Abby was scared of it at first, but then grew to love it. Emma has a frog in that cup. Aaron thought it would be okay to tell her to bring it in the house to show me. Not a good idea. Aaron got in a lot of trouble for that brilliant idea!!
this is what my kitchen has become these last few weeks
I have been sewing and creating like crazy because I am going to be trying to sell a few of my creations at the Oliver Hardy festival the first weekend in Oct. I think I have officially gone crazy!! Here is a little sneak peak of what I have been up to. 
I have a few more ideas up my sleeve, but its all about finding the time and October keeps getting closer and closer. Let me know what you think. Hope to see you all at the festival!!!
last night abby really wanted to have me put curlers in her hair and so I did. when I asked emma if she wanted them too she said "no, i want tinkerbell all over". Tinkerbell hair means a bun, but ALL OVER I took as this (this is this morning after its been slept in, but there were about 10-11 "tinkerbells")
before I took them out I told her her hair was going to be soooo curly and as I was taking them out she kept saying "is it like sleeping beauty hair?" I guess she was thinking it was going to be long beautiful curls, but her hair just kept getting bigger and BIGGER! When I was done she felt that it was super big and said "NOT LION HAIR!!" This should be an awesome "do" for the day...don't ya think? 
... because I have the cutest, silliest, best, most adorable kids ever!! I know im not always this positive about them, but I absolutely LOVE these three crazies!
Abby is now in Kindergarten and she is loving being more independent and making her own choices and I am learning that its okay if she goes to school and doesn't quite match or she wants to wear Christmas socks with her shorts... we try to compromise, but she usually gets her way:) She is also learning that her teacher wants her letters written a certain way and that she cant always put her swirls on the end of her A's and Y's and dot her I's with her huge circles....we are still working on it!! She just loves to have things done just so and as much as it makes me crazy when trying the help with her homework at times...I love it about her! 
Emma just began dance class and she LOVES it!! She loves it when I put her hair in a bun (she calls it her tinkerbell hair). She is still making us laugh all day long and is really enjoying having her daddy home and wont let him out of her sight. 
Jonas is all BOY!! He is getting so big and it makes me a little sad knowing that he isnt going to be my baby for much longer. He loves anything noisy or dirty! He loves to tease the girls and its funny that even at this age he knows just how to bug them so much. He watches everything they do and is always trying to follow. Just the other day they were jumping from couch to couch and of course Jonas thinks he can do it too...so far no injuries (knock on wood). 
Also, a little side note: Aaron started back to work at a DAY SHIFT!!! We have been doing the midnight shift since we have been here (3 1/2 years now) and its so crazy to have him home before 4pm and to sleep with me at night. We finally feel like normal people!! However it is going to take some getting used to to have someone else in the bed at night. I think we will be upgrading to a king very very soon;) But other than that we really cant complain. EVERYTHING is GREAT and life is GOOD!!!
our last days were spent in aqaba and was a perfect ending to an already super fabulous vacation! We spent two nights in pure bliss. We got to our hotel after our tour through the desert in wadi rum. It was right on the red sea and once again we were upgraded to a suite. This was by far THE nicest hotel I have EVER been in (and aaron has treated me to some very nice hotels in the past) We had our own living room, kitchen, a balcony that had a great view of the red sea and TWO bathrooms...who needs two bathrooms (seriously). After getting settled we walked around for a bit. We went up to the flag there (well because its supposed to be the second tallest flagpole in the world) and came across this old castle so we walked around there for a bit. Once we had enough we went back to just eat and relax. The next morning we headed out to do a little snorkeling. Aaron is really big into ocean stuff and even more so since we got that salt water tank so he was dying to go and being the awesome wife that I am knew just how happy it would make him and agreed to go. I am terrified of ALL things ocean. I think the ocean is beautiful and the things that live in it are great, but I will NOT ever go in it. I just hate the thought of not knowing what you are swimming with and...well I am scared of fish. I wont even put my finger in our fish tank at home its that bad. So we got all our gear and I (after a lot of persuading on aarons part) got in the ocean. I scraped my knee on some coral and felt like I couldn't breath with the mask on. freaked out and got out as fast as I could and was very content to watch Aaron swim around from the dock:) Aaron loved it though and was a happy boy even though I am sure he wished he didn't have such a crazy wife. We walked around some more that night and would see people just walking their camels down the street....it was AWESOME!!! we just continued to relax and it was great.... if we didn't miss our kids so much at that point I could have stayed there for a very long time!!!
We drove back to Amman and got ready to go home. We missed the kids so much and it was hard to be away from them for so long, but the trip was AMAZING and I absolutely LOVED every moment of it. Thanks to all of you that helped us out these last few months while aaron was away and while we were both gone. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! We have been truly blessed with such good people in our lives.
Also a little side note that I am really excited about.... Flying home (aaron and I flew separately) I stopped in paris ( my #1 on places I want to visit of course) and I asked for a window seat so that I could see paris as I flew in and out and I actually saw the eiffel tower. We flew so close and I got so excited I am sure I looked like a complete freak to everyone else on the plane. I was so excited that I actually walked out of the airport just to walk back in so that I had to go through customs again JUST so that I could get a stamp on my passport to prove that I saw the actual eiffel tower.... pathetic I know!!
driving along the red sea. on the other side is egypt..that will be another trip:) 
watching aaron from a safe distance:)
the castle ruins. unfortunately this is the only one we have that actually shows the castle...I really am happy to be there... im tired of having to be the only one in ALL our pictures
second tallest flagpole in the world 
the view from our room
After Petra we drove to wadi rum to take a jeep tour through the desert. On the way there we passed this bedouin man trying to get a ride along the rode. We drove passed him then Aaron got a guilty feeling knowing that bedouin's are supposed to be super nice or something like that so we turned around and picked him up. Crazy enough he just happened to be a tour guide and wanted to take us in his jeep and for a little bit cheaper than what it would have cost to go through the visiter center. At first I was a little worried since we didn't know him. He tried really hard to first go to his house to drink tea with his family. He didn't really understand that we really don't drink tea for religious reasons because EVERYONE there drinks tea all day long. I think we offended a lot of people turning down tea the whole trip. Anyway, after finally convincing him we just wanted a hour jeep tour and did NOT want to drink tea or spend the night (who knows how many times he told us his uncle had 2 goats and a lamb because "big occasion tonght" and we should eat with his family and spend the night...we were on our way! We first stopped at a spot where it is supposed to be the place where moses was trying to get water and tapped on the rocks and out flowed a spring. It was really neat to be in a place like that. We saw really cool mountains that just looked like the rocks were melting and A LOT of sand!! But still AWESOME!!! On our way out of course there are always some person that needs a ride and being the extremely nice people we were we sure did give them a ride. One just needed a ride back to the visitors center which was only about a mile in the direction we were heading, but the other who didn't speak any english (who i swear passed gas he entire ride and helped himself to our bottled water) needed us to go a little out of our way to take him to a certain village. On the way all I could think was that part in the movie dumb and dumber and the hitch-hikers and I felt the need to sing the mocking bird song. Then we were on our way to Aqaba to finally jut relax!!!
This was probably my most favorite place we visited. We got to our hotel late since we didn't leave Amman when we were wanting to (because we were looking for lost luggage at the airport) But the Hotel was AWESOME. Aaron did very well in getting us the very best this whole trip. I was a VERY spoiled girl the entire trip!!! We were upgraded to a suite (either because they were just really nice or because Aaron had reserved them under the school name and they wanted to impress us "business" people...either way we definitely scored big time with the hotel rooms) We woke up had an amazing breakfast and then walked to the Petra ruins (our hotel was right at the entrance) Petra was AMAZING!!! All I can say is I cant wait to go back. When we first got there there are people selling their goods and one guy talked us into buying a scarf for myself. Which at first I felt completely dorky, but it totally came in handy!! You just walk/hike through the mountains to see these buldings and temples and whatnot carved right out of the mountain. They were incredible!! I loved every moment of it. I should have Aaron write this post because he knows a lot more of the history and details of the place much better than I do. I just wish I would have taken the donkey ride up to the monastery. That hike was like the stair master from "you know where" and this is where that white scarf thingy came in handy. Its so hot, but the more you cover the better oddly enough. My face was so red by the end of the day. I couldnt walk for the next few days, but it was totally worth it!!! That night Aaron took me to dinner. It was called Petra Kitchen and on the way there Aaron tells me that you cook your own food and you dont know what you are going to be making until you get there. I was a bit skeptical at first...since I can be a bit of a picky eater. When we got there we were with 3 other people. We were given recipes of some traditional Jordanian foods and were shown how to make everything. It was SO FUN!! And the food was SO YUMMY!! I would have eaten there every night! We got to take home the recipes for the things that we made so maybe I will be making them again very soon for my family (anyone want to try??) We spent another night in Petra and then the next morning after another super yummy breakfast we headed to Wadi Rum....sorry these pictures are out of order but im too tired and lazy to fix it.
me 
This was a little bridge that looks to be held up by this little teeny pole...of course I told Aaron to go stand on it for a picture!
can you believe that this was all carved out of the mountain?!?! and thats just a small portion of all that is there!!
our menu and our hosts that taught us how to cook at the petra kitchen
me pretending i know what im doing
almost to the top to the monastery...had to take a break...and this is where the scarf came in handy even if I look a bit dorky:)
the entrance
