We made it!

We are finally in Waco and waiting to unload our moving truck this afternoon.  It's been an eventful trip, but we are all good and ready to start our new adventure.  Let's do this!

Drive west Sipes fam

We are moving. We had a driveway party with our favorite neighbors.  The kids had their last day of school at Bascomb.   We ate at all our favorite Georgia eateries.  We played at our favorite park one last time and said goodbye to many friends we made the last year and a half.

We have had quite the adventure.  We are all packed up and our moving truck is heading to Texas, but we have been stuck in Louisiana in flood waters.  We stayed in a nasty hotel because that is all that was left due to all the other stranded travelers.  We are in separate cars so driving in the pouring rain has been quite the challenge for me.  I'm not a fan.  

Hayden barfed in the hotel bed and isn't feeling well.  We have two pups that are being awesome, but could not potty due to the horrible rain.  I feel bad for them.

Of all the moves this one has been the most challenging.  It is all for good reason.  We are moving home.   We are moving back to Waco where Gary and I met.  We will make it through anything to get back home!!  The kids are cheering for us!  They are ready to be back in Texas with family!

March is here!

I can't believe it's March!  March means SPRINGTIME!  Have you ever seen anything cuter that this girl with that giant Peep?  I will never get tired of her buying stuffed animals.  She can do it until she's 30 and I'll be just fine with it!

March has big things in store for the Sipes family. 

I can barely contain my excitement, but I'm so overwhelmed with packing that I can't see through the fog.  The packing and moving fog is the worst.  It's hard for me to live in chaos, but I know it is character building.  

What are we packing for?  Why the chaos?  

It will all be worth it when we are home again.  We just can't stay away from our home. 

  I think we are a crazy bunch of nomads. :-)  

rope jumper

Hayden suddenly got it!  

He would watch Layla jump rope when we lived in Ohio.  She was in a jump rope club at school and she would come home and practice and he'd get so mad that he couldn't do it. I think he hung his rope and walked away and moved on to other things! haha! 

Well, now he's a jump roping pro!  I love how he gets his 'game face' on.  He sticks that tongue out and gets after it.  He can even criss cross the rope in front of him!  Woohoo!

weekend stuff

our weekend started with me feeling the need to clean.  i taught the kids to vacuum even though it's my favorite chore.  they did a little bit, but then I took over.  it's still too heavy for them to push very well.  

Layla baked brownies and drizzled caramel all over them.  

we had a bonfire on the driveway.

Hayden had his first baseball practice and fell in love.  he's loving it and we have another practice tonight.  I'm thrilled he loves it.

after practice he felt the need to shoot a box.  

this picture is my whole heart.  all my squad all in one shot and some sleepy pups. 

 we had a nice low key weekend and the weather was nice here in Georgia.

I can't believe it's Feburary already.  this year is already moving so fast.  bring on spring though.  it is my favorite season. 

Snowy Saturday

The kids just came inside after playing in the snow!  It snowed the whole time they were outside playing.  They loved it! Lily had fun running and playing with them.  Daisy and I stayed inside the warm house.  The wind was blowing so hard and it made the kids colder faster!!

Happy Snow Day!

A random warm day ...YAY!

The weather was perfect for the park this afternoon.  This coming weekend is going to be super cold, so we headed outside after school.  Sometimes you just have to put homework on the back burner!!  We needed some sunshine!  The kid all ran and played and kicked the soccer ball and played tag.  It was great to see and hear them out of breath! 

the big grape bubble gum challenge

We started off our New Year with a bubble gum blowing contest!  

The kids love chewing gum.  They are always asking for gum gum gum. While shopping I saw grape flavor Hubba Bubba at the checkout line and it made me want to chew gum.  I remember blowing bubbles as a kid and it was the best fun.  

Y'all, chewing gum isn't for sissies.  That piece of Hubba Bubba was huge.  I couldn't get it chewed without a jaw cramp.  I finally started blowing bubbles after about 10 minutes of chewing.  It's like that big blob grows 4,000 times its original size in your mouth and promptly loses it's flavor and gets hard. 

Chewing gum and life issues are similar huh?!  Some things start out full of flavor and you have to conquer that blob to get it to the bubble stage. Then after a few bubbles you move on and spit out the hard gum.  

Leave it to me to over analyze our gum chewing fun. ;)  

Back to the contest... 

 We all gave it our best shot, but I think I actually had the biggest bubble.  I tried to get one of Gary's giant bubbles on camera, but it popped too fast, so we're just gonna say I won. I'm pretty sure the kids are ready for a rematch soon!  

Netsie and DeDe were here

We enjoyed a visit from my parents this week.  They drove 12 hours on Christmas Day to visit with us for several days.

They came with gifts for the children.  They got guns!  Layla was appreciative, but doesn't understand the whole gun thing.  I was the same way as a little girl.  Hayden was thrilled and ready to go shoot!

The weather was perfect the entire time they were here.  It was crazy December weather!  We spent a lot of time outside on the porch and even had several bonfires.

Cheers!!

DeDe learned all he wanted to know about the Wii U.  They played tons of games of bowling, golf and tennis.  I think DeDe wants his own Wii now!

As always we took them to our favorite Mexican food spot.  It was very enjoyable and we stuffed ourselves full of good food and Texas Margaritas.  

Baylor played in a bowl game and my mom wore an LSU shirt.  She's lucky she got to stay in the house.  My dad is a huge Tech fan and LSU played Tech that same day.  So ..... mark this down as the year she brought the wrong shirt.  It was funny!

My parents always get lovin' from our dogs.  Lily was gazing at DeDe!  It was so cute and of course Daisy followed him around the whole time he was here.  They threatened to steal her from us.  No way Jose!

My parents gave us a popcorn popper for our basement.  What a wonderful gift.  We are so thankful!  We have made popcorn every day since we got it.  We have finally mastered the arrt of popping yummy corn.  When I say we, I mean Gary.  I need to pay attention in case I want popcorn for lunch one day when he's at work.  HAHA!

Layla is so focused in this picture.  I just had to post it!

Thank you for the fun visit Netsie and DeDe!!

Christmas Eve is my favorite

We all enjoyed our traditional crab leg dinner tonight.  It was so good.  It's hard work breaking open the crab legs, but we love the yummy taste!

The kiddos baked cookies this morning and then decorated them.

Gary had to work for half the day and then he arrived and helped the kiddos decorate Santa's cookies.

Oh Daisy Mae!  You are a sweet pup!

We can't believe the weather here in Gerogia today!  It is a Sleeveless Christmas Eve!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Well, my favorite holiday (Thanksgiving) is over and the Christmas season is upon us.  I love Christmas time, but I love teaching the kids to be thankful before the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season.  Thanksgiving is a calm and soothing holiday and I just won't decorate the tree or my house before we celebrate and show our gratitude for all we have.

We found the perfect tree and we love it!

Gary strung the lights and I hung the balls on it, but the kids played outside and we enjoyed the wonderful warm weather, so we didn't fully decorate with the other ornaments.  Our tree seems to have a little lean going on.  Oh my!

She's a a pretty tree!  I just love her and soon she will be full of ornaments from years past!

friendsgiving roadtrip!!

Yesterday we decided to take a road trip to Chattanooga.  I was bummed because we'd have to take two cars and I thought maybe we could rent a van.  Everyone thought it was a wonderful idea. Yay!  Our day began with the guys getting the van and us hitting the road for our Tennessee adventure!

We stopped in at Ruby Falls.

And the we decided to visit the downtown area.

The waterfall steps were my favorite!

All selfies today compliments of Layla's selfie stick!

We ate a yummy lunch at Big River.

Then we visited the local cupcake place and I got my favorite classic vanilla cupcake. Layla also got a classic vanilla also, while Hayden got a peanut butter chocolate and Gary indulged in a mint chocolate chip flavor. Mmmmm!  So delicious!

On our way back to Georgia we visited Chickamauga National Battlefield Park.

We went 136 steep and circling steps to the top of Wilder monument.  It was so fun because we didn't realize how high it was and as we swiftly walked up the stairs we could feel the top was near, but we kept going and going and going.  We laughed and giggled through the thigh burn.  The laughter echoed through the cement monument and it's a memory I'll never ever forget.

I was a little freaked out at the top.  I'm not a fan of heights. I was worried one of the kids would fall all the way down the steep stairs, and I barely looked over the sides, yuck!  

I love the little side holes the soldiers shot guns out of.  I'm not a history lover, but it was really cool to tour the battlefields!

We made it back down and took picture looking back up at the top. It was pretty cool!

On the drive back to Georgia I was feeling sentimental.  I'm thankful for a fun day with friends and the ability for all of us to celebrate this holiday together!