Fall...

A few weeks back we went away for the night for Zach's thirtieth birthday. We decided to head in search of Fall and boy did we ever find it in Tennessee! We took a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Smokey Mountains and it. was. gorgeous. 

Take your breath away gorgeous. 

I don't know if it was the fact that we hadn't seen a mountain in over a year or what, but we were SO excited to see them. Coming from B.C. in Canada, mountains were taken for granted and I can honestly say that both Zach and I have grown a new appreciation for them!

And the trees....OH the trees! So Fallish and wonderful! 

I got some great shots of the kids too...

I mean, how cute are they?! LOVE these two :) 

Zach was super sweet and stopped at every rest stop I asked him to (and a bunch of places in between) and I got some fabulous pictures of the scenery.

What a good man.

We're already planning a trip back to the Smokey Mountains this Christmas so that we can see some snow! Poor Aubrey is just dying to build fort and make a snow angel. All we hear from her is, "I sure miss snow... but we live in Georgia and we don't get snow anymore" on a huff.

It's worth the 5 hour drive just to make her happy (although the car ride will inevitably make her grumpy!).

Surprise!!

BAAM! 

you just never know when i'm gonna pop up on this ol' blog :)

here I am on another friday night by my lonesome and i actually got the kids to bed at a decent time.

so here i sit with a coffee (because i woulda been asleep the minute those kiddos were if i didn't, it was THAT kinda day) and i thought i should whip up a blog post.

i actually got crafty today, aubrey and i made a fabric scrap christmas light garland...thingy-majig.

it turned out super cute and if i wasn't so tired/lazy right now, i'd upload the pictures and show them.

but i am (tired and lazy), so hot air balloon pictures from a week back it is!

i'll let the garland pictures come in my next surprise post ;)

we've been seeing this one hot air balloon flying around on the weekends and on our way home one night, we happened to finally see it close to our house (in gorgeous late evening lighting i might add! best. time. of. day. period.). zach being the fabulous fella he is, let me grab my camera from home and drove me back out to capture it. 

seriously, there is something SO breathtaking about a hot air balloon isn't there?!

my new official goal is to get to a festival and get pictures of dozens of them flying at once.

oooo and at night too! wouldn't that be glorious?!?

as we were driving back to the spot where the balloon was, we saw that it was landing and my heart sank. what are the odds that zach actually drove me back to get my camera and i missed it in flight?! but  i got out to take a few shots of it grounded anyway. after they unloaded some people, i noticed that they were taking off again. heavenly!! was all i could think....

don't you agree??

and this last one might be my favorite shot of the bunch. the moon was so bright in the sky, but it was still fully daylight. i could not have timed this whole thing better if i planned!

blissful :)

Looking Back....

I dug out my old external hard drive today. When I plugged that sucker in, I found a whole lotta wonderful...

Pictures from the Europe trip that Zach and I took right before we moved to Grenada.... back before this whole become-a-doctor business.... back before we had kids... we were pretty much still kids ourselves... anyway, moving on...

All these pictures were taken on a point and shoot and are nothing spectacular, but I edited them a bit and I just love them! It's probably the memories that are making them look even more fabulous to me.

I'll take it.

The first two shots were in Salzburg and the rest are from Venice.

Oh man my heart is aching to go back! It's been WAY too long and sadly it will be even longer until we get to go again.

Oh well, looking at old pictures will have to do for now

I. Miss. Europe.

"Never Gonna Craft Again"...

*my sister said i should change my blog title to that. i think she miiiighta been hinting at something, but astrid tends to be subtle with these things, so who knows....

*this post is kind of like a diamond.... it was created under of pressure....not because it's going to be some sort of gem. a gem it will certainly not be. i don't have a gem of a post in me. 

*my hundreds of fans (okay, 3) have been pestering me to write something. but what do you write when you can't think of anything to say?!?

*thus the perfect makings for a random thoughts post. i'm a random kinda gal, so this works out just fine for me.

*i've been a sad sad creature in the crafting/photography department as of late.

*we just had our friends ryan, meg and little asher here for a visit and not one picture was taken (except the terribly crappy phone camera variety).

*we had a fabulous visit with them, but they got a good dose of what it was like to have a husband in residency. zach was supposed to be home friday night, and all day saturday and sunday....NOPE. he was home for some of saturday and then all of sunday. oh well. what can you do?? these things can't be helped.

*on sunday zach told me, "sooooo, i probably wont see you guys until next sunday... this week's going to be crazy" ah yes, nothing like a comment like that to get you pumped for the week.

*on a happier note, i was baptized a few weeks back! 

*one of the most fabulous things was aubrey was there to see it. zach told me she yelled out, "that's my mama!' when she saw me get in the baptismal tank. TOO PRECIOUS!

*we didn't get to go to church this past sunday and i was watching our church on tv (yup, it's one of those mega churches) and they showed my baptism on tv! 

*this makes me all kinds of pumped! i was really hoping/praying it would be televised so maybe a non-believer would be able to see it and a seed would be planted in their hearts :) 

*caleb is sick. 

*having a sick 6 month old who already got an 'F' in sleeping is not fun. 

*what's worse than an F?? F-'?? he gets that. 

*my new favorite show is Go On. seriously, it's soooo good!

*oh matthew perry, so funny.

*not going to lie, i love me some breaking amish as well.... although the latest episode had the feel of jersey shore... might not make the cut anymore. oh the rogue amish getting into trouble.

*it's still hot here. seriously. october 16th and hot. everyone sick of me whining yet?! 

*i'm sick of having to still be whining about the weather.... cuz it's still hot....on october 16th. ugh.

*i think i'm going to ride this wave and go get crafty now. 

wish me luck....

The New Time-Suck....

I'm already on Facebook and Pinterest, officially the 2 greatest time-sucks out there and guess what?!? I found a worse one. Yup, it's way worse(for me anyway).

Couponing.

I've always used coupons, I wouldn't be a true, frugal Mennonite if I didn't. But I've never taken it to the next level and couponed (yes, there is a difference) until now.

It's amazing the things you will do when you realize things are tight and you want to do your part to help lower the cost of "life". I figure that this is my way of having an "income" while being an at-home-mom of two (emphasis on AT HOME... we only have one car, and that combined with Zach's crazy schedule and call shifts, the kids and I are home all. week. long.).

So couponing it is, and let me tell you,

it's ADDICTING!

As soon as I walked out of the first grocery store with $40 worth of stuff for $10.40, I was hooked. 

And my maniacal grin as I walked to our car (with Zach and the kids waiting in it) told Zach that I was forever hooked.

My first haul from 2 stores... $140 worth of groceries for $47!!

First words out of his mouth were, "we are NOT going to be those people with a pantry full of deodorant!"! Hahaha love him. Was I supposed to just leave the 2 deodorants behind that I was going to get for free?? NO chance. A few minutes later he said, "we're going to be the best smelling most well groomed people EVER". I mean, come on?? Would that be the worst thing ever?!?

I didn't think so.

All this to say, I'm serious about this new endeavor and with websites like www.southernsavers.com it's just made it idiot proof...well, Jen proof anyway.

At this point, I'm obviously still figuring the whole crazy thing out, but I've been spending less on groceries and have been accumulating quite the stockpile. All good things in my books!

Best part, it seems that it's the nice grocery stores that have the best deals and coupon policies, so I get to shop in the classier stores! Yay!

Anyhoop, you know I wouldn't leave you without some pictures of the ol' kiddos.....

How precious are they?! 

How did Caleb get to be 5 months already??

How do I have a 4 year old?? 

Why do we only have one car?

Why does Publix not consider Target a "competitor" when it comes to couponing?

Will Zach ever be home in time for dinner?

These are all questions that fly through my head on a daily basis......

My Days....

have been filled with these two jokers :) 

And I'm lovin' it! They are just two of the most precious people EVER!

I mean, look at this face?!

Caleb has been given the, very appropriate, nickname "Perfect Baby". This kid is no fuss... at. all. EVER.

He's the most go with the flow baby... except for today, but I'm going to pretend that his day full of crying just didn't happen. 

It's kinda like Olympic judging, eliminate the highest and lowest score.

So moving on....

Aubrey's so in love with him (still and we're past the 'novelty' stage) and it's almost to the point of painful. Fo reals. 

She and Caleb had well baby visits on the same day(thus the dueling band aid picture). She got her 4 year shots and he his 2 month ones--- and she felt it was her mission to "help" him even more that day.

This kid puts the "mother" in "smother"....

the "S" on "mother"....

she's all up in his business.

But I'll take her obsessive, possessive love of him over a kid who is jealous ANY day.

And in unrelated news.... It's hot in Georgia. 

Hide in your house hot.

Walk to the mailbox and break out into a sweat, hot.

Will I ever get used to this?!?

Oh hi there. 

*insert elaborate turn to a camera with cheesy grin* 

I'm Jen.

You might remember me from such blog posts as

"Aubrey's 4th Birthday" and "One Month And Charleston"....

I know, I know... It's been a while. But guess what?? I'm not going to give some lame excuse.

Seriously. I'm not because I don't need one.

That's right. I'm owning my blog hiatus. In fact, I didn't just take a blog break. I kinda took an Internet break... really a computer break.

*insert a pat on my own back*

I didn't mean to, just kinda did and I feel fabulous :)

Anyhoop, I'm back and will hopefully be posting regularly again. 

You're welcome.

Aubrey's 4th Birthday

I know that Aubrey's birthday party was over a month ago, but I finally got around to editing and getting them on the blog.

It was so much fun to plan her party! She hadn't had one since her first, so I figured I owed her a decent one this year and it was a hit.

 I had too many pictures (as usual) so I decided to try out the collage app on the PicMonkey website and I LOVE it!! So here is a random shamozzle of birthday pictures to enjoy from her Rainbow Art Party :)

One Month and Charleston....

Blog title of the year right?! Man I'm amazing. I bet you all missed my amazingness (and my snazzy blog titles) while I was MIA... sorry world, didn't mean to deprive you of my awesomeness for so long. 

Apparently I'm not one of those bloggers who pops out a baby and blogs from the hospital. 

Speaking of baby.... 

Caleb--one month old!

isn't he the most beautiful thing EVER?!? Well, one of two of the most beautiful things (that Aubrey is pretty freaking amazing). Seriously, this child is in the running for Best Baby of the Century. No jokes, he's sleeping through the night people.... through. the. night. 

I'm under no illusions that this will continue, but I am hoping and praying it will! Last night he slept from 9:30pm until 7:15am.

seriously. ser. i. ous. ly! Aubrey didn't sleep through the night until she was almost 15 months old. It's amazing how much calmer a mom I can be this time around! 

The above shot is from his one month mini-shoot, he's two months old tomorrow....where did time go?? And my little moose is weighing in at 13lbs 11oz! He's getting his chub on and we're loving it.

I'll post more pictures of Caleb and Aubrey next time (that one was the only one I had edited on my desktop--Thanks PicMonkey website!), but for now I will leave you with random shots that I took this last trip to Charleston. We headed there while Zach's mom was visiting and I'm happy to say that the beauty, charm and gorgeousness that is Charleston has not worn off and was not a hyped-up-first-time-there-so-I-was-in-a-daze type of love... my love for that city is real people and it will not die! Enjoy.... 

A Mini Photo Shoot....

I, Jennifer, love to take pictures.... but I'll tell you something--I'm not a fan of taking pictures of people. There I said it.

I'm not a fan because I'm not that good at it---funny how you like to do the things you're good at and not the things you suck at. ;)

Sure every once in a while I'll get a good shot, but in general...nope.

Anyway, I was kinda procrastinating Caleb's little photo shoot I had planned (and was super excited for since before he was born) because I was scared I'd get crap pictures.

I got over myself and ended up getting some cute ones, not amaze-balls ones, but cute ones.

And some times, well sometimes that's just good enough!

Here he is in all his naked-on-a-coke-crate/cuddled-into-a-fluffy-blanket/jammed-into-a-basket glory :) ....

Photography courtesy of yours truly

and 

Editing courtesy of Amy from Amy Rehbein Photography

Good TImes....

This little girl is testing my patience these days.... Seriously.

She's perfect as can be with Caleb, but in every other area of life? Glass. Cage. Of. Emotion.

All tears, all the time.

I suppose a lot has happened in the last little bit to cause her to feel overwhelmed, but a lot has happened in the last little bit to make me feel overwhelmed too. 

Bad combo.

Ahh to have multiple females in one house.

I can't stress it enough, I have two GOOD kids.

Caleb is a dream baby and Aubrey is so good, but when the emotions come a-knockin' ....

trouble.

And let me tell ya, I've gots me some emotions as well.

I'm trying to keep calm and not overreact, but when you have a baby that is going through a growth spurt and decided that last was an ALL NIGHT eat-a-thon (with no sleep... for either of us)... and the next day your {almost} 4 year old decides to be a drama queen about her Quiet Time... you can lose it pretty quickly.

And I did, but I calmed down (and won the battle after an hour of trying, she's quietly watching a movie in her room!! Victory!) and prayed really hard for patience...and for Zach to get home at a decent time (a girl can dream right?!).

So I just have to keep trying to figure this '2 kids' thing out... or more so, figure out an overly emotional 4 year old mixed with a postpartum mama. 

Good times.