Lesson Learned

We are still here! We got back from our trip to Texas last week and I haven't had the time to sit and blog about everything so I'll start with a quick update on our year. It has been a year now since we have lived in Edmond and I think that's a pretty good milestone for reflection. Honestly, we don't love it. It's been a HARD year for us. We left an amazing kid-friendly city and some pretty awesome friends/family behind. Erik's job is going well but that's really about the only thing that has been consistently good. I know people who live in Oklahoma read our blog and I don't want this to sound negative toward the 'geographical location' because it has nothing to do with that...sort of:) lt has everything to do with God wanting us to be right here, right now, to learn more about Him. We learned that just because you are a Christian and you obey and follow where God is leading doesn't gaurantee 'happiness' in your circumstances. We learned that life is not about our 'comfort' but rather it's about sharing the gospel with those around us. I don't know where I got off track but somewhere along the way I got too comfortable with my circumstances in Frisco and thought life revolved around me. The Bible clearly teaches against this, in fact, the Bible is filled with stories of how people had to leave their comfort zones to follow Christ and share Christ with others. I think God witheld (sp?) certain blessings like finding friends in a timely manner, finding a church easily, finding good restaurants (shallow, I know...but we like to eat) so that we could learn more about the true character of God. That is a very abbreviated description of our time here. And all that to say, Erik starts his finance MBA on Monday and he will finish up next August. We aren't wishing the time away because that would teach a terrible lesson that contentment depends on circumstances and we want our sons to know that Jesus is all the contentment we need BUT.... we can't help but think about where we may be next:) Okay, enough thinking ahead before Erik reprimands me:) Pictures of our time in Texas coming soon!

Great ending to a looong year

This Friday we will be going back to the north Dallas area to stay for about 10 days!!!! I am SO SO SO excited...mainly to see friends/family and catch up. But there is a big part of me that is super excited to be back in a place where there are ENDLESS amounts of activities for kids and maybe a little bit of shopping for me:) This month will be a year since we moved and I will definitely do a posting about the year in review. But for now, we will enjoy seeing familiar faces in familiar places:) Here are some pictures of some of the things we miss the most. These kids have gotten so much bigger in the past year and some (most) of them have a sibling or sibling on the way:) Can't wait to see as many of you as possible!!!!

Pumpkin family activity at the RoughRiders field (clearly after the ou/texas game)
the cutie kiddos at a Halloween playgroup

Playtime at the park

Momma Bears at the arboretum with friends

The hot air balloon festival

Jack and Mackenzie...he misses her sooo much!

Jack and Mack enjoying one last shake together before we moved:)

Jack and Collin enjoying a popsicle

Trip to Lincoln, Nebraska

Over the long weekend we went to Lincoln, Nebraska where Erik grew up. His entire family is still there and so we were able to go to his cousin's wedding and see lots of family. Jacob had never met most of them!

They Loooove Grandpa!
Us with Erik's grandparents. It was their 58th wedding anniversary!

The great grandparents with all their great grandchildren. Yes, they are all boys!

At the wedding with Grandpa

Happy boy!

Loving being in Lincoln.

Erik's parents, sister, brother and sister in law, grandparents, and our family.

Jacob was so excited to see everyone!

Erik and his older brother, Leif.

Jack practicing his smile with his great grandpa:)

Petty Frustration

I usually don't post these kinds of things because really all people care about are pictures of my kids but oh well....I'm posting this.
I love Erik. Most everything about him is pretty awesome. There is ONE thing that annoys me daily. HE IS SOOOO SKINNY. And it's not just that he's skinny. It's that he doesn't try to be and he still is. I keep waiting on his metabolism to slow down...and I'm pretty sure it's gotten faster! And not that being skinny is something I care about but each day I get out of bed while he's still sleeping to go run just while he wakes up and scarfs down cinammon rolls or some yummy sugar cereal without loads of fiber and gets ready for work. He could eat Taco Bell and Babe's Chicken every single day and he would still be 6 feet 4 inches and 175 lbs. NOT FAIR. I like working out but it sure is frustrating to live with someone who hasn't worked out in 1287 years and has problem that his clothes are too big. What?!?!?! It just doesn't make sense. Lucky him.

Some pictures

I've come to realize that I'm fighting a losing battle when it comes to taking pictures and I don't see it getting better any time soon. 1 mom trying to get 3 boys to cooperate with a photo session= lots of bribery that mostly has to do with food. I've also come to realize that I never end up looking good in any of the family pictures because by that time I'm sweating and exhausted from trying to get the boys to cooperate. Whew. I don't have all the pictures yet but Amy has sent me some of them! www.amycophotography.blogspot.com/

Activities

Lately we have been attempting to be outside as much as possible with the boys. The weather here is not helping us much....severe thunderstorms (already had several tornados in the area), terrible hail, and awful awful wind makes it hard to have toddlers outside...moving on:) to Oklahoma's credit there are beautiful days here as well. So here are a few things we've been doing.

Thanks to Granna, we now have TWO gators. She got Jacob one for his first birthday even though he's still about a year away from being able to drive it. So Jack can literally ride one of the gators all the time.

We took the boys to the Edmond Arts Festival. Sure wish they had more stuff like this throughout the year. It gives something for people like us (who don't have a lot going on here) something to do! Jack got meet some police officers and they have him a sticker badge.

Of course the boys LOVED the festival food.
We also go the park as often as possible.

ahhhh Florida

Erik and I snuck away for a few days to Lido Beach in Sarasota, Florida. It's a small, quiet beach that we had never been to but were pleasantly surprised. We flew into Tampa which meant we got to see the oil spill from the air as it crept toward the Gulf Coast line...very interesting to see the ocean burning from the air. Luckily we were going to southwest Florida so we didn't have to worry about the oil. It was a much needed much appreciate time away. It's been a long year. Hopefully we'll be taking the boys to West Palm in July so they can enjoy the Florida sun with us. So relaxing. A HUGE thank you to Erik's parents, Steve and Cheryl, for keeping our boys alive while we were gone:)

St. Armand Circle (sort of like the Shops at Legacy on steroids). When we weren't on the beach we were here.
FAVORITE restaurant...The Columbia

Could not believe how warm and calm the water was. Perfect.

Mr. Baywatch himself:)

ahhh...

Erik enjoyed reading all about the history of St. Armand Circle

In our rental car enjoying the view from the Tampa Skybridge