Another tooth gone

Claire pulled another tooth at school this week. Her sweet teacher sent us this picture to let us know! She's not going to be able to eat if she keeps losing teeth! 

Snow Day!!!

We went to bed last night with a 2 hour school delay and woke up (to a 4:45 am text...) to school being canceled! I'm not happy about making it up but it's nice to have a family day! 

This is how Claire came out of her room to go play in the snow! We added more layers! 

It was Gracie's first time to see snow and she LOVED it! 

Toothless

Claire lost one of her top teeth awhile back prompting her to ask for her teeth for Christmas (such a ham). Yesterday Cole and Claire were playing and hit heads knocking Claire's other top tooth loose. It finally came out this morning before going to school. Daddy pulled it out. So here is my pic of the day - our toothless wonder!!! 

Love

Michael took over for the afternoon and let me take a nap while the kids played. When I woke up this is what I saw

Playing their leap pads together!  

6 months

We have lived in Livingston for 6 months! In 6 months I have seen my parents 5 times, my siblings twice, our best friends twice, Michael's family 3 times. This is the longest stretch of time in any of those relationships we've gone. I don't like it. My heart hurts when I think about how much we miss our family and friends. But oh my goodness! God has so richly blessed our time here. I am super thankful for the quick friendships we have made. It was the scariest thing about moving here and God came through above and beyond our wildest dreams. The kids have sweet friendships here and for that we are also thankful. 

We love this little town. We often say that it's the town that time forgot - this is a good thing. The pace of life is slower. The scenery is beautiful. We love that this town comes together for everything. Besides the love bugs I can't think of anything we don't like about Livingston. There are things we miss - people, Starbucks, stores, restaurants, Starbucks - but we truly love where God has us right now. I haven't even touched on our wonderful church. It is so good. I can not put into words our feelings for our church and church family. All I can say is that we thank God on a daily basis for them. Half a year, 6 months, 182 days. No matter how you look at it we've had an amazing time here in Livingston! 

Cole's room

We have lived here for 6 months and we are just now making poor Cole's room feel homey. He is in to Star Wars and Justice League so we've merged the two! We found the lights at target on sale after Christmas. My sister Megan did the painting for him for his birthday a few years ago. The Star Wars stickers we found at Amazon.com and the letters above his bed are repurposed from his nursery. It's been fun to get his room where he likes it! He actually came in and squealed - I love my room!! 

Family night

We decided to just relax and chill tonight and watch Despicable Me 2. It was really funny and kept both kids attention. 

Picture of the day

I would love to post a picture of the day. I'm not saying that I will post one everyday but I'm going to try. 

Here is today's picture! 

Claire hanging out in her daddy's office. She said - take a picture of me and send it to daddy with the words - your daughter is crazy! 

Back in the Swing

After 2 glorious weeks off for Christmas break, we are back in the swing of things.  It has been rough!!!  Both Claire and Cole, who are morning people, have been struggling to get up each morning.  Every morning when I wake Cole up I ask him if he wants to stay in bed and snuggle all day and every morning he quickly jumps out of the covers and yells - NO I go to school!!  On Tuesday this week I went into his room, crawled in his bed, and he rolled over and said - Mommy, lets just stay in bed and snuggle all day!  I almost called in sick!
January is a blah month for me.  Everyone is making resolutions and new commitments and goals.  I don't.  I know that by January 15th I am going to have failed.  So Michael and I are deciding on family changes. For example - eating more veggies with dinner (we both menu plan so that was easy), adding coconut oil to our everyday, family nights, Bible study together each morning during breakfast (we usually just watch the news so this was also an easy switch for us). These feel obtainable. These are doable. 
January makes us round the corner into the 2nd semester of school.  This is a high energy, crunch time for me.  I've got a finish line that is quickly approaching and I have to get my students to it before the nasty test they have to take.  We are working hard to push forward with excellence. 
I am missing my daily naps of Christmas break and being home with my family all the time but I know God has great things in store for us this year!  I am excited to see what they are!!!

American Girl Doll Store

For Christmas Grandpa Bill and Grandma Suz gave Claire a gift card the the American Girl Doll store. It's in Houston so we wanted to make a day of it. We went ahead and made reservations at the Bistro to get the full experience. We had such a fun time! Today was one of the days for the new Girl of The Year - Isabella, so it was crazy there! 

We bought Claire and her doll matching outfits from the store for Christmas. When we took the tights out of the package we discovered that they were not only too small but they were not made correctly. AG is so customer friendly they took them back without a receipt (which I had on my phone) and gave us full price for them. So with that Claire was able to get 3 new outfits, a matching t shirt for her and the doll and a hair brush.

We fixed their hair the same today and about half way through the day we realized that their hair had fallen in the same exact way!

Making a paper doll of the Isabella

Claire and Isabella.  We really like this new doll - she's a dancer and she likes fashion - both of which Claire loves!

Claire and daddy have a matching doll

At the Bistro

Claire and her doll

Drinking special drinks!

A little too much pink for this boy!

Daddy ordered 2 desserts!!!!   

We finished out our day at Ikea!  We can't wait to go back the the AG store!  Hopefully for her birthday she will get gift cards so she can get the Isabelle doll!