Trying to Keep Up With My Jones'

Christmas is getting so much closer!!! LESS THAN TWO WEEKS. Ahhhhh!!!! 

Here are some things I’m loving right now…

  
My mom and her boyfriend, Steve came to visit this past weekend!! Since for us this year meant Thanksgiving in Texas and Christmas in Colorado, some of my family are coming to us. I’m pretty confident it has something to do with a certain little one year old but I’ll take it. We did Christmas together and Caleb LOVED it.  

    
   
I’m pretty sure Nanan could get a job at the North Pole what with all the gifts she brought. Santa’s got some competition. 

 
Another thing I’m loving right now is this picture.  

 
I seriously crack up every time I look at it. SO DRAMATIC. They encouraged me to sit with him to ‘help’ the situation.  

 
Obviously it worked. I felt a little uncomfortable of the proximity of Santa as well so I guess I can’t blame the little guy. They also had us take this family picture which we were totally not prepared for. (Apparently we went for the whole North Pole photo shoot. My goodness.) 

 
Another thing I’m absolutely LOVING is how Caleb is taking his afternoon naps lately. He now plays in his crib for a good while and then just plops right over. The other day he fell asleep sitting up, just leaned back. And today this happened. That CAN’T be comfortable. 

 
So Christmas to me equals lots and lots of goodies and sweet treats!!! Last week I baked a million and one cookies and I certainly have done my share of eating yummy things wherever I go. BUT. Nothing says Christmas to me like my mama’s Texas Trash. (How country did that sound??) I LOVE IT. Ever since I could remember, my mom always makes a ginormous batch of ‘trash’ and then gives it away as presents but we always kept a ton at our house too. Talk about snacking your way thru Christmas. I made sure that I would not miss out just because I live far away and she did not disappoint.  

 
I seriously can’t walk by the container without eating some. Although I am concerned why that other name is on it and why he keeps reminding me that it’s not just mine.  

 
I do love so so so many things about Christastime, but definitely on the top of the list is going through an Advent devotional as a family. Nick and I have always done this since we have been married and it is such a rich way of preparing your heart for Christmas. Sometimes we try different ones, but the one we truly love is John Piper’s. This is a free printable, y’all! Definitely worth checking out because it’s certainly never too late to really study why we celebrate Christmas. And it has been so sweet to walk through this with Caleb. Sometimes he sits in our lap and listens and sometimes (most the time) he’s just in the room playing. But it totally counts. 🙂
 
The last thing I’ll share that I’m SUPER loving right now is that this little cutie is headed my way tomorrow (along with her parents)! AND they are spending a whole week. Here’s to lots of playtime and cuddles and fun showing them around! 

 

That’s all for now! Hope everyone is having such a fantastic Christmas season so far! 

Y’all. Today is a big day. Four years ago today, Nick asked me to marry him and I (obviously) said YES. (Well I actually didn’t say anything at first.. I just laughed.. but we’ll get to that part in a minute.) So to celebrate, I thought I would take a trip down memory lane and share how Nick proposed (and because he did such a stinkin fantastic job at it!). 

So it was Saturday, December 10, 2011. All I had on the agenda for the day was Nick’s youth Christmas party that evening (he’s a youth pastor just to be clear, not actually a youth). My roommate Katie and I were known to sleep late and lay around and watch TV on our sectional most Saturday’s, but that day she got up, got dressed, and was gone. This honestly should have been my first red flag because we rarely did things without the other AND she rarely got up before me. But oblivion was apparently my friend that day. 

Nick came over that morning and brought me Starbucks (such a keeper from the start). We hung out for just a short bit because he said he had to get to church to help decorate for a wedding there that night and that it would take ALL DAY LONG. (Funny side note: It was the wedding of a girl he dated in the past but apparently none of this bothered me at all.. Still doesn’t.. Just funny this was his excuse to avoid me all day.) We said our good-byes and that we would see each other when he picked me up for the Christmas party. 

I seriously vegged all day long. Ohhh the single days. It was like the super long get ready for the evening kind of day. Take a shower. Watch a tv show. Blow dry my hair. Watch 10 tv shows. Put my make up on. Look at Facebook. You know those days (or did know them for the mamas out there). It seemed like everyone in my world was busy that day (or just avoiding me, I came to later find out) so it was a very quiet day. And Katie never came home ALL DAY LONG. Weird. But me and oblivion were still hanging out.

All the while, I was apparently being a real stinker at committing to the Christmas party. My sister and brother in law were supposed to come into town for the Cowboys game the next day and she never really gave a time they were getting there. I felt weird about dragging them to my boyfriend’s Christmas party with teenagers I only kind of knew but also felt bad about making them sit in my empty apartment. So somewhere in the world, Nick was freaking out that his plan was all going to come crashing down. Whoops!

Whenever my sister finally told me they were showing up apparently gave me the go-ahead to go to the party. Nick picked me up and the first thing I told him was that I had a headache. I actually don’t remember that part of the story at all but Nick does and it apparently freaked him out even more. Ha! Poor guy. Let me just tell you that homeboy was hanging on by a thread. He was an anxious hot mess. He had been for weeks but I didn’t have a clue what his deal was. But he played it nicely into the story. 

As we are driving on our way to the party, he randomly pulls into our Starbucks (our first ‘date’ was there and where we constantly went while dating). He begins to talk a million miles a minute: ‘So I know that I’ve been really weird lately and I’m really sorry so I thought that we could come to our Starbucks. I already called and ordered our drinks and the shutterfly book I made you of us came in and I dropped it off here so I thought we could look at it, drink coffee, and be happy.’

UM OK. 

So many red flags. First of all, who calls into Starbucks and orders their drinks beforehand? Famous people? Definitely NOT us. And secondly, he was an absolute freak show the way he said it all. But hey, I went with it. Nick has always been a super thoughtful guy so it didn’t seem too big of a stretch that he would call the baristas to pre-make our drinks (what?!). 

We walked in and sure enough, there was a table set up with our drinks (with our names on it) and a book he had made on shutter fly of our dating days. We sat down and he started ZOOMING thru the book with super fast comments (‘oh yeah, look at us there’, etc) but I didn’t see a single page. I was more concerned with the fact that everyone seemed to be STARING at us. I even leaned over and whispered to Nick at one point that everyone seemed to be looking at us. But this still didn’t tip me off because I just kept thinking that if I was sitting in Starbucks and some couple came into a pre-set-up table, I would definitely stare too. 

Well we reached the end of the book and at that moment, the barista walked over to our table with a mug with a J on it filled with coffee beans… And sure enough, something REAL sparkly sticking out. FINALLY IT HIT ME. This was happening. I look over to Nick and there he was on bended knee. Neither of us could tell you a thing he he said.. I’m sure it was all very, very sweet.. But at that point everything was a blur. I do know that he ended with ‘Will you marry me?’ Let me just say that when I get nervous, I laugh. And so that’s exactly what Nick got in that moment. I didn’t even realize I hadn’t answered him until he said ‘You’ve got to say something because people are watching.’ Whoops!!! Yes, yes of course! Everyone cheered and out popped my sister and bro-in-law from behind the Starbucks counter. They had videoed and took pictures of the whole thing. SO FUN! 

  

And this is apparently how I announced it to social media (because that’s when you know it’s official).. 

I still have the coffee mug with the original beans as a decoration in our home! 

 
  

So you know what my next thought was? Oh good, now it will seem normal to bring my sister and bro-in-law to the youth Christmas party since we have just gotten engaged! I am such a weirdo. 
So we all piled into the car and headed to where the Christmas party was. We walked in and everyone screamed ‘congratulations!’ ane tons of camera flashes went off. In my mind, I still thought this was the youth group being so excited for us. When I could finally see again after all the flashes, I started to (slowly) recognize that these were MY people, my best friends, my family. It was a surprise engagement party!!!

   
 I’ve never been the quickest. Ha! Nick still thinks it’s hilarious that I thought he would propose and then take me to a youth event. I mean, you marry into the ministry, right? I wasn’t mad about it! 
   
  Nick’s work wife, Shannon (what I like to call her because she pretty much rocked at keeping him on track) hosted the entire thing for us. The decorations were fantastic and the food was so great. She made the evening SO special for us. 
   
 Family pics were a must since Nick was now going to officially be apart of the family! (I’m sure Chris was VERY excited to have another guy.) I even called my mom between Starbucks and the party to tell her I was engaged and she did so great at acting like she had no idea (or that I was about to see her in 10 minutes!). 
  
Some of my very best girls were there too! These girls didn’t know it yet but this was totally a bridesmaid picture (just missing 2 girls!). 

  
Look at that happy crazy couple! We were SO excited!!! That night still feels so surreal because Nick did such an amazing job of finding a special way to ask me (because coffee is my love language) and also organizing so many people I love to be there to celebrate with us. (There were other people not pictured that were there too! And my dad and stepmom sent a video because they were on a cruise so that’s a fun memory too.) 

I’m pretty sure Nick was so glad it was done because it required so many lies and so much energy to make sure it would all work out and for me to not find out. But it worked out perfectly!!! SUCH a rockstar. 

And five and a half months later, we were MARRIED… And we lived happily ever after 🙂

There is so much to catch up on since the end of November was such a whirlwind! Here are a few highlights…

Caleb and I flew out to Texas earlier than Nick for one of my best friend’s weddings. And a blizzard decided to come. So we had to hurry and fly out the night before planned. (Like I wasn’t already a nervous wreck flying with him alone for the first time!) But he was a champ even with a two hour delay. #rockstarstatus 

Here he is flirting with everyone in the airport! 

 
It was all worth it to see Hannah and Matt get married though! It seriously was such an honor to be apart of such a special and beautiful day. Everything about their ceremony reflected Jesus and their reception was such a great portrayal of their personalities. Such a fun day!!
 
Isn’t she such a stunning bride?!?!  
Seriously so cute. And so candid. 

 
It’s always a great day when I get to spend time with some of my best girls from college (and my bestie from grad school that has joined right in!). They make my life. 

And not to be outdone, Caleb was having himself a great time with Aunt LeyLey and Maddie Moo. He even crashed her school’s thanksgiving feast!     

On that Monday, we made the trek to Waco to see the brand new Silos that opened while I was in Colorado (or else I totally would have been at that grand opening!). I’m pretty much obsessed with Chip and Joanna from Fixer Upper and consider myself on first name basis with them. The trip did not disappoint! And one of my besties from FW made the trip to meet us. I have the best friends EVER. 

  
   
They even put in food trucks and one of them was my most favorite coffee shop in all the land. And all the people said AMEN! 
 
Then look who finally showed up to Texas!! After a week without this guy, we were VERY EXCITED.   (And there’s your little sneak peek to our family pics we took for Christmas cards. This one of the two of them makes my heart melt.)

Thanksgiving was next and such a blast getting to spend the day with so much family! 
Can you even handle the cuteness of these two turkeys?! 

 
He had so much fun with his grandparents!   
  

 
We flew out the day after Thanksgiving but were greeted by JoJo and…. Aunt JJ!!! She was back from the World Race of 11 months of being gone so it was so super fun to have her back! Crazy to think little man was only 2 months old when he last saw her… Quite the difference! (Thank you TimeHop.) 

It was seriously such a blast to be in Texas for so long and get to see so many of my people (although I wish there was time to see EVERYONE). But fun to come back to our new home with SNOW. Hello Christmastime!!!! I mean, when is the last time we went to pick out a Christmas tree and there was real snow on the ground? (For me… Ummm, NEVER.)

 

It pretty much makes you want to snuggle on the couch and watch Christmas movies and drink hot cocoa while staring at the tree ALL MONTH LONG. Here’s to life getting a whole lot more Christmassy! 

  

Since we have arrived in Colorado, everyone has been sure to tell me that the weather has been uncommonly WARM this fall. A bit concerning since I have certainly been able to pull out the boots and sweaters already. (Let’s just remember that in Texas, there are some days this time of the year that I could still be rockin’ some shorts.) So I say that God is easing me into this whole Colorado snowy life. Thank you Jesus for that small favor. 

Well last week it snowed and I was so excited and I took pictures and I went on and on to Caleb how there was SNOW. Nick quickly burst my bubble that even though I was staring at white stuff on our yard, that in reality it was nothing. (This stuff would shut down Texas, but ok.) Then this morning I woke up to what could only be described in my world as a WINTER WONDERLAND. It was beautiful!!! I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. We bundled up our little man and planted him right in the snow. And he LOVED it. He wanted to eat it and play with it and crawl in it. Apparently this kid was made for Colorado.  

    
 (Yes that is my husband standing in snow in shorts. This is what I’m working with, people. He only put on the snow boots to show me that he owned them. Who knew?)

So I thought this would be a great time to share some other things I’ve come to learn about Colorado! Anyone feel free to chime in and correct my observations or add to them because after all, I’m still pretty new here!

• Nobody is from here. It seems like everyone is a transplant from another state. This makes me feel not alone and also completely understand why the houses are SO STINKIN EXPENSIVE. 
• This is the land of Subarus and Qdobas and Noodles & Co. All of these things are EVERYWHERE. 
• Baking here is depressing. If you know me at all, you know I LOVE to bake. But here, none of my recipes turn out like they are supposed to. It makes me sad. 😦 (Locals, this is a cry for help.) 
• So I’m pretty sure this is a Littleton thing, but you get to choose your own trash service company. Which means there are so many different trash trucks coming down our street so many different days. This is weird to me (and also annoying when you have a child trying to nap). 
• The fall leaves are GORGEOUS. Who knew that in other places of the country leaves actually changed colors and it was beautiful?! This is what you see in the movies and books but never thought was real. Now I understand when people say Texas knows no seasons. I LOVE IT.

That is all for now, but I’m sure there will be more! Off to go stare at the snow while sitting cozily on my couch drinking coffee!

So this weekend three of my all-time favorite girls came to visit! My mom, sister, & niece flew in late Friday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon. It was a fast whirlwind of a trip but SO worth it.   Those eyes. Those pigtails. I can’t even handle it. It was Maddie Moo’s first flight and they reported that she was a champ! No sleeping for her though so she was a bit tuckered out throughout the weekend. But she was still a rockstar! 

We haven’t seen them since we moved so it’s been 7.5 WEEKS without seeing my little Moo. That may not seem very long, but when I had rarely gone a day of her life without seeing her, it’s kind of a BIG DEAL. And she went and got all big on me!  Here she is being all cute while climbing in and out of Caleb’s truck. I told her that she can stop growing up now, especially this fast. She told me she was going to convince her parents to move to Colorado. It was a good talk. 

So we did as many fun things as possible in those 48 hours… We walked around downtown Littleton, we went winter clothes shopping (my mom doesn’t want me to freeze in my Texas wardrobe.. thanks Mom!), we drove them to Idaho Springs to see a mountain town and eat ‘mountain pies’ (AKA stinkin delicious pizza), we took them to our amazing church, and then they left! Told you it was so quick but so fun! 

Here are some fun pics from the weekend..   

    
    
 
And one more thing I have to show you! We found this mug in downtown Littleton that I am pretty much obsessed with now.  

   
Probably because it’s so true! 

So thank you Mom, Ash, & Moo for making the trip so that we could show you our new home that we love.. We love y’all so much!

(And to the rest of you.. Plan your trips now to come see us. We are waiting.)

We have a ONE YEAR OLD. When did that happen? I feel like I was just pregnant with little man! But yet, he has entered toddlerhood in all its glory… the independence, the tantrums, and the super outgoing personality that has just exploded out of nowhere. The kid is a flirt and hasn’t met a pretty girl that he doesn’t like. (It’s a bit concerning for those teenage years.) So when thinking about Halloween this year, it was exciting to think that he actually would care a little more then just sleeping thru it like last year. 

So first it was to decide WHAT he was going to be. I scrolled thru Pinterest like any good mom with high hopes does. Peter Pan seemed like the perfect fit. He’s too young to care or realize I’m putting him in tights and he’s blonde so what could be cuter. But then we strolled thru Babies R Us and came upon their (on sale) costumes and there hung Mickey Mouse. Now there’s not much that gets Caleb’s attention more than that mouse shouting ‘Hey everybody! It’s me, Mickey Mouse!’ The child could be in the other room and will haul butt at the sound of that mouse’s voice. So the mom guilt set in. Caleb LOVES Mickey Mouse. He doesn’t have about a clue who Peter Pan is. And let’s be honest, I’m the least creative person in the world and not about to MAKE a Peter Pan costume. Mickey Mouse for the win! We bought it, took it home, and he LOVED it. Well except for the hood. These were his feelings on the hood.   

  So now it was time to decide WHAT to do on Halloween. A little bit of a struggle because he’s not walking yet and also can’t exactly say ‘trick or treat.’ I was pretty confident calling all strangers ‘dada’ may not be the kind of message we wanted to send. (Yes, my child refuses to still say ‘mama.’ Not bitter at all.) So we decided a shopping center that was offering a trick or treat event was the perfect place for us! We placed our Mickey Mouse in his wagon and just wheeled him up to each store clerk and they threw candy in his bucket. It was perfect! Pretty sure Caleb missed most of it because he was so fixated on the items that kept appearing in his bucket that he rarely ever looked up (unless I made him take a picture). 

   Afterwards, we ate dinner at the Noodles & Co in the shopping center and he ate macaroni & cheese to his heart’s content. A successful trip indeed!

Once we got home, we did go knock on our neighbors’ doors just because we are new to the neighborhood and what better way to make them meet us! The fact that they had to give us candy was just an added bonus. After going back home, Mickey Mouse was pooped.  

 We gave him a bite of Hershey’s and put that mouse to bed. Halloween conquered!  

 Hope everyone else had a great time! There is seriously nothing cuter than little kids dressed up in costumes so I LOVED seeing everyone’s pictures posted on social media. Until next year!  

(Nick does not share my affinity for costumes. Obviously he chose to not join our theme and go as Donald Duck.)

Onto Thanksgiving!

So life looks a little different than the last time I posted.  Which is a lot of reason why I HAVEN’T posted in forever.  We moved to Colorado, y’all!  And boy did we do it fast.  Nick accepted a new position and within 3 weeks, we were the newest residents of Littleton, Colorado.  And now we have been here a MONTH.  Time flies when life is changing like crazy!  So as most of you know, I am a born and raised Texas girl so I have received a LOT of questions about how I am doing.  So I figured why not just tell you all at once!

I am GOOD! I really am loving our new home, new city, new church, new state!  Now hear me right.. I’ve got Texas pride like no other and the Lone Star State is being represented WELL in our new home with all kinds of Texas decor.  And it’s the first time in my entire life that I’ve found myself caring about things like Caleb going to an elementary school that does not have the Texas flag flying outside.  Let’s just say I get weirdly nostalgic about all kinds of random things.  And I am ADAMANT that I will not lose my accent and that Caleb will always know he’s originally from the best state ever.

BUT.  Life is seriously fantastic here!  Have you ever just shown up somewhere and it just feels like home?!  That is our new church and this town for us.  The people are incredible and the mountains are GORGEOUS and everyone has gone above and beyond to make us feel so welcome.  Talk about God just confirming over and over again that this is where He has called us.  It is like a breath of fresh air (fresh MOUNTAIN air!).  I always tell people that it is hard to be TOO upset about anything when everytime you turn, you are staring at the glory that is the mountains!!  I can’t imagine ever getting used to it.

So thank you friends for all of your prayers and checking on us!  God is taking care of us and allowing us to stare at mountains while He does!!!  (Can you tell I’m a little bit obsessed?)  But as a true Texas girl, I have never experienced the winter that is coming.  And I am not generally a fan of the cold.  So that should be interesting.  So keep the prayers (and possibly coats or hot cocoa or anything else that can keep me warm!) coming.  And I promise to keep you up to date on all of the adventures of trying to get used to this whole new world!

Our sweet little home!

This is just driving down the road. Staring at snow-topped mountains in the distance.  (Nick was driving, I promise.)

Chilly weather does mean this guy in puffy vest which equals about the cutest thing in all the world.

So I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to every mother in the world.  I’m sorry.  I thought I knew.  I had nannied an infant for a year and a half, been a nursery/childcare coordinator at a church for two years, and even taught preschool for a few years.  To me, I thought I had a jumpstart on what it took to be a mother.  Children weren’t new to me… They have been apart of my world for quite a while now.  But up until a little more than nine months ago, I KNEW NOTHING.

All of the thoughts.  All of the analyzing.  All of the questions.  All of the worrying.  All of the decisions.  IT NEVER STOPS.  And to top it off, you get to do all of this with little to no sleep.  I went to grad school where sleep was very minimal and I thought I knew what exhaustion was.  But nope.  Grad school has got nothing on motherhood.

Should I let him sleep in the swing?  Am I creating a sleep prop?  When does he sleep in his crib?  Will he ever be able to sleep on his own now?  Will I be rocking him to sleep when he’s 15?  Is it normal that he sleeps through the night so early?  Wait, why is he not sleeping through the night anymore?  How much should I feed him?  Am I feeding him too much?  Is he crying because he’s hungry?  When does he eat table food?  Is he going to choke?  Why isn’t he crawling yet?  Should I be encouraging him more?  Does he pay too much attention to the TV?  Do I need to read him more books?  Am I making him dumb?  Do I hold him too much?  Should I force a pacifier on him?  Is he sucking his thumb?  Should I make him stop?  Is he too much of a mama’s boy?  Should I let him have teething crackers?  Am I giving him too many teething crackers? Does he nap enough?  When should he drop one of his naps?  Why is he crying????

IT NEVER STOPS.  And yes, some of my questions are beyond ridiculous.  Some of my thoughts are even more ridiculous.  And the amount of times I google things is the most ridiculous of all.  (Nick has definitely cut off my googling rights at times.  Rightly so.)  It is just like the moment that your precious little baby enters the world, your mind and heart and everything in you just becomes so overwhelmed TO GET THIS RIGHT.  This little human is looking to you for everything.  And the love that you have for this little human is huge.  More than huge.  So by goodness, you want to make sure everything is done PERFECTLY.

But here’s the thing that I just keep learning through this whole journey.  It will never be perfect.  Never.  There will be times that he will cry because he’s fussy.  There are times that he will wake up at night and the reason will not be known on this side of Heaven.  There are even going to be times that he pays attention to the TV (oh the horror!).  Life is just going to happen.

AND THAT IS OKAY.  Because God is bigger.  And gives me grace everyday to figure out this whole motherhood thing (which really is WONDERFUL and FANTASTIC).  He is the one who entrusted me with this little guy after all.  So more than anything, my biggest goal everyday is pointing Caleb to Jesus.  My biggest desire for his life is for him to KNOW AND LOVE JESUS.

So mamas everywhere, I see you.  I might not have noticed you as well before in all of my naivety, but I see you now.  And boy am I grateful for you and your wisdom and encouragement and especially your prayers.  Because God is bigger than our concerns, worries, tears, and exhaustion.  He loves our little people more than we ever even could.  So it’s best if we just trust in Him, right?  I’m praying for you, mamas.  And you promise to pray for me.  God’s got this.

Here it is everybody. My first blog post. Well honestly it’s not my VERY first blog post because I used to blog before husband and baby came along, but life got.. well, you know.. busy.  I have been considering jumping back into the blogging world for a little while now, but kept talking myself out of it because I didn’t want to fulfill the stereotype.  Have a baby, stay at home, start a blog.  Because really, what do I have to say?  Except maybe a lot because I spend my days with an eight month old and a nine month old.  So even if it’s not important, someone should probably hear it besides the little people. So here I am.

First let’s start off with WHO I am. My name is Raven and I am a YOUNG twenty-nine year old. (I turn thirty in a week and I am resisting it with every ounce of my being. #29forever) A little over three years ago, I married Nick who just happens to be the most amazing and hilarious man ever. And then a little over eight months ago, we welcomed the cutest baby boy in all of the land into our family and named him Caleb.  (So mommyhood is still real new and fresh over here. I hear you get a trophy and money reward at the one year milestone. Hoping that’s true.) And pretty much the most important thing about us is we LOVE Jesus.  He is the core of who we are and who we strive to be.

Nick and I met in Fort Worth, Texas although neither of us are from there.  He’s a Colorado native and will never ever stop telling you how much he loves his state and how their weather is just soooooooo much better than Texas’.  It’s just best to not bring it up if you don’t want a thirty minute convo about things like humidity, heat, blah blah blah.  I am actually from the Galveston, Texas area but lived in Fort Worth for seven glorious years.  God moved us to the north Houston area a little over a year ago and now we are adjusting to more heat and more humidity (well one of us is adjusting).

So basically in one year, Nick and I found out we were having a baby, moved cities, lived with my family for a few months, changed jobs, bought our very first home, and had that precious baby.  To say it’s been a whirlwind is an understatement.  To top that off, my sister and brother-in-law (who are in fact the family we lived with for that small beat) had a baby five weeks before us.  Which brings me back to the other baby I referred to earlier that I spend my days with. I have the opportunity to stay at home with my little man while we also get to hang out with my little firecracker of a niece. So life is all kinds of busy and all kinds of crazy and all kinds of wonderful.

And THAT is why I have decided to document it and share it with my world. I would love for you all to hear my adventures of trying to keep up with the Jones’… So stay tuned…