Violin Success!!

O.K., so all I can say is that I am a genius!! (besides the fact that I had to spell check genius) As some of you know I tried to be Alexa's violin teacher in the past with no success. We just clashed too much. But with no luck at finding ANYONE down here that even plays the violin other than myself, we had no choice. So I decided to go with good ol' bribery. IT WORKED! I give them violin dollars for every day they practice well and they get to buy prizes out of my special prize basket. The girls actually fight over who gets to practice first each day. I told them they don't have to practice on the weekends but the beg to. AMAZING! Again, I am a genius!
Alexa with her first purchase from the violin store. :)

Southern Cotton

So I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of my kids in the many wonderous cotton fields around us since that is something that is not seen out west, however when I finally got around to stopping by one with my camera to take a picture IT WAS TOO LATE! Story of my life! All the cotton had alrady been harvested. So you westerners get a picture of my kids standing by a "cotton barrel". Next year I will get out earlier and obtain a nice cotton field picture for y'all. (See the south is growing on me :))

Boys will be boys

So the other night I freshly bathed and dressed my dirty little two year old to find him only moments later out helping daddy fix mommy's car. Of course part of helping means sitting directly ON the engine! Oh well, boys will be boys.......

World's Largest Aquarium

So one of the perks of working for the government is the insane amount of holidays you get off of work. So with the MLK holiday before us and no school and no work, we decided to take a short drive up to Atlanta and see some of the sites. Did you know Atlanta has the world's largest aquarium? How could we pass something like that up? It was amazing and the kids had a blast. Cody just was in awe as he walked around saying "wow" every few minutes.

After that we took some time to play around the Olympic village area. It had some fun playgrounds that the kids enjoyed.


I will say I am excited about the many opportunities living down here will give us that we would have never done if we had stayed put. I look forward to many fun adventures while I'm down south. Feel free to come join us anytime :)

New Year, New hopes, New resolutions (kind of)

Hello everyone out west! I hope all the holidays were great! Here we are in a new year and our hopes are it's going to be a good one! Last year was kind of a tough one for our family with Justin's unemployment, my full time employment, house selling and moving (twice), his re-employment in the east and leaving his family behind for a couple of months, and now we are finally back together, although Georgia was not somewhere we imagined ourselves to be. It's growing on us however and we are just happy to be a functioning family once again.

So I hate to admit it but my New Years resolution is again the same as last years. Can't I learn!? I resolve to document my family life better with more pictures and a better upkeep on my blog. Living out here away from family and friends I think will give me motive. So here's a few picts of us moving into our home (which I love)

Justin picked out this home without me and I must admit I was a little uneasy about what the results would be, but job well done honey!! :)
It's amazing the entertainment that a box will give your kids while you are busy moving in.

We love you all and miss you VERY much! I'll keep in touch better this year, I just know it! We wish everyone the best and know it's going to be a fabulous year for us all! HAPPY NEW YEAR.