It has been SO nice to actually have Jeff home. The last few weeks of his semester were so filled with tests that I feel like we never saw him so these two weeks (sadly this is the last one before it begins yet again) we have tried to do as much together as possible.

We kicked off our time together with a trip to the zoo, a little more expensive than we would like but... the kids loved it so, it was worth it. The polar bear exhibit was my personal favorite. Pretty cool, eh?

You pay good money for a zoo and what do the kids want to do? Play at the playground. Ha ha ha :)

Katie suckered her dad into taking her on the carousel (yes, extra money but she enjoyed it). I love her little smile

Poor Kylee, worn out before Kate was ready to go

Even though this is Jeff's break, he sent me off to get my hair done, sweet right? (But it had been a long time, so perhaps it was more win-win for me to get it done than one would think ;) ). Went with a dark color, and I like it better.

For this break, I was intending on making it all about Jeff, but he is just so good at making sure I'm getting my way. He knew that I had been struggling with teaching Katie basic modesty-- you know, don't show your underwear-- but she's getting too tall for her her old dresses, so it was making an already difficult concept virtually impossible. Jeff took us girls to Savers and we found some good ones (that's right, my husband willingly took his wife and daughters clothes shopping).

Later, we were given more clothes by the Meltons in our ward, so now Katie is doing pretty well with fall clothes and dresses that fit, and Kylee gets Katie's hand-me-downs, which were also given to us by the Meltons. It has been a HUGE HUGE HUGE blessing to not have to purchase many clothes for our kids. I can not thank them enough, seriously HUGE blessing.

Katie taking care of her sister who wasn't feeling too well and still isn't... making me sad and frustrated on this day 5 of her being sick :(

I love that Kylee plays with baby dolls. It's cute to see her putting it to bed :) (FYI this pic is out of order, she isn't back to playing just yet... maybe tomorrow)

Ok, so I know I posted this sweet little story on facebook (as is the case with many things) but this is where I get everything I put in our actual journals so... deal with it ;)

I was super super frazzled, it was a crazy, exhausting, disappointing day and I was trying to get Kylee to sleep who clearly wasn't feeling well and Katie was bouncing off the walls. I was starting to get snappy and ornery with her, she ignored me (THANK GOODNESS!).

She climbed up on the back of the couch and looked out the window and squealed in her sweet little excited voice, "Mommy! Look! Look what Heavenly Father gave us!" and she was pointing to the rainbow.

Instantly I melted, my bad mood went away, and I wanted to cry. How wonderful it is to have a child who constantly reminds me of all the wonderful things I take for granted.

Finally, not to get mushy but I am feeling so LUCKY to be married to the sweet man that is my husband. We've been busy moving furniture around like crazy and cleaning. We had an unfortunate situation where we were thinking we could finally get a sectional (free) that was left behind at a rental house. We took our couch and recliner to the DI and went to get the sectional (we wanted it because we can't really snuggle up together on our loveseat so we often sit apart unless we decide to sit together on the floor... carpet over concrete still isn't very comfy so we don't do it often, or for very long)

Lesson learned: It is a BAD idea to get rid of furniture before you're sure that you can get new furniture in your house. Sure, it would fit in the space we cleared but we couldn't get it into our house with the awkward layout our house has.

Anyway today we bought a new recliner for 15 bucks and now we do have something, we're just waiting on a super cheap loveseat. After the kids are in bed, Jeff and I sit in the TV room (inconveniently the place we no longer have adequate seating is where we spend our kids-free time) Jeff insists I sit in the comfy seat while he either sits on the floor or our fold-out camping chair.

He always does little things like that... gives me the biggest piece of dessert (maybe it's cheesy that I notice these things, but I think it's sweet), serves me first, makes sure I'm happy and I'm comfortable before he even starts worrying about himself. Just the most selfless person I have ever met.

Right now he's sick, right along with Kylee (though he seems to be on the mend today, YAY!) but he has still helped me tremendously. Even though he's been sick, exhausted and should be resting in bed, he has been keeping Katie completely occupied so I can take care of Kylee. Let me tell you, Kate is a BUSY girl and keeping her occupied is not easy and is quite exhausting.

I feel so lucky, and so undeserving. I hope I do enough to return all the sweet favors he does me. I love that man, sorry to get all mushy but... I do.

Obviously no one is perfect, but I'm pretty happy and feel very blessed to have married a man who treats me so well and is a wonderful father to our two sweet girls.