Oktoberfest, golf and adult school

 We have officially made it through a week and a half of being "homeless".  Obviously I'm kidding, but it has been such a great transition.  Tracy has been so accommodating and helpful with the kids, we definitely appreciate all they have done for us!  Of course we are getting anxious for our house to progress but for being in between housing, we really have it pretty good.  Speaking of our house, they started the frame this week so it will be fun to see the transition now.

We've been staying pretty busy lately, last weekend we met some of our Life Group peeps for dinner then went to a relationship seminar at church on Friday night.  I know, we are party animals on a Friday night!  It was a pretty good seminar but it was a late night for the kids...but they survived AND slept in the next morning.

 Saturday we took the kids to Oktoberfest.  It was a little hot but we still had a great time.  Beau, Grayson and Earlene joined us and it was so great to see them.  Mama Stacey was out of town doing some spa stuff...pshhhhh, I'd way rather spend a hot afternoon with crazy kids than having my feet up getting pampered (sarcasm).  Missed having you there Stacey!

They have this fun kids concert area and the kids had a great time listening to music, watching magic shows and dancing.

Precious!

Cole, Beau and Grayson

 Saturday night we got a sitter (hallelujah!) and joined some friends at Top Golf.  This is the coolest place and so fun!  It is also the perfect place, in my opinion, for dates.  It involves sports, cocktails, chatting and music.  Everyone's happy, right!?!

Jen posing in between shot

Is this even proper golf attire?

We had so much fun with great friends and can't wait to go back!

The rest of the weekend was spent driving to and from church (twice), having Life group and relaxing.  Nick has been super busy with work so we are trying to just relax a bit on the weekends.  

I have also decided to go back to school.  I know I'm crazy.  I figure that while I'm working part time, now would be a good time.  When the kids start school, I would like to return to work full time so that gives me about 4 years.  I've always wanted to get my Master's and I always regretted not getting it before we had kids so I think this is the second best time.  I'm getting everything situated to turn in but with not having done this in over 12 years, it's all a little foreign to me.  I'm hoping to get everything turned in and accepted so I can start in the Spring semester.  I have two options I'm going to pursue.  I'll either do the 36 hour Masters of Education for School counseling or the 52 hour Masters of Counseling.  Nick kind of feels like I should just go all out at do the longer one so that I'll have more options when I'm done.  I do want to still be in the school system but if I eventually wanted to be in a private practice or some other institution, I could.
It's all a little scary, juggling a family, work and school but I just feel this is the best time.  Oh, and if I do start in the spring semester, it will be right when we move into the new house.  Awesome timing, eh?!? :) THEN, as soon as I'm done, I'm pretty sure Nick is going to need to get his MBA.  So pretty much, we won't see much of each other for the next 4 years.  Booo!!!!
That's all for the latest updates!!

Last Couple Weeks

 Now that things in our life have settled down some, I thought I'd post some updates from the last couple weeks.  Here are a few things we've been up to:

Trip to Colorado:  Last week, Finley and I took a quick trip to Colorado for a few days.  There were a few things in Colorado that I had to take care of and since Finley still flies for free, she was the lucky one that got to accompany me :)  Plus, Cole had his first day of school and Nick had to finish packing our house.  Yes, this wasn't the greatest timing, going to Colorado while moving but ah well, things needed to get done.

Our flight there was alright.  Finley was supposed to fall asleep but I guess I wasn't surprised because she's not the most cooperative child out there :)  We did have an empty seat next to us so she had more room to roam around.

Once we got to the airport and my mom picked us up, she crashed right away.  I feel like she looks gigantic in this picture!

Those lips.....

That first evening we were there, we ate at the country club and Finley sat in a big girl seat.  She did pretty well, actually!

I am so blessed to have the best sister-in-law ever!  Rachel was such a trooper and watched Finley for me during the days.  I truly believe that Rachel is super-mom so I knew Finley would be in great hands.  I'm sure all three girls were a little bit of a handful but I know Finley had a great time with her cousins.  

Finley, Cameron and Sydney 

 Rachel sent me this picture the first day, ha!  I think they were playing with 3D chalk.

 Rachel watched Finley for 3 days and I'm sure by the time Friday came around she was ready to get back to her regular schedule and life.  I so appreciate all of Rachel's help!  The last night we were there my parents took all of us out to dinner to Texas Roadhouse.  I'm not sure how many of you have attempted to take 3 little girls, under the age of 3 out to dinner....????  I would highly recommend NOT doing it! :)  I really can't complain at all, they all just acted like normal little girls but it sure is exhausting trying to do all that you need to in order to not draw too much attention to table.

Mimi and the two little girls

 Sydeney and Me....she is such a sweet baby!

 The last day that Finley was at Rachel's house, I went to pick her up and as we were playing outside a bit, she had a little fight with the driveway...the driveway won.  Her poor forehead and nose lost the battle.

Cole's 1st day of Preschool:  Since I was not in town to take Cole to his first day back at Stonebriar Preschool, Gigi was nice enough to help out with Cole that week.  I was so sad to not be there for his first day but it sounds like he had so much fun.  He absolutely loves his teachers and I know it will be a great year.

This is the picture Tracy sent me, right before they left for school

Flight back to Dallas:  Finley and I flew back to Dallas last Saturday evening and I was sort of dreading the flight because she is just at that age where she just wants to be on the go.  She hates sitting still. To my surprise, we sat next to this sweet little girl who was 3 years old.  I knew Finley would love sitting next to her and that definitely kept her distracted for part of the time.  

Then, the lady that sat across from me asked if the two girls wanted to see her new puppy.  This puppy was the cutest, sweetest thing...only 8 weeks old.  Finley is absolutely obsessed with dogs so I knew she would be so excited about this.  Finley loved up on this puppy and was in heaven for quite awhile.  This lady was so nice to let the girls play with her puppy!

 Then after that (and this is the funniest thing), the flight attendant, who was the funniest lady ever, came up to me because Finley was being a little noisy and she took Finley from me.  Finley was more than happy to go with her as long as her mean mom wasn't making her sit in the seat. :)  I don't know if you can see but the flight attendant took Finley up to the front of the plane and talked to a couple random passengers along the way.  On the way back, the flight attendant put Finley in Mr. Wayne's lap (he's a grandpa who was the nicest man and everyone joked that he was the junior flight attendant for that flight).  Mr. Wayne entertained her for a bit then he brought her back to me and by that time we were just about to land.  So nice to have such accommodating people and I just couldn't believe how nice everyone was! 

 The Move:  Again, I was unable to be there when Nick moved out of our house.  I really did feel pretty bad that I couldn't help out but I knew Nick could handle it.  It did take him quite a bit more time than he expected but I wasn't too surprised by that.  It was a pretty stressful couple of days but it got done and we officially closed on Monday afternoon.  I had to run up there really fast right before we closed because 1.  I needed to get some dishes out of the dishwasher that we overlooked and 2.  I needed to say goodbye to the house.  It was pretty sad to see the house empty, the house that started our marriage, brought our babies home from the hospital and had many many memories.  

We are excited to start the next chapter but it's still always sad to say goodbye to something like that.

This is the picture I took right before I left for the last time :(

Till our new house is done being built, we are shackin up with Nick's mom.  She has been so accommodating and helpful and the kids, if you can imagine, are loving it.  This is them last night, pretending to be transformers :)  Finley really has no clue what she's doing, she's just doing whatever big brother is doing.  

Sorry for such a long post, I'll try to be better with more frequent updates from now on :)