Our Aweful Beautiful Life

Jason and I were adamant about not spending too much money on each other this year at Christmas. I found that we'd racked up enough points on our debit card to redeem for a gift card, one of which was a $100 Ruth's Chris gift card. Fancy. We'd never been there and probably wouldn't ever, without some kind of financial assistance like a gift card! :) Between that lure and the fact that I still have free stays via points at Hyatt...we opted to "give" each other a weekend away. It was a GLORIOUS weekend. We dropped the kids at my parents about 9:30am Saturday morning and took off to Lafayette to get Jason's hair cut, hit the post office, and get a car wash before we left. Long lines at the post office, added stop to make an amazon return, loss of a wiper while going through Mike's Carwash, trip to Autozone to replace said wiper and itchy hair on his back from his haircut helped us not make it out of Lafayette until 11am. I was ANTSY! We finally get to I...

It's been such a cold, snowy, unpredictable start to the new year, I'm a little bit concerned for what this year might hold for us! Adventure and unknowns, to say the least! We rang in the New Year by hosting a last minute party at our house. Our friends Nathan & Jenni, who always host, came up sick the day before, so we decided to pinch hit. It was a great, low key evening. Everyone Jason invited was informed that they could come over, but had to leave by 12:02. He's not what you'd call a night owl. Even on special occasions. Thankfully, our friends are kind of like us, and have small kids...so by 12:30, we'd ALL had enough fun. It was a great night! We wrapped up the rest of my 2 weeks home with the kids with some fun activities, including some roller skating with the Wieses & fun & games at home. On Sunday, January 5th, we prepared to get back into routine. Ha. Routine? What's a routine? Just as we packed our backpacks and re-found our school ...

It's so hard for me to believe that another Christmas season has come and nearly gone. What a fun Christmas we had this year. The kids are at SUCH a fun age. They loved waking each morning to find where Kid the elf had landed on his return trip from Santa. He often reminded the kids to do good deeds for others, which was a welcome change to just simply encouraging good behavior. We talked a lot about giving more than receiving and sharing our blessings with others. Hopefully we can continue this tradition. We kicked off Christmas eve by heading to my parents for the Hall side Christmas. The kids looked adorable all dressed to match in their Sunday best, and they did a relatively good job of staying clean through our Christmas dinner! We went to the 6pm Children's Mass at Sacred Heart, then back home to open gifts and enjoy family. Here's our night through pictures. Our family Jason didn't get the goofy memo! God father picture! Testing the camera. So...

If you're from the greater Lafayette area and are a fan of country music -- then you've surely heard the Bob Rorhman used car jingle. It's pretty catchy. So catchy, that my 5 year old knows it. Because I haven't stopped giggling at the cuteness (aka, ridiculousness) of this video since we wrapped our video shoot...I wanted to capture it here. FUN evening! Thank God for sugar highs and goofy kids (some nights....anyway!) PS. Don't judge my vocals/twangy-ness. We were having fun.

I'd seen this idea on Pinterest, and thought -- its easy, cheap & fun - let's try it out! So last week, Jason and I came up with a game plan, and surprised the kids. I had the tickets printed, and snuck them up under their covers. We covertly put them to bed at 7:45...and they were not happy. It was a kicking, screaming, sobbing trip to bed. Jason and I just grinned... He led them upstairs and read to them in our bed, while I popped popcorn and made hot chocolate. I got on my coat & shoes, and snuck up the stairs just as they were finishing their books. Again a fight to go to bed, but then...wait, what's this? You should have seen their eyes when they asked "When will we go?" and Jason said, "How about right now?" :) Then downstairs to find more surprises... A ticket puncher too -- just like the Polar Express... No shoes required! We loaded up, Keaton too -- then headed down to Battle Ground to see the lights ! S...

Let the games begin! What a fun weekend of Christmas celebrations with extended family! Friday night we lazed around home -- we needed to stock up energy for the days to follow. Saturday was a whirlwind trip to Lafayette for last minute supplies, baby formula and haircuts for the big kids. Jason was working and it was cold and rainy, so Keaton got some cuddle time with Aunt Jess and the girls. That evening, we kicked off the Christmas season with the Stockment Christmas at Grandma Pat's. I didn't get a lot of good pictures -- I tossed my camera to Jason and asked him to take some pictures...but when the kids started opening gifts, he handed me my phone back. So I was handling three kids, gifts, and picture duty. Well done, honey, well done. Here's what we did capture. Em opening her new jammies! Colton was excited to find new snowbibs -- "I needed these Mom, will these go down over my boots?" Keaton got a new outfit along with an Elmer Fud/Cousin E...