Daily Moments

It's been a really long, exhausting week. I am so ready to be done with this moving thing.
 Mary left on Tuesday, which resulted in my usual behavior of depression eating every carb-filled-sugar-filled-fat-filled food in the house. Somehow, even though I "don't buy that stuff", things magically appear--like 12 reeses peanut butter eggs in my freezer that I had no idea were there. Twelve. That's like a dream and a nightmare all wrapped into one. We won't disclose how many I ate.

 The house hunt is getting discouraging and I'm sick of packing and cleaning the house for showings, organizing, and choosing what we might need in temporary housing for a few months and what to put in storage.
 But more than all of that, I'm mainly feeling grateful tonight. The in between moments is what I'm focusing on, the moments when I'm hugged by my kids for no reason, or I receive a crinkly-nose smile from my baby. When friends and family come over to pack, babysit and clean, (but mainly hang out and laugh for hours) because they care and want to help. When my husband cleans the kitchen after dinner because he knows I've had an exhausting day. I am so blessed to live my life surrounded by so many wonderful, amazing people. My family lives far away, but we get to spend so much more time together compared to most long distance families, and when we do it is pure Heaven on Earth. My husband's family is like my own and so supportive and helpful. I have childhood friends that I've grown up with that I consider brothers and sisters, and my Texas girls that I've known since marriage are becoming my sista's too.
 My New York and Texas family is becoming closer as the years go on, and it's this great relationship that I'm really happy to be in the middle of. I'm so blessed, you guys. I don't know how else to put it.

 So without further ado, the in between moments from this week:

 Possibly THE best moment from the week. This happened to Mary during our garage sale as a customer looked on. We screamed with laughter and could.not.stop.

Date Night

Mixed and matched ideas to come up with this roasted red pepper and cauliflower soup. Pictures from toaster strudel and peanut butter cup day not available.

Found him "reading" his Bible

Girls Night

Also, we're twins who are 10 years apart

Nothing like a sleeping child

Workout

Grandma Time

Poor kid has almost all his toys packed away and is very bored ;/

Ended this week with a rainy weekend--so needed around here!

Hope you all have a great Memorial Day! We are (surprise, surprise) packing and moving belonings into storage, but I'm looking forward to next year when we'll be in our own house and able to have friends over for a cookout!

Kindergarten Graduation

Our girl graduated from Kindergarten last week. We made it through our first year of homeschool (with flying colors, thanks to God's grace!) and I'm so thankful at the great year we had. 

"They come in knowing nothing, and they leave reading, writing, adding..."said the school Kindergarten teacher, and it is truly amazing. Even now, she's continuing to write more, sound out more words, and read more in her Bible.

The graduation started out with an adorable little play about chicken pox, which was totally cute and made us all smile and laugh. After that they quoted the books of the Bible, Bible verses and sang a song. They did a video of what Bible character they would be if they could, what they wanted to be when they grew up and who they wanted to thank. 

"I would want to be Sarah, because she had a lot of faith," Brookie said. "When I grow up I want to be a photographer just like my Mom." And then I cried, of course.

After their singing they received awards and their diploma. In 12 years I'll see this same sight except she'll be almost 18 and ready for college. I don't want to think about that right now!

Presenting the Kindergarten teachers with gifts and flowers. Even though we homeschooled, we were really blessed to work closely together with Mrs. P., and I'm really thankful that she was so gracious in allowing us to be included in field trips and especially this graduation!

After the ceremony we had a little party at Nate's parents house for Brooke and Trinity. There was food and cake and presents and lots of fun. We gave her money to buy a little digital camera (which she's been wanting for a long time) and this was her face when she opened her card. ;)

She will be 6 on Saturday. SIX. That sounds so old, but of course so does every "next age" that they aren't yet. I am so proud of the great attitude she had this year, even when it got a little tough and for how hard she worked! Happy Graduation baby girl!

Daily Moments

I'm going to start a series, daily moments, that will share some of my favorite moments from our weeks, taken with my Iphone. Enjoy!

He won't stay away from the vacuum!

First Swim

Detoxing

Mother's Day

Banana-eating shopping buddy

Making Gaucamole

Last school days!

This weekend we're preparing for a garage sale and hoping to get rid of a bunch of our junk. It's amazing how much you accumulate even when you think you are staying on top of things!

 Have a great weekend you guys!

NYC, Part 2

On our second day in NYC we planned to just take the ferry and then walk in the city without taking subways. The Staten Island ferry dropped us off in Battery Park and after we got off, we just started to walk. It was a little chilly that day so starting off with Starbucks was a must. From there we walked to Freedom Tower. We didn’t go inside, but even just walking by it was eerie, thinking about the events of 9-11. Even though there were crowds of people walking by, there was a strange silence in respect of what happened there. 

Some of the best food in the city comes from food stands, in my opinion. A NY gyro is what most of us ordered, with lamb of course, because it is simply divine and a real treat.  Also, we justified our pigging out with the fact that we walked for 5-6 hours that day. ;)

We walked into Battery Park city where we found a really ritzy mall that we used the bathroom in (ha) and walked around a little bit. 

That night was definitely one of our best memories of the trip. My dad and younger sisters stayed home with all the little kids (quite the job; I’m so thankful for them!) and the rest of us headed to Canal Street (tourist shops in Chinatown), Little Italy, Grand Central Station and Times Square. It was such a memorable night! One of the Pastor’s sons who knows the city in and out took us all over and we could have never seen what we did in one evening if it wasn’t for him. We shopped, ate dinner in Chinatown and dessert in little Italy at the best little dessert shop, Ferrara. I definitely recommend it if you are ever there!

One thing that most people do not know about Grand Central Station is that in one of the corridors there is something called a whispering wall. It's a square/dome type room, and if two people stand at either corner opposite of each other and speak in a normal voice, one can hear the other person clear as day. The sound travels up and over, giving you the sense that a speaker is right behind you. You can only say a few words at a time, simply because you laugh at how weird and phenomenal it is all at the same time. Once again, we were so thankful for our "guide," because we would have never known this without him and it was one of the highlights of our evening!

We arrived in Times Square at midnight and of course it was almost as bright as the middle of the day. I haven't been there in so long, I forgot about how huge all of the screens are and how much there is to gawk at (insert tourist face here). We walked around, took pictures, and of course could not leave without getting Starbucks!

New York is truly a beautiful city, and while I would never choose to live there, I do love visiting. But better than all of the sights, sounds, NY accents and food was the precious time spent with my family. Living so far away has never gotten easier--if anything, it's gotten harder--but that has caused us to cherish every moment together which I really appreciate.

 Coming home from vacation is a strange feeling--being rested and exhausted, all at the same time. I think our exhaustion was probably caused more from all of the carbs and sugar we stuffed into our bodies than anything. ;)

 Update on Recent Happenings: House hunting is still, well, going. We put in an offer on a beautiful home on an acre of land but it was not accepted, so we figured it was not God's will. We're still busy packing, while also keeping our house clean for showings, so it's definitely caused some stressful moments but over all we are doing well! Hope you all are enjoying your week!