Back to Real life

It's always hard after vacation for me to come back to real life.  I think it's mostly because we just don't vacation....really.  We have made some friends here which makes it easier to come back to real life but we've also had a LOT of snow days!  Those are fun....for about 2 days.  After that the kids start to get a little bit stir crazy.  That's when we play with friends.  This is what my house looks like on those days.

We found oil based paint this day and they wanted to paint their faces.  It was...hard to get off but they had fun.

We are doing well these days.  I am babysitting still.  In May I will be adding another little guy.  So I'll be babysitting 2 little boys.  One is 15 months and when I get the new little guy he will be about 3 months old.   The kids are doing well in school, though in typical form they all say they hate school.    Natty's birthday is next week.  The girl will be 12 and tonight we go to New Beginnings!  I honestly can't believe how big she is getting!  At the beginning of school next school year I will have none of my own children at home....it's surreal.  Conner will be 8 this year which is also big.  He's very excited to be baptized.  Nate is enjoying work, and working on our house/property.  He always has a project going on and loves to make the yard something that the kids want to play in.

This week my parents had to put our sweet Chocolate Lab Shelby down.  She had been struggling for a while, which is one of the reasons for our decision to leave her with them.  That was really hard and the kids always told me that maybe next time Grandma and Grandpa came they could bring Shelby with them and then we could have her here.  They have had a hard time with it as have I.  She was my protection and was a sweet, gentle, digging machine.  She had cancer and was struggling to breathe and move.  She ADORED my Gramma Wright.  My Grandma would go outside multiple times a day just to pet and talk to Shelby.  Shelby LOVED it.  We'll miss her a whole bunch.

Winter adventures part 1

So bad at blogging.....seriously.  I'm such a cluster blogger....We went on vacay to Nebraska for Christmas and that was almost life-changing for me.  I spend so much time in the house and have felt sorta....I knew that my brother and sister-in-law were amazing and that they had adorable kids but being there with them was so fun, and inspiring for me that even now I can't wait to go back to visit.  Getting to know my nieces was so so fun and I miss them and the rest of my nieces and nephews a bunch!  I get a little weepy just thinking of all the time that I don't get to spend with them.  I learned all kinds of great cleaning tips and habits that I have since implemented.  Lots of pictures coming your way.

Here are a few pics from our trip.

This is one of the few patches of snow they had when we got there.  The kids were looking forward to huge amounts of snow and it never did snow while we were there.  Sure did get cold though.  Cousin E is on the end.  She is adorable and so fun!

Hot cocoa for the road from the Coco-motion hot cocoa maker.  It was DI-VINE!

Uncle Brian and Conner pre-flight tutorial.  

Uncle Nate with Lyds...

Christmas Eve bells.  

At the zoo...chillin.

Ethan being a ninja.  He loves his new cape.

Cousins...

This is why they are AWESOME.

The Zoo in Omaha is A-MAZING!  One of the many pictures I took.

Playing the Christmas bells on Christmas Eve.  Yes I know these pics are in random order.

Needless to say we had the time of our entire year and we did a bunch more.  Movies, pizza (gluten free of course) parks, presents, animals, and Gingerbread exhibit and making our own ginger bread houses.  Brian and Sara were gracious, patient and the perfect hosts.  Thanks again guys!  We loved just spending time with family.  We miss you!