California

After my cousin's wedding, we headed to California to spend a couple of weeks with my parents. As always, we had a great time. We were trying to regroup from all of our travels, so we did a lot of low key relaxing and swimming. It was really fun to be with my mom and dad and of course the kids loved it. We even got to see Erica, Ella and Mailee. It was great to see them. It is crazy how much we miss all of our friends who moved away! We celebrated Lainey's 1st birthday a few days early with my mom and dad. As you can see, she loved the cake! Poor little baby was really sick, but she still had fun!

Amanda's Wedding

Soon after our trip to Florida, we headed out to AZ for my cousin's wedding. It was so much fun. We had so much family there and so many friends from college. My family took the kiddos for me almost the whole wedding and I got to hang out with some of my best friends in the world. It was so much fun! And Amanda was gorgeous! It was also my cousin, Brett's, mission farewell. He left yesterday for Capetown South Africa! Here is wishing him the best!

Florida

We took an awesome family vacation to Florida! We had so much fun. We went to Disney and went swimming and visited my Grandma who lives there. (she had just fallen and broken her leg--- sad!) All of my family was there- except my bro, Mark and his wife, Kody, (we missed you) and it was so fun to be together. The kids had such a great time wih their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents! It was great to be able to spend so much time with Aaron, too! The pictures tell it all! Thanks to my family, especially my mom and dad, for such a great time.

My brother playing "the Beast" at Belle's Story Time.





Visiting my Grandpa's grave. We miss him so much!



Hallie's 5th B-day was spent at the Magic Kingdom. We even got to eat in Cinderella's Castle! And Hallie got to drive the monorail!

Happy Birthday Hallie

While Nana and Papa and the cousins were here, we had a "Blue's Clue's" B- day party for Hallie. I can't believe she is five! We had so much fun! Once again, dad made the cake and did an awesome job. We had mystery solving games, a scavenger hunt, a pinata. We love having all out birthday parties and this one was no exception! We were so happy the cousins could be here for it!
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Cousins and Nana and Papa

We were so lucky to have Nana and Papa come for a visit and bring three of the girls' cousins with them. They had so much fun together! It was riot having six girls in the house and listening to all of the jump rope jingles (I don't really know what they are called) and songs and watching the dances and shows they put on. That was all in between going to adventureland, the science center, the water park (where we froze!), Pump it Up, you name it, we did it! Seriously, it was so much fun and reminded us how much we love family and how great it is to be together. We miss them already and can't wait to see them again! Thanks so much for making the effort to come out and see us! We will be singing "L-I-M-I Chicken Eye, Chicken eye, Pom Pom Beauty, Extra Cutie for the rest of our lives!"

Preschool Graduation

My little Hal also graduated from preschool! Kindergarten has been a real issue weighing on my mind since January. After much deliberation and fretting and talking to everyone I know, I have decided to send Hallie to FULL day kindergarten. In Iowa, that is 7 hours. I have had a few sleepless nights over it, but Hallie is so excited and she is ready! I can't believe this is happening!Hallie has made some of the best friends here and I know she will miss them so much!(FYI- I don't typically put make up on my 5 year old, she just had dress rehearsal for dance recital right before this!)

Catch up!

Wow! I have gotten behind. So much has been going on in the last couple of months! I am going to try and put it in order here so that I can keep my journal here!

First we had Hallie's dance recital. it was so much fun and she did an awesome job! She did her dance perfectly and looked sooooo cute. I danced in the recital, too and it was kind of fun to get to do it with Hallie. The faculty danced to a Micheal Jackson medley, which was right up my ally. Now it seems a bit ironic, now that he is gone, which, by the way, makes me so sad! Just FYI, I went to a Micheal Jackson concert when I turned 8 years old. That was what I wanted more than anything and my parents took me to his "Bad" concert. I remember it and it was AMAZING!