"Look at HIS tu-tu!"

YES! Those are the words that rang out of my 3 1/2 year old's mouth yesterday as we were leaving Arris' Pizza with some friends!! :) I had seen him coming, he and his wife! She was dressed in jeans and a sweat shirt and HE was wearing kahaki kilt!! :) Well, my sweet little daughter, that didn't know any better, had caught a glimpse of him from far away, then came to stand beside me to get a better look!! She couldn't believe her eyes, and she was so pleased to be able to share!! :) ""Look at HIS tu-tu!" she shouted...she was SO EXCITED!!! "DADDY!!! LOOK AT HIS TU-TU!!!! I have one too!!!!" They passed us looking mildly annoyed, but all we could do was laugh!! It was so innocent and so sweet and she was so proud of him!!!! She is my precious little girl...she is ALL GIRL and I LOVE IT!! Ah, such special moments to remember!!!

Picture Perfect

As I was downloading new pictures today I realized that we have a LOT of pictures of our two cuties in front of our beautiful fireplace! I LOVE our fireplace, it is one of my favorite features of our house!! But... little did I know how much fun it would be to pose my two kiddos in front of it on the days that they look SUPER cute, or on the days that they are being so sweet and even on the days they are just being THEM!! It is also awesome to watch them grow in front of our fireplace!! Their heads are getting closer and closer to the TOP of it! :) We of course have pictures of our M and Z as tiny babies in front of the fireplace...we also have pictures of them on their first birthdays, at Halloween, Thanksgiving and in front of our stockings at Christmas!! What FUN pictures to have!! :):) I think it might have become our tradition without even knowing it! :) So stay tuned for more pictures of the Jenkins' 2 posed cutely in front of our fireplace! :):) Whoo-hoo!! :)

"Love Notes"

This morning at our ladies Bible study at church, our little group of ladies exchanged love notes! :) I had been looking forward to this meeting for quite a while! I LOVE the ladies in my group, there are several "older" women and lots of younger women, and we all have such a special bond!! I have been working hard on my "love notes" to pass out to my friends, and this morning I woke up with JOY, knowing that I was going to get to see each of them today!! :) I hope my notes were a blessing to them, as theirs were a blessing to me!! I will treasure their words forever!! It is amazing to know that these sweet precious ladies are praying for me all week!! :) I feel so blessed!

Writing these notes reminded me of the books that I have for both of my children!! I try to write in them almost everyday, but I have been slacking for the past month!! I want them to know how much I love them and how joyful their little lives make me each day!! :) I also want them to know how I felt on the hard days...discipline is NOT fun, but it is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL!! I hope they know when they get older that we disciplined them because we love them and want them to be obedient children who love and respect us and the other adults around them!! Mostly, we want them to know that we loved them unconditioanlly, because that is what God calls us to do as parents!!

These love notes also got me thinking about all of the notes I should be writing to Wyatt!! He is such an amazing man and I am SO THANKFUL that he is in my life!! Today he met us for lunch, and it just brightened my WHOLE day!! :) I LOVE my man!!!

I hope to send out some "love notes" to some other dear friends this week! I am so thankful to have some sweet, precious friends close to me and far away, I just want to share my joy with you all! I am so thankful for unconditional friends!!!

Connections!

This past weekend we were blessed to be able to hang out with some of our "old" friends...Todd and Paige Ferguson!! :):) WE LOVE Todd and Paige, and were so sad when they loved away about 3 years ago!! However God has blessed us with some pretty special time with them here and there in the past few year! This time, our time together was no different...it was short, but wonderful! :) The Ferguson's have been present for some of the most precious moments of our lives! They were one of the first couples we told when we found out we were pregnant with Maddie!! (It is a HILARIOUS story, if you want to know how they re-acted, I would love to share!!:)) We got to be a part of weddings on both sides of their families, we spent some good time with "Dad" (Ben) Ferguson during the ice storm of 2007 and were blessed to see a chapter of the Wall's family end at their auction and a new one begin two years later at Crystals wedding! We are so thankful for these two people and for their family!!

We are also SO blessed because we feel like we have a special connection to their whole family!! Have you ever felt that way with your friends' families...that you just fit right in?!? It is one of my favorite feelings! :) So this past Saturday, we went to a get together at Paige's sister's house! Pretty much everyone met us at the front door and welcomed us in! :):) It was WONDERFUL to see everyone and love on them, and be loved on in return!! It is so awesome to feel that connection to people...you love each other because you share a bond with each other!! I love to have conversations with Paige about her family, because I KNOW them...I've hung out with them and I know where they have been and where they are headed! Priceless!!

I hope to be this kind of family for my kiddos and for their friends...starting now!! My parents were awesome about letting us invite our friends over so we could hang together!! Of course I know now that they wanted to keep tabs on us... Ha!:) But it is so cool that I can talk about pretty much anyone that I grew up with at my school, and my parents know exactly who I am talking about!! They got to know some of our friends' parents also which made life more fun! So today I am thankful for all of the sweet family connections we have!!!

Traditions

I LOVE traditions!! I don't think I really realized that until I got married and had my little J's! :) I love knowing that with each holiday, comes a special tradition...some of our traditions are new and some of them are old!! Wyatt and I wanted to create our own traditions for our little family, but we also LOVED many of the traditions my family had created!! I was reminded of one of my favorite traditions just yesterday! :)

My dad is a wonderful man!! He has worked SO hard his entire life doing what God has called him to do! He doesn't have a fancy job or a million dollars... but he sure does love his family! When my sister and I were in high school, he started the tradition of bringing all of his girls flowers! He would take flowers (sometimes he brought roses, sometime it was a mixed selection, but it was always some type of beautiful flower!! :)) to my mom wherever she was, and he would bring roses to my sister and I at our high school!! Sometimes he would bring them in, and the extremely-sought-after-note would be sent to our classes stating that we had something in the office! (WHOO-HOO!! It was always SO exciting to anticipate what was there, waiting for us!!:)) Other times, he would leave a rose with a note on our car (we shared a car throughout high school!) It is just his sweet, loving was of showing us that he loves us!! I LOVE this tradition, it just makes me feel so loved and thought of! Even though I have my own family, I LOVE my mom and dad and sister!! I feel so blessed that they live here and can be a part of our every day lives!! SO blessed!!! (By-the-way, yesterday was no different! A half a dozen roses are now sitting in the center of my table...not from my husband, but from my dad!!:))

I think the relationship between a daddy and his daughter is SO special!! The relationship part is SO necessary!! Daddy's and daughters must spend quality time together, doing special things! They must have good conversations and be able to talk about the FUN stuff AND the hard stuff!! I pray that Wyatt and Maddie will have as special of a relationship as my dad and I have!! I can already see it happening!! She loves him and wants to show off for him! She loves having his special attention!! She loves to sit and snuggle with Wyatt and she likes to play and tease her daddy!! I am SO thankful for a man that can step in a BE a daddy!!!!! I am so thankful!!

Valentine's Day!

I LOVE Valentine's Day!! I LOVE...well love!! :):) I love loving on my husband and showering him with sweet notes and doing special things for him all day long!! I try to love on him all year around, but Valentine's Day is just special, there is something so sweet in the air! :) Last year I filled the mirror in our bathroom with big red construction paper hearts telling him everything that I loved about him!! I dropped another note into his briefcase for later and I made him a quick breakfast on the go!! That morning, I called him a left him a message, I e-mailed him an e-card and I texted him proclaiming my love! It might have been a little over the top, but I LOVE him SO much, I want him to know that Valentine's day for me...is show him how much I love HIM!!! I don't expect it to be all about me!!! I am excited about the day we have planned for this year!! :):)

I also love to love on my Maddie and Zack!! They are so precious to me and I don't think you can ever tell or show your children that you love them too much!!!! This year we are going to make pink and red pancakes with sprinkles and have pink milk for breakfast!! I made them each a Valentine's Day card and I can't WAIT to see their faces when they open their special gifts!! :):) Wyatt and I decided the year that Maddie was born that we wanted to spend Valentine's Day together as a family!! We get to go out for special dates a LOT throughout the year, so we wanted to make sure our kiddos know that we LOVE them and enjoy spending time with them also!! So now Valentine's day is about our family!!! I LOVE this family tradition!! :):) This Valentine's Day will be extra special because we get to spend it with our extended family!!!! On Monday evening we are having a family Valentine's Day party with my mom and sister and sweet little Maddux! We have been hard at work making Valentine's decoration's for our party and we are SO excited!! I am stoked about making dinner for everyone, having a special dessert and enjoying our Valentine's Day GAMES!! :):) We are going to have a BLAST!!!!! Make sure you show your beloved how much you love them TODAY!! :):)

Projects!

I can't WAIT to get started on some home projects this week!! With all of the craziness that was Thanksgiving and Christmas, our projects kind of got pushed off!! But NOW, I am ready!! Here we go!! :):)

First, we are going to paint our master bathroom!! It is a beautiful purple color now, but now that our bedroom is brown and turquoise, it doesn't really match!! So, I think we are going to paint it a taupe color and accent with turquoise and brown!!!

Next we are going to paint our hallway and change all of the decor on each wall!! I am excited about our "Family" wall!! This will have all of our family pictures framed in the same frames (style, shape and color) and will just show off our family and how it is growing and changing!! :) On the wall across and down, we will make our wedding picture wall! We have SO MANY beautiful wedding pictures I want to show them off!! After all, our family started with us...right?!? Then on the other two walls and I want to hang fun pictures of our kiddos and our family and friends!! I hope to keep all of the frames black, but these frames won't match (like the ones on our "Family" wall)!! I just have found cute black frames here and there ,some are round a few are rectangle and then of course I have a few square frames! I have been "collecting" them all fall so I am excited to see them all up together!!

Lastly, (at least for now:)) we are going to change up our entry way by painting our little table and mirror there! Across from it, I was to hang a big family picture that is framed (that is too big for our hallway wall:)) so we are going to put it there along with a really cool "Family" stencil from Uppercase Living! I have had this "stencil" FORever, but not I know exactly where we want it!!! Ooohhh, I am SO EXCITED!! I LOVE our house SO much, and we will only move if God calls us to!! I love changing the look of it by adding decor and painting!!! We both love the colors of our house, so I think they will stay the same, but it is amazing how different rooms can look with different decor!! I can't WAIT!! I hope to post before and after pictures soon!!!:):) Wish us luck!!

Our weekend!

We had the best weekend!!!! On Friday night I got to go the CCH's girls retreat to chat with them about being Intentional!! It was AWESOME, and I had a GREAT time, in fact I didn't get home until 2 a.m.!! There is nothing better than hanging out with college aged girls!!! I totally understand why my dad likes to hang out with them! Perhaps someday God will use me to love on them and hang out more, but for now, I enjoy discipling two CCH girls and hanging out with the group whenever I can!! :)

Saturday was my birthday and I must say it was PERFECT!! Wyatt let me sleep in, and about 9:30, Maddie, Zack and him come into my room singing!! Then Zack said, "MOMMY, we got DOUGHNUTS and mine has sprinkles!!" :)) It was adorable!!! So we headed into the dining room where they had all of our doughnuts set out for us!! This was such a special treat because we don't normally eat doughnuts..really well...EVER!! But we sure enjoyed them on Saturday! Then we got ready and headed into town to run some errands, all my favorites!! Target, Hobby Lobby and Jellybeans!! :) We had lunch at Old Chicago and then headed home! About 3:00 p.m., Wyatt started mentioning that I probably would want to start getting ready for our evening out! He was so funny, I think he was as excited as I was!! About 4:30 my parents showed up to watch our kiddos and we left for our surprise date!!!! :) How FUN!!!! Eventually, we met our friends Travis and Amber at Jimm's for dinner and spent almost two and a half hours, eating, talking and laughing together there!! It was a BLAST!!! After dinner, we headed to Hebrews for more talking and laughing! Later that evening we realized that Orange Leaf was right down the way, sooooooooo we decided to end our evening (well the eating part of it) there!! Travis had never been there, so it was a treat for us all to introduce him to the BEST ever! :):) About 11:30 p.m. Wyatt and I decided we needed to head home to relieve my parents, so we started saying our good-byes, BUT the Griders decided to come home with us to continue our evening!! Whoo-hoo!! :):) They didn't leave until 3:30 a.m.!! Oh it was SO MUCH FUN!!!

I loved all of the special thought Wyatt put into making the evening wonderful!! I am so thankful that my parents both came over to hang out with our kiddos! It sounds like they had quite a part of their own!! I am also thankful to have special friends to share a fun evening out with!!! It was awesome and I feel so blessed!!!

Snow and our Weekend!

We LOVE the snow!! We are total snow bunnies! We probably should be living in Colorado, because we LOVE the cold, we LOVE snuggling, we LOVE having our fireplace turned on, and we LOVE being in the snow!!! So imagine our surprise and excitement as we woke up on Tuesday morning and had a wonder land of snow!! We were SO EXCITED!!! Wyatt had decided to stay at home with us (well..because he can now...that is the reason he stayed home!! :) I LOVE it!! This kind of freedom has never, ever been an option before, not even a little, so we are REALLY enjoying his new found freedom at work!!:):)) Wyatt and I are not at all afraid of the snow, we actually think it is a HUGE adventure to be out in it...so about 11:30 a.m. we headed into town to meet my mom and dad for lunch!! Maddie and Zack were quiet all the way into town, I think they were more worried than we were!! When we got there, they waited anxiously at the door for their Ga-Ga and Mze!! When they got there, Zack said, "MZE!! IT'S SNOWIN!!!!!" It was absolutely adorable!! When we got home everyone took naps, and Wyatt and I just snuggled by our fireplace and talked about some of our favorite time we have spent together in the snow!! We have been to Colorado several times together, but we are really looking forward to going there as a family!! I can't WAIT to show M and Z the mountains and take them skiing!! I am beyond excited!! :) After the kiddos woke up from their naps we went out and played in the snow!! The snow in our backyard had drifted quite a bit so we jumped in the snow and made snow angels!! Oh, it was the best time!!

Wednesday brought v-e-r-y cold temperatures, so Wyatt decided to have another snow day!! :):) (Pretty much everyone in his office took these two days as snow days also, so he really didn't miss anything!! What a FAR CRY from his old job!! :)) So, we got back out in the snow playing the our front yard and the back yard! We also scooped up snow to make snow ice cream, which was a blast!! Maddie kept saying, "So this is snow...right??" :) Then, before nap, they took a snow bath!! We ended our day at my sister's house for some fun play time and pizza!! What a FUN day!! What a fun WEEK!! We love having out-of-the-ordinary weeks, it just makes life a little more fun! :)

I am very excited for our weekend!! It is my birthday weekend so I am excited to see what tomorrow will bring!! Wyatt and I like to surprise each other with special dates so I am looking forward to our day!!! Today, my mom and sister and our kiddos ate lunch together at Maria's and then enjoyed cupcakes from "The Cup!" AWESOME!!! I have the most thoughtful mom and sister! They are both so good at making people feel special and today was no exception!! I am so blessed to live so close to them!! We share such a special connection! :) Tonight I am speaking at the CCH's Girls Retreat!! I am speaking about "being intentional," so please pray that the night will be blessed and that I won't be nervous!! :) :) I am looking forward to hanging out with these girls and loving on them, like I was when I was in college!! :) It will be a blessed weekend for sure!!

ENJOY your weekend!!!