Hello?!?...... Is this Mic on?

Ok, so I've taken a long sabbatical from blogging. I guess I should have told all (three) of you that I was going to do this. It wasn't totally planned, but as our busy fun fall went along I just didn't feel like sitting down and blogging. Then along came the Christmas season and same thing, enjoying my family time far too much to be at the computer alot. I would say that I've kept in touch with some of you through facebook, but I think its been months since I posted new pictures on there as well. The last few months have been full of all kinds of fun stuff - honestly, I love fall and Christmas, but this year seemed even better. I'm going to post some pictures, but not alot because I only have 30 minutes to do this before I have to pick up Isabella from school. This fall, we loved the weather, Kenny put up a new swing for the girls, so hours upon hours were spent swinging -- them, not me, although I did give it a whirl, its just not nearly as fun when your butt almost drags the ground because you're.... well, you're more than 40 pounds. We tried to enjoy the pretty weather as much as we could - although we missed out on a couple things that we normally do every year, like apple picking, we were able to replace them with different fun memories.

I was able to go away one weekend for some girl time with my cousin, Alyssa. We went to the beach and had so much fun. I wish I could post a video from that time on here, but she might kill me. :)

Then, of course, fall brings Halloween and I just love dressing my girls up. This year Isabella decided she wanted to be her own version of Mulan and Amelia..... well would anyone would be surprised who she wanted to be.... Snow White - of course.

Then our friends who live in Ireland had come back to the states for a little over a month and we tried to snag up anytime with them that we could. It had been 2 1/2 years since we had seen them, but the girls didn't seem to miss a beat. We were able to spend an afternoon out in the beautiful weather, another day at the Children's Museum, and another afternoon Cindy planned a tea party for all the little girls -- such fun, fun memories! We're really hoping and praying that its not another 2 1/2 years until we can get to see them. We had so much fun, and it has made us miss them even more!

Ok, I'm realizing that I have far too many pictures to post, so maybe later I can post a couple from Thanksgiving and Christmas and then we'll be pretty much caught up..... so I can go on another sabbatical...... Just kidding. :)

Zipline

As promised, here's a couple pics of us at the zipline for our anniversary. You can see from this first picture, that it was a rather glamorous thing to do for our anniversary. Actually, you can't totally tell that because you aren't getting the full shot with the harness tightly around the lower regions, or the enormous work gloves I had to wear. And for me, I had to wear tennis shoes with capris (we weren't allowed to wear anything that came above our knees due to the harnesses I guess.) I have this thing about wearing tennis shoes.

My hubby, you can hardly tell since he is so far away. I thought we would be going on a zip line, hike for a while get to another zip line...... but actually we were attached to a zip line the whole time.(Me and a stranger, this man said this was on his bucket list. He was unsure pretty much the whole time, but was proud of himself at the end that he had accomplished it) After going over one zip line we would then "hike" over things like this:

(This is one of the guides showing the lady behind him that it didn't matter if she did fell because we were attached to the line, it was kind of strange to walk across it)

We had a little training class at the beginning because we had to know how to hook ourselves on, make sure that when unhooking we would right away attach ourselves to a safety line.... this at first seemed silly until we got to a couple places where the area we were standing on was like standing on a 2x4 hugging a tree for your life, way up above the ground. We also had to learn how to stop ourselves -- hence the ugly work gloves because we had to use our hands to brake. You can barely see me in this last picture, but I am there. This was the very last zip and it was so long. I shouted the whole way and the guide at the end was using the slow down signal and had the rope out to stop me, but I figured why not have fun, it was the last one, they couldn't ask me to leave now. Found out my husband pretty much did the same thing. It was so much fun and I'm looking forward to doing that again. Isabella is looking forward to when she is 10 and she can go along with us. :)

A month?? Really?

I can't believe it has been a month since I last posted. I don't know how some of you can update every couple days, I want to, I just don't get around to it I guess. Ugh! I'm so disorganized, any of you organization freaks out there want to give me some pointers. Anyway, so where HAVE I been.....

Well, this past month has been busy. Right before my last post my husband and I went to this adorable place to celebrate our 13th anniversary. And if you read this before there are zip line pictures, come back and look tomorrow. I was downloading the pictures today (yes, I'm that behind) and I realized that the zip line pictures weren't on my camera. Like I would actually take my big camera down a zip line, not nearly as compact as my husband's point and shoot. So, I have to find his camera and cord and I can download those.
We had such a fun weekend. And this place was one of those "we definitely will have to come back to this place." Then the next weekend was labor day and we went to the beach with my parents And don't let this above picture fool you, I realize this would look normal for the average sisters that are 26 months apart, but Amelia is actually down in the hole and Isabella is on the side. Amelia is maybe an inch shorter than Isabella. I'm hoping that and the fact that I dress them alike alot is the reason people continue to ask me if they are twins..... honestly, I've been asked this so many times this summer its been comical.

We actually were at the beach twice, the first time with my parents, and then a week and a half ago we went camping at the beach. Isabella had a couple of days off from school, so we had planned to go away for a last little hoorah before fall truly arrived. The water was nice and warm so I had fun playing in the water with my girls, we rode bikes, visited with friends, and got rained on in the loudest, strongest thunder storm I've ever camped in. It was a great trip, minus the thunderstorm that pretty much kept us up all night. Oh and the raccoons that got into some of our food -- this was the big talk the next morning around the campground because I believe the 'coons were a problem this year, everyone had them "stop by" and were amazed at how smart they were getting into things. Thankfully, most of our stuff was in the car. I didn't take many pictures.... I know that's awful. But instead I just really enjoyed my time. I'm trying to learn how to balance my need,.... I mean want, to take so many pictures and just spending time enjoying what's going on. Its great having a thousand pictures, but if I haven't been truly enjoying my family, what good are the pictures, right? There's a balance, I'm sure, I'm just finding it.

And my Amelia was so, so cute on her little scooter. We took our bikes, but Amelia is still getting used to her bike, can't quite get the whole pedaling forward without constantly going backward into her brakes, so she wanted her scooter. And boy did she become the scooter queen. I wish I could have a video of her to post, she had the most determined little look and would just ride this thing back and forth between "#63 and the stop sign" (those were mommy's rules) and she even rode it around the campground with daddy. The cutest thing ever!

At home, we've been busy with Isabella going to school, searching for a new church, I've gotten back to being more organized with my meal plans now that the summer vacation is over, and we have also been having some fun family time. The girls were racing by pushing apples with the noses down the halls.

Kenny and I raced the girls as well, but who really wants to see our butts up in the air?! This was part of family devotions --- can anyone guess what we were learning about? Hmm, wonder what kind of prize I could give if you guessed right.

Then this past weekend, we went to a "reunion"/get together for my old high school.

And in case you are wondering if that's my whole graduating class, no, here is my class:

Ok, to be fair, this is 44% of my class -- there were 9 of us. :) I went to a very small Christian school. But don't feel bad for me, I actually loved it. And I think pretty much everyone that showed up for this get together agreed. We had great times, great friends, great teachers and great memories. I wouldn't change it.

So, that has been my life in a nutshell for the past month. Give or take a few things in between of course. We have been gone 4 out of the past 5 weekends, and still have several things planned for this month. The nice thing is that even though the months from September to December seem like the busiest for us, at least it is fall. I love fall!!! Its my happy spot, once I get jeans and long sleeve shirts out, I'm so content. Hope everyone has been having a good fall as well!

13 years (and 4 days) ago

I married my best friend! And today........ I love him even more. I am not going to use the cliche "it feels like just yesterday...", because actually, it doesn't. I will admit 13 years has flown by, but when I think back about what we have done, what we have enjoyed, what we have gone through, how we have been blessed over the last 13 years, it definitely doesn't seem like just yesterday. When I realize how old I am to be married for 13 years, sometimes I wish it was yesterday. :) The picture above was taken by Isabella while we were at the beach in May. I think she did a pretty good job. No, she did not change the coloring in photoshop and burn the edges, but she'll get there. :) I put this picture in a frame for our bedroom it says "Love with no regret." A few weeks ago when visiting a church (haven't told some of ya'll about that yet, but we'll talk later) they were talking about: Are there things you would go back and do differently? do you have any regrets? are there trials you wouldn't change because of what you learned? etc. So Kenny and I have been talking about this off and on lately. I really don't have real regrets, at least not in the sense that I would go back and change things - well, maybe I would change gaining 20 pounds, but I'm talking serious things people! NOW, if you would have asked me in the middle of a trial, say infertility, yeah, I would have said you could have it. But then that would mean not having my 2 girls, not seeing God work, having a different life than I have now - nope wouldn't change it. And if I would like to go back to say high school or college and be the person I am now, rather than that person back then, sure every now and then I would love to change that. But again, if I was the person I am now, but my husband was not the person he is (or vice versa)...... you get my drift, my life might not be my life now. So I thought the frame was appropriate when I saw it. I am so thankful that God has given me an amazing husband, who is an amazing father to our girls. There isn't anyone else I can imagine spending the last 13 years or the next many, many more with.

I'll have to post picture later because I'm in the midst of packing and cleaning for a long Labor day weekend at the beach, but to celebrate we went away this past weekend. The place we stayed at was marvelous! It was like a little mediteranean village and was Rustic Chic (as their sign said.) It had a spa, which was oh so wonderful when my hubby booked me a massage. We also went on a zip line tour and had so much fun. Just another thing I love about our marriage, we love spending time together, truly enjoy being with each other and trying new things together. (And yeah the zip line pictures will be attractive, we have helmets, harnesses, oversized gloves.... yes the perfect picture of romance.)

To my hubby: I love you Babe! With no regrets! Well, I kind of regret that my wedding dress had a big bow on my butt, but other than that, no regrets. :)

I survived.... ur I mean SHE survived her first day of school

Well today was it, the first day of Kindergarten for Isabella. Of course, she loved it! And if you had placed a bet on my crying, well you would have lost. I was honestly too excited for her to cry. I'm sad that she's growing up so fast, but I couldn't help but be excited with her. We already knew that she would love her teacher and she's been talking about things she's said or stuff they've done all evening. She already learned the concept of raising her hand to talk because she was doing that tonight in family devotions. :) She met friends, but has no idea any of their names. This too is no surprise. She wanted to carry her backpack today, although since its just half day K5, her teacher said there is really no need for her to bring one. I let her for today.... what's a good first day of school picture without a backpack. And I had to have a picture of both of my girlies. Amelia missed her sissy today. When we were leaving she asked "Are we leavin' Sissy?" after I said yes she said "I so sad." And when we went to pick her up, boy, you would have thought Isabella had been gone longer than a 1/2 day. Amelia was so excited to see sissy. She said "Did you have fun? What you learn?" :)

I just dropped her off by myself this morning so that Daddy could in turn meet us after she was done to go out for some fun. I told Isabella not to expect that every day, that was just a celebration of her first day of school. All together, it was a great first day of school. Here's hoping that tomorrow goes as smoothly!

10, 9, 8, 7, 6,....

...5! In 5 days, my 5 year old will be starting K5.
Can you believe it? I'm feeling pretty strong today, I think I'll be fine and won't cry.... anyone want to place some bets? She's so excited, she has been asking me every day, "how many days until I start kindergarten?" and she has been finding it quite hysterical how her Daddy pronounces kindergarten, I'm sure her teacher will hear about that. This past Saturday, we went out and had a little "going to school" photoshoot. It was just going to be us, but then I decided I could use Daddy's help (no one can make her laugh like him, and he's great at carrying desks. Love you Babe!) We had a mommy/daughter date day afterwards though so its all good. She could so easily be my retro girl, so I had to have some retro looking shots and then some school shots as well. Just so you know, the red high tops were too small on her.

She has told me everyday since Saturday that they hurt her feet. I'm a bad mommy, but they were too cute not to stuff her feet in them for this photo shoot. :) I told her to just wait, she was at least in high tops, try wearing a pair of heels with toes so pointy its unnatural, then tell me about suffering for beauty. I'm only posting a few of the pics, if you're friends with me on Facebook, I have several of them on there. Here she is, the cutest kindergartener:

One of the many....

....MANY things, I love about my husband. This past weekend was my birthday and this was my first birthday present:
I was at a Bible study with friends a couple days before and Kenny helped the girls make me flowers. It's just the sweetest thing. I love that he is helping our girls do special things for me. I love that he loves me enough to take the time to do this with our girls. And this isn't the first time, he does this kind of stuff alot. I love that they see him, loving me. I love that he is a good example to them. And quite honestly, I love being spoiled every now and then too. He just didn't realize until our girls that I would be easy enough spoil with paper flowers.