Our Summer and Bucket List

Our summer has flown by! It's hard to believe that August has arrived! This season has been full of joy,  endless baskets of laundry, gallons of ice water in water bottles, laughter around the table, cookouts with friends, adventures to the park, coffee shop, and farmers market, and memories that I hope will remain close!

We started our summer sitting around the table with a piece of construction paper and markers in hand and created a bucket list of things we hoped to experience over the course of the summer. As we sat and discussed we laughed and talked about memories of times we'd experienced some of things we were adding. The excitement was overflowing as we talked about what was to come. As summer is turning the corner and fall is slowly creeping up I look back and smile and am thankful for these moments we've had. It won't be long until our newest bundle of joy arrives.

Sponge war (Thank you Pinterest)!!!

An afternoon at the splash pad was a success!

We love smores and the time spent around the campfire!

Sweet Girl loved the slip n slide and couldn't get enough of the water!

A weekend full of fun!

This weekend was amazing! We spent Friday evening supporting Noah as he played in a March Madness game...he scored two points and was thrilled! We went out for dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and had a blast watching basketball and laughing with the kids!

Saturday morning H got up early and Chad picked her out of her crib and have her a bottle. I woke up and listened to them for a bit and then there was silence. I peeked into the living room and found them cuddling. Melted my heart.

Once she woke up her and Noah had a blast playing together and she is fascinated by Siri and all things related to phones and iPads:) She also wakes up with bed head like I do.

After breakfast we had friends over to watch the movie Frozen and enjoyed pizza for lunch. They have four kids and we've enjoyed getting to know them more. The kids get along great and the parents were able to talk while they played.

Sunday we were told it might get to the 60s. That's all we needed to hear to shut the heat off and open the windows for a bit! The fresh air felt glorious!! This mama can't wait to bust out my sandals and flip flops:)❤️We have amazing bike trails where we live! I've been running on the same trail for years and just love it. We loaded up the truck and headed to the trail for our first family walk/ride of the season.

I could have stayed outside for hours but H lasted an hour before she was ready for a nap. I'll take it though!

This week is going to be a busy one and I'm leaving for a business trip next week so there is a lot I need to get together. Thankfully we don't have a lot going on this weekend!

Blessings!

Mimi 

My Sweet Girl

I find it so easy most days to get overwhelmed when I think about all I still need to get done before crashing at night...laundry, dishes, go through the kids folders, open mail, and on and on. However over the last year I've relaxed ALOT and have enjoyed more times then not letting the dishes sit, not picking up every mess and sitting with the kids and enjoying these moments. I know all to well how fast the time goes and when I look at Harper and the boys I don't want to miss it. I want to relish playing with the books, stacking the blocks, tickling their feet, and listening to them laugh. In ten years when I look back I'm not going to remember or care if my laundry was put away every night but I know they and I will both remember the times we spent together. 

I went to my first Stella & Dot party last week and now I know why I've waited so long to go....I'm hooked:) I had so much fun with girlfriends and looking at their jewelry! I've noticed some really pretty kelly green drop earrings on a few other blogs and decided to step out of my comfort zone and order a pair. I love jewelry and am fascinated by my sisters who always wear such fun items! Me on the other hand I wear my wedding ring, the same silver band on my right hand, the same silver hoops in my ears, and flip between two necklaces every day. While I have a lot of fun pieces I just keep it simple most days. Of course the pair I ordered is on back order but I can't for them to arrive! They also have a precious children's line and I spotted a few things for H.:) I think she's a fan too!

This sweet girl melts my heart daily. Tonight we are headed to a basketball game and tomrrow I have a friend and her kids coming over for a movie date to watch Frozen! There is also a rumor we might see the 60s on Sunday! I can't wait!

Blessings!

Mimi

It's still cold outside!

Here in the Midwest we still have fresh snow on the ground and it doesn't feel like spring! The sun has been out and while it appears to be warmer as soon as we step outside we are reminded otherwise. That did not stop is from a suprise Cherry Berry run after school yesterday! We don't go there often and we had to pick up Noah's glasses close by so I thought I would suprise the boys with a sweet treat. They were thrilled!

We enjoyed our evening at home and Uncle Michael stopped over for dinner and catch up! Chad used his grill (grilling season is here!!) and made amazing New York strip steaks!! Yum! I normally don't love love steak but will probably be getting more at whole foods the next time I go.

Harper loves being where the boys are! Their play room and our media room are both downstairs so oftentimes she will hold onto the gate at the top of the stars and call for them...she can't say their names yet but we all know she's trying to get their attention. I took her downstairs last night to check things out and she thought she was pretty big stuff playing with their controllers.

While I didn't get to putting away the laundry or half of the other things on my list I was content letting it go and just enjoying the moments we had as a family. It never hurt anyone to look through a basket for clothes:)

Blessings!

Mimi

It's been awhile!

I can't believe I haven't blogged since April! I've logged on often and started to blog once or twice but then stopped. The blogging break was needed for me as I was starting to feel like all I blogged about was my health issues and frankly it was depressing....who wants to hear about hospitals all of the time? I think more than that I was so tired of dealing with hospitals and my health issues that I wanted them to go away and was tired of thinking about all of it. So I took a break, am healthy now, and have enjoyed the past few months enjoying life! The summer has been one filled with travel both for work, long weekends with the fam, and a dream trip to Sonoma and Napa with one of my dearest friends. I will have to dedicate a whole post to that trip as it was amazing and everything I hoped it would be. I'm thankful that I haven't been to a hospital in eight weeks, and back on Weight Watchers tracking 100% and working out daily. The boys are growing like crazy and start school in two weeks. Ky will be starting kindergarten and I'm a mess about it! He is getting so big and i'm not ready for him to grow up on me:) We went school supply shopping last night and they were so excited to put all of their items in their backpacks...yes I'm feeling old. This weekend we are enjoying being home and relaxing.  We got up early, which is just the way we roll. I headed off to an early Zumba class, which kicked my butt literally, met a girlfriend for coffee, and have been home since 10:00 just enjoying time with the fam. I'm enjoying a new Cooking Light cookbook my girlfriend Mich bought for me and am going to try a Southwest Rice and Veggie cake recipe tonight for dinner. So far I have four new recipes from this cookbook in my menu plan for this week and can't wait to try all of them. We are planning on going to church tonight which means we can "sleep in" tomorrow. The hubs was awesome and cleaned up the house while I was gone at Zumba so I just need to organize some things and do laundry. I'm on the hunt for some zucchini recipes. When my friend J stopped over for coffee this morning she brought me a huge basket full of potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, and zucchini. I'm stoked! She grows a HUGE garden and brought fresh veggies over for me to share with my mom. Unfortunately until recently I've never made anything with zucchini. So I am on the hunt so something new to try using it. :) If you have any good recipes please share! Well I'm going to go check on my men and brew a k-cup. Tomorrow I'll post all about my trip to CA and share pics. Have a wonderful Saturday! I sure am.