Summer Recap

Our summer ended up being much busier than I had originally expected. We had a few weeks at the beginning where it felt like we were moving from one thing to another with not a lot of breathing room in between.

We attended (and volunteered) at our church's VBS,

during which our living room downstairs flooded,

we went to Lawrence to visit my parents,

we read a lot,

Enna had Roseola,

the kids had swimming lessons for 2 weeks straight,

we went to a skate party,

hung out at the park,

climbed some awesome trees,

played a lot of board games,

swam a lot (usually while Enna napped),

dressed up like cows,

practiced sharing our toys,

worked on self-feeding,

went to Deanna Rose,

celebrated Enna's first birthday,

and went to Silver Dollar City.

It was a fun summer, but I'm glad that we are getting back in the swing of things with school. I am craving a good routine and schedule for our family (still working on that one).

Beautiful Winter Day

The other day it was gorgeous and sunny and we went out to spend some time outside while we could. I am not a fan of winter so every time it gets a little bit above freezing, we definitely take advantage. I couldn't help taking pics of Enna in the stroller. She is so cute right now and was my only subject that wasn't running, jumping around, or refusing to look at the camera!

I took her on the swing and she loved it. It was so wonderful to see the joy in her face.

I can't get over the thumb sucking cuteness! She was tired and started sucking on her thumb, but when I snapped the pictured she looked at me with such a disgruntled expression!

 The best picture I got of Nora. She was running around in her normal over-accessorized attire. I love her sense of style because it is so crazy and unique.

Christmas Memories

A few days before Christmas we made some sugar cookies. The kids always love helping me with this project and it always proves to be a big mess. This year was actually the easiest time I've had with getting the dough to cooperate. I found a great recipe on line, tweaked it a little to my preferences and it was perfect and easy. Nora loved talking to each cookie and arranging them while Aidan was my more "hands on" helper with rolling and cutting them out.

 Terrible hideous picture I know, but we had a Christmas party with our small group from church and wore "ugly" sweaters... (in Seth's case an ugly too small vest). It was a fun time with a great group of people we love and have had a great time getting to know this past year. We meet every week for a meal, fellowship, and study (with all our kids there too!). It's a large crowd and so much fun. We were the only 4 that dressed up that night, so we had to take a picture!

Our actual Christmas Day was spent with Seth's family. I was feeling pretty crummy coming down with some sort of terrible cold and sinus thing so I took few pictures, but we had a good low key day.

This sweet face gets me every time! 

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving day was beautiful! We went out in the morning and walked around Lake Lenexa. It was awesome and such a great start to the day.

LOVE this girl. She is such a blessing and so sweet!

Trying to take a pic together, but she wouldn't quite jumping up and down and playing the harmonica.:)

The best shot of the 3 of us! Aidan is the only one looking at the camera this time and such a sweetie.

Marching along the wall and Nora playing the harmonica as she goes.

A little bit of stomping through leaves

The architecture of the dam is pretty impressive!

Kansas Trip : Summer 2012

We drove to Kansas June 29th....a whole long 18 hours straight in the car. We left around 6:30am and got in close to midnight. It was a LONG day. I did a lot of prep before this trip so that I would have lots of activities for the kids and also good organization. I will share all of that in another post though.

We arrived late that night and the kids went to sleep around 12, only to wake up at 6am. We couldn't believe it! They were excited to be there, but 6 hours wasn't going to cut it for too long. :)

We spent the first 8 days with Seth's family and had a really nice time. I wish I had taken more pictures, but we spent a lot of time at the pool (it was sooo hot!) and I didn't feel like taking it with us most days. The kids had a blast swimming and being with family.

The husband and I got to go on a few dates while we were there. I made him take some pictures of me the night we went out for Indian food. He bought me this dress for my birthday and I hven't had much of chance to wear it, but I love it!

We tried to beat the heat by doing a few things indoors with the kids too! We went to see a free movie at the Legends one morning and then checked out the Johnson County Museum. They have a free children's exhibit and it was actually really cool. They spent a long time at everything and I couldn't believe that I had never really heard much about it before. 

Nora started feeling sick towards the end of the week and I took her to the doctor where they told me she probably was just dealing with allergies. The very next day (our last day with Seth's family) she woke up from her nap crying hard and saying, "ear hurt." Sure enough, she had an ear infection and the start of pink eye. We started treatment for it right away and thankfully she felt better within a short time and none of us lost much sleep over it.

to be continued...