November was fatter than a stuffed turkey.

(SIGH)
I know in the course of events this last month I have been pretty lax in my family blogging updates! Sorry! I'll own up to the fact that I do life better in short bursts of information and in the moment! I apologize for the lack of information here as I have felt so far behind that I get overwhelmed trying to update anything that I give up before I even get here!
Let's see...Since the end of October, life has clipped along at a swift pace!
SCHOOL-
The boys and I delved full speed ahead into homeschool as I realized I have MUCH to learn about what I'm doing and how each of them learns SOOO differently. Wyatt is reading everything these days and I'm encouraged that I got to play a small role in that magical miracle! Seriously watching the gears shift and the ideas click inside a small boys brain is amazing. Wyatt is smart as a whip. I'm thankful for God's grace in that since I have felt as though I'm stumbling along in my first attempt to be his academic teacher. Wyatt is also loving gymnastics, increasing his balance, strength and agility even more! Look out Cirque du Soliel!

The 3 Muskateers, just messing around.

Ah, and then there's Vrai. Vrai is a creative and right brained wonder. His mind is full of color, form and pareidolia images. He understands life in creativity and relationship. I've tried some fun ways to get him to remember his letters and numbers. He's drawn all his letters in a flat pan of dry rice. He's made pictures out of each individual letter or number. He's doing better at recognition but still tends to draw sting rays all over any worksheet I have for him :). Vrai is also in gymnastics but prefers to make friends, and enjoy his imagination while he plays on the gym equipment.
Hazel's favorite part of any school day is holding the flag and pretending to say the Pledge of Allegiance and doing our ABC Bible verses. She's also the singer of the fam and yells loudly at Wyatt and Vrai if they don't sing along with her song ideas. She's starting to potty train herself (hallelujah!) and is a busy busy little toddler, chatting it up with anyone who will listen!
WORK-
Tim took a work trip to Ft.Collins at the beginning of November for about 10 days. If none of you heard from me during that time, there was a reason :). Tim's first contract with the hospital here in FL ended the first weekend of November after which he took off to complete his relief hours in Colorado at PVH. He had a great time getting to be in Fort Collins and see a few friends in his free time. Thank you to all who hosted him for meals and the Jacobson's for being a great bed and breakfast! We started our 2nd three month long contract with the hospital here in Deland, FL after Tim got back from CO. We are starting to look at our options for the next assignment. Maybe New Hampshire (we definitely want to be up there sometime soon!), maybe somewhere else until NH warms up a bit :) I think we've gotten a bit soft since living in these FL temperatures!

I have been hard at work figuring out networking here in a new city for my two businesses. Strictly business-wise, it has been a new challenge to start afresh and engaged my mind in a new way to figure out what exactly I want to grow and focus on. For my Mary Kay business, I've joined a networking group of other direct sales women to help each other grow and learn. It's been fun and a cool way to branch out. I've wanted to maintain personal integrity and purpose with the personal stylist/image consultant business that I've started and I'm honing in on my main goals. I want to work with women to uncover their own authentic beauty and style for their encouragement and helping them better bear the image of beauty they were created to portray. And lastly to have confidence, fun and ease in getting ready! You can check out my personal blog at The Closeteer or my facebook page to get an idea! Like any client based business, it's the building stage that is hardest and takes the most patience. So here I am. :) I certainly know that I love doing it and that I believe I was made to encourage others, so I press on! If you're the praying type, you could pray that I would work diligently on what I know to do, balance it with my first job as a wife and mom, and let God show me what He has for me in this endeavor!

HOME-

Mom's birthday breakfast in bed!

Mom's great displeasure at my brothers' Movember Mustaches.

Mom's another year more awesome!

In November, home schedules kinda flew out the window with Tim gone the first half, then ALL of the Thompson side of the family coming to visit for the week of Thanksgiving! We had SO much fun celebrating Thanksgiving and my mom's birthday with the whole fam! Per my mom's request, we put on a "Talent Show" in her honor. Talent is putting it loosely. :) The last of my dear siblings and neices and in-laws left this last Wednesday. We are still reeling from taking in that much fun and busyness with 15+ people under one roof. Perfect example; as I write this, I am half in my pj's and just ate my fourth meal of leftovers this weekend. I don't think I want to eat or cook for another week.

My sweet Grannymaw-Blanch Branch!

As a family we have been checking out a church with some of our new friends here (brother and in-laws of some of our dear friends in Ft.Collins) called Mosaic. We've enjoyed the teaching, worship and sense of community here but are still very much in the beginning stages of getting our feet wet.
We dearly miss our church home in Colorado but see God providing for us while we are miles and miles away!

(SIGH)
One last thing! If you are sending Christmas cards to us, we'd love to get it here! You can mail it to:
4363 Tidewater Dr.
Orlando, FL 32812

We miss you. Please know you are on our minds more than we can ever express and we love you.

Vrai's own invention-he's a stuffed turkey!

Picnic fun with the deluge of family!

The WHOLE fam, actually smiling even!

CONNECTION-
We'd love to hear from you! You'll find us on social media connecting with family and friends who are scattered all over the world, so, I sometimes forget to compile news of the fam here! You can also email us anytime or call us on our cell #'s (they're the same as before!)

Holidays are a slight bit different here...

We've been so busy with Fall, the holiday season has completely snuck up on me. I haven't even bought one Christmas present, which for me, is totally out of character. Since this is one of many firsts for me, it only follows that the holidays would just be...different.
With Halloween rapidly approaching, I find myself quite stunned to realize that my kids will actually get to wear their costumes WITHOUT coats! What?!?
While this is exciting news to any kid who's spent the majority of their young life dressing in their favorite costume only to be bundled up and covered over to go anywhere, it's weird! I'm glad, but it's weird!
 When I think about Halloween, I think about Thanksgiving, which makes me think about Christmas...my brain just jumped holidays faster than the seasonal section at Kroger! So, I was looking at my favorite site for holiday cards (I know, I'm a photo-card geek) I was putting together a little "inspiration board" for our first Florida Christmas. This is funny. People put flamingos in Santa hats on their lawns ya'll. Funny.

So, in the spirit of good fun and trying to go with it, this is what my board looked like:
Our First Florida Christmas!

My Designs board by Amber. See more Minted.com

I'm looking forward to this week, because of all the mommy-tax candy I'm going to eat and because it will actually hit 65 degrees! That's the coldest it's been the entire time! I'm so giddy, I might bust out my Snuggie!

Geeeesh, has it been that long?

Well, I am tryin' my darndest to do my thang style-wise and if it's not one thing it's another...a girl's got some balls to juggle, ya know!
So, in my attempt to balance, I am back. We are back. We never actually left.

We've been right here. Plugging away at having a life :)
The BIG news tonight is that we are RE-signing here for another 3 months! This will bring us all the way to the end of January/early February. I'm excited to have a familiar home for another few months! This has been a great starting point for our adventure. It's like training wheels. We have family and a few friends so the transition blow has been softened, though not absent.
The homesick blows have hit hard in the last week for me (Amber). You don't realize how important time/experience/history is with people. I am getting more used to feeling like a stranger and the odd woman out. It's not pleasant, but it's just where we are right now. I'm getting over my stage fright of bothering people and just jumping right in where I can. The social waters are chilly and unfamiliar, but I'm learning to swim all over again.
Home has been a very current theme for us lately. Here's a few of our car ride faves as of late:

Well, that's all for now. Talk soon? We really miss you.