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!

Halloween 2012

The kids loved dressing up this year. We went to Seth's office and went trick or treating and then went with some friends later. Aidan had a lot of fun giving out candy at our friend's house. He was yelling out the door, "CANDY! We have candy here!" And the great thing was that he gave most of his own candy away so we didn't have very much to take home. :) Nora had said over and over, "I'm da be da pincess" and was thrilled to be "tinkabell." She loves to dress up and could wear a "pincess" dress every day.

So...we moved.

Well, it's been officially 4 weeks since we moved back to Kansas. My what a whirlwind that was! I do have to say that I could go without another cross country move in the next couple of years. However, despite the amount of effort it took to make it all come together, I was actually quite pleased with how much easier it was this time. Not easy...easier.

The kids did great on the trip and we've been settling in as much as we can. Right now we are living with my parents while Seth does some training in SC and we look for a house (we've done very little on that end as of now). The kids love living with their grandparents though and it has been a treat for all of us. We are definitely looking forward to finally unpacking and having our own home though.

I have lots of catching up to do, so I hope to be able to get that done this week while the husband is gone. :)

Soccer!

Aidan started his first season of soccer this fall and it has been so much fun for us. He loves his weekly practices and games. I actually really enjoy watching and can't wait for next season. He isn't the most aggressive player and he tends to like twirling and pretending to be a superhero more than going after the ball, but I think as he gets older he will really enjoy the game more. He is at the perfect age for getting started (4.5) and I am glad we didn't start any earlier. For now, he just loves to run around with the other kids and get to eat snack at the end of the game! :)

The Husband Turns 28

So, a few days ago it was the husband's birthday. He is not super into big celebrations and with the upcoming move I didn't have it in me to plan anything, but we did make a dinosaur cake (at Aidan's request) for him and decorated it with sprinkles and some gel icing. It was way tastier than it looks and I will never enter myself in a cake decorating contest (promise!). Aidan had fun decorating it for Daddy. We had a simple little family celebration eating cake and ice cream outside by the fire. 

And just a few days ago I snapped this shot of father and son in the middle of their pumpkin carving project. We decided not to tell Nora about it this year and it made for a much less messy time overall. Love these two guys!

Final Trip to the Zoo

We've been doing lot of "lasts" around here, or as Aidan says, "until we visit." So, our last trip to the zoo was a couple of weeks ago. We have loved going to the zoo and it is so crazy to think that the first time we went Nora was a tiny baby in the stroller and now she is a big girl walking around and looking at everything (I'm just a wee bit nostalgic lately). 

We got to meet up with some friends from church and it was fun to also get to hang out with them on this special little trip.

 Nora and her friend Bennett from church

 Sitting on the Komodo dragon

And I have no idea what she was doing here, but I think she was giving that statue a good talking-to. :)

Isle of Palms Pt. 3

Okay, final post on the beach trip from 2 months ago...agh! I am so behind on life, but also trying to pack up every last thing we own or get rid of it before we move out of here in just 8 more days.

Love these last few shots: Aidan pushing Nora in the stroller, kicking the soccer ball on the beach, and going for a naked swim (just the kids) in the pool at the beach house after washing off the sand from the beach.