Our last day in El Paso ...

Grandpa Jones and I shared some special time with Matthew again today while Ems and Chris were at school. We colored. We built huge towers with megablocks. We enjoyed a nice lunch together. We played more games of Memory. I think all of us enjoyed every little minute of our time together.

Chris and Emma came home from school and with having to do homework with Emma and then get ready for her ballet class, the afternoon flew by too quickly. I was so happy to be able to see Emma dressed up in her ballet practice outfit, meet her instructor(s) and peek through the window of her class as she worked out. Tonight, all of the little girls in her class were trying on their beautiful ballet costumes for the Christmas pageant of the Nutcracker. Emma was so excited to show hers to Diana and Grandpa and and I. I took a few quick shots of her running in the hallway with her pretty yellow ballerina dress, but all of them blurred! I'm hoping Diana's pictures turned out!

We had fun eating dinner at Wendy's and then returned home to have the children get cleaned up for bed. We did a little more art work together, and then Emma and I did her reading homework together. She has a lot of reading to do every night for a first grader. I don't remember having it this rough when I was her age! We got all ready for bed, did her reading, and then cuddled for awhile and talked about how sad we were that this was our last day together.

We helped tuck everyone in ... a few times actually ... lots of hugs and kisses, prayer, some laughter ... but mostly a lot of sad little faces. Sad doesn't begin to describe my heart at this moment. It doesn't get any easier, no matter how many times we come to Texas or the grandchildren come home to us ... I guess that's just the way it is. I'll try to add in our pictures in the next few days so that you can see these beautiful little ones. Jesse should return home to his family in the next 3-4 weeks ~ knowing that helps me feel a tiny bit better.