Our Aweful Beautiful Life

Jason and I teetered back and forth with what to get Colton for his 6th birthday. Afterall, we're thankful, but the kid just doesn't play with toys. He's not into a "show" or "action figure". He likes to "work, hunt and do what Dad does". Try buying that for a 6 year old. As we thought about what we could do, we decided that perhaps the best gift we could give, was our time. Now that we have to share our hearts three ways, time one on one with each kid is a bit more difficult to accomplish. So, what about a gift where the birthday child gets a day, one on one with Mom & Dad. Add in hunting and Colton received a daytrip to Cabela's and some spending money. It worked out perfectly. Minus the stupid snow. Stupid. Stupid. SNOW. Back up a few days -- before your birthday, you wanted to have a friends party. I can't come to grips with that yet, so we compromised with asking a buddy to come to the Purdue game we'd gotten tickets to...

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...