Actually the Best Gift …
Counting My Blessings: Week In Review
It was a busy week, but we had a lot of fun. The girls came into work with me first thing in the morning for a little bit. They helped unlock the doors, turn on lights, and get set up for the day before spending time working on their summer workbooks for some time before I took them into camp. They did a Music & Technology camp in the morning and a Rube Goldberg creative experiments in the afternoon. It was super neat seeing what cool creations they developed over the course of the week.
I want to be accountable to you so the following are snip-its of some of the things I am thankful for this past week.
Counting My Blessings – Week In Review:
Monday –Thankful for an opportunity to spend some time chatting with the girls on the way to work and their help getting everything set up for the day.
Tuesday – Thankful to have an chance to see and hear all the neat things the girls are learning and creating in their week at Summer Camp.
Wednesday – Thankful for a dentist near home, that gets me in for an early appointment, and that I didn’t have any cavities or items that need to be done! Yay!
Thursday – Thankful for the girls curious and inquisitive minds. They are not afraid to ask questions so they can learn more from people in various areas.
Friday – Thankful for some quiet one-on-one time with Jake. It was nice to relax, catch up, chat, and spend some time together. Grateful for his thoughts and for being a sounding board regarding my crazy ideas. He brings peace, calm, and great insight to areas that am I trying to figure out.
Saturday – Thankful for an opportunity to spend time my family! We got a lot of accomplished, but also had fun together!
Sunday – Thankful for the freedom to attend church, learn, and grow. Grateful for a refreshing and much needed moments with my family.
What are you thankful for today? I encourage you to take the time to write down a few blessings that you have in your life today. It will help cheer you up and turn your focus on the amazing blessings you encounter each day.
Travel & Vacation: Galveston Island Ferry
Exploring Galveston, Texas before our plane leaves for home! We took the Galveston Island Ferry boat over to Bolivar. On the ferry ride was saw a lot of dolphins swimming. We went to the Galleria Mall in Houston, TX. It was a huge mall with an ice skating rink! It was the first time we ate at the Cheesecake Factory and it was delicious!
Our ferry was DeWitt C. Greer!
Passing another ferry heading the opposite direction!
Jake – my man!
Grateful for this week with Jake! It was wonderful having one-on-one time!The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!Travel & Vacation: Space Center Houston, Texas
Our trip to Texas! Space Center Houston and Galveston. Jake and I had a great time exploring the area.
We would love to take the girls to Houston, TX sometime with us so they could see the Houston Space Center. Karlie especially would love it!
Jake by a piece of the Saturn 5
Touching a moon rock. Sweet!
Wall of astronauts and various missions.
Watching the actual ISS from the Mission Control Center.The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!Flashback Friday: Fun at Home
Karlie loves hanging out in the Johnny Jump Up and playing with the toys, however, she would prefer spinning over jumping.
Today’s Flashback Friday takes us back to September 2005 when the girls were 7 months old. We spent a lot of time at home when the girls were younger. It was a lot of work to take them out every day and since they were still small they were more likely to pick up germs we tried to keep our errands, doctors appointments, and activities to a minimum at least during the first few months.
We had a lot of fun hanging out at home. They loved to play, laugh, and explore. The weekends and evenings were their favorite times of the week because Daddy was home to play with them. They love their Daddy and always give him a winning smile. He was great pitching in whenever possible with the kids. They were used to having both of us feed, change, and play with them at various times throughout the week sometimes together and other times just one of us.
Brina thinks Mr. Octopus is so funny.
Karlie didn’t see me walk into the room and I startled her. Love the expression on her face.
Brina is thrilled to be riding!
Karlie’s turn to ride now!
Brina loves holding onto your hands and standing up. She can stand for longer periods of time now.
Such a happy Karlie baby
Brina stealing water from Mommy’s cup….looks like she had some help from Daddy
Brina loves going for a ride on Daddy’s shoulders.
Karlie’s hanging out with Daddy
Karlie relaxing, smiling, and playing
Brina is all tuckered out – fast asleep with her feet are on one side of the boppy and her head on the other side
Karlie is clean and ready for bed now
Our girls – Karlie and Brina
There’s a Brina in the toy bucket! She is so proud of herself for “scaring” Mommy. Giggly girl.
Brina ready to try out the swimming pool.
Karlie looking for the toys in the pool.
Karlie – “Wow, Dad these sit ups are hard!”
Mommy reading a book to the girls. Brina is more interested in Daddy who is taking the picture while Karlie is completely engrossed in the book.
It makes my neck hurt just looking at her sleeping in this position. Brina would literally jump until she crash. This does not look like the most comfy position to take a nap in though kiddo.
They think “Little Lamb” is hilarious!
Brina having a blast!
Karlie smiling and sucking her thumb at the same time. That takes talent!
Sleeping beauties – Brina and Karlie
Life is so fun for these two little ones – Karlie and Brina!
Karlie is smiling and talking with the baby in the mirror at the Doctors office, little does she know that she will be getting a shot soon.
Karlie sitting on Daddy’s desk and “helping” him.
Giggling kiddos – Brina and Karlie
Brina and Karlie love hanging out and being silly together.
Travel & Vacation: Homewood Suites & Paddington Movie (Atlanta, GA)
Swimming at the pool
On a recent trip to Atlanta, Georgia we stayed at the Homewood Suites. The girls were begging to go swimming so on the first day we were there we wrapped up early and headed back to the hotel so they could swim. It was in the high 70’s that day, however, they had just filled the pool a couple days before we arrived so the water was freezing cold. Both kids got into the pool, but Brina was done after a few minutes. Karlie stayed in a little longer, although it wasn’t much fun swimming by herself. The entire time we were at the hotel we didn’t see one other person in the pool….I wonder why?!
Since we scrapped our pool time activity we decided to look for some other activities that we could do together that night. We headed back to the room to re-group and figure out what we wanted to do that evening. While the girls got dressed Jake and I made dinner in the hotel room. It was nice having one with a fridge, sink, dishwasher, microwave, and oven so we could eat at the hotel!
Jake found a movie theater nearby where you can get movie tickets for $3 each and they were showing some good kids movies so we decided to check it out. It was only a few miles away inside a open shopping mall and market. We chose to watch the movie Paddington with the girls at the Venture Theater.
It was a cute movie. I seriously cannot remember the last time our family went to the movie theater so this was a special treat for the kids. Usually it is so expensive just to go to the movies so we usually wait until it comes out on video. It was a nice activity for the four of us and only cost $12! The kids enjoyed the movie. Jake and I had a couple good laughs too. Thankful for a fun evening with the family. Sometimes even the best of plans don’t go as expected so it’s always a good idea to have a Plan B.
Ready for the movie to start
Karlie is focused
Our kids typically don’t sleep in very late so one morning after breakfast we spent some time playing games until the place we were going to that day opened. During the evenings after dinner if we had time and everyone wasn’t too tired we would play some card games too. It’s always a good idea to bring card games because you never know when you’ll have a few minutes of down time to relax and have fun.
Karlie relaxing on the couch at the hotel.
Brina setting up the game
It didn’t take them long to crash after a fun filled day in Atlanta!
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family and ways we relax. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: Dry Erase Board Notes
Karlie’s dry erase board note to Jake
In case you already haven’t noticed our family LOVES to travel. Occasionally when Jake travels for work the rest of us get to tag along with him. A lot of times his days are long and we don’t always get to see him throughout the day. On our last work trip I told the girls to bring their dry erase boards and markers so we could “leave Daddy a note” for the day. If he came back to the hotel room and we were not there he could see our notes, know what we were up to, and hopefully feel the love that we were sending his way. It is not always possible to know when he may have a moment to run back to the room and if we are across town we cannot make it back in time to say “hi” so this is a little way to let him know that we are thinking about him even though we couldn’t be there to give him a hug in person.
During this recent trip all of us were up with the sun at 6 am every morning and off in our separate ways shortly thereafter. Sometimes it would be midnight or later before we reconnected again. Several times Jake also left a note on the back of the dry erase boards for us which the girls loved. If he had a few minutes and knew that we would be getting back really late he would prep dinner for us so we could make it quickly while the girls were showering so they could eat, relax for a few minutes, and crash in bed.
We ate all but one breakfast and dinner in our hotel room. All our lunches we packed in our backpacks and would eat whenever we were exploring for that day. To help with the preparation and meal plan we brought a hot pot (yes, like the ones you use in college) to make our meals. We were able to make some good, quick, healthy, and inexpensive meals in our hotel room like sloppy joes, mac-n-cheese, chicken & rice, soup, and more! It was nice to relax together at the end of the day before hitting the bed.
Every time we left for the day each girl would get out their dry erase boards and leave a note for Jake. I would add an note to the bottom or side of each of their notes. They had a lot of fun doing this for him and looked forward to it every morning.
Brina’s note to Daddy
Karlie letting Daddy know we are going to check out the animals!
Brina’s note to Daddy with a variety of colors.
Karlie’s note that includes a “heart family” of all of us. Cute!
Brina’s note with hearts and letting him know to have “fun and do a good job”!
Brina’s note to Dad with my note to the love of my love.
Jake’s note letting us know he prepped the meal and all we had to do is add water and boil.
Sweet note from my Handsome man!
Note from Karlie with her and Daddy as heart people.
The girls love their Dad so very much. It is precious to see how they enjoy not only doing little things for him, but also how excited they get to spend some extra time with him. Thankful for a husband who works so hard to provide for our family. He takes good care of all of us and always makes each of us feel special. He is thoughtful, generous, and kind. Even though he works hard he always makes a point to spend time with us as a family. I am blessed in many ways.
If your spouse travels and you go along with them you can easily do this for your spouse as well. It was super simple, but made everyone feel more connected throughout the long days apart. I hope that it made Jake’s days a little bit brighter.
Celebrating Dad!
Yes, I know I am a little late in posting about Father’s Day, but I promise we did celebrate it! In fact we are packing in so much fun this summer it is going by too quickly. For Father’s Day the girls made Jake breakfast in bed! They were so sweet!
The girls put together a scrumptious Father’s Day breakfast! Complete with cashews, homemade Egg McMuffin, blueberry yogurt, granny smith apples, cottage cheese, and a twizzler heart with Jelly Beans inside. I don’t know if the lighting was off or what but none of my breakfast in bed pictures turned out! 🙁 So moving on to the main meal of the day….another special treat for Dad!
Daddy and his girls after church!
Special Strawberry Fruit Punch for our drinks!
Happy Father’s Day Jake! Wishing you an amazing, relaxing, and super fun day! Thank you for being such an awesome Dad to our girls! You’re the BEST!!! We decided to enjoy our meal on the deck under the canopy. We’ve been loving our meal times outside lately!
Dinner – cube steak covered in cheese, sauteed onions and mushrooms in a hoagie roll, green beans, and salad!
Daddy opening his cards and gifts!
Watching MiP run around, fascinating!
A robot on the counter.
MiP carrying some legos!
Skipper even joined us up on the deck for the Father’s Day festivities. She is not allowed to beg and has to sit or lay quietly during meal time. She did well. At some point during the dinner Brina went searching for her napkin…..this is where it was found (under Skipper’s head)! Guess she needed a pillow / drool napkin during dinner!
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
I just finished reading the book Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder to the girls. They were a little confused when we first started this book because they expected the next book in the series to be about the little girl Laura and her family, not about a boy named Almanzo. Although they were unsure about it at the beginning it only took a chapter to get them hooked and back into the series.
Farmer Boy is book three of the set we are currently reading through with the girls. The book introduces Almanzo, Laura’s future husband. While Laura growing up in a little house on the prairie with her parents and two sisters Almanzo was living on a big farm in New York State with his parents, one brother, and two sisters.
The book is written from Almanzo perspective and goes through many of the things he did as a boy from chopping wood, cutting ice, planting corn, raising a prize pumpkin, training his steers, and much more! The girls found it fascinating reading about Almanzo’s days. They especially liked that he was found of horses.
If you are looking for a fun book to read to your kids (both boys and girls) or have your children read themselves this is a great book. I know the girls will be going back and reading these books again on their own after we finish with the series. They have really enjoyed this series and learning a little bit about how Almanzo grew up fueled their excitement even more!
Book: “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” by Kate Douglas Wiggin
Our girls LOVE books so we have been trying on as many nights as possible (when it is not too late) to read through a chapter of a larger book each night before bed and devotions. My husband is currently reading the final chapters of Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin which is in the “Treasury of Illustrated Classics” series. It is a story of a little girl who was forced to leave her home because her family was poor to go live with her aunts. Rebecca is a sweet young girl with a lot energy. You learn about her life and adventures throughout the book. She wins the friendship of almost everyone she meets along the way. The girls have really enjoyed reading this story and beg Daddy to read more. If you are looking for a good book for young girls this is a great option to consider.
