3 Things

If we were to meet up for coffee today, these are all the random current events that I'd update you on for each person in our family.

 

Olive //

1. She got nominated for Student of the Month for her class.  The character trait was citizenship.  She was so excited.  Her teacher wrote the nicest things about her and said she was every teacher's dream student.  Olive goes to a big school so we love to see her individually recognized for standing out and being a good citizen.  She's gotten this award several times before and we always love to see which character trait each teacher sees shine in her.

2. She's getting her eyes checked this week and is thinking she might need glasses.  Genetics are in her favor for that so we'll see what the doctor says.

3.  She's got a million questions about our move and her new school.  We're trying to get as many of them answered as possible before she starts school there in just a couple of weeks.  She's moved a lot in her life and I know she'll do great in our new city.

 

 

Fletcher //

1. He hates wearing coats and pants.  He argues about it most days.  So if you see him with bare arms and legs all winter long, just know he's got his joggers cuffed up and turned into shorts and he's pushed his long sleeves up.  And if he is wearing a coat of any kind, I'm thrilled.  To be fair, I'm always hot so I know he probably gets it from me, but I wish he'd cover up a bit more now that it's freezing out.

2. He is always climbing or jumping off of something.  Balancing on the edge of every piece of furniture we own.  We were taking pictures at my sisters and he was climbing her stair rail.  I looked up from doing dishes and see him jumping off all the things on the deck.  He shouted - Take my picture and see if you can catch me flying.  Maybe he needs bubble wrap for Christmas.

3. He said the only thing he cares about taking with us to Evansville is his teacher.  She's wonderful and we are all really going to miss her.

 

Leo //

1.  He is the busiest baby we've had.  He gets into everything all the time.  He literally makes a new mess while you are cleaning up the first mess.  Kevin was sweeping up some dirt he dug out of a plant and turned around to find that he'd dumped a bag of crackers in the family room.  Bubble wrap should be on his Christmas list.  He's wild!!

2.  Leo loves bananas.  He eats 3 or so a day.  Fletcher went through this phase so I think it's a sign that he's growing.  No wonder his belly is hanging out of all of his 2T clothes.

3.  He holds our hand and leads us to whatever he wants - snacks, swings, pantry - or brings us his coat to tell us he wants to go outside and play.  He also brings us the remote when he wants to watch Cocomelon.

 

Kevin & Whitney //

1.  Our to do lists feel a little ridiculous right now.  There is always someone to call.  Something to do or something last minute we have to squeeze in before our move.  I'm taking all 3 cats + Leo to the vet on Thursday.  I'm sure that'll be pure chaos and am trying to squeeze in all the appointments before we move.  Kevin has currently shifted his attention to the fact that Notre Dame is now on the hunt for a new football coach since ours is headed to LSU.  This should be interesting to watch play out in the off season.

2. We found some really great deals on things for the new house on Black Friday.  Since we got the measurements of the rooms, I'm hoping all the furniture and new things look great in the space.  Stay tuned...

3. We're trying to figure out how to make our tradition of getting a real tree happen this year.  We usually buy it the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We're moving in two weeks and don't want to move a real tree.  So we're trying to come up with a game plan to have a real tree in our new house for our first Christmas.  Wish us luck!!  I'm sure we'll figure something out, but honestly, it's weird to be packing everything in boxes and not decking the halls this time of year.

What's new with you??

Thanksgiving Break Recap

It's been a minute since I showed up here!  

Life is BUSY.  

I'm doing my best to get all the things done, but as you can imagine, something had to give.  The kids were off.  Kevin was off and everyone needed my attention.  I promise I will show up and blog when I can and if things get quiet here on the blog, just know that we're packing and prepping to move in early December.  Thanks for all the messages checking in on me last week :)

Thanksgiving week was a really busy one for Jordan Bakery Box.  It was so fun to build holiday charcuterie boxes and bake cookies and dip pretzels for orders last week.  Leo and I went to the grocery store several times in addition to having groceries delivered.  He's the best assistant as long as I bring him snacks.  I'm about to go on a break with our move so it was great to be so busy in November.

Charcuterie box for 2.

Thanksgiving Pretzels.

Happy 5th Birthday board.

Thanksgiving Big Chunk Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I had several orders for these and then I made more for neighbor gifts.

A regular size charcuterie box!

A meat & cheese charcuterie box.

I also did a lot of cooking for my family.  I made a big Thanksgiving feast for my little family of 5.  My pies gave me trouble.  I had to make a 2nd pumpkin pie because I burned the first one.  They were both yummy.  What did you make for Thanksgiving?

I bought turkey dinners for the cats :)

I packed the kids special Thanksgiving lunches on their last day before break - turkey, pie, ginger snaps and Thanksgiving candy.

We bundled up and went for walks around our neighborhood.

Thanksgiving morning!

We hopped in the van for a quick road trip on Thanksgiving morning. We swung through the Starbucks drive thru and he surprised Olive with her own Pumpkin Spice Latte.  She was THRILLED.  He's a sweet dad.

We stopped off to check on our new house (more on that later this week!) and then headed straight to Kevin's Nana's house for lunch.  There is always an amazing spread of food.

It was colder than I thought it was going to be.  I should have packed winter jacket instead of hoodies.  And both kids opted for shorts instead of pants.  Brrrrrr!

We headed to my sister's house for dinner.  Look at the pretty place settings!!  And those lovely Thanksgiving bouquets by my Uncle Ray.

Cousin table!

We finally got to meet my sister's new kitten - Boots!!  He was so soft and so sweet.  Leo kept snuggling him and saying AWWWWW.

Thanks for the yummy dinner, sis!

We zoomed back home and had a relaxing rest of our weekend.

How was your weekend?

I hope you had a great time with family and friends.  Did you do any holiday shopping?  I found some good sales online :)

 

Rainbow Signs

Remember when I wrote this post We're Moving! and Change is Hard a few weeks ago?

I said that we had all the big feelings about moving and were really going to miss living in Terre Haute BUT that we knew it was the right decision for our family.

I thought I'd elaborate on that today.

It might not be the most interesting stories, but it's an important story for our family.

There is always a lot going on behind the scenes with Kevin's job that isn't exactly the best blog content.  Things that were struggles, hard and not exactly ideal along with changes that we felt coming.  Combine those with exciting career milestones - getting tenure and being given cool opportunities.  We've been working through some of those things for years.  We have been praying for answers and guidance over the years and most of the time doors were closed, opportunities weren't there and God seemed to be telling us to stay put.  It was very obvious that Terre Haute was the place where we were supposed to be for the past 6 years.  Terre Haute has been really good to our family.  Both boys were born here, the kids have loved their schools, fun friends and I had some really cool opportunities.

June 2021 //

This past summer a job came across Kevin's radar at University of Evansville.  It was the director of a brand new clinical psychology PsyD program.  They wanted to bring in someone to build a program from the ground up.  He said it was a really interesting job opportunity that he felt like he had to explore.  He was shocked that something that seemed like his dream job was coming available in the near future.  He prepped his application, got his letters of recommendation and sent everything off.  I panicked a bit because this was all so sudden and a new school year was beginning.

September //

University of Evansville reached out to him and wanted to bring him in for an interview.

We were a little surprised because it had been months without hearing anything.

He was excited to go and see what their vision was for the program.

He headed out for 2 full days of intense interviews.  

I barely talked to him and he was busy from morning to night.  He was busy talking to everyone from community leaders, people on and off campus, guest lecturing, presenting his research, etc and they made sure he met with all the people.  He bumped into my dad at his favorite breakfast spot and had to quickly tell him why he was there.  Then my cousin on campus.  So much for flying under the radar.

Kevin was on information overload after two days and a couple hour trip each way.  He liked what they had to say and was impressed with what they had to offer.  He thought everything went great so we waited to see.  A few days later they offered him the position!

We had a week or so to decide.  We weighed ALL the pros/cons and talked through the idea of chasing big dreams for our family.  We talked about what opportunities we wanted for the kids as they got older and the pros and cons of relocating now.  We prayed a ton, went back and forth with offer details and then felt like we should take the job.

October // 

We visited Evansville, saw tons of houses and I kept saying a million things needed to fall into place for us to make a quick move - ie in January 2022 vs June 2022.  Slowly, but surely, all of our plans felt like they were been green lighted by God.  Every single thing that were conditions of a quick move were being taken care of - new house, quick sale of our current house, great schools for the kids, etc.

Then I realized I started seeing rainbows everywhere.  That was unusual for me and quickly reminded me of Genesis 9:13 (I have set my rainbow in the clouds and and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth) and that God keeps his promises.  God has always taken good care of our family.  Each move has been a blessing to us and a great opportunity for our family.  We've loved all the cities we've lived in and we were excited about the prospect of another new city.  So the abundance of rainbows had me feeling like God was showing me signs that this was a great opportunity for us to trust Him and trust His plan for our family.  

Let me show you some of the rainbows we saw:

We headed to Evansville for the day to look at houses.  We found the one.  We showed the kids and hurried back to Terre Haute.  Shortly after getting on the road to head home we saw the brightest double rainbow I have ever seen.  It lit up the whole sky + fall leaves.  Kevin and I were like WOW that feels like a big sign from God.

I drove the kids to school one morning like I always do and there was a huge rainbow.  I was feeling a little overwhelmed by life and all the potential changes so this rainbow was really encouraging.

Another morning I was out and about with Leo running errands.  This rainbow peeked through the clouds to give me a little encouraging boost.

And lastly, we headed up to Wisconsin for Fall Break.  We were deliberating the job decision the whole trip and we saw rainbows the entire trip.  They kept popping up everywhere.

So for us all these rainbow signs were just confirmation that we needed to give this a shot!  We needed to leave the comfortable life we'd gotten accustomed to and be ready to go where God was calling our family to go.  Like we'd always done with moves in the past.  Change is hard and not always fun, but we are confident that God has great plans for our family in our new city.

Birthday Favorites - Surprises, Smiles & Cake!

I turned 40 this week and I've had the best time celebrating with family and friends!  I can't wait to show you the fun things I've gotten to do.  I felt very loved and very special all week long.  What more could a girl ask for on her birthday!?

1. Cake Bake Shop

If you live in or around Indiana or pay attention to up and coming cake shops, you may have heard of Cake Bake Shop in the Indianapolis area.  They've got two locations and it's been on my radar for years.  A few of my mom friends who also happen to be on the board of my local mom's group with me - surprised me with a birthday mom's night out.  They told me to - look cute, be ready for a road trip and it would be a late night.  Our husbands were home with the 11 kids for the night so we could go out and celebrate.  I showed up and we all piled in one of our vans to head to the Indy area.

We pulled up to Cake Bake and I was really excited!  I was hoping this would be where we landed.  I couldn't wait to see the place for myself.  It exceeded all of my expectations!  I think it's safe to say that 40 has been my favorite birthday yet.

We toured the gift shop and all the photo op locations while we waited on our reservation.  My friend booked it months in advance for us.  What a treat!  They've got swans everywhere.  I love these ladies!

We all loved our cakes - carrot, caramel, mint and confetti.  That carrot cake was AMAZING.

The swan sled was too much fun!

The restaurant is GORGEOUS!  You feel like you're on set of the dreamiest Hallmark movie.  There is something beautiful every direction you look.

The entire shop (desserts included) sparkle!  Look at all these trees!

There were polar bears everywhere.  Did you know that I love polar bears??  They're my favorite so that was an unexpected treat.

You can just walk into the gift shop and buy desserts.  We scoped everything out and then headed to our table.  Every single dessert looks amazing.

We got a birthday greeting as we were seated.  I got to order first and felt like a queen the whole time.

They have Cake Bake shop dishes, glasses and every single detail is beautiful.  The hostesses and serves wear the prettiest pink blazers and uniforms.  There are pretty photo ops - trees, fire places and decorations - at every turn.

You can order fancy lemonades.  My friends got pretty purple lemonades and this was my drink.

I'll probably dream of this Chicken Picata forever.  It's one of my favorite dishes and it was AMAZING.  I was so surprised.  I knew the cake would be amazing, but I didn't realize that every single food item that they serve would be delicious.  Everyone loved their meals.

Swans everywhere you turn!  We missed going back to the gift shop to shop because we were still finishing up our food at 10:00pm.  So if you go for dinner, be sure to shop before the gift shop closes.

I'm so thankful for these friends!  We've worked hard together and gotten to know each other well these past few years working together for our local mom's group.  They're the best.  Our "meetings" are always a highlight of the month and we are happy for any reason to hang out.  I'm a lucky girl to have friends like these.

2.  Fun @ Home

The kids were excited to celebrate my birthday.  Kevin brought home roses for me twice this week - pink one day and orangey red a few days later.  They were super pretty!  I got several gift cards to my favorite places.  It'll be fun to shop for the new house.

3. I enjoyed doing some of my favorite things this week - a trip through Aldi where I found some things I've been on the hunt for and did a little Christmas shopping at Hobby Lobby.  Leo's a pretty good side kick as long as I've got the snacks.  And birthday rewards - I love cashing those in at my favorite spots.

4. Birthday cheesecake for me!  It's my favorite every year.

5. Peek a Boo - Leo's favorite game is peek-a-boo.  He thinks it's hilarious.  Who wouldn't love a cute lunch date!?

6. Remember me saying I found something that I'd been looking for at Aldi... it was this leaf board!  Isn't it cute!?  It's HUGE and will be so fun for Thanksgiving.  My family enjoyed this Thanksgiving Snack Board this week.

7. #momlife

Making appointments for yourself even if you have to bring along side kicks.  Leo came with me to get my teeth cleaned.  No cavities - yay!  And we both got new toothbrushes.

8. Family Birthday

My parents invited me to a birthday dinner on Sunday at my favorite spot - Old Chicago.

Then they surprised me with the whole family!  We took up the entire room :)  It was such a fun surprise that they all traveled an hour to meet us halfway between Terre Haute & Newburgh to celebrate with me.

These cute girls made me a birthday crown.

We had cake and cheesecake.  My sister made me the prettiest cake.

What a fun week!!  I feel super thankful for all the birthday fun this week.  I don't usually love surprises, but birthday surprises are great :)  It'll be a quiet weekend over here after all this fun.

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