Lasts and Firsts

This past week has been a hard one.  It was the "lasts" week. Last Nikao, last Sunday morning, last this, last that...Lasts are not really fun.  I cried more on Wednesday day and through the night than I can remember crying in a long time.  Others cried too and that always makes it worse.  Being vulnerable and transparent is generally not a hard thing for me, so long as it doesn't involve crying :) then it just gets messy and I don't function quite like I normally do.  Oh yeah, and when my hubby cries, it's just bad.  I have this compassion thing---and I really do think I have a mental/emotional problem with this.  If something effects me, it's one thing, but when I mentally, emotionally, and somehow almost physically put myself in other's shoes, I just lose it.  And so I did. I lost it. Several times.

The whole "move" (it's hard to call it that when we haven't gone anywhere yet) has just been an increasing battle of patience, faith, trust, and fighting off Satan and his rude shenanigans at every turn.  I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I am not certain I was quite prepared for it all to unravel/unfold the way it has.

Tomorrow is the last last for the time being.  Jeff goes to Grace for one more day of work and we already cleaned out his office.  It's his last day.  Last staff meeting ever.  It's strange.

But then Tuesday starts a whole onslaught of firsts. So I am excited about that.  I think it's going to be equally hard but in other ways it'll be exciting and new and challenging...

We really still need the house to sell.  This is the most random post ever.

Snow Day again!

 This girl eats more than I swear she has room for. Her new love? CHIPS and SALSA (of any kind). Hilarious.  She goes to town!  Do you see that grin?!

 My sweet happy boy.  NO SCHOOL!

 And, wow. Rae I don't know if I love this face or should be scared...or both!?

 The get goofy

 Jackson and Daddy did a LOT of this! So fun to watch little mini me and the hubby.

 Daddy played hard with the girls!

 Pretty sure I caught a BITE-kiss on camera here.

 GOOFY kids love to horseplay

 I anticipated the snow day and so we went to Hobby Lobby and I let them pick out two crafts to paint.  I was right and it was a HUGE HIT today!  Creighton LOVES this silly pig so much.  She did a pretty good job painting and decorating it. I need to get a better picture now that its all finished and dried

 Jackson was fired up about his Pirate ship too! This is the first round of painting he did.  Again, I need a final pic now that there is MUCH MORE color on it.  He did a great job and it actually occupied his time quite longer than I anticipated.  Their other projects I will post pics of later. Creighton got a Crown purse type thing...turned out pretty cute and Jackson got a slithery snake.  He painted it like a Coral snake and of course picked the deadly one.  It's awesome.  Pics to come

 Charleigh went out last year in the snow but has zero recollection of that, so this was her first real snow play.  She was hilarious. She couldn't move at all.  Daddy dressed her like this. I switched her coat (see the below pic) so she had a little more freedom and then I put on Creighton's old snow boots, only 6 sizes too big...hilarious. I put them on over her Robeez shown above. I am pretty sure her feet weren't really even in there at all but at least they weren't wet!

 I really like this pic by Daddy!

 see how big those boots are on her?! She was a happy kid for A LOT longer than I expected in the snow and cold.  She loved it.

 Daddy finally came out after about 20 minutes of play (snow angels, snow balls, attempts at a snowman (way too powdery), sliding, swinging, shoveling, etc.  The real fun began when he came out.

 The first pic above (with Jeff and jax) shows the first thing...the tunnel.  Rae went through it once and pretty much destroyed it, so they went for the IGLOO!  AWESOMENESS!!!!

 Rae Rae loved it.  After a brief snack and potty break she was back out there for a long time!  Jackson lasted for the longest he's ever lasted.  About 2 hours I think with one small break in there somewhere.  That is Creighton inside the igloo.

 That is Jeff inside making it solid!  Such a good daddy!  We used about every possible inch of snow in our backyard!

 Big enough for both of the kids! Sweet smiles

And then of course Jeff thought it needed some shade so it wouldn't melt.

We did lots of other crazy things on our snow day too, but I just didn't take pictures. We drove to the library and then took the kids to run off some energy at McDonald's indoor playground.  They had a blast.  Dinner was there unfortunately...it was disgusting as always.  I can't wait to be close to Chick-fil-A. I think I better buy stock now! :O) We had a glow stick bath.  We played Barbies.  We played wii.  I took a nap and have NO clue what they did during that time :) (good stuff!)  We did LOTS of arts and crafts...awesomeness!  It was a fun filled day around these parts.  I am ready for them to all go to school tomorrow though :)  We have the PODS unit in our driveway that MUST BE packed in the next 40 hours.

Our special door

We had every intention of taking this door with us EVERYWHERE for the rest of our lives.  But when we got to Lowe's to get the new door to replace said door, it was $30, unpainted, and didn't have a door knob, a hole for one, hinges or anything else that might make it remotely easy to switch out a door.  So we took a picture, took measurements, and I traced EVERYTHING on the door and we will recreate this masterpiece on something way easier to travel next go around. :) Now, the inside of the closet door is plain white and no one will ever know it held so much history :(

Snow Day fun

 Our first snow day!  We invited friends over.  Jax and Rae were just beside themselves waiting for them to get here!  But they played hard for the first 30 minutes and then we had a yummy lunch!  After lunch we found every pair of snow gear we had and outfitted everyone's needs!  SO fun!

 It only took me about 10-15 minutes to outfit them

 Cute smiles! Love this picture.  Maddie, Creighton, Jackson, & Colton

 The boys were all boy! Swords, snowballs, guns, and falling all over the snow

 The girls did snowangels, sliding, and played in the playhouse.

 It didn't take them but about 15 minutes to be too cold.  So we warmed up with hot chocolate and a movie Toy Story 3. :)

 The boys!  They are wild together, but I love it. The girls played so well and were so quiet in comparison.

The girls are now playing barbies and the boys are playing wii.  Everyone is playing well and getting along. I just love little friendships!  We will miss the Barnes family for sure!

Jaxism

This morning Jackson was looking out the window and asked what the "white smoke" from the car was for (the car was warming up across the street because it is currently FREEZING here on our first snow day of the year).  I told him it was called exhaust.

He said, "Oh, the car is exhausted, mom?"  He's just super like that....I just love him.

:O)

Picture Post

New Beginnings introduced us to their congregation on Sunday. I had the girls in their new matching sweater dresses and they looked so cute! I had already changed Charleigh before I thought of taking a picture, but Creighton wasn't really in the mood.

Sometimes you are just so much fun.

 This is the fit you threw because I was trying to get you to smile for the camera....you stinker!

 Your brother and sister didn't mind smiling at all! :O)

 This kid LOVES the camera! She's just Miss Photogenic too.  Love it.

Christmas 2010...continued (part 2) Universal

Day 3 we all headed over to Universal Studios! Jackson was so excited to go to "superhero studios" as he called it. (Since the latter part of Magic Kingdom was spent on Princess things).  They had a cool thing called ChildSwap so Jeff and I rode the Hulk ride within the first 10 minutes of being there (and the wait for everyone was 60 minutes).  It was awesome.  The kids were champs sitting and waiting so Mommy and Daddy could have fun, too:)

Immediately after we headed to the Superhero/Marvel area so Jackson could have lots of fun! He was so cute! 

 Jackson and Wolverine!

And Captain America! 

 Cyclops

 Spiderman!

 Rae Rae in on the fun too!

 She decided that she'd had enough of superhero studios.  So we made her into a superhero! :) She was so cute with her face all painted up.  

So Jackson decided he wanted his done too! 

 My sweet babies...they are getting so big!

 So, of course, we had to go get another picture with Spiderman since he got his face painted up like him! ;)

 Then we went to Suessville.

This is the ONLY ride that we ALL (all 14) rode together at the same time!  It was Creighton's favorite ride of the entire trip. 

 The character lines at Universal were MUCH shorter.  They were happy to finally get to get more autographs and hugs!

 Creighton told Jimmy Neutron he couldn't be in her picture :)

 We did the double stroller at Disney, but decided to be cheap here and made it a double even though it was a single.  Strollers are a must by the way! (thanks Erica)

 In line for the Shrek 4D Show.  Jeff and I are so disappointed that Shrek is so crude and just not as family friendly (at least for little little ones).

 They were VERY excited to see George. He's a big hit around here!

 There was a little playland (Fivel) and they really really liked playing here for a long time.

 Daddy and the big kids!

 While in line for the Roadrunner Roller coaster Jackson held the backpack for me. It weighed nearly as much as he did, so he didn't hold it long! :)

 Then we went over to the Curious George play area. It was very cute and fun, but a majority of it was wet play, so we had to skip most of the front area.

 Oh and Disney recovered my cell phone! That was GREAT news! (I got it late late that night when we got back to the resort) But Jeff lost his hat at Universal and so far no news there. :(

 But they had a blast (about 60-75 minutes) pun intended in the back area.  It was full of balls and blasters and all sorts of fun things.  Side note: I was so thrilled that we had not lost momentarily or long-term any of the kids on the trip (because the parks were SO crowded).  However, this is the one area where we temporarily lost Creighton.  She was still in the Curious George area (in the wet zone) but we didn't know she'd left the ball blaster area. It was a little scary but thankfully we found her within 5 minutes.  Whew!

 We did the Jimmy Neutron simulated ride/show at the end and Creighton (like most things) didn't like it, but Jackson did.  Then Jeff and I got to ChildSwap one of the coolest roller coasters ever!  It was so much fun.  It was probably a 20 minute wait for me to go while he had the kids in the ChildSwap area, but then he got right on. It was so much fun. I loved it!

 Afterwards we headed over to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for an amazing dinner. I had Coconut Shrimp and the worlds best Cesar Salad ever! It was so good Creighton wanted me to order her one as her meal, and she ate the whole thing...it was HUGE!

We all decided that Universal doesn't hold a candle to Disney as for employees being helpful, kind, and in great moods.  However, the kids were able to do SO much more at Universal (and it was crowded too), but the lines weren't nearly as bad for the things they could do (only the big people things were bad at Universal).

 The next day we had to set an alarm and it was TOO early! Sad day that we had to leave our very fun vacation!  It was a blast and none of us wanted to get out of bed to go home. Getting out of bed to go to a park was worth it...but being in and out of airplanes and airports all day? No thanks!  But we did.

 Creighton and Bree.  Her airplane buddy

 One thing that made it worth it? Getting to see this sweet face at the end of the day!  That's always worth just about anything! ;)

Again, thanks so much Papa John and Debbie! It was so much fun. :)