Ella's 2nd Birthday Party

We loved celebrating Ella turning 2. She is such a cutie and my girls adore her. They still call her baby which we all love. Ella is going to pass Katie in height very soon and we wonder if she will still be referred to as baby Ella. We went to Gatti town for pizza and games and then back to my sister's for cake, presents, pinata, and silly string wars. We loved all of it. Ella is a joy to our family and we love her to pieces! Happy Birthday sweet Ella Grace!

Katie's First Day of her Last Year of Preschool

Katie started her last year of preschool. She is a zebra and her teachers are Mrs. Amy and Mrs. Jill. They are so sweet and seem to really love hanging out with 4 year olds twice a week. Katie has a lot of friends in her class from our small group at church and she is very excited about this. She was extremely ready for school to start. It was getting lonely and boring here at home with just mom. She was missing her full time playmate Kylee after she went to school. We are getting back into our school year routine and I really can't believe that my "baby" is 4 1/2 and starts big school in one year. I really plan to enjoy all my time with Miss Katie and have a great year. We love her to pieces and we are excited about her zebra year at school!

Labor Day Weekend

We had a fun Labor Day Weekend with Charley's parents and Gan Gan in town. I was horrible at taking pictures but got two from the weekend. We saw our favorite actress Kayden in Alice in Wonderland. She was the March Hare. She did great and is really talented. My girls love to watch her and then they all came back to our house and put on their own version of Alice. While they all hung out here Charley and I went on a much needed date. We celebrated our anniversary of our first date-16 years ago this week on Sept. 9. So it was fun to have some time together on our own this weekend. I am pretty sure that we had no idea where our life would take us on that first date 16 years ago but I am so thankful for the blessings that have come from our first date and marriage together. It is not perfect or even close to that but I would not change a thing (except how much older I look now than 16 years ago:))

First Day of Second Grade

Welcome to Second Grade!! I can't believe Kylee is in 2nd grade. She is on day 3 and loves it and is doing great. I felt like this year was so easy she just went in and we all smiled took pics and were out the door. No tears, no sadness from anyone. It just felt routine. Kylee got a terrific teacher this year, Mrs. Buce. I have heard she is amazing so I was very excited. She has 5 kids from her 1st grade class with her and a couple from Kindergarten. Her classroom is also in the 5th grade hall which would have been a big deal a year or two ago but this year it seemed normal. They have 8 second grade class and are the biggest grade in the school. All in all we are excited about this year and ready for the routine of school. After I dropped Kylee off I went across the hall to the library to attend the Kindergarten Tears and Cheers Breakfast that I organize. It was the biggest turnout we have ever had and I thought it went great!! I will be attending this breakfast next year as a Kindergarten parent. That is hard to believe and I am going to enjoy the next 365 days with my Katie. We are getting back into our school year routine and I think my favorite part is all the hugs I get from Katie. She also wants to be by my side every second which is something I have to get used to but I enjoy the special talks we have. She is a talker!!

Summer Wrap Up

Just wrapping up our busy, fun, tiring, hilarious, relaxing, and great summer! That sums up most moments of the summer. We tried a couple new things and enjoyed them all. One thing we added to our Make it Monday was having a theme week/or two of showing kindness to others (totally stole this idea from a blog I read). The concept was to show others kindness through random acts and so we made cards that we drove around one day and the girls hunted coke machines, carousels, and newspaper holders and we taped the cards they had made with a dollar or two in them. The loved this and still every time we see a coke machine they want to take something to it. We also did our make it Monday crafts and our slip in slide. We didn't have a tons of free time or down time this summer but when we did we had a couple PJ days and a couple read all kinds of book days and a few play on the WII Mario Kart till we are sick of it kind of days but it was great!

NRH2O

This summer we had the best time going to NRH2O each week. This was our first summer to go and the girls loved it. It is a big water park so I was always with them keeping an eye on them. They loved the lazy river and the beach pool. Katie loved the little slides and Kylee loved the excelerator slide and bigger slides. We met our friends the ORears up there a lot so the girls loved having friends to play with also. I don't know if we will do it again but we had a great summer there.