Ordinary days...

It's hard to imagine fall has officially arrived. We decorated the house for Halloween today with a few fake cobwebs (I had to dust the real ones before putting up the old..no lie), a big, fat, black spider, and some other goodies. I'm looking forward to the big girls coming home from school. They will get a kick out of the added decor. Hidden away in the Halloween tub is our rather impressive pile of Halloween books. I love stashing away seasonal books. It makes the holidays that much more exciting when I get to read new material.


A couple of weeks ago Lindsay and I took CJ to Adventureland. She wanted to badly to ride ALL of the spinning rides. Lindsay and I had zero interest in spinning so she had to do them herself. Lindsay and I waited on the other side of the fence ready to pounce if the employee didn't check CJ's seat belt. And while she looks grumpy here the picture doesn't do justice for her true feelings because she had a blast...as did Lindsay and I. For the record, I did ride lots of roller coasters with CJ. Roller coasters are more my style. Spinning is definitely not.


A photo of the two of us at Mike and Hope's wedding. 
What a great day and I must say we look pretty darn cute.


These pictures are not in any sort of chronological order but that's okay with me because I'm finally updating my blog.

Matt and I went camping a few weeks ago at Pikes Peak...just the two of us. Say what?
We have never camped before, nor started a fire. But we did both of those things and had a fantastic time.
We both really enjoyed hiking and exploring the park. Magellan has got nothing on us.


Natalie has started three year old preschool and Maddie adores the alone time with me.
She is my shadow.


I will never, ever, ever tire of this photo. 


Adventureland's Raging River got us good.


CJ turned seven! How is that even possible. Here are seven reasons why I love that curly hair sweetie...
1. She has a kind heart.
2. She is a super goofball.
3. CJ is very smart.
4. CJ is so sweet to Maddie. She will be a great babysitter and mom some day.
5. She is really fun to be around.
6. CJ gives great hugs.
7. She has the most boingy curls and sparkly eyes. She lights up a room like a ray of sunshine.


Natalie's first year of Vacation Bible School. She is clearly very moved by the music.


Birthday cake for a 7 year old partially made by Kate who unfortunately has her eyes closed.
(Maddie was taking a nap.)


A rare family photo.


Four sisters. Friends for life.


A goofball in a swimming pool.


Since the big girls are in school, Natalie and Maddie spend a lot of time together. They are quickly becoming very good buds.


Still seven but here she is blowing out candles on yet another cake.
I think she was spoiled with parties this year.


Ready to make this a great school year!
4th, 1st, and three year old preschool


A view from camping at Pike's Peak. I told you there was no order to my pics.


During a road trip to MN we made pit stop in Clear Lake. A storm had just rolled through so the air temp was chilly but the water felt great.


She is not allowed to wear a shirt when eating ice cream. Ha!


So that road trip I mentioned a couple pictures ago...the girls and I drove up to watch Matt and the Cedar Valley CourtKings in the Midwest Basketball League play-offs. CourtKings came home with the title. Champs!





CJ was way up there by herself. I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous.



I finally let them have a lemonade stand. They pulled in roughly $24.
It was unbelievably hot that day. Where's my cut, girls?!?!


Visiting Lindsay and Griffin.


And more VBS love.



I have a good feeling. Fall is going to be pretty rad. But that's easy to say when two kids are in school, the other two are sleeping, and I'm sitting here by myself. The pace is easier when there aren't lots of littles around. Then again, they sure do bring the excitement!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

October things...

Image
It has not been the easiest October on record. Kate had a couple of hospital visits to Rochester but she is somewhat better at the moment. She continues with chemotherapy and has not been back to school for quite some time but she is doing her best to set aside time for online school work between naps, loving on cats, and hanging out with her family. I was able to get the girls to visit their great grandma in western Iowa a few weeks back. Here's Claudia shortly after arriving at great grandma's house. She is very into jewelry and lots of it. Grandma had several questions for her about the number of bracelets and thankfully Claudia loves talking about them. Many she has made, some were gifted to her...it's a lovely hodgepodge of middle school girl goodies. Clearly the girls and I were blessed with height genes from relatives not named great grandma. We spent time relaxing, taking four wheeler rides, eating candy and we also received a visit from my aunt and uncle. Aunt Deb ...
Read more

March Madness 2024...

Let's talk brackets. I love a good competition. I love to win. But when I don't win I can typically move on quite quickly from a loss (unless we are specifically talking about Big Six Swim Offs, but I digress.) We have a family group on ESPN for the men's NCAA basketball tournament and it's "high stakes" with no entry fee, a chocolate rabbit for the winner and most importantly bragging rights. While I've never won, nor have I ever been close to winning, I thought I'd share my rationale for my picks through the first round of play. You should not follow this advice but if you so choose to, don't blame me when you too lose out to a cat with it's own bracket. East Region UConn 1 v Stetson 16: This is a silly way to start because it's a 16 v a 1 seed and clearly we know the very likely outcome of this game. But if I could, I'd choose Stetson cologne over a Huskie dog because Huskies kind of scare me a little. Regardless I am going with the ...
Read more

The dark day of June 27th...

 June 12, 2023 We typically don't share a lot of updates about Kate's health, primarily because she wants to remain "a normal teenager." However, we still get asked how Kate is doing and I started thinking maybe it's okay to share updates now and again. Most people care about her and our family, some others could maybe be labeled as "tragedy junkies," but I'm going to operate under the assumption that most people have the best of intentions.  Today is June 12th and we are quickly approaching the dreaded dark day of June 27th. Have you watched, "Gilmore Girls?" It's a witty, comforting television show from the early 2000's. In it one of the main characters has what is dubbed, "a dark day." This is a day the character dreads each year and in response he goes into hiding from the world with no communication. Well for Kate, and the rest of us to some degree, the dark day of the year is June 27th and that date is closing in on ...
Read more