have to do is fill it up;)

family project...

i use the term 'family project' pretty lightly...it's funny how most of our planned 'family projects' turn into...Jake doing it, and me trying to keep the girls out of his hair...oh well;)  So i got some good buys at an estate sale this weekend... first, a THOUSAND vintage fabric squares...

 and these gold frames...

I don't sew (maybe someday) so at first i didn't really know what to do with the fabric squares. I got a couple of great ideas from facebook friends...but i also had a can of spray paint that ive been waiting for over a year to use!! so we dug around for it and came up with this...

 while jake was taking apart the frames to spray paint one of the glass panels broke!... jake tried to convince me to just do 2, but i was pretty set on having 3 (i have a weird obsession with the number 3...but that's for another post;) so jake came up with the genius idea to lay the fabric squares on card stock then laminate them...ahhh he is so smart!

the end result!!  I LOVE IT!! what do ya think!??

now, what to do with the rest of the 973 other fabric squares?

a dream of ours...

"Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer"

I found this quote on pinterest months ago and i could not agree with it more!!  Jake has learned in our 7.5 year marriage is that i am not a possessions kinda girl, obviously i have to buy stuff to make our home a home, and i need clothes on my back (although 90% of mine are sissy-in-law hand me downs)...but i'm not into 'stuff'...so when it comes to gifts, Jake has learned that what i love is 'experiences'...tickets to a concert or theater production, a massage, a family trip to a museum, etc...aaaaaand we are just ITCHING to add traveling as an option someday!!!  Looking back on my childhood most all my most favorite memories were traveling with my family...my dad traveled with his job quite a bit...so my mom, brother and i would just tag along and do tons of sight seeing while he would be in meetings and then we would always stay a few days later so that he could join us.  I was SO blessed to basically travel all over the US with my family and because of those experiences i feel as though traveling needs to be placed high on the priority list!  Unfortunately we haven't gotten there yet:(  Jake and I got married young and poor;)  I was still in school and only working part time and jake was working as a land surveyor while searching for a ministry job. Then once i was done with school and working full time and finally making money, we put EVERYTHING into buying our first house, then we got this crazy idea to get completely out of debt, THEN we decided to have a baby and for me to stop working, THEN we decided to have a second baby and move to another town where the cost of living is cough just a little higher cough....so needless to say this dream to travel is still just that...a dream.  Thanks to my father-in-law we were at least able to go on a WONDERFUL honeymoon to Disney World, but that was the one and only 'real' vacation just jake and i have ever been on...I don't want to sound ungrateful...we have has some AMAZING vacations with our family's over the years (Vegas with my mom, Hawaii with jakes family, numerous lake trips with my family...and OF COURSE the YEARS jakes family has taken us to Destin, Fl!!) but jake and i a SO ready to be able to travel with our little family and be able to give our girls the experiences that it brings...and of course jake and i look forward to taking a trip again someday with out kiddos too;)  so here is our dream list...

Family Trips...

-Disney World (would love to be able to take the girls at different times in their lives too, like when they are little because its so magical, then when they are older and can ride everything, then maybe when they are teenagers and do more of Universal Studios)

-San Antonio (sea world, the Alamo, the riverwalk, etc)

-Washington DC/Colonial Williamsburg (the obvious sights... probably when they are pre-teens to teenagers)

-Boston (because i'm one of those nerdy moms who loves history;)

-San Francisco (would LOVE to go for the 4th of july, they have one of the BEST shows in the country and of course the trollies, golden gate bridge, Alcatraz and to teach them the history of 'full house' ;)

-Grand Canyon (and other Arizona sights)

-Branson (someplace that is near our family's that we both grew up going to...its kinda cheesy, but we like shows, silver dollar city, and good clean family fun;)

-K LOVE family cruise (yup i said it....but come on, think about it...you go on a CRUISE with concerts by your favorite christian artists all week!! yes please!)

-Seattle/Portland (i remember being on of my FAVORITE vacations as a kid!!!)

-Nashville (to go watch a live taping of the Dave Ramsey Show!, all the music museums, Graceland, National Civil Rights museum, etc)

-Family Camp (www.pinecove.com)

-Alaskan Cruise (i've just heard they are amazing and i think a good learning experience for the girls!)

and the big ones...

-London (never really thought i would care to go...but after this Olympic games and the fact that Pipers 2 favorite stories right now involve London (Peter Pan and Mary Poppins) I really want to take them!:)

-Australia (honesty jake and i really want to go to Hillsong Church...but im pretty sure there are one or two other things to do while we are there;)

-Holy Land (i've always seen this as a trip that i would want go on with my kids when they are like college age...it would be an AMAZING experience!)

Just for Jake and I...

-Vegas

-Caribbean type Cruise

-Los Angeles

-New York

-maybe a 2nd honeymoon to Disney ;)

Where do you dream to go!? or where do you remember going as a kid that was memorable to you?

a pumpkin patchin' we will go!

last year piper and i went to this amazing pumpkin patch in Arcadia, Ok with my play group...it was my first pumpkin patch experience since i was little and it was super fun! So this year i was determined to find a good patch around here for us all to go and pick our pumpkins for the fall season:) Well i found an AMAZING one! The Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch did not disappoint! I knew i wanted to plan to go the first week of October to get us in the fall mood so i checked out a couple of books on pumpkins and the fall season at the library and we had been reading them to pipe in the days leading up :) We packed up our picnic dinner and started on the 40-ish minute drive to get there....the patch was full of wooden cut out characters all over the property of every 2-10 year olds tv idol you can imagine (pipers included, the whole toy story cast, barney, & elmo), tons of bounce house inflatables, playground equipment, mazes, picnic benches for our dinner, hay ride...and TONS of pumpkins (with wagons to ride while "shopping":)...on our way home we stopped at starbux for pumpkin spice latte....i told jake that it was officially a tradition! ...the best part....after thanksgiving they turn into a Christmas Tree yard...with equally fun activities!!...so we get to go back in 2 months!!!!

our little pumpkin family! Yes the mommy pumpkin is represented by the ugly-warty gourd...but at least its skinny;)

Terrific two!!!!!

I grew up with dyslexia so to say the least reading wasn't too enjoyable....as I have gotten older I am learning to love a good book every now and then and especially am loving reading to Piper...so Jake and I are determined to raise a book worm! And since we were moving to Texas 5 days after her birthday to a small apartment....we thought this would be the perfect birthday to stock her(and Violets) library!!...
my little sweet pea is pretty much obsessed with cookies! so there was no question to the sweet of choice for her party!!




Paparazzi! :)

"ooooo. wow-we"

She kept saying..."hello?...bye bye. hello?....bye bye."

Piper reading to my cousins 2 little guys Titus & Javen

Violet finally woke up at the very end of the party! just in time for my cousin Rebekah to meet her.

Nothing like a good read!

Pretty good loot if I do say so myself!

4 days till due date! & my midwives!!....

Well...we are 4 days away from my (ultrasound given) due date (april 30th)....we really kinda thought with this being #2 that she might come a bit earlier....and although the week is still young....im thinking my body likes to fully cook our babies....and although im super uncomfortable...and barley feel like i can move....i feel very blessed that my body does its job well ;) I am much less naive this time and know that she is much easier to take care of inside;) that being said...jake and i are so anxious for this experience...even though she is our second...she is going to be our first homebirth and we are both so excited for how things are going to be different this time!! the midwives we are using have just been so amazing and so knowledgeable....i am blown away at every visit! if you are at all interested check them out here....
my mom was able to go to my 38 week appointment with me and got a few photos from her phone...as you can see piper is a huge help!




Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers over the next week or so for a beautiful, safe...and short ;) labor and delivery and a beautiful and healthy little girl!!....we are so excited to add another sweet child of God to our family!!!

32 weeks....20 months....& Happy Birthday!!

32 weeks with Piper....

32 weeks with baby sister....

I'm actually starting to think i may be a wee bit smaller (maybe its wishful thinking ;)....but obviously more stretch marks....and apparently i was much more prepared at 32 weeks with pipe.....i already had the co-sleeper out and set up!!! We still have not pulled out all the baby stuff from the garage....but that is changing this weekend!!! I am LOVING our new midwife and am SO happy that we will be having this baby at home!

20 months....piper, are you kidding me?!....why are you growing up so fast....stop it...right now....i mean it!!

although its an old picture (im about 25 weeks pregnant with piper here!!)...its one of my favorites! I love you mommy....i love seeing you happy....HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

are you telling us something?!?!

Family Birthday Date....

we love our "family dates" we make big deals about them and always do something super fun and just try to create wonderful fun family memories :) yes we are admittedly cheesy;)
For jakes birthday we went to the science museum (a favorite of ours), out to dinner then to cuppies and joe for a birthday cupcake...it was so fun!

CONGRATS TRACI!!!

my cousin Traci graduated from UCO Saturday! and she already has a job as a special education teacher in Guthrie! WOW i am so proud! and excited to have a fellow Broncho in the family!

ohhh man...check out that graduation bling! she is one smart cookie!!