1st Day of 1st Grade

Ben's 1st day of 1st grade was on August 9th this year, which just happened to also be his 7th birthday!  What a great way to celebrate you birthday.  We made treats to take to school, so I'm sure that helped all of the kiddos adjust to the first day a little easier.  He had a great first day and a very happy birthday.  Mom had a good 1st day too, at the high school.  Hard to believe that I've been "in school" now for 32 years of my life...yikes!

 

Ludingtong 2016 - Take 3

While we were in Ludington, Katie decided she wanted to try a new "do" before heading back to school.  We found a salon in town and scoured Pinterest for some ideas.  Here is what she decided on...it turned out perfect!

 The "before" picture.  Katie had taken a baby step towards this last year, when she cut off about 6-8 inches of her hair.  She's been wanting to go short for a while, but thought it might be best to go in stages.

 No turning back now!

 Starting to take shape

 The finished do!  As you can see by her smile, she was absolutely THRILLED with it!!!

Katie and her support group!

#4

Ben lost his fourth tooth while we were in Michigan!  He was pretty excited to hear the the tooth fairy travels, and very happy when he woke up to see she also travels with money!

3 Year Photos

Yesterday was such a beautiful day.  It was only about 70 degrees, the sun was shining, and there was very little wind.  So, I packed up Kyran, grabbed my camera and headed down to Shades State Park.  I'm doing a photo shoot there this weekend, and I'd never really looked it over for photo spots.  Since I hadn't taken Kyran's 3 year pics yet, it was the perfect opportunity.  He was a good sport and cooperated as well as can be expected from a little one.  We walked some of the trails, played on the playground, and even went down to the Devil's punch bowl to see the waterfall.  He had a good time and I had fun capturing the moment!  Here are just a few of my favorite pictures of this cute little guy!

 Look at that ornery little face.

He was showing me how strong he was...holding himself up by his arms!

Welcome to the World, Baby Rose

We were so excited to hear that Baby Rose (Roslyn) had entered the world on April 29th!  We had been praying for a healthy baby girl, and when we got the call, we were just elated!  Andy was still on antibiotics for tonsillitis, so he stayed home with Kyran while Ben and I went up for a quick visit.  She is absolutely perfect, and we were both in love the moment we saw her!  She's teeny tiny and has the most dainty features...as Mary Poppins would say, she's Practically Perfect in Every Way!

Welcome, Baby Rose!  This place is full of people that love you and can't wait to watch you grow!

When we came in the room, we didn't see Rose in the crib and we didn't see her with Tai.  However, when we walked over to Eric, we found her tucked in his sweatshirt...snug as a bug, in a rug!

Love at first sight!

Look Who's Three!!!

I can't believe that we're already celebrating Kyran's third birthday...yes, you heard me correctly, his THIRD birthday!  Where in the world has the time gone?  Don't get me wrong, sometimes it seems like time goes by soooooooooooooo slowly when you're raising a toddler.  You know, like those times when he's having his fifth tantrum of the morning (yes, morning), or when he won't go to bed without three stories, two vitamins, a sippy cup of water, another story, a trip to the potty, maybe another story...ok, I think you get my point!

But, there are other moments that fly by so quickly.  Those moments when he crawls up in my lap, gives me a hug and says "I love you, mommy", or when he asks me to play with him, or read him just one more story, or when he looks at me with those beautiful, big eyes and gives me that ornery grin that tells me he's up to no good!  Those are the moments that I want to grab hold of and never let go of.  The ones that melt my heart and bring me to tears...being a mommy is hard work but the pay off is amazing!

Yes, Kyran, today you turn three and you're on your way to new and exciting adventures.  But to me, you'll always be my little guy!  Love you bunches and bunches, sweet pea!

A Sweet Afternoon with a Sweet Little Girl

I was so lucky to get to spend an afternoon and evening with this sweet little bundle of joy and take some photos of her!  Her mother and I have taught together for the past 10 years and I am just so thrilled to see her be a mommy to this cutie pie!  She is absolutely pure joy and I can't wait to watch her grow...

Welcome to the world, sweet baby!

A few weeks ago, I was able to host a shower for a dear friend of ours that recently adopted a baby boy.  We had been waiting for the day to come when we would hear the wonderful news that they had been chosen for a baby.  When it happened, we were just thrilled!  He is the most precious little boy and so incredibly sweet.  It was fun to invite friends over and celebrate the new mommy!

Tiffy turns 7!!!

No Christmas break is ever complete without a birthday party for one of our favorite little girls.  She's not so little anymore though...she's 7!  Wow, where has the time gone.  This girl is all spunk but has the sweetest heart.  When I was kidding around with her, I told her I didn't get her a present.  She just smiled and said "that's ok, I don't need any presents'...so sweet!  Love this girl to pieces and love that we get to take a break from all the crazy hub-bub that comes with Christmas break, to stop and celebrate her!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

It's the most wonderful time of the year, and I'm trying to enjoy every single minute of it! 

We put the decorations up after Thanksgiving, I've been wrapping presents like crazy, the boys have been watching Christmas movies each night, and our famous little elf "Mickey" has returned once again to make sure the boys are being good!  I'm sure Santa is getting quite an ear full from him each night, ha ha! 

I need to take some more pictures of the house, because the boys were so proud to help me decorate it.  Ben was a huge help this year with the tree.  He hung almost all of the ornaments on the lower half.  Kyran wasn't as into it when we were putting it up, but as you can see from this picture, he's had fun looking for different ornaments and trying to find the hidden pickle!

Earlier in November our whole family got together to take family pictures.  I think they turned out great and I had a lot of fun trying to figure out which ones to use on the Christmas card.  These two were my favorites.  I love the sunshine in them and how something has obviously caught Kyran's eye...it just captures his little personality perfectly, and Ben and his little grin and dimples melt my heart.  I count my blessings often, but when I see a photo of us, it just brings it all into perspective.  Family is everything and I'm so blessed to have Andy and these little boys in my life.  So lucky!

 

I love this last picture!  I can't remember the last time we've had a "professional" picture of all of us.  We're a wild and crazy bunch, for sure.  We can be fighting one minute and hugging the next, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  Those two people on the tractor sure laid a good foundation.  They gave us the love and support that we needed but let us make our own mistakes.  They taught us that actions come with consequences, and they encouraged us to be thinkers, do-ers, and givers.  Above all, they taught us to stand on our own two feet, treat others as we want to be treated, and make a difference, no matter how big or small it may be.  My family...just one more blessing that I count each day!

West Baden

Remember how I told you Andy and I escaped for a weekend without the kiddos.  Well, we ended up going to West Baden.  We had gone several years ago, for my Grandpa's 80th birthday, but we didn't stay in the resort.  This time, we decided to splurge and treat ourselves for our anniversary and also meet up with friends to celebrate Chad's birthday.

West Baden definitely did NOT disappoint.  It was a beautiful resort and the weather was gorgeous.  After we dropped the kids off at my sister's, we made our way down to French Lick.  We used Trip Advisor and found a little sandwich joint in Martinsville that had the absolute best tenderloin sandwich I have ever had!  After a nice drive through the country, we checked in, took a walk around the hotel, and then Andy took a nap while I hit the gym.  We met up with our friends later that night and then enjoyed dinner and the casino.

The next day was so pretty, so we ate a late breakfast, walked the grounds, explored the French Lick Resort, and then capped off the trip with a surrey ride.  I don't think I have EVER laughed so hard.  Those things are SO deceiving...they look much, much easier to ride than they actually are!  You rent them for an hour at a time, but I think we had ours returned within the first 20 minutes, ha ha!  We were laughing so hard that we could hardly pedal...and, if we weren't laughing, the people watching us were laughing.  To say it was hysterical would be an understatement!  After that, we had worked up an appetite, so we ate dinner and then it was time to head back home to get the boys.  It was a short trip but it was so fun and definitely made some memories that we will never forget!

 The resort

Inside the atrium!

 These are from the front porch.  I can only imagine what this looks like in the spring and summer!

 We rode the trolley over to the French Lick Resort, about a mile away.

 Here's our sweet ride, lol!  Andy took this pic...we didn't think to have someone else take it.

These two pictures sum up the surrey ride pretty well.  We figured out (after we were done) that the 2 seater surreys were MUCH easier to pedal, but you can see that we were still laughing hysterically, even on these!  I think I figured out why it was so hard to pedal...I'm not sure one can laugh and pedal at the same time!!!