balancing family time

Today we had a rare family day!

With busy schedules and an almost teenager

in the house we don't all get to be together as much I would like.

Michelle is at the age where she would way rather be hanging out

with her friends which I remember being the same way.

I try to find a good balance of letting her hang out with friends

but also being home with us. Today Josh had a softball tournament

down south. Michelle wanted to come along so she could see a friend

who's dad played on the team last year. I was like alright whatever helps

her want to come too. They only ended up playing one game so we were

back home in no time. We all had some down time before dinner.

We had dinner as a family and then took a bike ride together.

When we got back Jordan wanted to shoot some hoops.

We all hung outside. Michelle brought out her volleyball and Josh joined 

her in hitting it back and forth. Before we headed in I wanted to get a picture

of Michelle since she is rarely around to let me do this. As I was snapping

away Josh came over and got in the picture with her. He then grabbed her up

and started giving her kisses on her face. I ended up getting two of my 

newest favorite pictures! I love that he wanted to get in a picture but 

show Michelle how much he loves her. 

Afterwards Josh and Jordan cut their hair and Michelle asked if she could paint 

my nails. It was a fairly perfect day in my books! 

We don't have to many years left with these two. 

back into the swing of things

I have been pretty absent from the blog for quite some time. 

I didn't realize how long until I just checked when my last post was.

We as a family have been busy keeping up with life.

We also just got back from a week in California for a family vacation 

last night. We have spent today sleeping in and relaxing before reality hits

tomorrow. Back to school for the kids, work for Josh and housework for me.

I plan to blog all about our vacation this week so be ready for picture overload.

I have been keeping up with posting pictures on my blog facebook page and instagram.

I plan to keep up with blogging because I do love it. I have a lot of things I need to kick

myself into gear on again. Meal planning, eating clean, exercise, blogging, project life, crafts,

cleaning, time management, gutting/organizing the house, reading ect. You get the idea.

Spring is right around the corner and I can't be more excited for it!

After a week in the warm glorious sun I was not looking forward to coming back at all.

I am ready to uproot and move to a condo on the beach right now.

Unfortunately Josh isn't totally on board yet maybe in a few years.

I need to keep my spirits up and happy juices flowing until summer arrives here.

I am hoping keeping myself motivated with all the above things will get me through 

to summer! At least the sun decided to follow us home to Washington and shine today!

I look to sharing more on the blog in the upcoming days, weeks and months!

January wrap up!

As you might have noticed I did not do a very good job at keeping up with blogging.

This month was busy and went as fast as every month seems to go!

I was with out my camera for the first few weeks while it got fixed. 

Here is a quick look at our month in pictures!

Josh has been coaching Jordan's basketball team for

the boys and girls club league. They practiced twice a week with a game 

also each week! Jordan is number 23!

Our Sundays have also been devoted to football!

We have been cheering the Seahawks on all season long!

We are so excited that they won the Superbowl!

Josh and Jordan are headed to the parade in Seattle tomorrow!

In between games on Sundays Josh and Jordan would 

go out into the alley for a little football fun!

Michelle got braces!

Jordan lost another tooth!

My days have been filled with lots kiddos including my adorable nephews!

A few other highlights

mother/son dodge ball at school

the family all went to the dentist for cleanings!

Jordan's school had their make up pj day and assembly

volunteering in Jordan's class once a week

next week is thanksgiving....say what?

Haven't blogged for a few days so figured I should give a quick update on life.

Josh is off coaching Jordan's basketball practice so it is a little quiet here.

I haven't really picked up my camera in several weeks so don't really have

any fun new pictures to share.

This weekend came and went super fast.

Friday night Josh coached Jordan basketball team practice.

Saturday morning I went hunting for Magic Tree house books for

Jordan's growing collect, came home and took a much needed nap.

Josh and I went later to dinner and bowling for a friend of ours birthday!

I had my first non juiced food for dinner. 

We went to Asian 1 and I got the garlic broccoli with beef.

It was amazing and yummy.

I was good and drank water all through bowling.

Later when we got home Josh of course brought up 

the mother load of snacks but I continued to be good and ate an apple.

Sunday I went to Costco to stock up on veggies and fruit.

When I got home Josh was just pulling steak off the BBQ

and had made twice baked potatoes. I was starved so I dug right in.

I had some steak and shared a potato with Michelle.

I am on a juice for breakfast and lunch and eat dinner now.

I need to go back to all juicing because I feel better then

but I know I need to keep food in my diet to.

Last night Josh bought a ton of pizza for Monday night football.

I left before eating any but when I came back I couldn't stay away.

Starting tomorrow through next Wednesday the kids have early release every day.

Ugh. I would rather they just had a whole day off then early release.

Thursday we have parent conferences for both the kids!

Josh is actually going to make it to both with me this year.

I can't believe next week is Thanksgiving already!

We are going to the my parents house this year.

Then on Friday Josh and I are going to leave early

to celebrate my birthday in Leavenworth/Wenatchee until Monday!

It is a weekend early but all the weekends in December are booked.

That is what we have been up to in a Nut shell.

I have a couple of things I have been planning/organizing for the Christmas

season that I will share with you all soon!

night's end

I originally got on my computer 40 minutes ago to write a post for today.

Then I got on pinterest and have been mindlessly browsing.

Now my eyes are burning and I am more then ready to go to bed.

I have Jordan laying next to me playing Mario cart.

Michelle is at my mom's spending the night.

Josh is down stairs watching Monday night football.

In about 15 minutes he will come up to tuck Jordan in 

and read him a chapter in his book. We will then get in bed

and watch shows until I can't stay up any longer which usually by ten.

That is how we are winding down the day and ending our night.

Until tomorrow good night!

blog everyday

November is my month to blog everyday!

I really hope I can do it.

I am good at starting projects/challenges but not sticking with

them or finishing.  So we will see :)

Today went by pretty fast.

I woke up and headed out the door to run errands in Bellingham.

I dropped Michelle off at her friend's house on the way.

Josh was supposed to go hunting at 2 pm so I had a time frame.

I did Wal-mart, Costco and some returns to Old Navy before heading back.

I got a text from Josh on the way home that hunting got canceled due 

to the gross weather. I don't like this weather. It may errands

went and cold. My pants like to soak up all the water.

I think I may have to retire the flip flops for a few months.

I grabbed some $5 fave pizzas from Papa Murphy for lunch/dinner.

By the time I got everything in the house I was cold and soaked.

I took a hot shower and put on some fuzzy warm socks.

Jordan wanted to watch a snuggle movie with daddy 

so we watched Cool Runnings. I love watching older movies with the kids.

When that was over we met some friends of ours for ice cream at Edaleen.

On the way home Jordan told Josh he wanted to have boy time in the garage.

They played pop a shot and listened to the music.

I headed up to my room with my lap top to menu plan for the next few weeks.

That is exactly where I am now catching up on The X factor

while I plan.  Pretty exciting day I know. Hopefully as the month goes on

I can find more exciting things to blog about.

Good night and don't forget to fall back tonight!

ten on ten

once a month on the tenth

taking a photo every hour for ten consecutive hours. 

Finding much life and beauty 

among the ordinary things of our day!

Pretty busy keep going day today.

Got the kids off to school.

My nephews got to come play for a while.

Early release so Jordan was home by noon.

Had a little down time and watched a snuggle show together.

LOVE the scent of this candle and have it burning all day.

Michelle wants to cook more so she made us a chili for dinner.

Then it was off to bender for flag football! 

Jordan even got the ball and scored his first touch down!

it was a nice idea

so......blogging everyday this month was a nice thought but

not going to happen. October came to quickly and life is busy.

I still want to complete this goal but I am going to save for November.

Hopefully I will be more prepared as it approaches.

 I think I am just going to have to wash having a goal for this month

besides getting through each day and finding time to connect as a family.

 A quick update before I head to bed.

Fast pitch and flag football are a little over half way done.

Hopefully the weather will be nice to us so we can finish the season

on schedule. Jordan plays tomorrow and Thursday.

Michelle has a game  at Mt. Baker on Wednesday.

Josh celebrated his big 3-0 birthday this weekend.

The kids went to stay with his parents for the weekend

and we had house guests come stay with us.

We went out to dinner Saturday night with a large group

of people and then back to our house to hang out to late into the night.

I actually was the first one to go to bed.

Tonight Josh is off playing poker so it was just the kids and I.

Jordan really wanted to go to Homestead to swim so I took him

with hopes of just sitting in the hot tub. I am not a huge pool person.

Then it was ice cream cake, home work reading, word search and bed for the kids.

I need to go to bed now as my alarm is set way to early so I can work out.

blog everyday

One of my goals for 2013 was to blog more.

So October was the month I was going to try and blog everyday.

As you can see I have already missed two days but I am not

going to let that stop me! During this month I want to not only blog

about the day to day stuff but other topics as well.

I have a list of ideas so hopefully you will get to read about some of them!

This week has already been crazy busy.

Monday Jordan was home sick with a mild stomach flu bug.

Tuesday Michelle had a fast pitch scrimmage game and Jordan 

had a flag football practice game against a 3rd grade team in the pouring rain.

Wednesday I had a parent volunteer team get together to plan for the school carnival

that is next week Friday! We have a lot of fun games planned and some great auction baskets!

Michelle was supposed to have a late fast pitch game but it got canceled due to rain

so we were able to sit down to dinner as a family and go to church! 

I even made a beef stew in the crock pot! First one of the fall season!

Today is my errand/help in Jordan's class day!

I am also going to take Josh out for an early birthday lunch!

Tonight Jordan has flag football game at 5:45pm and

Michelle has her make up game at 6pm at Bender.

I need to get my butt moving so I can get all my errands done, have time for lunch

and make it back to Lynden in time to help in Jordan's class!

I will leave with a few flag football pictures from Tuesday.