December 2017

Wearing Mommy's glasses

 This is how he fell asleep. Lol. Trying to get him to take naps and go to bed was ROUGH at the hotel.

Kayla grabbed his blanket and put it on him, and then pretended to sleep next to him.

She's a sweetie!

We were checking out at Target and the employee was like "do you want a bag?" and my initial thought was "not if I have to pay for it" (I'm so cheap, I know... Lol.) And then she was like "it's free". YES!! Haha. Kayla enjoyed walking around with it.

Christmas on the Caddo. The kids had fun! And all we did was walk by a firetruck, wait in line for food, and see fireworks. Lol.

It was a pretty good little show!

Wilson mesmerized. And Jacob and I trying some cajun food, yum!

She liked her hat from the firemen.

I know it may be funny how I mention the tiny hotel and how we barely survived... but I'm kind of really serious about it. I don't know what it was, but it was really, really hard on me. I had two of my absolute worse breakdowns in those few weeks. Jacob is a saint. He doesn't understand any of what I go through... but honestly I don't either. He works so hard to help me through it all. I love this guy for sticking by my side and putting up with me. It is not an easy task.

Another beautiful sunset. It was a good end to a terrible day.

Wilson's new Star Wars crocs.

When did my baby get SO big!?

We got Kayla a little wipe clean workbook to help with recognizing letters and practice writing them. It's a work in progress... But I will say she's a fast learner! I'm proud of her!!

The parent room at the gym on base. They're actually working on finishing up a new room.

Sleepy boy <3

She's a crazy sleeper!

Look at that stinking adorable face!! I could just squeeze him! Every time I was stopped, I'd turn and look at him and he'd just smile at me! I love him!!

My girl has grown so much!! She's not a baby anymore. It's crazy to see this little girl over here. She's absolutely beautiful!!

Socks on the high chair. I didn't see her do it, I just randomly saw socks on the hair chair. Pretty funny.

Buc-ees!! Our favorite place to stop on long car rides. There is conveniently one on the way to any family now. Lol.

Back in Dallas at a ward Christmas party with cousins.

Decorating cookies. She was actually really excited, despite how the picture looks. Lol.

And this guy kept getting his hands on all the cookies. Pretty sure this is cookie number 3... Grandma even got in trouble for not stopping him.

That is a big bear. Even bigger than the big bear that Logan & Alyssa have.

Logan and Alyssa's baptism

8 years difference. I think this pic with them after their baby blessing will forever be my favorite! They're pretty cute and sweet in the other one too though!!

My little family!

Grandma and Kayla were matching!

Love my girl!!

We were going back to Louisiana and would miss the birthday party, so Aunt Missy let us all grab some cupcakes before we left.

Out after a long day!

Trolls rings from the cupcakes that Kayla, Jacob, and I had earlier. She really liked them. And we still have them now. Lol.

Little boy loves his Daddy's work hat!

Cutie!

There's a place called Skent n Dent that sells discounted appliances that have been damaged. (But most of them you can't even tell there's a dent!!) There's one near us in Shreveport, but that store had a small selection. There's a bigger store in Monroe, LA which is a little over an hour away. So, we decided to make the drive to find a fridge. Good news... they had one for a great price!! And they even sent it to the Shreveport store for us. AND the Shreveport store held it for about a week until we closed on the house and moved in. We later ended up having to go back for a gas dryer (we had electric in our old place) and then a dishwasher. I HIGHLY recommend them for anyone local. Anyways... on the drive up there we realized that the store from the show Duck Dynasty is in the same town. So we stopped by after we found our fridge. We got some shirts and snapped some pics.

^^This is my favorite^^

My cute princess!

Wilson found chicken in his seat. I don't know when we last had chicken in the car.....

Cute nativity outside of a church near the house we were waiting to close on.

We like to drive by the house. So we drove by, and then I went through the neighborhood to head back to the hotel... and something pierced the side of the tire! As I drove by some people were working outside, I heard a loud noise (turns out it was the air coming out of the tire) and I thought maybe it was them working. And then my tire light came on (but one of the sensors is broken, so it does that a lot). And then it felt like the road was really bumpy (nope, just a flat tire). So I pulled into a parking lot just ahead and found this ^^

I called Jacob and luckily he was able to leave work and come help me out. I love that he has always been able to come and help me when I've had a problem, especially car problems. Thank you employers past and present!! It would have taken me forever to change the tire. Lol. Plus I had two cranky and hungry kids in the car! And also thankfully, it was still under warranty, so we just went to Ford afterwards and they had a new one in the next day.

This is normally my cue to leave the gym. This normally starts 5-10 minutes in and I try to calm him down so I can get a longer work out in. I'm lucky to get 30 minutes in.

Wearing sister's boots.

That cute little laugh is my favorite!

They wanted to take a picture. I'll gladly take their picture!!

She loves the dog at Old Navy!

Trying on a beanie. Lol.

He was being SO grouchy! And then I put on one of his favorite songs and he was happy and dancing. Lol. It's hard to see but there's a big tear just under his eye from crying.

The sky one morning. Lots of planes going by.

We had our ward Christmas party in the morning, and then we headed to the next town over for a fun little event.

Kayla was SO excited to ride in a bus. It shuttled us from parking to the event.

Playing at the little park. We got there right at the beginning and most booths were still setting up. Notice Jacob squeezing through the hole to get on the playground ^^ Lol.

Cute kids in front of the Christmas tree. We tried to wait for Santa. Apparently he got stuck in traffic though. We ended up giving up and leaving.

Silly girl!

I had had enough of the hotel. And it was honestly much better for all, for me and the kids to head to Katy. Jacob stayed one more day for work. We met him in Bryan a few days later to get all of stuff out of storage and move it to Louisiana.

Kayla has been eyeing these princess shoes at Target. Grandma Ruske gave in.

She does love them and wear them proudly!

Such a sweet boy!!!

After a long day we were finally loaded up and on our way to Louisiana. Thanks to my brother, Jacob's cousin, and a few more friends from our old ward in CS for helping us!! We drove back to the hotel for one more night, and we were able to move in the next day! (The seller let us move in a day before closing. They were so good to us through the whole process. I guess it helped that no one had been living there currently. Haha.) I cannot deny the many, many miracles, both big and small, we've experienced through all of these big changes and transitions.

Both kids out! I don't even know what we were out doing. Haha.

My camera is messed up and does this all the time ^^ I actually just saw a few days ago that it's really common in my phone and I need to go to a local apple repair place and they'll fix it for free.

Wilson was pushing Kayla around in the stroller as she slept, while we waited for Daddy to pay for and load up our new fridge.

This is how our week went... The kids and I drove to Katy on Monday. Jacob drove to Bryan Tuesday night. We met him there on Wednesday. Then Wednesday night we drove back to the hotel in Louisiana with the moving truck. (He left his truck in Bryan at his parent's house). We moved our stuff in on Thursday. We closed on Friday. (The whole process was SO smooth. Thanks to our realtor and mortgage lender! They were absolutely amazing!! Between the VA loan and not needed a down payment, and the seller paying a certain amount of the closing, we ended up paying like $30 at closing. I was SHOCKED!! Many, many miracles!!) Saturday we went back to College Station. Sunday afternoon we went to Katy for a few hours to celebrate Christmas Eve with my family. Then we drove back to CS to spend the rest of Christmas with Jacob's family. And Tuesday afternoon we drove both of our trucks back to Louisiana. We haven't gone out of town since. We're kind of tired of all the driving back and forth. I've lost count of all the times we've gone from Dallas, to Bryan, to Katy, and back to Louisiana over the last six months. Haha. If you want to see us, you should come here ;) But back to the pictures! ^Sweet cousins Reese and Emma dressing up Lina and Kayla. Kayla wore those dresses every chance she could the whole time we were there.

Wilson had a rough night and fell asleep watching me get ready for church the next morning.

Leaving church early...

^^This little one got sick and threw up on me. She felt just fine after that though! Ugh... it was a long morning. I'm glad it wasn't worse though. And we were all glad she felt better and we could still make it to Katy that evening.

Logan loves Wilson!

Family picture. We all wore Astros shirts since they had just won the World Series a few months earlier.

All the kids wearing slippers made by Omi.

Christmas Eve

Back in CS getting ready for the morning...

Side note - We were staying at the Hatch's house. (They are on a mission and Mike & Janice's didn't fit everyone.) One of the days we were there, Kayla was looking at a picture on the wall and saw Sister Hatch and to my surprise recognized her. I had totally forgotten that Sister Hatch had been one of Kayla's nursery leaders before we moved AND impressed that she remembered her!

Wearing some clips from her stocking and holding her new flamingo stuffed animal.

These were the kids bigs presents from us. They also got some little things in their stockings. And they each got some books. And then presents from cousins and Grandma and Grandpa.

Kayla got tired of watching presents being open and snuck back upstairs to play with the princess dress. haha.

Merry Christmas!

Waiting for the grandkid's Christmas program that them and grandma put together to start.

Exploding kittens was the game. Although I never played it... I have a hard to playing games with my kids around, and when they go to bed I'm ready for bed too. Lol.

Sweet cousins!

This gymnastics game was a big hit, too. Look at Nathan's little tongue as he's concentrating!!

Ryan playing too!

For the adults, we each have a person we buy for. Kristy had Janice this year. This Christmas was a really big deal to Janice. It was the first time everyone would be home for Christmas in 10+ years (I think like 13 or 14 years, not sure exactly). So Kristy's present to her Mom was family pictures. She had Kayla Hancock come take our pictures a few days later. Funny story, Kayla ended up taking Drew's 1 year pictures up in Utah, and Kristy found out she had lived in College Station and knew some of us. Kayla happened to be in Texas for Christmas and was able to come take them for the whole family. They turned out great! Although there are a few sad faces. It was really, really cold (and rainy) that day!!!

We said goodbye after pictures were taken and headed back to Louisiana. This time to stay a while ;)

Getting to take Christmas presents out of their boxes. I always make my kids wait to take things out until we're home. Birthdays, Christmas, etc. I think it drives my Mom crazy because she especially wants to see them open them up and play. I don't want to lose things though! Haha.

I think Aunt Kris was disappointed in Wilson's reaction to this present. But honestly I think he's like me and there were too many people around and way to much going on! He didn't want anything to do with it at first. Before we left he would kind of sit on it for a second. Once we were home though, he absolutely LOVED it!

He loves his Lightning McQueen and Mater. He sleeps with them every night!

Ready for bed in their new pajamas from Grandma Ruske! (Kayla even got a matching little dress for a doll. She put it on her new Elsa doll.)

This picture speaks volumes! We've been so back and forth, here and there over the last 6 months, and this was our first night just home and here to stay. Wilson was so happy to just lay in his bed and go to sleep. That's amazing for a little boy who has had such a hard time with bed time the last few months. We all pretty much felt that way. It was so good to be home, in our home with our beds!!

Princess Kayla in her new Elsa attire from Grandma Ruske!

Every time! I almost never want her to say Chipotle correctly. Lol.

He loves to push things! He's always a big helper at stores. (And Kayla was OUT in the shopping cart. Ha!)

She insists on dressing herself every morning. She was still getting used to whose clothes are whose in the dresser that her and Wilson share, and she put his pants on one morning. Lol.

 Jacob being a goof and stealing my glasses from me.