New Pre-School Year for Gracer!

This will be the last year of preschool for the Jager family. Teacher Leslies is always a fun place to go and the first day is always marked with a teddy bear picnic. Grace of course brought her poodle puppy:) The second year is always a lot of fun because they learn so much more. The first year builds mostly social skills and a bit of academics here and there. But the second year they are just little sponges!! So much fun. Grace was so excited that she thought I would just let her out at the sidewalk and let her go in on her own. Show and Tell for Wednesday is something that is a circle, what will we bring?
Had to persuade her to wear the apple dress by the way, may have even bribed her. I won't care what she wears the rest of the year but for some reason I like to pick the first day of school outfit:) I am sure that eventually I will have to give up the battle, probably sooner than I think!

Home Is Where My HEART Is

This is a post that may do nothing for you, it really is just a rambling of sorts. It may seem sappy, it may seem boring to some but it is genuine. I have been constantly reminded lately of how much I love my life. In this post I plan on telling you why.
First I love my house, our home. To many it may seem small, it may seem old, it may seem like a lot of projects and it is all of these things. But, it is also ours, its where we sleep at night, its where I can hear my children playing and fighting, its where I welcome my friends, its where I know we are safe and stable. And mostly it is the place God gave us to be a family. I love this house. One of our friends recently said this place always feels like home, well if you know me at all you know my heart melted into a big puddle on the floor. It is what I have always wanted.
Second I love our friends. In High School I had friends but most them were just surface level friends. Oddly enough there are only two that I keep in touch with now that I am incredibly close with. Over the last few years though acquaintances have turned into friends and now are family to us. I see them all of the time and I miss them when they are gone. We rejoice in each others excitement and pray for each others hard times. I don't know what I would do without them.
Third Family. Our Family is much like anyone elses. We have our differences, we are all unique and have different gifts and talents. But at the end of the day we are exactly that, Family. Each of us is in it because God has chosen us to be a part of it for a specific reason. I love them all and would do anything for them and they would for me! I am so lucky to have them and my children are so lucky to have grandparents and great grandparents that love them through it all.
And lastly but definitely not leastly:) My little family of four. I never thought in a million years that if I had children that I would have only two. I really always thought that we would have 4 kids and live this big family life. But God had different plans. And although there are days that it stings to think that we are not having anymore children in all honesty I can not imagine anymore than what I have right now. Even though Grace is never quiet and Elliot literally runs circles around me, I love those two little rascals more than anything on this earth. I think both of them belong right here with us and they are the perfect pairing for Brian and I. The three blessings I live with everyday are rewarding, exhausting and completely amazing in their own ways.
Mostly though and this has been a recent thought of mine I think because this birthday hit me weird. I can not believe what God has pulled us through in the last 7 years and even more so the last 15. I remember how I felt about myself in high school and the first few years out of it and I am not even a shadow of that now. I am not trying to say that I am so old or so seasoned or that I even have a smidgen of this figured out. However, I love myself now and love what I have and so much of what I have has nothing to do with material goods or money. (I don't know if I have ever really believed that I loved myself before. This thought actually came as surprise to me the other day which makes me cry a bit even now.) Most of what I have is just complete blessing piled upon blessing, piled upon blessing. It is amazing when you let God love you he really shows you a lot. He has showed me a ton and I really feel like I am bursting at the seams right now with this life!! And I can't wait to see what the next 7, 10, 15 years bring I am sure they will be hard,I am sure they won't be perfect they never are but I know they will be amazing!
I am a woman who needs nothing at all but wants all that she has more than she ever knew she would!
I have been trying to live in each moment lately instead of rushing through days at a time. This life is precious, THIS LIFE IS GOOD!
And I am sure yours is as well!!

Ebey Beach

We went on an adventure today. At the beginning of the summer I bought a book that is full of family friendly hikes. The sad thing is that we haven't had time to do any of them:( So today was the day, we packed a picnic, piled in the car and drove to Coupeville to hike a 3.5 mile hike around Ebey Beach. It was graded at moderate and as far as difficulty goes that was very accurate however it failed to mention that some parts were very narrow with one side being a straight down cliff that rolled several hundred feet down to rocks. I was bit nervous but the kids did pretty well. Elliot trucked the whole way and Grace made it half the way with quite a few shoulder rides from the Daddy. I secretly think that Brian enjoys giving these shoulder rides to Grace and she does provide endless entertainment by singing opera in your ear. It is hard to believe that are kids are old enough to enjoy these sorts of adventures:)
The trail was a loop that went up above the beach on a bluff and then down on the beach, it was gorgeous. The top part was a sunny bluff surrounded by dry fields filled with buttercups and purple flowers. And the beach was covered with fog you almost felt like you were in two different places. When we left it was hard not to think about how amazing Gods paintbrush is and how beautifully he has created this earth. It was a great day!!!

Vacation at Grannies:)

My parents went on vacation for a good part of this week so they asked if we would house/dogsit for them while they were gone. This is always very exciting for us because it is truly a vacation. My parents have a pool, two ponds and 5 acres to get worn out on. It is outside of Everson and although it is close to the grocery store and anything else you would need you really feel like you are miles and miles away from anyone else.
So we settled right into our new environment and had bundles of fun. Some of our friends even came to visit us up there.
Elliot was given a new nickname this weekend "Frogodile Hunter" . Frogs are a new fascination for him. My parents house is a frog wonderland. There are hundreds of them and they are always hopping around ready to be caught. Elliot thinks by catching them he is providing them with free security because if my parents dog finds them first she will play with them and torture them until their demise. I am not sure of his theory because by the fifth time he has caught the same frog it seems to be looking a bit peeked and annoyed by the whole situation. He caught the biggest frog I have ever seen this weekend he named it Mohammad not sure I think my mom prompted him with the name because he said this wasn't the first time they had caught this one. Not sure how he knows maybe he will start tagging them:)
Anyway Fun times had by all this week. Thanks for the free vaca mom and dad!

My Two Sweeties

We go in stages or I should say the kids go in stages of love and dislike for each other. Right now they are in a love stage. Last week we spent a lot of time at home snuggled up because as you know the weather had turned into something that did not resemble summer much. We baked we organized, we played Polly Pockets and Legos, and we just enjoyed being home. We even brought the kid table downstairs and they were allowed to bring whatever they wanted down to play with a rare privilege in the Jager House. So as I was busy baking in the kitchen I caught my children playing nicely together and Elliot was actually giving a step by step tutorial on Magnetix to Grace. I watched quietly from the kitchen as he explained how to make a triangle and then moved on to a "much more difficult task" (his words) the box. It is great watching the two loves of my life play together nicely and enjoy one another as playmates. And although I am sure that we will soon be in a dislike stage again I will take whatever I can get and be thankful for these small moments of peace:)

Puppers.....

The puppies are growing more and more every day. They now enjoy chewing on each others ears, and wrestling as well as running around on the carpet which reminds me much of watching Bambi. No one loves them more than Grace. She always wants to cuddle/torture them. I still think we are keeping Dinah(the brown one) however I don't know how I will part with any of them. This week marks the weaning phase and they are not incredibly thrilled.

One Year Ago....

One Year Ago I thought there was a certain type of Mom that lost her child.
One Year Ago I didn't know what worry was.
One Year Ago I lost my child.
One Year Ago I experienced one of the worst days of my life.
One Year Ago I stopped judging others that have been in my shoes.
One Year Ago I realized it could happen to anyone.
One Year Ago I held my child in my arms and prayed more prayers of thankfulness than I ever had before.

This is the picture Brian took of Grace and I after we found her. Praise God!

Super Dads....

Last Night I was able to work with Dee Apodaca, she has her own wedding coordinating business and when her daughter Christie can't help then she hires me:) This makes me very happy because outside of catering this is one of my favorite things to do. It was a beautiful wedding and we had a great time. However this is not what my post is about.
My post is about Super Dads. Now many of you probably have never met a Super Dad, you may have a Dad that is super but that does not make him a Super Dad. The Dad at the wedding last night was a Super Dad and Brian and I also have Super Dads. Super Dads are men who are not your Father from birth but come into the picture later to sweep your mom off of her feet and sweep you up as well. They are Dads that do not share the same blood with you but they share the same heart. They are Dads that could choose to Flake out and ignore you and see you as baggage but choose to love you instead. They are Dads That never refer to you as Step-daughters you are just a daughter to them.
The Dad from the wedding last night reminded me so much of my own that I found myself a bit teary (big surprise I know) He was explaining how he had come into his daughters lives at the ages of 6 and 2-ironic this is how old I was when my dad came into my life-and he loved them from that moment and had watched them grow and that they were his. My Dad adopted me too from the very second he and my Mom got together and although it took awhile for me to catch onto the idea I now look back and am overflowing with thankfulness for two things
1-That my Mom chose him in the first place
2- That he made the decision to love us
Without this I know that the three of us being my mom my sister and I would not have the lives that we have now. And I have the Superest of Super Dads a girl could have and a smart Mom!

Operation Kitchen Organization

This post will only matter to you if you have been in my kitchen before, attempted to search for something on your own, watched me search for something, or appreciate the lack of storage one has in a 100yr old+ house. When we bought our house 3 yrs ago I failed to note storage and closet space, now I can't say that because of the lack of storage I would have chosen another house however the problem stays. I literally have 4 closets in my entire house and they are not large closets by any means 3 of them can not even be classified as small closets. I have 3 drawers in my entire kitchen and okay cabinet space, however the cabinets are very old so they are huge but hard to use because things get hidden behind other things very easily. I wish I would have taken before pictures of the cabinet situation because the only way I can describe it is complete chaos. If I went into the spice cabinet I would have to remove the chocolate chips, marshmallows, and dry berries before I could even get to the jumbled mess of spices. Now I may sound like I am complaining, however that is not the case at all I was rather comfortable in my chaos because I was quite certain that this was the only way it could be. And although I am sometimes envious of the newness factor of others homes I really prefer old houses because of character and knowing that it has a large history is very nice.
Well with zero dollars spent and a full Nooksack Valley Disposal Garbage Can (which was empty before starting this project) I am in organized bliss. My friend Amy had heard I would be starting this project and knowing full well I couldn't go it alone she brought her two boys over to play and we got to work. (Thank you Amy you are the best!) I am now in kitchen bliss and I have EXTRA SPACE, something I have known nothing about since buying this house. Someday when we get past about another 10 projects it will be time to start the kitchen renovation. So right now I am thankful for this new outlook on the kitchen:)
Stay tuned for the Pseudo Pantry Wars, I don't have an actual pantry but I have a corner of the kitchen that I call the Pantry in hopes of someday actually having one there. This will be the next project and hopefully I will start on it in two weeks after my next catering adventure:)

Our Live In LEGO Brickmaster

Elliot has been very into LEGO over the last year. We have LEGOs coming out of our ears. For his birthday we got him a membership to the LEGO Brickmasters Club. They always have LEGO building contests to enter where you create something that they suggest and send a picture in of your creation. This time the challenge was to build a space ship to help Anakin Skywalker rescue R2-D2. Star Wars happens to be his second favorite thing right now. There will be 5 prizes given, the prize being a $100 LEGO gift certificate. We are very excited and even if we don't win we had a lot of fun watching Elliot create something of his very own. <

Near Death Experience For The Wagon.

Many of you know that last three weeks have been very trying in regards to my automobile. We have broken a rear window, put a hole in the radiator, and yesterday it was within 6 inches of being totaled. I prayed last week to God informing Him that I had had enough in the car fixing department and so had my wallet. But he knows best so yesterday was round three. As I was happily making my freezer jam int he kitchen, donning one of my new Angry Blueberry aprons, I heard a very loud series of noises outside. I rushed to the window only to find a lady rolling into my front yard at a very high speed. My initial thought was "Oh Mercy Here We Go Again," but God did spare us total heartache and we were able to move the car with only minor exterior "skin" damage. No one was seriously injured and I walked away just thanking God that my children were not out playing in the yard as they so often are. I hate to think what would have happened if they were. So last night I made a third call to the insurance company filed a claim and lowered my deductibles:) These pictures were taken after we moved my car so they could kindly tow the other ones out of the yard. Mine was parked directly behind Brians. Thankfully this is as big as our problems get right now! But if you have some extra time in your prayer life would you say a prayer for my car it could sure use it:)

Island Life

A planned trip to Sucia Island with Grandma and Grandpa Boat is what was in store for us last week. It got started a day late because of some minor difficulties with the boat but we were able to get going on Thursday without a stitch. We started actually on Wednesday with a picnic at Birch Bay, hot dogs, homemade potato salad and fresh fruit skewers. We left on Thursday afternoon and headed straight to the island. Grandpa was sure to try out the engines to make sure they were working so we got there in record time I am sure of it;) We brought our tent and most of our camping supplies and stayed on shore while Gma and Gpa stayed on their boat. We did plenty of hiking, beach-combing, crabbing, oyster hunting, fishing and eating. It was a lot of fun. We actually caught 6 crab and found a few dozen oysters, these were all eaten and enjoyed. Grace got a tip about first aid from Gma on a girls only hike. We learned that Gma can make brownies on the boat:) And every night there was a beautiful sunset to enjoy. This was our first trip with our new queen size air mattress, and although many who will be kept anonymous would like to criticize, I think we are sold on it. It didn't go flat and there was plenty of room for both of us. Happy Wife, Happy Life! Meaning my bones and joints did not hurt at all in the morning:) We love camping and I don't think this will be our last trip island camping. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa we had a lot of fun(understatement)and we will look forward to another trip in the future:)