10!

How can this be? 
Kate turned TEN yesterday...
Here is a little peek of her over the last ten years.

Honestly, not sure if it is possible to love her more then we already do, but somehow she keeps giving us reasons to!

~Chat soon!

Easter 2017

I have lots to write about from this past week.
But-we will start with Easter.

I love Easter-I love the church services, the hymns, the meals, the excitement on the kids faces. I love it all.

annual Easter family pic.  I had the camera lurched on top of a trashcan when our neighbor came and said let me help you

This year we hosted the dinner.  The girls and I worked hard on Saturday food prepping etc.  We would have more time to enjoy the day, I thought to myself...

Kate is a great little helper in the kitchen, she is always careful and conscience
of what she is doing and takes the directions very seriously.

I asked her to take the ham and put a few other items in the fridge in the basement on Saturday-to make more room in the kitchen refrigerator.  I did not double check that it was put in the fridge, I just knew I could trust Kate to do that for me.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon it was about 1:30 and it was time to put the ham in the oven.  Kate ran downstairs to get the ham for me and proudly placed it on the counter.  I heard a thud.  The kind of thud that makes you think there was a bowling ball put on the counter instead of a nice, plump, ready for the oven ham.  I gently laid my hand on the ham-IT WAS FROZEN-SOLID!!!!  Hard as a rock, 24 hours in the freezer will do that to a ham.

I went slightly nuts.  Kate tells me my face got red and she thought I was going to pull my hair out.   I, in fact did throw my apron on the ground and walk out to the drive way for a minute.  Adam, keys in hand had Kate and said "we will be back, with a ham".

Thank goodness the little family owned Save A Lot was open and had hams still available for the price of gold.

still a little teary from the misunderstanding but proud of the find

Regardless-we had a ham, that was ready for the oven.

Family gathered, we shared the story, the house was full of people.

post hunt excitement 

The kids were all playing in the backyard after the egg hunt when I heard crying.  It was the type of crying that made me think someone hurt something, bad.  It was our little niece Devon.  She proudly mastered the monkey bars and wanted to show Anne one more time that she could do it.  BUT she didn't make it, she fell, on her elbow.  It was decided she should probably get an x-ray.  Word came that she did in fact fracture her little elbow.  She was all smiles when she came back to our house with a shiny blue sling and a nice splint on her arm.

the ham.  the "golden ham".

Another holiday for the memory books!

~chat soon!

Hello Again....

Here is to a happy and healthy 2017. 

For Pete's sake....It's been about 6 months since I've fired up this old thing.  It's been a weird couple of months, lots of changes and bumps, and blogging just got tossed out the window.

I'm hoping to jump back in this year!  

Happy New Year!!

the visit from the cousins

so one of our favorite parts of our year is when the cousins come to visit.
we do it every year-we act like we are visiting st. louis as well.
we had so much fun this trip.
i forgot my camera a couple of times, so there maybe a few less photos then i had hoped for.
but the gist of the visit is there.
the last night pictures are too heart wrenching to share.  poor kate cried her eyes out.
we do love the friendship they have.  they are just the best of friends. and no matter the length of time, they just are best buds upon arrival.

can you feel the chaos in this photo?

we may not have a pool but we have a rubbermaid tote.

that's a wrap

all good things must come to an end.
our last day was spent outside.  every second of it.
we swam at the pool, went to the beach, the tide was out which was a bit of a bummer, but the girls made the best of it and played like crazy, we went back to the pool, adam made us lunch there, and then you guessed it, back to the pool.

we ate dinner out the last night at one of our favorite places.  we sadly packed our bags and went to bed.

it was indeed, a great vacation.

i just loved the innocence of kates little sandy feet.

anne loves the ocean.

beach bums 

she was a hoot!

no words for her. 

everybody loved daddy's hat

the family time was just so awesome