oh my! Am i behind!

This is a drawing of a dinosaur with a scratch on his neck holding a car, drawn by Jacob :)

Me and the kids (and Ryann- my bestfriend Brittany's little girl) at a parade in Greenville

At City Garden running thru the sprinklers

Jacob and his Frog (named Froggie number 1)

They became fast friends and Jacob posed for many goofy pictures like this one- he wanted Froggie number 1 to sit on his face :)

A crochet hat i made jacob for this fall- proudly modeling it

1st day of preschool this year, he's excited!!

and he was even more excited when he saw his name on a RED train car- his favorite color!

a crochet had I made Leah for this fall.. a little sock monkey hat :)

Its been awhile.. I hate that i've been neglecting the blog but it seems like i've been busy lately!! First off.. I guess its been a few months and I am not sure all of what i've told you so here's a quick update on both kids first.

Leah: 2 1/2 yrs old, about 28 lbs and wearing sized 2t clothes now. Talks in full sentences, can run, jump, walk up and down stairs independantly with alternating feet, skips, draws circles and doodles, can almost count by herself to 10, sings her ABC's, knows about 4 colors correctly everytime (white, pink, purple, red), SINGS SINGS SINGS all the time (Jesus loves me, twinkle twinkle little star, ABCs, deep and wide, veggie tales songs, and this little light of mine to name a few). She is LOUD , very loud! Lots of screaming and talking loud all the time now :) She believes she is still a princess and loves to twirl when wearing a skirt, likes to wear shoes and can put on her own undies (pottytrained since 2yr3mo old) and put on her own shoes. Can undress herself. She sleeps with many dolls, a white kitty is her favorite, and barn animals that all have mommy and babies that match and she loves them. She likes to cuddle and kiss and be tickled. Her favorite sayings are "Maybe NOT!" instead of saying no and she crosses her arms and gives a stinkeye. She also says "oh my goodness!" to anything surprising or unexpectedly bad and also says "in a minute" when I ask her to do something.

Out of her mouth: Today I asked her to finish eating her dinner and she says " In a minute, I'm breathing" and proceeds to deep breath loudly to delay having to eat her food.

She also likes to pretend to tell you funny stories and they are usually "once there was a man who fell and got a boo boo and needed a bandaid, the end"

She is definitely 2 and testing limits now but in the same way is still my easier child and more obedient and easy going for the most part. She definitely has her days like when she climbs out of bed 5x at night and then when she knows she's caught she looks at you and smiles and says "im just kidding" and turns around and goes back in her room smiling the whole way.. its hard to get angry at that!!

Jacob is now 4 1/2 and in preschool again this year. However the public prek closed so now he goes 3 days a week for 2 1/2 hrs each day to a Methodist preschool here in town. He likes it soo far even though he tells me everyday that he did "nothing" so not sure what the money we pay is going for since apparently they don't do anything ;) I told him that if he's not doing anything then he just won't go back the next day and then he usually pipes up and tells me he sang a song or colored or played a game.

One day he told me he said a bad word at school, when i calmly asked him what bad word, he said he didn't say it, he screamed it.. and once again calmly I asked him what bad word?? and then he said no , he screamed it at the teacher (in my mind this story is going from bad to worse!!) and then i asked him WHAT WORD DID YOU SCREAM AT THE TEACHER!!! and he said " I didn't say a bad word, I was just kidding" and i asked him if i could call and check with his teacher to make sure, and he said yes cause he didn't say any bad words at school.. and now i have another grey hair, thanks Jacob!! btw- Jacob doesn't know any real bad words, the only bad word he knows is Stupid and if he says it he gets soap in the mouth, just thought you'd all like to know that :)

Jacob likes to tell "funny funny funny funny funny funny funny stories" which sounds like its going to be very funny but just like his sister it usually ends up "once there was this kid named Jacob who was 4 and fell into some thorns and they hurt bad so he needed a bandaid and then the bandaid was sooo big that he couldnt' get it off and it was stuck, the end" Not sure which part was the funny part??

Jacob can count into his 20s independantly, recognizes most letters (messes up on like 6 or so), can write his name and several other letters not in his name, knows how to dial 911 (as we learned months ago when he called the cops out to my parents house accidentally at 10 pm), can ride a 2 wheeler which he is still soooo proud about, recognizes most colors but sadly leah knows more then him at times, can draw pictures fairly good, at least i can usually guess what he's trying to draw now.

His favorite toys are his Vsmile handheld game, his trains and cars of course, and playdough- he loves playdough very much!!

And since we haven't had TV for 6 months now, can you believe it???? no tv channels for 6 months! he has no favorite tv shows but we do watch a movie here and there.. usually veggie tales, cars, carebears, shrek, or any other animated kids movie- they like them all and probably only watch an hour or two of movies a day.. the house has gotten pretty quiet and i am proud of the kids for not needing tv in their life on a daily basis. They play with their toys and each other alot more and i think its really helped their bonding. They are never not in the same room playing together- they are best friends even though they do fight on a regular basis over toys, but i am sure that's to be expected :)

And last, on a more personal note, our house has still not sold and so we are just waiting on God's timing for this and since it hasn't sold I will now have to stop my short 3month stint as a stay at home mom and go back to work to make ends meet. Thankfully it will be only a few days a month probably but work does bring an extra level of unwelcomed stress on me and so hopefully this house can sell so we can live with a cheaper mortgage/rent and me not have to work unless its something i'd actually love to do (like mother/baby, lactation nursing, etc)

I am very proud of how frugal Jimmy and I have become We have cut out soo much from our budget and am continually learning to watch every penny that its helping us to learn good life long habits I hope. I menu plan and have gotten our weekly grocery bill down to around 40-50 dollars by having meatless meals and being creative and mainly shopping Aldi's. We garage saled for the kids clothes and mine this year (i really lucked out and got the most beautiful sweaters (6 to be exact) at a garage sale this year, so i am set for winter and what the kids don't have i am going to sew by taking clothes that no longer fit them and repurpose them by sewing them together to make them last for another season- its fun too! We got rid of TV , had several garage sales and sold mostly anything we don't currently use or haven't used in the last year, sold collections/items on craigslist, I make our own laundry detergent which saves tons of money we would have spend on just the soap! It costs me about a penny a load to do laundry now :) We no longer go out to eat but maybe 2-3x a month if we have a coupon or kids are free- honestly I don't even miss it- I cook soo much at home now that i don't miss going out.. I enjoy being creative and trying new recipes in the kitchen!