A little of this and a little of that.....

5am.   Can't sleep.  The last three nights I have been in bed by 9pm(ish) but then woken up by a dog and a child 1-3 times each thus negating the good sleep that could have been.  I'm exhausted needless to say.  And, my husband gets up at the 4am ish hour and I have not been able to go back to sleep like normal when his alarm goes off.  Numerous thoughts keep running through my head:  I wonder if Loren remembered his lunch, I am not going to see Loren all day I should go grab a hug & kiss, is the dog sick, I wonder how my friends who asked for prayer are doing, I should call my mom, etc. etc. etc.  Yawn.  But, Thank God It's FRIDAY!  Today will be filled with cleaning house and packing.  We leave in the morning for Wenachee.  Can't wait.  Now, I just need to figure out where I put all our summer stuff so I can find our bathing suites so we can take full advantage of the indoor swimming pool.  

Oh yes, and Grace has a Jr. Jazzercise Valentines Day Event today.  It is definitely the highlight of her day.  3:30pm can't come soon enough for her. Then we'll venture home for PJ's, Pizza and a movie.  I convinced her to pick out Nanny McPhee when we were at the library yesterday.  Hoping it's a success.

Happy Friday!

Hope you have a weekend filled with some wonderful surprises.

Veggie Pizza made with crescent rolls....ummmm, Hello!!!  

Grace put it together all by herself.

It's so yummy.  

Here is a link for the recipe if you are interested: Easy Crescent Veggie Pizza

I could have eaten it all up.
And, yes that's cream cheese/sour cream goodness on G's mouth.
You can't cook without taste testing!

A weekend of L.O.V.E & Family!
Ericka and Katie decided to come for the weekend to hang out and do Valentines Day crafts.
We were going to bake cookies too but ran out of time.
It was grand.  We did four crafts and even got to celebrate Loren's birthday together.
Their presence with us this weekend was the icing on the cake!

making the lolly pop flowers

Heart cut outs for the garland.

Ericka treated us to dinner at Roadhouse Grill for Loren's birthday

Thank you so much Ericka

And, back home for cupcakes.
Do you like Loren's birthday crown?  

Katie's final craft before they left
I think it's so beautiful

Gracie's

Gracie's creation

Our garland wouldn't hang properly so we had to improvise

Making all the crafts was so much fun.
I think we are finally ready for Valentines Day!

New Favorites:
Playing Uno
AND
Eating Garden of Eating Multi Grain chips with flax seeds and salsa.
Grace had never tried salsa until today and loves it now.

What to do on a rare rainy Ellensburg day?
Play with balloons, dance and color of course!

I love you too, Gracie boo

Coloring time
L-mans first time coloring at our house.

Ok, Grace is awake.  Must fly and get us ready for the day.
And, she'd like me to read "Horton Hatches The Egg." By Dr. Seuss right now.
A sweet find we found at the library yesterday.
More to come on her "obsession" with Seussical and Horton Hears a Who.

Things I Love:

With Valentines day approaching and hearts floating around our house it's gotten me thinking about love.

Here are somethings that I really love these days

1. Google Chat so i can talk to my very good friend Jennifer on a daily basis.  Hey, if we can't live in Puyallup we'll at least chat like we do.

2.  Our new Cuisinart Griddler

3.  When the sun comes out on a really cold day.

4. Anticipating the four trips we will be taking in the next month and a half.  Crazy how much we have going on but thankfully stress is not apart of this time so it's been grand.  We will be going to Wenachee two weekends in a row for Lorens work. They are putting us up in a hotel.   The thing I'm looking forward to most is the indoor pool.  Then we'll be heading to Bellingham with Loren's family to celebrate the one year anniversary of the death of Kevin, his brother.  We are going to go to Kev's favorite Thai restaurant, release lanterns over the water front he loved, have dinner with Harris's brothers family and stay with Bellingham friends. And, then a fourth and final family trip that's a secret, to be reveled March 17th.  I'm so giddy I almost can't stand it.  We have not been on a family trip, just the 3 of us, in many years.

5. The song, You Are My Sunshine.  Grace and I sing it to each other.  It seems to always make everything better.

6.  Working out with Loren.  It's nice to have a work out buddy now.  He's been inspiring me.  I know it's not in his nature to want to do this but he is doing it, even on the days he doesn't feel like it. So happy for him!

7.  Family game time at Starbucks.

8.  Watching Grace play Uno

9.  Seeing Gracie's face everything I pick her up from school.  Her face lights up, her smile widens and she runs with open arms to give me a big hug every single time.  It makes me feel so special.

10.   Birthdays

11.  Crafts, especially around Holidays.

12. Planning and dreaming.

13.  Waking up early and making my husbands lunch for him on the days I just can't stay asleep.

14.  Change.

15. The rare day I have off when Grace is in school.  Two hours of alone time at home is reviving.

16.  The people in Ellensburg. They are all so willing to help each other out in any way they can.  I am blown away by every ones constant generosity.

17.  The joy I feel from knowing that God is always with us and loves us unconditionally.

.........

My list goes on and on but it's 7am and I need to wake up my gorgeous vibrant kindergartner as it's a school day and she takes for ever to get ready so we must start early.

Happy February 7th!
What do you love today?