Winter has arrived!

It finally snowed in Arkansas!  After having a very mild and warm Christmas, winter finally showed up!

Even before the snow showed up, we received word that school was going to be closed the following day. I still can't get over that. In eastern Washington state-we barely had school delayed for snow, let alone closed altogether!

Jaxson loved the snow and played with the neighborhood kids for most of the afternoon. Julie wants to like the snow and she did play in it-but she gets cold and when she is cold...that girl is cranky!  She came in a lot to drink her hot chocolate and get warm. I don't blame her. 

I'm still amazed on how much snow we had!  It was about 4-5 inches. Enough to cover my snow boots!

Now, next weekend is supposed to be warm-almost in the 70's!  I tell you, this Arkansas weather is crazy!

Goals for this Week

Personal

Keep up on the Bible Journaling eCourse

Mail package

Home Management

Follow prompts from The 500 Things Decluttering Challenge

School

Help Julie with her HIPPY homework

Activities

Text a couple of people about the Cub Scouts Day Camp

Help plan Blue and Gold

Get Jaxson's party decorations

2016

Hello 2016.  I guess it's time acknowledge that another year has gone by. 


To update-


Christmas was awesome. Although, I spent the better half of December planning and organizing Christmas. And really, Christmas is a blur. The kids unwrap their gifts, we eat, and we visit family. It seems like it should be much simpler.  
Anyways, I think this is the last year Jaxson will be able to believe in Santa. He tries really hard but he has too many questions. And I'm not about to make up anything so he will believe it longer. Instead, one night he was asking me all sorts of questions. I was pretty vague in my answers or would say I didn't know.  I finally asked him if he could just believe in the magic of Christmas. That really caught him off guard. But he agreed to it and laid low on any questions for the rest of the season. 

New Years
My New Years Eve was pathetic. I've finally embraced the fact that I am a true introvert. I like to be home in the evenings. Especially with my cozy pj's and blanket. And I was sick with a cold. So I went to bed about 9 o'clock. Super lame, I know. My twenty year old self would be horrified. 

New Years Resolutions
I've actually enjoyed making goals, finding my verse for the year, or one little word. But I really didn't plan anything. Sure, I want to read the entire bible again. Yes, I want my closet organized. Clear out clutter and slow down on life. But I couldn't narrow it down. 
But one night I stumbled on a Instagram feed of a Bible Journaling eCourse. I know absolutely nothing about Bible journaling. Or art. The eCourse sign ups were closing within the hour so I figured, why not?  And let me tell you, I am loving this course. To describe it-its a bible study art class. 


Today I had to break out the water colors and I actually used them. I only use water colors with my two year old class at preschool and mainly I'm teaching them to NOT DRINK THE PAINT WATER!  My art is far from perfect, my hand lettering is never straight on but Im enjoying it. I guess that's all that matters. This eCourse is goes all month of January so I think I accidentally stumbled on what I should be doing in 2016!

Founder's Day

It was Founder's Day weekend and it rained. A lot. You see, Founder's Day is when our town celebrates with many festivities. They include a parade, yummy food at the park, venders at the park, and a concert. In otherwords, all outside stuff!  

Jaxson was going to be in the parade for Cub Scouts with his friends. And that morning, it just poured. I kept getting ready and telling Justin that we wouldn't be able to do it. But when I showed up at our meeting spot, the rain let up. And then it stopped raining. So while it was wet outside and humid (my poor hair didn't stand a chance!) we wouldn't get soaked!  Yay!

We all had fun in the parade. Julie and Justin had fun collecting candy from the parade. She came home with a huge sackful of some sugary goodness to share with Jaxson. 

Unfortunately, the rain came back and it shut down the park and closed some festivities early. But by that time, I had headed home to relax in this gloomy weather!

Pumpkin Patch Fun

Our preschool went to the pumpkin patch this week. Julie was so excited to go even though I'm not entirely sure she remembered what it was from last year!

First, we went to look at the animals  Julie found some bunnies she could pet and it just made her day.  In fact, she came up to me after petting them and told me that she had always wanted to pet a bunny and now she has!  I guess it must of been one of her life dreams or something!  Ha!

We also went on a hay ride. This ride was elaborate!  First, the driver told us all about this "bad guy" who broke into the town bank and stole money. So while we enjoyed the backdrop of trees, pretend animals, and scarecrows-we had to be on the lookout for the bank robber. And after we did the full size maze (Julie got claustrophobic!) and the tree house, surprise!  The bank robber showed up!  Of course, our tour guide was also a deputy Sherriff so we were in good hands. It was cute because some of the kids were quite spooked by the bad guy. We had to remind them that it was all pretend

But most of all, Julie loved the bounce house, swings, and finding her pumpkin. She made sure to pick up a pumpkin that she could lift and carry. Which is funny since boys are always wanting the biggest item. Girls are quite different!. 

Cub Scouts and Selfies

Jaxson is very proud to be in Cub Scouts.  He joined last year and was a Tiger Cub.  This year he is a Wolf!  A lot of his friends have joined and he just loves it.

We finally bought the Wolf part of his uniform.  Each year we have to swap out the hat and the neckerchief.  And he was so happy to have all of it put together.  So happy, in fact, that he was taking a bunch of selfies on the iPad with different faces!

Who taught him this?  Is this just something ingrained in the younger generations?  I told him how we didn't have internet when I was a kid and that just astounded him.  And his teacher told him that phones used to be hooked to walls....how medieval!

Anyways, this weekend we had a car wash to earn money for the troop.  It was a little cold and windy, but those boys worked hard!  And there was always a constant line of cars just waiting to be washed.  It was amazing.  In the end, we earned a bunch of money for the pack to buy awards the scouts will be earning later this year.  And while he was tired of washing cars, I think he enjoyed hanging out with his friends and getting all soapy!

(And notice all us parents had to join in to get the tops and bottoms of cars!  There was always a spot that was missed!)

Overheard

Julie says the funniest things.  Here are some samplings below:

  • I was putting Julie to bed and she was very mad about it since she was NOT tired.  After her fiftieth time of coming out of her room I really got after her saying that if she got out of bed, we would have to close her bedroom door.  As she stomped away to her room she muttered, "I am not even tired and I don't want to go to bed.  I can't even yawn yet."
  • We were on a walk/bike ride in the evening and Julie asks, "Daddy?  Can you pump some gas in my wheels of my princess bike?  Jaxson says they are getting flat."
  • On another walk, we were going up a hill and I said that my legs were burning.  Julie looked at me and said, "no they're not."
  • I was explaining to Julie how to pick up her room.  I told her to find a toy, pick it up, and put it in it's home.  Julie responded to me by saying, "That's a great idea-but.....I don't want to."
  • On any given day- Julie:  "Jaxson pushed me."  Jax:  "No I didn't!"  Julie: (singing) "You're pants are falling down and hanging on a wire!"
  • And lastly, this was in her book she made at preschool:

Her life long dream is to be an ice cream truck driver when she grows up.  In fast, she told Justin and I that when she drives by our house she will see if our car is there. If it is-we can buy ice cream from her. If not, then we don't get any ice cream.

On the bright side, it looks like a college fund is not necessary for her.  Ha!

DIY Fun

Every since preschool has been out, I've had the itch to do some DIY Pinterest inspired stuff.  I rearranged my furniture in most of the house, made myself a gallery wall, hung up new (to us) curtains, made a welcome sign for the front porch, and put new edging in the flower bed.  (Much to Justin's dismay!)

First up-my welcome sign.  I was inspired by this picture and wanted to replicate it. 

I just used some leftover pallet wood and paint that I already had.  For the lettering, I printed out a font on my computer and rubbed chalk on the back of the paper.  Then I laid it down on the sign and traced the letters with pencil.  The pencil tracing made a chalk outline on the sign-very easy to paint!  I found the burlap at Dollar Tree and used it to make the burlap roses and to hang the sign up.  I was pretty excited how it turned out since I winged it in all.

Next up-the flowerbed edging.  I showed this idea to Justin and he wasn't on board like I thought he would be.  But then a brick paver sale at Lowe's helped him changed his mind.  We purchased 150 bricks and started away on it.  This was actually kind of a pain.  You had to use a level to make sure the bricks were straight and lined up.  It was hard to make a curve with this design.  And then we ended up having monsoon rains (as it seemed) so we couldn't finish the project right away.  What should have taken a day to do, took almost a week and half to complete.  And then it rained some more so some of my bricks sunk in.  Which we thought might happen.  So I do need to fix that part.  But that's easy!  And I love the result.  It looks more polished and really defines the flowerbed. 

And now-my pickle jar vase!

Justin bought this humongous jar of pickles at Sam's.  And I knew that I wanted to do something with the jar once the pickles were finished.  So after some nagging for EVERYONE TO EAT THE PICKLES...it was finally empty.  I had some leftover white spray paint and decided to paint it with that.  I actually read somewhere on Pinterest to paint the inside of the jar to make it look more like a ceramic item.  Nope.  Don't do that.  It was a mess and for some reason when I painted the second coat on, it bubbled up the paint and it looked awful.  So I painted the outside of it and it turned out just fine.  I actually liked it better.  I used some flowers we had lying around the house and put some leftover burlap ribbon around the jar.  And I ended up loving it.  It's super bright and cheery.  Now I have a big pickled jar of okra sitting in the fridge.  I'm a little excited to get that finished off so I can paint again!

And lastly, my gallery wall.  I've been wanting to do a gallery wall and have studied them on Pinterest, but I just didn't think I had the right stuff to do it with.  So on a whim one night I gathered some fun shaped items and hung them up.  And it worked.  I still need to put some pictures in the frames but overall, I liked the look.  And it filled up a big blank wall that I had no idea what to do with. Win, win!

And of course, I still have more projects on my mind.  I would love to paint my dining room table like this.  I would love to make the "Do it all for the glory" sign for our dining room.  Or maybe this one about breaking bread?  I'd like to try to make this faux coral.  But I think my next project is this drop cloth rug for the dining room.  This would definitely help define the space.  Now, wish me luck!


Last Day of School

It's the last day of school for Jax!  Well, not really.  They still have to go Monday, but considering that his desk is all packed up and there is absolutely nothing to do, I'm not going to make him go.  So I took a picture today of him.  

Julie has been out of school for about a month now.  Here's the picture from her last day of school.  

I did an interview video of both of them.  Enjoy!

I like how Jaxson couldn't think of anything to say about what he didn't like about school.  I can answer that pretty quickly.  HOMEWORK!  He hated the homework and spelling words always did Jaxson and me both.  I was luckily enough to find Spelling City because we both were miserable when he studied spelling.  After finding this app, it made studying much more bearable.

And Julie loved everything about preschool.  She misses her friends and still talks about school a lot.  It was her social life-she could have cared less about learning her alphabet and numbers, she just wanted to play with her friends!

And now...onto summer!

Snow Day

Well, we had an ice day over a week ago.  And now we had snow!  We got out of school on Monday around 1pm and haven't been back since.  I guess February is giving us a taste of what winter should really be like!  I don't mind it though. Even if we will be going to school until July 4th!  Ha!

This was the most perfect snow ever.  Fluffy, wet, and easy to make snowballs with!

And snow angels!

The kids each had to make their own snowmen.  They were really proud of them!

It was a fun day.  I enjoyed sleeping and watching some daytime TV.  I never do that.  But when you can't go anywhere or do anything, I can justify watching Dr. Oz and Jeopardy.  I had fun playing outside with the kids.  It was great because once we got cold, we came inside for some hot chocolate!