Annabelle

I found these darling pictures in a draft I started last summer in what must have been in August after our trip to MO last year.  Awe my beautiful girl, I wish I had written what you were up to then.  I promise to do better now.

Oh how I miss that hair.

Let's try this again.... Trip home to Nana and Papa's

I'm going to try this blogging thing again.  I got a little of track this year but it makes me sad to think of all the little things that I think I will remember but I know I won't if they aren't written down.  SO the new goal is at least on post a month to keep updated. 

We spent the last two weeks on an awesome vacation at home in Missouri with Nana and Papa.  Daddy stayed home to work at the men's and women's US Open so it was just me and the kids.  They were freaking awesome travelers and even awesome sleepers at Nana and Papa's which was a small miracle itself.  It was the first time that I have traveled with the kids and it actually felt like a vacation. I had so much fun just hanging out with the kids and doing all the fun stuff Nana and Papa had planned for us.  We literally got about 1/3 of our summer bucket list crossed off in those two weeks. We drove down with Kaysha and the boys and drove back with Aunt Brittany and Kade who flew out half way through. 

 Hanging out by the fire making s'mores...

 Making hand held pies with jam inside.

On this trip Anna went from floaties...

 To cannonballing in the pool and swimming across.

 Sleeping in a "fort" under the pool table.

 Hanging with the cousins at Aunt Judy's.  We actually managed to see all of Kurt's siblings during this trip somehow.

 Making their own clay pots with Nana.

 We stopped at the St. Louis zoo on the way down since we took two days to travel and the kids were being so awesome.  The St. Louis zoo was free and amazing but we only saw about a fourth of it in the three hours we were there, and sadly the penguin exhibit was closed.  Jackson has been wanting to see penguins for years and hasn't been able to.  So we decided to go the KC Zoo on the day we were picking Britt up from the airport but as we pulled up it began to rain.  Cue crying children.  So we went to crown center downtown to go to LEGOLAND instead.  Only when we got to the parking garages there, we were turned away since we had the cargo carrier on top and told to back out into traffic in the rain and try and find side street parking somewhere.  Cue crying Mom.  But after circling we found a parking spot for one hour parking at the park, about 1/4 mile away and risked the ticket, parked and made a dash across traffic in the rain.  Jackson claims he almost died being nearly hit by a car, but really it ended up turning out ok and LEGOLAND was pretty awesome. I only took pictures with my phone there, and I don't know how to upload those so picture lots of kids and lots of legos. :) they did have a really cool 4-D movie that they played which even had snow in the theater during the movie.  All in all, a successful recovery from the zoo mishap.

 

 

We finally made it to the KC Zoo on an impromptu decision to load up the kids and go for it the next week.  The polar bear was giant and performing for the kids doing flips the whole time.

 Jackson finally got to see his penguins! We saw about 4 different kinds.

 Since we were short on time we took a cool airlift ride across the Africa section of the zoo and got an aerial view of tons of animals.  Very cool. Jackson had the quick thinking to remove Kade's flip flops and hold them before we thought about it. :)

 "Everything is awesome" watching Lego movie in the backyard.  Britt, Nana, and Papa watched in from a screened in tent to avoid the bugs.  We braved it on the blankets.

 Snuggles with Papa (they were playing babies which they did constantly, Papa's a good sport).

 The girlies.

 Snuggles in bed with Nana and Papa the last night before the tears set in over our departure.

 

 

A list of all the other fun stuff we did but is not pictured (there was a lot!) includes:

A rock party for Anna's early birthday (I'll post later for her birthday)

sparklers and fireworks

root beer floats

night time swims

cooking pizza and cookies in a cardboard box

sleeping outside in the tent with Papa for two nights

catching fireflies

going to the movies

staying up until after midnight for the kids (bucket list) and making it 13 minutes shy of the other bucket list item of sleeping until 9

a trip to the Cheesecake factory for the Mommys

 

Thanks to Nana and Papa for giving us such a wonderful summer vacation and thanks to the kiddos for being amazing travelers and for the first time in your little lives, sleeping past seven at Nana and Papa's house.  You made me one happy mommy. :)



It's time to resurface again...

It's one of those, it's been so long you don't know where to start situations again.  I figured if I at least got started it would make it less overwhelming.  Here's Easter pics:

 We had a great pre-easter celebration the week before with our friend's family which was a wonderful kid filled day.  Even though it was rainy and cold it was really fun and they introduced us to a great tradition of cracking the eggs.  Real Easter a week later with baskets and a laid back bar-b-que with Jonsee and family.

Little Lila Boo

Little Lila is finally getting much bigger! I'll write a more detailed post when I haven't just written five others and it's not midnight.  Let's just summarize with things are finally much much better.  I'll write a detailed post on the ups and downs of the last two months and her little hospital stay and month with a yucky tube in her nose.  She is a much happier baby now who is sleeping in her own bassinet, eating a little summer squash, sitting up by herself, and almost crawling.  She has two teeth now and hit sixteen pounds this week!! Hard to believe she was still ten something seven weeks ago!

First day home from the hospital.

Favorite toy.

                                    

Tried to get a pic of the two bottom teeth with no luck, but check our her long eyelashes.

This is what happens the last week when I actually broke eye contact and she could see that I was there but not interacting with her.

This is why I hide in the kitchen when she is in the living room not daring to make eye contact.  She looks like the pictures above until she sees me and realizes she is not being held.  Then, instantly crying and kicking.  Apparently six straight months of being held has it's consequences.  Who knew?

Dance Recital

Anna had her first dance recital on June 9th.  There were a lot of rules and drama surrounding the preperations for the dance recital and I was starting to regret having her do it until the day of the program.  She rocked it up there on stage and completed the whole dance.  When she came running back stage she looked up at me and could hardly contain her excitement.  She said, " Mom, that was so awesome!" She couldn't wait to get back out there for her tumbling number.  Totally worth the money and prep  :) I do think we'll try the more low key gymnastics route this next year and see how that goes.  Her routine was done to the splish splash I was taking a bath music.... I did take some illegal video of the performance but I have no idea how to post that

Seven Years old

Jackson turned seven last month and I feel like he aged about a year in the last two months.  He seems SO seven years old all of the sudden and let me tell you seven feels a lot older than six.  I also feel by the way that it significantly ages me instantly to say that I have a seven year old. We did a split shift family day with Kurt taking the kids up to Monkey Joe's in the morning and I took them out to Panera for dinner and then shopping with Jackson's birthday money.

I just wrote a post last month about Jackson so not a whole lot has changed.  He is an incredibly sweet and sensitive little guy who would do anything for his sisters and loves to make everyone happy.  He loves to read and is zipping through third grade chapter books. I'm so proud of this little guy and happy he is the leader of our little troop.

July Fourth

 For the fourth we got to do something that we have never been able to do since we moved here, which was all spend the day together! It happened to fall on Wednesday which is Kurt's day off and Dustin was able to take the day off.  We all went the the Pinehurst parade where the kids caught candy and ate ice cream. We came home for naps and then went to the Donahue's for a bar-b-que and firework show on their street.

Love that big boy missing a tooth smile.

 I've discovered that I have a over the top ridiculous fear of children and sparklers, I finally had to stop watching because I was annoying even myself with all my comments of reminding everyone to be careful and still.

The ever important cherries while watching fireworks.

It was a great family day and I'm very grateful for all the freedoms that our family enjoys in this beautiful country.  I know we take much for granted every day, and it was good to reflect on the blessings we have.