Thankful Friday

I'm thankful for a rainy morning and a long weekend ahead with not many plans.  I can't wait to relax and spent lots of time with my people.

I am thankful for the queso my mom made for Kylee.  It totally brightened her day! Also thankful for all the meals my mom has made and delivered for the rest of us too!

I'm thankful for Kylee's first official babysitting job.  She was so excited and proud!

I'm thankful that a few initial tests are coming back negative as we try to figure out what's going on with all the headaches I've been getting.

I'm thankful to be starting to move forward in getting our house back after it flooded this weekend due to an ice maker malfunction.  It's going to be a long road ahead though.

I'm thankful for my village.  There is so much going on in our world right now I'm just not sure how I would get through it all without my family and friends.

Happy weekend, all.

Weekend Wrap-Up

We had such a fun weekend celebrating Kyle and Julia! So fun to get to be a part of their special day and we are thrilled to officially welcome Julia to the family! Here are some pictures of the amazing weekend!


Rehearsal was a super fun night!

Usher buddies.  

Kent did a great job speaking that night!

After the kids were done practicing, my parents took them home for the night.  Kylee and Kael went to the Jag/Hawk football game while my mom stayed home with Kase.

The next morning was a whirlwind getting everyone packed up and ready for a big weekend.  Kent and Kael went to Kyle's house to hang with the guys while Kase, Kylee and I went to the hotel to check in and get ready there.

One of Julia's friends did Kylees' hair- it was so pretty!

We had fun hanging out with Kaity and Kellen a lot that morning and leading right up to the wedding.

My girl.

Looking so grown up it takes my breath away.

This one did great at his Ring Security job!

You guys the kids were so, SO good.  The day was absolutely gorgeous and fun but also pretty hot and the kids were on their best behavior all day long. I was really proud of my crew.

Kylee met the owner of a triathlon club at the reception and they had fun chatting about split times.

Congratulations, Kyle and Julia! We love you!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful that the kids are off to what I know is going to be a great day at school! 

8th grade for Kael this year! A new school- Northview! 

5th grade for Kylee- last year of elementary! She has Mr. Lynam.

First grade for Kase! He has a new teacher- Mrs. Ruppert

I'm thankful for our neighborhood gang!

I'm also thankful to have the ball rolling on trying to get some answers about the headaches I've been having for awhile.  I went in this morning and plan to have a quick procedure Monday to hopefully get to the bottom of it.

Hope you're all having a wonderful first day back!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Still summering hard around here, guys.  

Gotta fit ALL the fun into our last week of summer! 

We hit Adventureland one more time, ok, actually two more times (Thursday and Friday) with some of our favorite Adventurelanding buddies. One of the days Kael and Kylee went early with friends and Kase and I met them there.  The following day, Kylee stayed on longer with friends.  Love that we have such a great group of friends to share rides and fun with!

Is there such a thing as too much Adventureland? I think not.  

Kylee had a friend sleepover and they did makeovers and got Starbucks.  Kylee is skipping the tween years I think and going straight to being an actual teenager.  Please note her high, crimped, side ponytail with a scrunchie. I can't believe all these things are back in style.  Also she is so happy (obsessed, maybe?) with her "crop top" sweatshirt. She wears it every day.

Meanwhile, this one is "modding" (is that a word? I think he means to say "modifying"- I'm not really up on my Nerf gun lingo...) with duct tape.

There have been many epic Nerf battles in my backyard that often leave my patio furniture rearranged, Nerf bullets scattered through the landscape and flowers occasionally trampled.  But the boys are so happy playing together, it entertains them (ages 4-14) for hours on end so I try to act like I'm super chill about the chaos.  #SummerLaura

And occasionally the battles end with the ice cream truck driving by which makes everyone happy!

Kael has been keeping super busy with football camp and in his downtime has started playing Fortnite a little bit. I know we're super late to the party as all of his friends have been playing it for like a year, but he's having fun with it now!

Friday morning we took Kase Mutton Bustin'! My dad and I had been texting back and forth about going and finally that morning we decided just to give it a shot.  I had never been before and wasn't even sure Kase would get a spot as all the preregistration spots were full.  We lucked out though and got him on the list! 

We had a fun time exploring the fair while we waited for Mutton Bustin' to start.

For those of you not familiar, Mutton Bustin' is basically riding on the back of a sheep and trying to hold on as long as possible.  Like a rodeo for kids, kind of.

Kase also got interviewed! We saw in the next night on IPTV and he was so excited to see himself on TV.

I'm not sure he really knew what to expect at this point.  We had shown him a few videos but that's all the prep we did!

Ready to rock and roll!

All mounted up- looking a little nervous!

But he did great! So many of the kids fell off and immediately started crying, or even some fell off before barely getting out of the chute.  Kase lasted a couple seconds and had a clean fall so I considered that a total win!

Friday night Kase had a Back To School movie and pizza party at a friends' house.  He was so happy to be included. 

Saturday morning Kylee and I rode bikes to watch the Jag volleyball team scrimmage.  They are awesome this year and so fun to watch!

We did a lot of work around the house- trimming bushes and such, then Keith and Cindy stopped by.  On a whim, we decided to try an ice cream place downtown that I had heard about but it wasn't anyone's favorite! We had fun walking around the sculpture park while we were down there, though.

That night Kylee had a movie party at a friends house (they watched The Miracle Season- have you seen it? So sad!) Meanwhile, the boys rented a movie to watch together while Kent and I had date night in.  We cooked dinner together then ate on the patio.  We wrapped up our evening with a fire!

Sunday we walked to church, then after lunch Kent took Kael and Kylee to Trail Point. Later Kase and I met up with them and the kids all swam.  We came back home for some more backyard baseball and football and played at the park.  Later Kael had a buddy spend the night.  It was a great weekend!