Valentine's Day Dinner

Heart-shaped homemade pizza.

The cute cooks!

Great husband.

Good times.

There was also a great FHE lesson, cookies and cards made by all. 

Thanks Stephanie and kids...as well as Grandma and Grandpa Watkins. 

Our walk through life.

It hasn't always been perfect, easy or so called...thrilling; but our walk through life has been filled with lots of love, fun, happiness, joy, children, loss, excitement, mundane, craziness, heartache, hope, peace and best of all...each other. 

I love you Jacob Vernon Watkins and I am so thankful that we are on this journey together. 

Kids "free time"

And while I was blogging and the kids had an hour of "free time" during home school...this is what ensued. Click on the picture if you want to see it bigger. Ha ha. My kids do have some of me in them for sure.
The Mario Brothers (netflix circa 1989)

P.S. Notice the cute outfits...they chose all on their own. Very creative kids! Aubrey is Luigi and Weston is Mario.

Pictures of new home.

WARNING!! This may be super boring for those who don't care...even for those who do. So here are pics of our new house. It is much smaller and simpler...but we love it and are very grateful to be closer to Jacob's work and family.
Master Bathroom.2nd Bathroom.Family Room off of the kitchen. I am excited to try out the fireplace.Another angle...so you can see the layout. Hallway.Master Bedroom.Front Family Room.

The kitchen.

Another angle of the kitchen

That is all for now. I already posted the kids rooms and office/school room in another previous post. Enjoy (by the way...I had it all cleaned and ready to take pics...but then I forgot, so this is halfway clean.)

Before and After: School Room

I think a little paint...made a huge difference. The first color really wasn't that bad...but it didn't fit the rest of the house. (It was the previous owners salon.) Anyway, I just used leftover paint from my old house and so with about 15$ in supplies....here it is!

Daddy Daughter Dance

This is what Aubrey wrote...

"This is the corsage my daddy got me for the day of the dance. (You know...the daddy daughter dance.) We go to it everyyear. I bet when I went to the dance I was the prettiest girl there. Because after the dance we went to Marie Calanders and the people that worked there asked if I was going to a wedding. Of course I wasn't...I was going to a daddy daughter dance!"

I know that Aubrey is sooooo lucky to have a dad like Jake. He loves her and he knows how to show it. What a great blessing to have in this wonderful life.

This is the 3rd year in a row. Love it!

Find Joy in the Journey....

So I didn't really give myself time to write this post. I have to pick up kids...in about 15 minutes or so. But I just thought I should steal any chance I get at this point, to blog. So here you have it.

What is going on at our house...? Some may be wondering (if anyone still reads this :)

Well...we just recently moved. 2 and half weeks ago I think. I am so busy with moving us in. I know that I have all the time in the world. People keep telling me that. However, I prefer "my space" as you call it...to be organized and pretty. I can't help it. I don't want to live around clutter. So I have got quite a bit done already (with Jake's help of course,) and the plan is

to be finished by Superbowl Sunday! Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Mari and Mike will be here for the big reveal. (By the way...they totally don't care...it just gives me a goal.)

Meanwhile, I keep walking past this saying in my TV room...

Find Joy in the Journey. I have to say with all the crazy changes....I think we are. I made it a goal this move to just enjoy it. Enjoy the fact that I get to clean, organize, (forced if you will to downsize)....but to enjoy that it is healthy and good to do this. I am loving getting this home more orderly than anyone before. I de-cluttered sooooo much before we moved and I have about 5 huge boxes more that I am de-junking. It is hard, (some of the stuff means a lot or is actually worth a lot) but there is no NEED for it...so it is gone. It feels wonderful! Things are finding their place in our smaller, more humble home. I can't wait to show pics of the finished product.

I had my birthday in all of this. The day after we moved in fact. It wasn't the best ( I can't lie.) It is hard to enjoy a birthday ...when you are still completely living out of boxes. But family was supportive and this last weekend Jake took me to a fabulous Vietnamese restaurant and then to a comedy club. It was WONDERFUL! It totally made up for the lack of fun a few weeks previous.

So there you have it. We are SUPER busy...trying to put together a new home. There is a lot of measuring, sewing, rearanging and of course....life going on around here.

Oh...and to top it off (this probably needs it own blog post)....we started HOMESCHOOLING! So there is actually a lot more going on right now...hence the lack of blogging going on.