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!