February & March to today

Lots has happened since we last posted......

We had 3 days worth of snow that also closed schools early one day then off for 3 more.  We started with seeing deer in our backyard.

 We were crazy enough to still get out there to hit the gym after we left the kids at friends.  But you dont see these conditions often here in the South.

 Sledding in our neighbors backyard.  Not sure how we all would have survived this storm without our friends.  We just rotated houses to keep everyone feed and entertained including the parents.

If you are a parent/grandparent or just someone who needs to get a kid a gift.  The Magna blocks are it.  They are a little pricey but my kids have played with these almost daily since they got them for valentines day so well worth it.

Then of course we celebrated Marli's 4th birthday.  We lucked out with a 70 degree weekend when we rented our bounce house.  It was such a fun day with her buddies during the early part of the day.  Then we even invited friends over later to hang out into the night as we partied for Jacob's birthday.

Then other big news is Emmi has her ears pierced now.  We figured the time would be right when she started to ask.  She first did around her birthday but I passed it off to we would do it later.  But then just recently she got persistent with wanting to make sure we went that particular weekend.  So sure enough Emmi, Jacob and Marli went.  Marli didn't want it done since it could hurt.  I was a wimp with the idea and didnt want to be a weak link to watch her so ran errands instead.  She is counting down the days for dangling earrings.

 We have had nicer and nicer weather so this is most often where you can see Moo on her bike playing with neighborhood kids.

On other note same day as the big snowstorm, I received notice I was being laid off due to budget cuts of the project I was on.  Whomp whomp.  Right now I am out of work but getting severance so am able to enjoy some down time and staying plenty busy as my house project list is about to start.  Got a few things in the works job wise with one interview I went on a few weeks ago to a couple of initial phone screens this week to head hunters so may just be a matter of time.  One bad thing may be I lose the option to work from home full time but luckily we are at a point that it isn't a major deal.  At the most I want to go in the office 20-25 hours a week.  So please keep me in your thoughts.  And if you are free and want to come visit come on down as I got plenty of time to hang out right now.  :)

Fundraising Post

Got plenty of stuff to catch up on....  but until then Next week, March 13, 2014, Emmi is going to be participating in a fun run at her school.  They get to run laps around a track and raise money for the school.  She is targeted to run 30-35 laps.  

As a PTO parent and Emmi, the proud student, we ask that you please consider making either a flat donation or per lap donation.  What do you think???

To make it easy go here:

https://funrun.com/a/s/TQAel1xC

Love Taryn & Emmi

Taekwondo

After going to Griffin's birthday party we finally got Emmi to sign up for taekwondo.  I had bought a groupon over the summer since she said she wanted to do it but then never wanted to commit.  But she is now loving it.  She goes twice a week.  Marli has no interest although she does practice at home with Emmi as well as does the hiyas like they do when they are in class.

Here are some pictures of her in action.
Jumpin Jacks:

 They start off all classes doing sit-ups, push-ups, and squats.

 Here she is in stance.  Watch out.

The girls also got their haircut since it was long over due.

Here is a picture for Memere to let her know that we are taking good care of her car that she left here for a couple months before she makes the trip back down.  ;)

Playing Catch up....

The time from Emmi's birthday to today just seemed like it flew by.  Definitely stayed busy.....

From playdates and playing outside.

 To attempts at a Christmas Card Picture.

 To the return of Elfie, he is the elf on a shelf that comes from Thanksgiving to Christmas to report back to Santa how the kids are doing..

We also fostered a cute puppy, Roscoe, during this time who ultimately got adopted by our friends.

Marli had her Christmas show at school.  Typical fashion Moo was the hit as her antlers kept falling over her eyes.  Emmi also had a party but I was too involved helping with activities to capture any pictures.

We had a Christmas party in our neighborhood.  This was the first time the kids got to see Santa.

Marli and I had a day uptown so I could hit the dentist but since we had time to kill we hit Discovery Place.

 When attempting to take a picture of 5 kids note to self it just isnt going to happen.  We had gone uptown again a different day to see the singing bears.  This time we had our cousins and Emmi's boyfriend Robert with us.

 
 We also took in Breakfast with Santa.  Moo was not so much into sitting with Santa this time.

 We usually celebrate Christmas Eve with our friends the Perry's so here we are dressed and ready to go.

 We usually head to Ryan's parents house now that they moved here which we appreciate since it feels like we are part of their extended family.  Everyone just gets cozy and hangs out eating way too many cookies.

Here was our $10 tree this year.  We put minimal ornaments this year since the foster puppy was chewing anything within reach on the tree.

This years big present was a swingset.  The kids have loved playing on it although Christmas was a bit chilly but the days after were wonderful.  Santa had an elf that helped him make this happen since when they went to bed at night it wasnt there but when they woke up sure enough it was in our back yard.

The girls and I also went to Lazy 5 Ranch.  It is a drive through zoo of sorts where you can go in your own car or take a wagon ride.  Although it was warm enough for us to have taken the wagon we like the safety of our car.  The animals can get close to the windows to look eye to eye but they dont necessarily touch us like they do in the wagon.

 Of course we spent plenty of time at the gym.  This is a huge achievement of Jacob captured as he did a muscle up with a 20lb vest on.  Muscle ups alone are hard enough never mind with a weighted vest.

The 2 weeks of vacation went by too fast.  I had plenty of time off unfortunately Jacob didnt but we got to stay busy with plenty of fun activities.  Was sad to get back into the routine again this morning.

The big 6

An oddity is we had snow this week.  Gotta love our Southern Girls as they wanted to make snowmen and play in the snow.  This is what our backyard looked like:

Since we had spent last weekend in Atlanta celebrating Emmi's birthday we did a lower key birthday.  She brought goodie bags to her classmates, then she will have a playdate with her girl friends this coming weekend.  One highlight was that the P, A, B, C, clan came in for the Patriots Panthers Monday night game.  They all were great sports and went to Emmi's school for lunch with her.

We celebrated with a cake at home for Emmi.

American Girl & Aquarium

We prepped for the weekend in Atlanta with a spa day.  Emmi and Marli got manis and pedis.

American Girl Doll Store was the hit.  Not sure if Jacob or the girls were more excited.

Here the girls were with their dolls watching a movie at the store.

They have a cafe where you have to make reservations like a month in advance.  As you can see the girls totally enjoyed it since their dolls even have seats at the table.

 Then we spent the day at the aquarium.  Saw a cool dolphin show and many many tanks of huge fish.

Halloween & randoms

We did our usual routine of going Trick or Treating with the Perry's.   We headed over to their house early and hit their street.  Then came over to our street and hit houses with the rest of the neighborhood crew.  So many kids were you just hope your kid is in the mix because you cant see them anymore.  I usually make their costumes but when they saw the Power Ranger Costumes at Costco they had to have them.  They stuck to their guns and wore them.

This past weekend we unplugged.  That is right we shut our phones down to only calls and texts, put the computers away, tried to run errands on Friday and had tons and tons of family time.  This is going to be our new thing.  Family game nights, painting, and just hanging out.  As working parents it feels at times that life is just flying by especially during the week and then trying to catch up and prep for the week during the weekend.  So we are going to just try to embrace the slower times we have to have fun.

Speaking of work, almost a year ago my role shifted at work to where I am working on project stuff.  It has been going fine although stressful at times.  We are in the peak of stress as the huge project is about to go live on the 15th.  Please pray for me, send happy thoughts, etc.  It stinks when your stress relief of going to the gym is something that is not even happening.  So here is how I tried to brighten my day one day by just working on the deck.

 I was excited to get my hair cut this past weekend.  Had to take a snapshot as my hairdresser put curls in my hair.  I loved it enough to buy a curling iron to attempt to do myself.  Luckily we have the ABC crew coming in soon so Chloe has offered to teach me some tips on how to do it myself.  Woot woot.

 Oh is that another dog in our house.  We babysat my friend's foster dog while she had to go out of town.  As crazy as it sounds we get him back on Monday so we can be his foster.  Will see how this goes.