Cousins!

Baby Don 4 months, Abigail 22 months, Griffin 2 1/2 years, Sophia 5 years

September

We spent Labor Day weekend with my best friend, Sandy and her family at the beach!  It was a lot of fun and the weather was gorgeous!  The kids all play so nice together.   Dylan is almost 14 and Evan is 8.

The next weekend was Don and Deniece's 40th Anniversary.  We all headed out to the lake house (Grandpa Dick's) for a nice family dinner and celebration.  We had a great dinner and a great time.  It was soooo hot that day!

Aunt Kim - sometimes referred to as the baby whisperer.  Not that baby Don needed any special techniques to fall asleep - he's a pretty go-with-the-flow baby.  But my babies always had a hard time going to sleep during family functions and Kim was the one to have the patience to get them to sleep.  Love it!

Look at this beautiful little peanut!  He's so adorable!

Another fun-filled month.  Many more to come, I'm sure!

Goodbye Summer 2011

We all know it - summer came and went in a flash. But we had lots of fun anyway and took advantage of every drop of sunshine this year. As I sit here now feeling cozy in a robe and woolly socks drinking my coffee and looking out the window at the rain storm - I figured I better get back to blogging a little more often. And back to cooking dinner a little more often. And back to getting the kids to bed on time a little more often... Sometimes you just are so tired after a long summer day of play, that you just crash right in the middle of the living room...

We had a few days later in August that we were able to have Carson for the whole day! The kids love having a playmate. Carson is a sweet little boy and him and Griffin are great buddies!


Kyle's friend, Shawn, came to visit with his little girl Kennedy. She's about 7 or 8 months younger than Griffin. She is a rough and tumble little gal with an amazing personality. So smart and so funny!

We were also so glad to be able to hang out with Marisa and baby Don a lot during her summer off as a school teacher. Don is such a mellow little guy with the cutest smiles. He is mesmerized by Sophia and Griffin, thankfully not scared or overwhelmed.

We had a handful of days we spent playing at Kyle's Uncle Monty's house. They have a pool, and lots of blacktop to ride bikes, and a little 4-wheeler Griffin loved! Aunt Beth always makes it so nice for us to visit there and is so sweet to take such great care of our little family.

All in all, it was a great summer! It feels good to be into fall, though. We are back on routine and the house seems a little more in order. Sophia is loving kindergarten and Griffin is enjoying his special time with mom. We've been working on his colors and shapes and he's almost got them down. He's pretty good at mimicking counting and knows a few letters. Sophia has learned a handful of "sight words" at school and says her favorite part of the day is riding the bus. She's still taking her weekly dance class and enjoying it.

Kyle has been working long, long hours. We had some major house repairs we had to get done before the rain came. Pretty expensive at this point (don't ever let MC Construction build a home for you!!!). So he's been working a lot to cover those expenses - which means longer days for mom, too! I've been keeping very busy with my new little cake business - Party Cakes by Amy. It's a lot of fun, but also a lot of work with kids to referee and take care of while I'm baking, decorating, or cleaning up. So I've had a lot of nights that it's just easier to stay up late to get everything done while the kids and Kyle are sleeping. I am really enjoying it, though, and have a quite a few loyal customers at this point.

I'm hoping to start blogging more frequently, now that we're home more often. Stay tuned for our September update coming later this week!!

Goodbye to Grandpa Dick's Tractor

All loaded up and ready to go to a new home... An older gentleman just a few miles down the road from us was excited to buy this old tractor. Kyle is pictured below (Sophia snapped the pic) taking one last ride.