Spring is upon us!

The warm weather is here! Finally, after what seemed like it was going to be a never ending winter with the snow, snow and might I say, more snow, we're looking forward to the days ahead! We had cousins to play the past week {peonylane.blogspot} and it was fun! We enjoyed riding the golf cart around, playing in the sand pit, and getting really dirty!

All right in a row {Nboy4, Peanut3, Ggirl2, Big Guy1}

Nboy and Peanut enjoying donuts while the little ones nap!

What a funny 20-month-old!

Pierce's favorite phrases these days are "outside" , "gol car" better known as golf cart and "Han-Nah house" referring to our neighbors house whom he adores! This funny little guy loves tromping around the yard in his army boots {mainly climbing in and out of the ditch}, riding his truck and climbing the slide tower. He loves to chew dirt, leaves, or anything that might offer a different texture in the mouth. He is all boy and we love his manly little ways!

 

Both kids love the outdoors, we've discovered ant hills, which have provided hours of entertainment. You can catch them, poke them, destroy their home and they just keep going "crazy" as Blythe says. And thank goodness there is an endless supply of ant hills.

Blythe's favorite things these days are riding her trike, sidewalk chalk and playing with our neighbor! The day usually revolves around when she can go to Hannah's house and play {sometimes I catch both kids making their way over, without permission}. This happens usually when I'm not paying attention, which is easy to do when you live in the country, and don't have to worry about strangers... just wildlife!

The girls are building a birds nest, it took a while, but between the tears and sweat, they got it done!


We love the spring time here!

The POST... the one I've dreaded most

Well, for a short while I've been meaning to write on this topic, but I've had to let the anxiety, fear and overwhelming thoughts dissipate, and allow the peace, that passes all understanding, rest on me. And lets be honest... once you blog about it... it makes it seem so much more real... which is what it is, reality! So here we go.

We're moving. Our family of soon-to-be-five will be going to Law School... well, at least the daddy will....

I could leave it at that; but instead, I'll give you the run-down and emotional roller-coaster I've been riding for the past four weeks {which is really great... I'm sure you're just thrilled to read-on}!

So, back in the early fall, when the leaves were changing, life was simple, content, and sweet. We had been enjoying our simple life of living at the ranch {www.newliferanch.com}, playing at the sandpit, loving that our best friends lived just next door, Justin was loving where things were going with his job, we really felt as though we had hit a good stride and season in life as a family.

At the beginning of October Justin took the Law School Admittance Test {LSAT}, quite random, right? Well, Justin has always had a knack for lawyerly{not really a word} type stuff, he likes advising {not necessarily on legal things} but enjoys helping and sharing with others the process behind things. And has always dreamed of going to Law School. But really, already being 33 and almost father of three, felt as though the ship may have sailed, but why not, at least take the test, and see what happens. So after having an okay performance {85th percentile} his first time around, he decided on a whim, I'll just take it again in December, I think I can do a little better. And he did. Now, there are those moments in life, when you know as a wife you married a smart person, but then there are those times, that you're so overwhelmed by how well they do at something, you question yourself, and think, "I'm pretty sure I'm just as smart as they are... well, maybe not that smart, but I think we're intellectual equals" moment. Well, I had one of those... after he scored a 168 {95th percentile}, and I'll just brag for a moment on my husband... 42,000 people across the country took the LSAT that day, it is graded on a bell-curve, he beat 40,000 of those. Yes, very impressive, I know... {ladies he's taken!}

Anyway, to make a long story short, he was given a full-ride to one of the top ten public law schools in the country... so we're becoming Hoosier fans!

A few weekends ago, he and I headed to Bloomington, Indiana to check things out. It was overwhelming and peaceful all at the same time. We {I} have cried many tears about leaving my little sister {who lives close by} the ranch, our community, our church, all our sweet friends, but we know the Lord has said, YES, so we are walking ahead in faith.

Justin at the front of campus

I find myself resting on the truth that, "the Lord is my helper; I will not fear."  As a mom and soon to be law-school-wife {or law school widow... as many bloggers put it}, I recognize that there are many stressful things yet to come. There is the fact that we are moving somewhere where we know no one {well, we've met some people}, family is a mere 8 hrs by car or plane flight to Cali, all the comforts of knowing our neighbors, the schools, the grocery stores, moms-day-out programs, pediatricians, etc... you get the idea, all are being stripped away. And to top it off, my husband will be busy for at least 12 hours a day, 18-weeks at a time, to do well {which is very, very important}! But that leaves a lot of alone time for me with three little ones, so I say, "the Lord is my helper; I will not fear" .

Kirkwood Street, their coffee bar, night life area

So, for those of you who have made it thus far {which is probably only family... ;-} after the arrival of our newest one {May 1}, we'll head to Mexico for my brothers wedding, come back and move a few days later. Summer start for Justin begins on July 5th, so we hope to be settled towards the end of June with housing, the new babe, and all the other details in-between.

So in the end, I know that as a family, we make major life decisions around having children {when Peanut was born, we moved 12 days later to the Ranch}, and just as the Lord affirmed our decision to come here, He has gone before us, provided in abundance, and all we can do is walk ahead! And that is exactly what we're going to do.

Snow between the toes!

So between visiting each coast, we had a major snow storm that literally closed down the Ranch and Siloam for a good few days. So we embraced the weather and took the kids sledding {thank you to our neighbors for "lending" us their sled ;-} . They loved it! We went to a small service road here on Ranch property where you could get some speed, but the walk was easy for Peanut to do, and it was maybe 100 yrds at most... just the  perfect amount of uphill walking for a preggo mommy and two little ones!

You can see from the smiles that this was more fun than expected!

Peanut eventually resorted to being the "pusher" and the would
run down chasing Big Guy and Daddy..
this was great exercise for a 3yr old... and she napped this day...
{a surprising result for a child who hasn't napped since being 18-months}.

I made it down a few times myself! 

Little legs walking up the hill! 

And then we had to get creative, because going the normal way wasn't exciting enough!
{and no... for all you wondering,
we didn't actually let them go down sitting on top of one another;-}

Cold toes, fingers and noses, it was a fun, fun, day! 

Sandy beaches!

Well, it's been a while, but in between going to the Atlantic and Pacific we had two major snow storms {pics of that to come...} made a weekend trip, celebrated my birthday, and enjoyed the beach... again!

We always love going to Malibu. We commonly refer to it as "vacation land"... its a place many people call home; however, for most, it is just a weekend get-away, with lots of fun stuff. This time around we kept things low-key. We visited the beach almost everyday, swam in the hot tub {the pool is to cold}, rode the bus around Pepperdine University {you'd never want to walk the hills}, went sailing at Marina del Ray {in Uncle Joel's boat}, and enjoyed time with Nana, Granddad, Uncle Joel and soon-to-be Aunt Brigitta!


At the Space Pad Park... top of Pepperdine's Campus















Swinging on the bars!



One afternoon we headed over to the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. It was the perfect size for the kids. Lots of touching tanks, sharks, sting rays, eels, and octopus to look at!



Peanut was feeling very brave touching the crabs!!

 We also loved going to the beach. Lots of sand in the mouth, hair, toes, you get the idea!



Big Guy soon discovered the sand banks were more like slides
and boy did this provide hours of entertainment!

We danced a lot in the sand....



And then we wrestled... it was fun until there was sand in the eyes!

And then Daddy joined us and everything was a lot more fun!

We built sand castles and ran in the ocean!

Okay, so I'm not a huge American Idol fan... but Aunt Brigitta does have the coolest job in L.A. working for The Price is Right... yep, you may have heard of it! Anyway, when going to dinner one night, they were doing practice runs for Idol's Hollywood week, we poked around {at CBS Studios} to see who was around... no one yet famous {just the contestants}, but that didn't stop me from taking pics of every ones parking spots... I guess we missed the whole entourage by a day {the judges all came the following day to film}.

And then we went sailing... no this was not our boat, ours was a little smaller ;-)

We enjoyed sailing around the bay, it being one of the coldest days of the year {36 degrees}, we opted to stay in land and have a nice tour of the boats and marina. The kids loved the beds in the boat, small windows, and tiny toilet ;-)

Then we went and tried on Princess Dresses {aka flower girl dresses} for Aunt B's wedding! It was lots of fun, Peanut was a super sport and pranced to make sure that every dress got a good spin before she changed!

Of course she found her own accessories to add!

Soon to be Aunt-Brigitta

I think this was one of Peanuts favorite things we did,
besides visiting the Disney store!

Always so sad when we leave, but we know we will see you allsoon!

I Have Hijacked My First Blog

Alright, so for the first time, this blog is not being written by your usual host, instead I, J-Man (btw, I hate that nickname) will be giving you a few thoughts.

Yesterday was my beautiful wife's 29th birthday.  I have only known her for six of those years but I can say, without a doubt, that she is the most amazing woman I have ever met.  She is more beautiful today than the day we met.  She is my number one encourager and my best friend.  She is a woman after God's heart and she is the world's greatest mother.  Many of you read this because you love her.  That is why I read it too (also I am checking to make sure she only says nice things about me).

My beautiful Princess, I love you with all my heart and I am glad to be with you on this adventure.

Happy Birthday.

You pay for what you get..... Air Travel

After being gone for a weekend with my husband to a place up north {more info to come on this later}, without my children, I might add {thanks Nana Dee}, the kids and I headed to Malibu for the week! Looking forward to getting out of the snow, and dreary days we've had at the Ranch, a change of scenery was much anticipated... Little did I know the adventure would begin at the XNA airport before even boarding our plane to California!

So this is the reason I blog today, to process my thoughts on a particular discount airline {read on only if you're willing to hear my rants and raves about our experience}.

First off when flying to LA we are currently purchasing tickets for three people {kids fly free until age two} so of course, we needed to take advantage of our opportunity to see Nana and Grandad before adding ticket number four {Big Guy turns 2 in June} and the arrival of baby number three. So for the first time I purchased airline tickets from Allegiant Airlines for two reasons alone. First off, they have the only direct flight to LAX you can get from our area and secondly, I thought I'd be flying alone {until Nana came last minute for the weekend to fly back with us}. And let me add this disclaimer, having flown for most of my life and experienced all sorts of different carriers, I decided years ago, Southwest Airlines is my airline of choice, thus I compare every flight experience to them {and their great with families, so that has just added bonus points over the years}.

Upon our arrival to the airport, the check-in guy offers so kindly to check my extra carry-on bag, free of charge... so thinking to myself, "wow, I have low-expectations for this experience, I am now impressed," I respond with "that's so kind, sure we'll do it." Only to overhear the other check-in person say, "we're looking at about 10:30 right now."  "10:30, is that our plane he's referring to, it's been delayed till 10:30," I say to our guy. "Yea, but I checked your carry-on bag for you, so you won't have as much to haul around with you while your waiting," he responds... "Oh, how friendly..." I think.

So, the time is currently 7:05, we were supposed to be leaving at 8:00, arriving in California at 9:00 {11pm our time}, but now, we won't be getting to Cali until well after mid-night... not a lot of fun with two toddlers...So we head through security and begin our 3.5 hr wait for that cattle-herder in the sky to arrive.

Alas, our flight arrives and we board {only to wait 35+minutes on the tarmac...}. Now, upon finding our seats, Peanut unfolds the tray-table only to discover a nice sharpie written note by the lovely lady who was there before us, expressing her desire to meet us {so please call her for a good time...}. As we get situated I begin to observe exactly why our flight may have been as cheap as it was.

- the seats don't recline {not just ours...  no ones seats}

- there is mashed cookie and trash in the aisle

- some one on the last flight decided in frustration to pick off her fake nails, and the evidence is left scattered on the floor in the neighboring row

- the bathrooms, were less clean than a gas station... no, let me be clear... it looked as though a boy just beginning potty-training had used the restroom a dozen times with no one giving him instruction on exactly how to "make it in the hole"

- did I mention that the lavatory broke half way through the flight, so then it turned into only ONE being available for the 270 victims of this airline

- the flight attendants are less than chipper to be man-handling any customer... hints the reason why I wouldn't even take the time to complain to customer service {instead I'll blog about it}.

So I digress... we have now proudly flown the "gas-station-in-the-sky." In the end, I guess I should have known that with the price tag it was more like purchasing an ice cream cone from McD's {a place you only want to spend a few minutes in} vs Chick-fila where you wouldn't mind hanging for the 3.5 hours you had to kill...  and at least it would be "their pleasure"... which for Allegiant, it was not theirs nor was it ours!

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Let me say first off that Valentines Day is one of the less exciting holidays around our house {contrary to my husband, I really don't care for it}, but when you have kids, that changes. For some reason I'd prefer to celebrate Flag Day, Columbus Day, or something less commercialized than Valentines. Yes, it is a great day to show someone how much we love them, but for the most part, Valentines Day can be more self-serving, so I digress. What I want our kids to know is the reason why we are able to love, and Who demonstrated the greatest love for us so I am remind myself on one of the most Hallmark-ed days of the year...
 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8

And why do we love?

"We love because He first loved us." John 4:19

Just because I'm not psyched about the Day doesn't mean that I completely ignore it; we still do heart shaped activities with the color theme being red, the kids hand out Valentines, and we eat sweets. We celebrate, but try to keep our eyes on the bigger picture.... now if you do embrace the great day of love you are in my husbands camp, and he celebrates the day, loves the day, and looks forward to it every year.... So I say, to each his own!

Loft House cookies are our favorite! 

Rainboots, were the gift of choice.

Pretty much he licked his fingers bare for the icing and sprinkles!

Peanut made us heart-shaped pizza for dinner! YUM!