Back to life

I am back. It has been a while and even before my last post very sporadic. Like most everyone, the holidays are busy - which I hate and want to be different this year. Many of you ask me about my Jesse Advent Post - they will return this summer to give you and me enough time to finish the ones I had high hopes of finishing in December and didn't. Many of you said it was too late notice so this can help those of you who would like to do it for this year.
I thought I would spend this post updating about our life. I have several post brewing in my brain but for another time.
The House - we have a short list of to-do's for this month and we will be finished with all that we are going to do on the house. I love, love, love it and when I finish I will post pictures of my little cottage in the country. The boys still love being outdoors with free reign. No fences - just open fields to roam. John and I love it here for this stage of our life. (More to come on that later)
Our month long trip - it was great. We spent the first week at John's mom's house near Navarre Beach. The boys love being there because they can ride their bikes to the "little beach" and wade in the sound and dig in the sand. After that we made a detour through Wedowee Alabama to visit our dear friends The Parmers and to meet little Thomas who is a mini me of his dad. It was a wonderful time to see the but way to short. We love you Ben, Nikki, Lydi and Thomas and wish you still lived next door more than you can imagine!!!! After that night we drove about 4 hours back to our house, repacked for 3 weeks and headed out the next morning to Denver, Colorado. The trip was surprisingly easy thanks to some serious pre-planning of various activities and stops. We spent 3 great weeks out there with John's sister and her family. John's mom was able to join us the last week and we went and spent a few night in Keystone. It was so much fun for the cousins to get to spend such good quality time with each other. On our way back home we stopped at Coco Key water resort in Kansas City, MO. It was a blast and very good family time before returning home. I am soooo very thankful for John's job because it afforded us this great extended time with family that we don't see often.
Back Home- well I have spent this week putting away Christmas presents and unpacking and doing laundry. I finished the house this morning and will head outside for the next day or so to do some organizing of our outside toys. Next week it will be back to life and routine.
So here is my long update for those of you who cared to read it!!!! It is good to be back. I love to write and have missed my blogging.