what a beautiful Good Friday day....

to catch your girls reading their bibles together outside...

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:)...

leeeeets goooo fly a kite....

a few Sundays ago...it was very nice outside but the Oklahoma wind was in full force...so of course we had to go find us a kite and walk across the street to an empty lot to give our girls their first kite flying experience:) We all had a blast! Even Jake who had to chase the kite about a mile down the street because Piper insisted on doing it all by herself and just wasn't quite strong enough;)

"our house"

Right in "our" very "own neighborhood" is one of Oklahoma City's newest and coolest libraries.  With it being VERY much walking distance from "our house" (when i say "our house" i mean my in-laws;) we had lots of plans to walk there multiple times a week...wellllll it being the heart of winter since we moved back in mid January we haven't had many opportunities to do so thus far (it feels very weird to load everyone up in the car to drive around the corner, but I guess its necessary when its a wind chill of 30 degrees and snow on the ground). But we finally got the chance to do it the other day and today was definitely beautiful enough to walk to the library, and we had plans to...but poor Piper woke up at midnight sick and was running a fever all day...lets just hope Oklahoma will stop acting like...welll...Oklahoma...and just STAY beautiful from here on out!  fat chance...i know;)

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.

January 2013.....

January was quite the month for us...we left our church in Texas, packed up our teeny tiny apartment, loaded all our belongings into storage units and moved in with Jakes parents...i'm a little overwhelmed with all that I can say about our time we had in Texas and the reasons why we left...so i'm just going to leave it that we felt very called to move on and we are now truly learning to live, trusting fully on God and man are we! We can honestly say we are rejoicing in this time of darkness. Our last days in Frisco were spent with friends we had met,going to all our favorite places around town, packing, going to our last library programs, and finishing up Pipers swim lessons....our 18 months in Texas will always hold a HUGE place in our heart and I am so very grateful that God led us there!

I heart Aldi's...

YEARS ago (before the 'joys' of shopping with kids) when Jake and I bought our first house in OKC we lived very close to this grocery store called Aldi's...I had heard it was super cheap so I thought I would give it a try one shopping trip...it didn't go so well...no one had explained to me how it all worked.  I walked up to the store and tried to pull a cart out, but I couldn't because they were chained together! WHAT!? how the heck was i going to get a cart!  Finally someone walked up with a cart, let me have theirs and explained to me about how you needed a quarter to get a cart but as soon as your done, if you hook the cart back up then you get the quarter back....ooooooooo K...whatever. So I continued on with the shopping trip.  I was very confused, I wondered why the there was NO one there, why the aisles were so wide, and why the store was so simple that there was only 3 aisles to the whole store!? (did i mention this was before having kids...since then I have learned how AMAZING those facts are about Aldi's is).  I had a huge list of all sort of items, food, toiletries, cleaning products, etc ..and sure I found most of them there(all 'off' brands I had never heard of)...but I was frustrated by the fact that I still had to run to walmart across the street afterward for the items that were not available at Aldi's...and kinda had decided that the trip was a waste and that I would not be coming back...and that was even before I got to check out and realized that they ONLY took cash (that was before our 'cash only' days...and they actually now DO take debit cards) AND that I had to BUY my own bags! (that was also pre environmental days when the only people bringing their own shopping bags were the crazy hippies;) Lets just say I didn't go back to do my shopping there...and in turn became a Target-obsessed grocery shopper, and have been buying my 'archer farms' brand food (and an occasional cute tank top or shoes) for years.  Well, a few months ago Jake and I decided that it was time to re-work our budget and the two places we agreed needed cut back was grocery and eating out.  I had never been a couponer (although I am getting into it now!!) so my only thought was to try out Aldis again...I remembered all the 'rules' so I was prepared and ready!!  The first thing I noticed was the double seats in the shopping carts!!!  You can not find those anywhere! I also noticed that my fairly large shopping trip was done in a matter of minutes and hardly any stress (which is a normal thing shopping in a LARGE super market with a 1 and 3 year old).  I was super impressed that the milk was hormone free and they had a number of select certified organic products!  The produce selection was AMAZING (although no organic) and although everything is 'off brand' we have found everything (but their yogurt...we were NOT fans)  is very comparable!  Even after such a great experience ..I still had to run to target for a few things (I just cant bring myself to step away from our Target organic meats, yo-baby yogurt, etc)...so i really wanted to know if I actually was saving any money and if it was worth going to 2 places.....SOOOOO for everyone's convenience (and of course for my reference) I made up a pretend grocery list (with normal things we buy) and went up and down the aisles of both stores and wrote down all the prices! I was so pleased to see that I WAS saving money at Aldis!  So, with no further adeu...

Item                               Aldi's/Target(all target 'off brand' items)
wheat thins                    1.29/2.54
veggie straws                 1.69/2.99
graham crackers            1.49/2.99
4-pack orange cups       1.59/1.84
cinnamon crunch          1.99/2.99
gallon of milk               2.39/2.69
dozen eggs                    1.39/1.69
24-pack water bottles   2.29/2.99
carton of strawberries    1.79/2.59
bananas                        .44 a lb/.52 a lb
bag of red potatoes        2.99/4.49
carton of red grapes     2.79(0.99per lb)/4.99
box of eggos                1.29/2.99
popcorn(6 bags)          1.49/2.99
sugar                           2.29/2.69
brown sugar                1.39/1.49
baking soda                .49/.69
baking powder           .99/1.59
cream cheese(8oz block) .99/1.99
butter                           1.99(on sale)/2.49
bag of baby carrots      1.19/1.79
iceburg lettuce              .99/1.24
loaf of wheat bread     1.39/1.99
laughing cow babybell 2.99/3.49
'    ' spreadable cheese  2.49/3.59
frozen peas (16oz)      .99/1.14
ice cream                    2.69/3.29
apple juice                 1.49/2.44

Total bill difference    47.27/69.20
(without taxes)