:: such a fun weekend ::

i was so glad when i put these cute pants on iz and they still fit, so i had to get a pic of her booty saying 'baby jay'... of course she had to be dressed for the big game!

she has been wanting to sit on the couch with us or sit in a chair, so she tries to climb up on her own of course.

a new drawer for her to climb in!

mcckenzie and greyson came over during the first half of the ku game and it was so fun to finally meet him {i know, i can't believe we hadn't met him yet!} and hang out.

i was a little crazy {as usual} with snapping photos of greyson and then of him and iz together.

i love this, like he's looking back at her, 'what'd you say?'

thank you kenz and greyson for stopping by, it was so good to see you!

we had dinner with the fam after the [super close] game and cooper was enjoying holding his cousin paisley.

papa giving paisley words of advice.

:: sunday ::

we went into a few shops after breakfast on sunday and isabelle found these stuffed animals that she just couldn't get enough of, if she could carry all of them, she would of - the girl is already a little shopper... just like her mama ;).

so we bought one... we set the four that she kept carrying around on the floor to see which one she went for first, and the most - the lion won.  they are super fun animals that are made out of old mexican blankets and dance wear - pretty cool.

thank you for the weather being amazing, we got to take the family on a walk!

isabelle double fisting, enjoying some smoothie.. this one was just a handful of strawberries, 1 banana and about a half scoop of juice plus+ complete powder {with some ice and water of course}.

i just loved watching all three of our children look out the back window.

just being happy with her new lion.

checking out what dad is doing on the computer {and yes, that is 2 grahams she is stuffing into her mouth at once}.. the girl loves the keypad!

iz has developed such a love for being outside and playing with her wagon!  i'm so glad she likes to be outside as much as we do!

 

just had to add this last pic of her with that tongue of hers {as i'm sure you saw in a few above}, she still sticks it out - all the time!

one last bowling tourney!

i was lucky to be able to have one more bowling day before i left and it was a great time as usual!

laura {my manager} with her cute bowling cupcakes she made

georgianna, laura, lessie, steve g., sara, harrison

lindsay, virginia, miranda, len, allen

mike, steve w., jessica, melanie, lisa

chris, matt, alejandro, julie, marissa, carrie

jamie, joe, rachael, cathy, whitney
i am definitely going to miss all of these wonderful people.  i have worked with some of them for all 5 years and they have been with me through a lot of big life changes - we bought our first house, got engaged + married and had our beautiful daughter.  it's so crazy, especially when you think about it, you are at work and with your work friends more than your family and how backwards is that?  we americans have it all wrong... work shouldn't be life.  life's too short.
thank you team for being such great coworkers + friends. see you soon.

:: the end of an era ::

so this may be news to some of you, but probably not many- i am leaving payless and will be home with isabelle and we are moving to salina... holy smokes, those are some big life changes at one time.  this has actually been going on for awhile; jacob has been driving so much from salina to lawrence {approx. 2 hours one way}, staying in salina overnight so he doesn't see isabelle and i, which in turns makes me a bit crazy with doing everything at home... i also want to be with iz more, i just miss her {i thought it was supposed to get easier, not for me!} - SO, we are burnt out and over it!  i can't believe we have been doing it for this long, especially jacob, i could never do that match driving {and if you've done that drive, you know how fun it is!}.  

i'll try to make this as short as possible... we started talking about it almost a year ago and then a house came for sale in salina that was basically too good to pass up... jacob called me at work, sent me some pictures of the house and put an offer on it that day without me seeing it in person {i know, crazy right?}, but i trusted him to make the call.  so we bought a house in salina and then had to get our house on the market fast.. it was on the market for about 2 months with a realtor, took it off and put our own sign in the yard and sold it within about a week {with the help of st. joseph buried in the front yard, you should try it if you need to sell - close to the street, upside down, facing the house}.  we were simultaneously working on our salina house {pulling up all the carpet and re-finishing the wood floors, tearing down all the wall paper/painting everything and gutting/redoing the bathrooms - before + after pictures to come} and closed on our house in lawrence at the end of december, but our buyers let us stay thru march {thank you}.  i have to say, the whole thing has not been easy for me at all, i love our house {yes, we just renovated it and i didn't want to sign the papers}, i love lawrence and don't want to leave, but what we have been doing is crazy and i want to be with isabelle more, so in the end, this is what we have to do for our family right now and family is most important.

i am finally able to post about this because they announced it at work on thursday that i was leaving after 5 years.  i have had so many mixed emotions about everything and that just made the tears flow.  my manager and director were the only ones that knew {i told them about everything after we bought the salina house and before my july china trip} and we had to keep it that way until i was actually leaving, so obviously couldn't post about it {which was one of the hardest things because we have gone through a lot with the whole thing in the past months}.  i have worked since i was 15, so this is going to be a big change for me but i'm excited to see where the road takes me.  i hope to: cook + bake, sew, create + make things, take pictures, maybe have an etsy account, blog... so i will keep you updated during our new adventure!

just some light at the end... this precious girl - eating/smashing her pb+j into her face.

i told her she has no idea, it's going to be her + i and we are going to be best friends - my side kick!

i just keep telling myself -

it's not about where you are, it's about the people you are with. 

that's the truth.

off to school...

i just love taking isabelle to daycare now, she gets excited when we walk in and sees the other kids playing and hardly ever gets upset when i hand her over and walk out, which makes it mush easier on me to drop her off - thank goodness!

i had to share this picture of iz because she is holding the book i'm currently reading - the hunger games... oh man am i addicted - can't stop reading it!  definitely recommend to add it to your 'read' list if you haven't read it already.

my munchkin on our way to daycare, always so happy.  

i just love looking back at iz to see what she's doing, which causes me to take pictures, which isn't safe... i really try to only do it at stop lights but sometimes i just hold my arm back and hope i get her in the pic.

isabelle loves to move when a good song comes on and i just love it so much, i couldn't resist catching it on video.  it seems like she realizes what i'm doing because she gets a little shy when the camera gets out.  i know, i shouldn't not be filming while driving - i just can't help myself!  but i promise to stop, it's not safe.

:: girls trip to nyc ::

"concrete jungle where dreams are made of..."

i can't help but sing that song- thank you jay-z and alicia keys.

we went to nyc for the weekend to visit ashley in her new digs and had a wonderful time.  we have been friends since middle school and now all live in different cities so we try to get together at least once a year {we were sad laura couldn't make it}.  

kellie, mckenzie, ashley, jayme

 ash lives in an adorable little one bedroom apartment on the 4th floor {with no elevator- i know, it's new york} that we all stayed in and it was perfect for us.  thank you ash for letting us invade your space for a few days! 

 she lives in a great location in hell's kitchen and we walked and ate dinner at a wonderful little place called 'ember' - probably the best veggie burger i have ever had.. not your traditional veg burg and i think that's why i liked it so much... more lentils, so good.

we went to see the 9/11 memorial on friday, it was pretty amazing and emotional.. just standing there watching the water rush down, reading all the names of the lives that were taken, right where the buildings stood, was such a strange but peaceful feeling - hard to explain.  these were just absolutely amazing.  i definitely recommend seeing it if you are in ny, it's free, just print tickets from online.

the 'survivor tree' - pretty amazing it survived the attacks and so cool that they nursed it back to health and replanted it at the memorial.

the new world trade buildings 

there is a museum at the end of the memorial that is very sad and makes the whole thing so real, i couldn't handle it, way too sad, had to leave.

waiting for the train.. the wrong train, thanks ash ;)

some delicious fries we had at 'the piano' for happy hour.

dinner at a delicious tapas place.

ash + alex 

we hung out with some of ashley's wonderful friends while we were there and they were a blast!

davie (aka chuck bass for those gossip girl watchers), rob, ash, alex, mike, john, kel, jayme

brunch on saturday 

if you are ever in new york, you have to eat at 'the meatball shop' {we went to the one on greenwich in the west village}, it's such a fun atmosphere and the food is delicious.  you do have to expect at least an hour wait, but there is a bar two doors down that you can go to while you wait and they will text you when you're up - so nice not to have to stand there for 2 hours.  they still had a 2 1/2 hour wait when we left at 9, if that tells you anything!

us waiting at the bar.

yes, they have a veggie ball - it was so good!  they have dry erase markers that you use to fill out the menu, you pick your ball, sauce and side... such a fun concept!  OH and i can't forget the dessert, it's two cookies (of your choice and you can mix + match them) with the ice cream of your choice in the middle... we had one with a brownie/mint ice cream/chocolate chip cookie and a snickerdoodle cookie/peanut butter ice cream/marshmallow crisp cookie - both amazing!

we got to meet up with our friend griff after dinner... too bad we were all tired and had to fly out in the morning, so we didn't last very late, sorry griff!

it's so hard to leave iz anymore, i almost don't even get excited to go anywhere (which is terrible) because i know i am going to miss her so much.. i start to miss her days before i leave, which doesn't make leaving any easier!  i always just want to squeeze her and get a little bit homesick whenever i get pictures of her.  

of course i was very demanding for pics of my little one and this is the first one i got from my mom, i loved it.  she is wearing her kentucky sweatshirt she got for christmas from the kuhns clan, so cute on her!

it's kind of hard to see her leg in the cabinet, but she was trying to climb into it... silly girl loves to climb in and on everything these days!

isabelle and dad had a fun day together on sunday before i got home and these pics just made my day, i could not wait to get home and see her!  jacob put her on the phone while i was waiting to board and she said, 'mama, hi, mama, hi, hi' and the tears just flowed - my precious baby.  

she was apparently hiding from him here!

these pics shocked me - she climbed up on the coffee table to watch a little tube.

love this, she is helping dad clean!

i pulled up to isabelle and dad waiving at me in the window and couldn't wait to get inside and squeeze her... she walked to me so fast with her arms up for me to pick her up, once i did, she layed her head down and didn't look up or move for at least 10 minutes, she would not let me go, like she didn't want me to leave her again... it kind of killed me!  the best thing about going somewhere is getting home and feeling so loved and missed - i'm such a lucky mom and wife to have the sweetest daughter and a wonderful husband!

we went on a walk with the whole family {one of my favorite things}, jacob had the dogs and i pulled isabelle - i turned around and that's how she was sitting, just like a lady.