It 's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas...

I cannot believe Christmas is just around the corner!!! Seems like just yesterday we were ringing in the New Years! Such a fun weekend we had enjoying a little bit of Fayetteville and their beautiful display of lights!

Holdiay Lights on the Square

There were Razorbacks on carousel

And Cinderella carriage rides...

And camel rides....

The lights were stunning!

We also had a great time getting into the Christmas spirit with help from Mom and Dad by decorating our house for the Holiday!



Even Harley came to visit!
Her first trip away from home!



Patiently waiting for decorations to be complete!



It was so nice seeing our house all decorated for Christmas!

Santa and his helpers climbing to the top!

Bob placing the topper just right!

Bob said he wished we could have the Christmas decorations year round! It would be nice but I think the neighbors would disagree!

Counting down the days until Christmas...can't believe it is 21....

Thanksgiving Weekend = Family Fun!!!

This was our very first Thanksgiving as old married folks and we managed to fit a ton of stuff into great weekend! After Bob finally got off work Wednesday evening, we set off to central Arkansas. We got up early on turkey day and I slaved over a caprese salad!!! We attempted the Christmas card photo, Bob in his blue shirt (of course)!

Then we headed over to hang with the Brooks gang and enjoy some great food! Crystal was in from D.C. and we got to enjoy some time with her!! I got to meet some new people as they had visitors that Bob knew from high school and that brought their sweet baby over to show off!!! She was so cute!!

Yummy Thanksgiving Food!



Crystal, Bob, and Angela with thier wonderful grandma Ross!!

Then was the wonderful Black Friday where we woke up (me, mom and dad) at 3am to go shopping in Little Rock! Bob of course was snoozing and refused to go with. A few of the stores we went to were so packed that you could barely get through the aisles but we managed to rack up and get everything we went searching for...bad thing is, everything we bought was for ourselves! Oops!

Our car full of goodies!



Searching for Black Friday deals!

 Then it was time to watch the Razorbacks play the final game of the season and see if they may have a chance to get into the National Championships! They were ranked #3 before the game and matched up with the #1 LSU at LSU....the game had an awesome start and we scored two touchdowns in the first half! We yelled so much I almost lost my voice! In the end, we ended up losing the game 41-17. It was still a great season to be a Razorback fan and our only losses were to the #1 and #2 teams in the country which isn't too bad! We then headed over to Angela's for some great food and fun with friends! It was a great weekend and we cannot wait 'til Christmas...only a month away!

Saying Goodbye....

The last week or so has consisted of lots of tears and remembering... Time has come that my sister Shannon and her family is packing up to move to Japan. They are setting off this next week to visit family in New Mexico and Utah and then jet setting to Japan mid month. We tried to get all the memories we could from the past week and they got to spend some time at our new house in Fayetteville. We had lots of fun things to do!! We went to the Farmer's market, ate yummy cupcakes at the cupcakery, carved pumpkins, watched the Hogs play, played Kinect and even made great treats.

We had such a great time just hanging out and enjoying each others company! Makes me wonder why we don't get to do this more often! Seems the rush of life takes over and there suddenly isn't time for things that matter most. Bob was so great with the girls but he did confirm that maybe one kid was enough! Ha! Imagine if they were horrible kids...he may be doubting having kids altogether! But they were perfect angels all weekend, as normal, but they definitely keep you going!

We also had a great time this weekend at mom and dads where we celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas, in October!! Shannon and Ben got us great pictures that she made out of our great time last weekend and the girls got some pretty great gifts as well! We ate way to much food and watched the Hogs play, Bob said it was just like a normal Thanksgiving! We got our Skype hooked up on everyones computers so we can talk to each other while they are in Japan.

It is scary to think the girls will be little women when they get back but at least we can kinda get an idea what is going on with their lives through the webcams! So, Shannon, please remember we have to talk on the webcam often so we don't miss too much!! And it's not a good bye but a see you tomorrow!! Love and miss you guys so much!!!! Safe travels and great experiences ahead!!!

Baseball Fun!!!

Having too much fun this week already and it is only Wednesday!!! As most people know the Jacobsen clan are born and raised Cubs fans but Bobby is a die hard Cards fan and when given the opportunity to see them play in the NLDS playoff game against the Phillies this year, he jumped at the opportunity! So he rushed through work on Tuesday and we headed to St. Louis...via jet...

Thanks to Kent and Sara Starr that chartered the flight and were nice enough to let us tag along!!! After about an hour flight we landed in St. Louis and were at our seats just in time for the National Anthem!


The Clydesdales!

Our seats were at the Bank of America box and we got all you can eat buffet and all you can drink beer...which we of course took advantage of!!

Going in to the game, the Cards and Phillies were tied 1-1 for the series so we were really hoping for a win! We got these super cute towels to use as we cheered on the Cards! The game was of course sold out!!

Unfortunately the cards lost 3-2 but we still had a great time, even celebrated our trip to see the cards with bubbly on the plane home! We had a delay on the way home due to President Obama flying out of the airport we were using, so we didn't get home until super late!! Overall it was so worth it and we have so many memories of this great time!



Special thanks to Kent and Sara! We had a great time!!



Razorbacks, Wedding Bells, and Remembering

The three of us packed up and headed to Hot Springs this weekend!! Gracie was so excited that she could hardly handle the three hour car ride to see her grandma and grandpa and aunt Harley!!! She also had a hard time settling in the car due to her daddy's race car driving trying to get to the house in time to see the last episode of Big Brother before the big finale next week! We made it with 30 minutes left of the show...
For those interested...Jordan got sent packing!

The main thing on the agenda for the weekend were plans to attend my cousin Kelli Brown's wedding in Benton, she married her love Ryan Nichols. We got up early on Saturday to go shopping in town and visit the nail salon. We just happened upon a new dress for me for the wedding!!

The bad news is that the wedding happen to occur at the same time as the first Little Rock game for the Hogs which meant no tailgating and missing most of the game on TV...as you can imagine the men were a little disappointed!! After consultation, it was decided that they didn't have to attend and could stay home and watch the game on TV....

Now as the weekend comes to a close, there is remembering, as this is the 10 year anniversary of 9-11-01, the day in history that will never be forgotten, when America came under attack and so many people lost their lives. It is so sad watching again the accounts from the families that have lost loved ones and the emergency crew members that were there that day to rescue people from what they will remember as one of the most difficult days of their careers, the most difficult days of their lives....

Those that lost there lives totaled 2,996. There were 246 people on the four planes, 2,606 in New York City and 125 at the Pentagon. Nearly 2,000 families received no remains of their deceased loved ones. Never Forgotten.
Overall, glad we got to see some happiness to this sad day of rememberance... the Razorbacks beat New Mexico 52-3 and we were able to attend a beautiful wedding and visit with family that we haven't seen in a really long time!

Congratulations Ryan and Kelli Nichols!!

And so it begins....

Curious in starting this blog thing and hoping it turns out the way I am expecting it to...Bob, of course says it is so silly and that I already have too many social media sites to share my life through! I of course told him that was ridiculous and that I only have Facebook and the twitter account was just from curiosity when I figured out it was quite dumb! I have other friends I have noticed on Facebook starting their own blogs and thought it seemed like a great idea for our little family that we are hoping to grow!

I found out a few months ago that my sister Shanon was to be moving to Japan with her husband, Ben, who is in the air force...this was very sad news for me, knowing that I will not be able to see them or my three nieces at all for the next four years, minimum! They will be grown little women by the time they get back to the states! We will all miss great milestones in each others lives...

I also learned the news that my other sister Sharon will be moving to Guam next year with her husband Will, who is also in the air force and their two kids! They live in New Mexico now, so I don't get to see them as often as I should but still the thought of knowing that you can't, that they are no longer a phone call away, makes it so hard!

Bob's sister Crystal, also lives far away in Virginia, with her job in the Navy, while she has a much shorter plane ride, we would still like to know she wasn't missing too much of our lives (I know Bob is horrible about filling people in on news!)

So, I think this is the perfect way to keep in contact with all of our family in Arkansas and abroad without putting all of our business of Facebook that no one cares about but you guys! Hoping everyone will like it and maybe I can get Bobby on the bandwagon and he may consider doing his own post... Hmmm...