Welcome Kinlser!

Today we adopted a beautiful 1.5 year old boxer (mix) from Rowlett Animal Shelter. We have been seeing signs around town, had a few messages left on our phone about the shelter overflowing with animals that needed to be adopted. Once we found this guy online we had to go check him out. :)

He is so smart and sweet...has A LOT of energy, runs like crazy when outside, great indoors, listens well, good with the kiddos so far and seems to be fine with Abbey as well. The downside is that he jumped our fence twice. Hoping that he stops that obviously!

Justin came home with 20 names...Luka decided on Kinsler (which was NOT on Daddy's list). We all agreed he looked like a Kinsler so Kinsler it is.

We are all very excited!

 

Ready for December

So November was pure craziness for us and it looks like December is about to put it to shame.

Today we got these huge coloring castles at Walmart. The kiddos LOVED them! We listened to Christmas music and had so much fun working on them together. From the moment we started to color to our last session of the day they came such a loooooong way with "coloring inside the lines".

I am so proud of these two!

Last night at dinner hubby and I talked about everything holiday related we want to do as a family. We started with a long list thinking we would narrow it down....well, yeah.....that DID NOT happen!

We ended up putting everything we had on our calander. We checked dates, checked websites, made sure we don't miss anything fun with the kids. I am SOOOO excited while his head is probably spinning in his sleep right now. LOL!

Our Christmas cards are already done, some mailed already and the rest ready to be mailed tomorrow, house decorated, lists made, Cyber Monday shopping done...Believe it or not we are in better shape then ever as we enter December.

After our filling in all our fun on the calender Justin's exact words were "Wow I always used to look forward to December and now I can't wait for January." Funny guy I married....his head might or might not have been banging on the table as I was offically writing it all out. HAHA!!!!

Of course, he was kidding and he is bursting with excitment over all the fun we will have with the kids this year. They are at the perfect age and we both agreed some of these things on the list this might be the last year for them. So here is the plan for December:

• Grand Praire Lights - last year our attemt failed but this year we totally got it!
• Jogg'r Egg Nogg'r 5K
• Holiday in The Park @ Six Flags
• Gingerbread houses - boys vs. girls
• Baking our very first cake together for Jesus' birthday
• Angel Tree picking/shopping as a family
• Trains at North Park - we have done this every year and we think this might be our last of that tradition
• Driving to see Christmas lights & hot chocolate family nights- we may be big enough nerds to have already selected neighborhoods we are going to check out this year. Hey it's all about the planning and research!
• Grapevine North Pole Express - Luka is just a little excited about this one!
• Overnight camping in the backyard & reading Bible/Christmas stories
• Visit Santa's Village in Richardson
• Bass Pro Shop - visit Santa, play and make ornaments
• Baking and decorating cookies for a nearby nursing home
• North Park story time with Santa
• Scrooge Puppet Theater at North Park
• Christmas movies and jammie nights

Now in between there somewhere we have church, date night, Christmas parties, a birthday party, Christmas shopping, wrapping, working, running/training, yearly check ups at the doc's office....

Of course, even with all the fun and chaos the biggest goal is to teach our babies about the real reason for the season as well as thinking about others who are less fortunate. I hope that we can teach them to bless others as they grow. I know they are little and they might not understand it all quite yet but I really hope their hearts grow to share their love for Jesus with others and we as a family find ways to serve together those in need.




 

Thankful

 There is so much to be thankful this holiday season but most of all I am thankful for

My Lord and Savior who knows my heart,

 hears my prayers, never gives up on me

 and walks beside me every step of the way.

 

 My hubby who loves me uncondionally regardless

of all the flaws, dissapointments and seasons of life.

 

My two little loves who make me smile every day,

who bring love,laughter, chaos and craziness into our family.

 

As we prepare for this holiday season as well as the start of a new year I am so thankful that I have had another year of staying home with our babies, for all the wonderful family memories, for our new normal on Saturday nights, for our health...

 

 I am so excited to see God's plans for our family in 2013. Excited to think that next year at this time Luka will be well into his kindergarten year and we will hopefully be celebrating the holidays in our new home.

 

Thankful and blessed.

Catching Up with November

Is it just me or did this month just FLY by? We have stayed plenty busy as we are gearing up for the holidays. Hubs and I ran another 5K together ( Purple Stride 2012), we have both been increasing our distance as we train for our half marathon and a few other races in the upcoming months.

We welcomed baby Harper into the world on November 13th - but that cuteness and sweetness deserves a post of her own!!! What a doll!!! The kids were just a little excited!

I took the kids to Adtriatica in McKinney to take their Christmas pictures for our cards this year. It was so neat to be in a place that reminds me so much of Croatia. Adtriatica is a replica of Croatian Adtriatic Coast. So neat to have such a place so close by. I will post more after our Christmas cards are out and delivered. :) They were such little hams.

 

 

This month we also made a trip to Grandma's. As always we relaxed and had a great time. We went out to dinner on Saturday night, relaxed and talked, had the big, traditional breakfast, went to church, met her friends and church family, enjoyed the beautiful fall weather on her back porch swing, did some work around the house and soaked in our time with sweet Grandma.

 

 

I celebrated my 29th birthday last Wednesday. Hard to believe I am officially in the last year of my 20s! I spent the morning with my parents. The sweetest thing ever happened walking back to the car as the kiddos and I were heading out. My dad always walks us out and helps me buckle the kids up, then he always walks around gives me a hug and we wave good bye.

 

Well, even though he knew my mom and sis always take care of my birthday gift he decided this year to get me something on his own. Nobody even knew about it. He got me a really girly, fancy looking watch. I was so surprised and it was by far one of the sweetest things my Dad had ever done. not the gift but the thought behind it. He is not the emotional guy and he was totally getting me all teary eyed as he was explaining that he had something special he wanted to do on his own.

 

 I got to enjoy a nice afternoon of pampering thanks to my sweet parents and sis. Had my nails done, enjoyed an awesome pedicure massage, got my hair colored and cut. I am not going to lie and say I did not enjoy the time alone without distractions because I SURE DID.

 

I returned home to our kitchen island covered in two bouquets of beautiful flowers, yummy chocolate cake and sweet as well as hilarious cards from my favorite three people. As I was getting ready for the birthday date night with the hubby the kiddos informed me that there was a special delivery at the door - MY FAVORITE - Sheri's Berries!!!! I love those chocolate covered strawberries and usually finish them in record time. The card that was delivered with them said " Go slow!" Hahahaha...hubby knows me well!

 

 And that wasn't even all - I got to enjoy a nice shopping spree at Express for some new fall/winter clothes. I was so excited to take advantage of the Black Friday sales and got some awesome stuff for a great price!

 

 

 

 

This weekend we enjoyed a fun afternoon at a neat little park in Murphy the kiddos and I discovered during our park hopping adventures. We took a picnic lunch, all the sports equipment and spent a few hours enjoying the beautiful weather. Luka was beyond thrilled because he got to come in his full baseball gear and practice with Daddy on the field right by the park. Show that boy some red dirt and he is in his happy place!

 

That evening we went to church and really enjoyed the message about handling anxiety and worries as we head into this holiday season. We came home, got in our jammies, enjoyed our Christmas decorations, ordered a pizza, had a surprise visit from Brooke, then hubby and I enjoyed a late night evening talking. No distractions of tv, cell phones, interenet, just us chatting away!

 

 

 

Yesterday, we attempted to put up our outside lights. It was a great family bonding experience as the kids "helped" out but the lights gave us a little trouble.

 

 This is Mia's version of "helping out", I guess. Silly girl!

 

We are looking forward to lots of fun over the holidays. I am making a list of all the fun stuff we want to do and we will start crossing them off one by one. Holidays are always fun and exciting but even more so when you get to experience the season through your childrens' eyes. 

 

Park Hopping

This morning we had to swing by Daddy's work to get my purse (that I left in his car from this weekend). Yep, we just swing by Frisco from Rowlett like it's not a big deal. ;)  Since he works a million miles away we decided to take advantage of our long drive on the way home and do some "park hopping". We visited three parks in 5 hours and in between there somewhere squeezed in lunch at the kids favorite place, CFA.

We ended our fun day at the library exchanging our books again. The kids made there requests and while Momma was searching for what they wanted, the kids nicely played some of their favorite games on the libarary computers.

Such a fun day with my lovies! Now I am hoping they will be in bed by 7 so Daddy and Mommy can have a little date night at home. :)

First stop - one of our favorite places that we have not visited in a while, Celebration Park in Allen.

 We had our own version of the Olympics and it was COMICAL! Look how their hands are set up the way "real sprinters" do it.

We made sure to properly stretch before all the racing and soccer playing.

 We practiced some gymnactics moves.

 Racing again!

 

 After lunch we found a new park in Murphy, It is wonderful and has everything our sports loving boy would ever want in one place. They had a soccer field with nets up, basketball court fenced in with smaller hoops, and a baseball field with "orange dirt" and the bases...LUKA WAS THRILLED! My camera was already full so these are the only ones I got.