8.18.2014

Kinder

Declan started Kindergarten last week much to my dismay. Okay, I kid, but it's still hard to send him off to school. He's my sweet little boy. Too little to be following strict rules and schedules from 9am to 3:38pm. What happened to half day kinder? I digress.. 
 Declan has an AMAZING teacher this year. I did all I could to influence any powers-that-be to get Mrs. D. She has an adopted daughter too. Love her.
 Bye sweets! Hopefully we have taught you to be kind and loving to 
your peersand respectful to your teacher.


8.13.2014

VBS

Declan loved VBS this year. It was a Spy theme. Here he is rocking the final concert.
Hanging out with cousin Evie at the carnival afterwards.

Catching Up


Life has been like whoa. Yes whoa. We are busy, my work is busy, my boys are busy. Even with the constant go, our summer has been fabulous.

We found this gator on a consignment site. Best money ever spent. The boys have beat it to death. Here the little blondies wanted to race me home.
My yearbook teacher in high school was more of a friend than a teacher. When I started getting interested in Mark I found out she babysat him and her parents still live across the street. Small world! Anita (I call her Annie Nannie) wanted to be married and have a family like, yesterday. Over all these years she's always held strong to the fact that God has plans for who her future husband will be and she was still waiting to see that play out. Well, God delivered big time and Ronnie and Anita's wedding was one of the most genuine and moving weddings I've ever witnessed. So happy for them.
The night of Anita's wedding we had a date night! They are few and far between but I'm so grateful we get to sneak away from time to time. We met our good friends on the patio of a new restaurant. We shared yummy good and drinks and plenty of laughs.
A girls night is good for the soul and a group of us met up at Sebastian's Table and it was such an awesome time. We laughed hard and dripped sweat (the air wasn't working) and made memories that we'll carry with us and refer to for years.
Right before we got the boys, we were enrolled with a new adoption agency in town and finished with the training and part of our home study. We've since dropped out but kept in touch with the 4 other couples we spent several days with in Omaha training to became approved adoptive families. The crew came over and we drank and played yard games while the kiddos ran around. It was a super late night. I realized I'm old and uncool because I can't handle going to bed at 1am and drinking more than 2 drinks a night. Ha! Serious fun though! Haven't laughed that hard in a long time. 
Our 3 year old is seriously the most strong willed little kid I know. Each morning he rises way before we do and usually "reads" and plays not-so-quietly. This day he took off his poop diaper all by himself and smeared Desityn all over his body. Good times. #not
Oh the pool, how I'll miss thee. We spent many evenings and days swimming this pool. Such a fun summer and our favorite activity kept us all sane and happy. Sniff, sniff. 
I started training for a half marathon! Then, 3 weeks later, learned from my physical therapist that I have a condition where my kneecaps turn outward and I should never, ever run unless I want total knees when I'm 50. No thank you. Got my bike tuned that day and I've never looked back. I'm a biker now. ;)
This picture cracks me up. We had a summer celebration at a local pool with our adoption agency. We started to head home and I looked back to pull out and Declan was like this. Who's in charge of this kid?!


4th of July and a Celebration

We love hosting the 4th of July! It will forever be extra special because my youngest son's birthday is the 7th. So a 4th party and birthday party were in order! We started the day off with a parade through our neighborhood. The kids loved it and we enjoyed walking the streets with neighbors and chatting. This is the neighborhood I always dreamed of being a part of.
Our family joined us later in the afternoon and we had so much fun.