The day before I left for Cali, Anna Kate brought Rose a treat while she was taking one of her sitz baths!  Rose was so excited, and I was so touched by her thoughtfulness.  The girls have seen Rose’s scar where they drained her leg, and they both have had such compassion on her!

My sweetie pies! 

The morning I arrived, I went outside in the Ziemke’s back yard and just laid in the sun!  It was such a break from all the chaos!

Back in Texas, Mike dressed the girls to go grocery shopping and lined them up for a picture to text me… Go Mikey!

This picture just about broke my heart I missed them so… then I noticed N had on mascara, and I flipped out!  Lol!

Mike sent me this picture too!  He said Rose walked around watching the iPad for 30 minutes one day… she never stays focused for that long on anything!  My baby’s growing up!

Back in Cali, Cindy and I were testing out possible photo shoot locations for their Christmas card around their yard… and totally goofing off while doing so!  After the big shoot the next day, we went to the cutest little Mexican joint for dinner.  I ate a lot.  They were all like, “What!?!  Where did all that food go?”  If you know me, you know how I eat… it was so good!

Corbie loves him some video games, so I had fun watching him doing his thing… and listening to his silly music while he played!  It was cracking me up!

Cell phone pic of me and my friend!  Love.her.

These guys are two peas in a pod!

Cha cha cha!

Cindy and I enjoyed driving around with our “It’s a Grind” mochas before heading to the airport… Cali is so beautiful!  The Pacific air is so fresh!

Cindy drove me around Clarissa’s school, Cal State University Long Beach! 

And just like that, I was headed back to Texas!  This is a bird’s eye view of California, Long Beach area.

Mike texted me this picture while I was in the air.  The girls were on their way to pick up Anna Kate from school and sooo excited to see their Mommy!  I was just as excited to see my girls!!!

Mike made the kiddos pancakes on Saturday morning… he pretty much rocked it out the entire weekend!  I don’t know another man who could take care of three little girls for 3 days and 3 nights all by himself.  I’m so proud!  Noelle, Anna Kate and Rose had a modeling job the day I got back, so we were out of town that whole next day.  It will be pj land around here for a while until I can get caught up, but this fall has been a blast so far!

My weekend get-away to Cali last weekend was a total God thing, and I don’t say that lightly.  My heroes needed me, I was able to be there for them… let’s just say, they’ve got one beautiful family Christmas card photo after this weekend! 

Cindy and I are always SO busy!  On Friday we were texting about having really long slow weekends.  Those kind are hard in our situations!  Anyway, she was saying they were going to try to take their Christmas card picture this weekend, and I texted, “Why don’t I come take it?”  She texted back, “Ok!” and I got busy searching for flights (which last minute is next to impossible, so we were still kind of joking).  Turns out, Mike found a really good deal (with a lay-over in Phoenix), and we decided to go for it!  So at 4PM on Friday, I bought my tickets and at 4AM on Saturday, Mike and the girls took me to the airport, and I was on my way to Cali to break up the weekend and take their Christmas card picture!  I slept in, got take-out from all our fav places and took the longest showers (with no kiddos), so it was just as much for me as it was for them!  Lovin’ me some Curt in this picture!  The twinkle in his eye makes my heart melt… I’d do anything for him, including feed him key lime pie and then ice cream all in one night!  If I lived in Cali, I’d spoil him rotten!

Noelle’s first ad in a magazine came out this week!  She was so excited, as it was her life’s dream to be in a magazine… check!

Not very many people get to travel the world and paint as a profession.  We are so very blessed Aunt Joe shares her gift of art with the world.  The paintings that she captures allow all of us to marvel at the beauty of God’s creation and the ability to recreate such beauty that won’t change with the seasons… it’s captured for generations to come to enjoy what might have been missed, overlooked, or simply undiscovered.  The beauty of today will be treasured tomorrow, thanks to her devotion, love and passion for her gift and her God.  We love you, Aunt Jojo!!!

We had a blast watching Noelle and her friends get down at their 50s sock hop at school!

Mrs. Biggerstaff is the best teacher in the whole wide world. Noelle is having a great year, and we are so proud of her!!!

Love these pictures of our happy girls!  Rose was wearing boots today, no matter what (she’s obsessed with shoes), so Rose had a 50s country sock hop!  I love it!

Boys on one side, girls on the other… and then they ran through the middle one couple at a time… Noelle had a blast!

Everyone was loving on baby Rose! 

Jacob asked me to take some pictures for his mom to see, and this is what he did… the Pond girls are crazy about this kid!  I love how Noelle is joking with her hand not touching his back and he is giving her bunny ears… they are both playing tricks on each other… what fun!

Rose is feeling much much better!  Thank you for the thoughts and prayers.  She’s a sweetie!

Yay!!!  If you’re wondering what that bracelet is on Rose’s arm, it’s Ariel’s belt, of course, lol.  She always wears it like a bracelet!

Anna Kate made up this phrase one day and galloped around the house saying, “Hi good lookin’, I’m a pirate!”  She’s my buddy!

Noelle had fairy tale day at school!

I bought Rose lots of winter hats for Christmas… she loves them!

Noelle had a blast at Claire’s 7th birthday party last weekend… these girls are getting too big!

Carson and Noelle had a blast goofing off while decorating their cupcakes and cookies!

Happy Birthday, Claire!  (in the black outfit on the floor smiling so cutely)

Here we are at Pump It Up celebrating Emme Kelly’s 5th birthday!

Landon and Noelle… ahh, so cute!  Rose was so proud to sit at the big girl table.  She usually sits in a high chair at Pump It Up… she’s getting too big!

Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

Loving some “Gangnam Style,” Hanna’s ASI party, and Anna Kate rockin out to the new Taylor Swift CD in dress-up clothes!

We voted for Johnson this year (along with 1.1 million other Americans)… Texas was a given for Romney, so we wanted to build up public awareness for the Libertarian party… felt very good to vote!

Julia, Ysa and Anna Kate had so much fun playing at the park last week on a sunny fall afternoon!