Random Happenings

One night we went out to dinner with Scott's mom and brother near the mall. Haylee randomly decided she was going to get her ears pierced! We followed her to the store and she was completely determined. This was the second actual attempt (the first time I started to fill out the paperwork and she changed her mind) and she has told us she wanted to do it quite a few times only to shy away once we got to the store. This time, she did it!! She flinched a little and tried to grab the lady's hand but otherwise she was one tough cookie! She had to do one ear at at time so she was extra brave!

And thanks to Uncle Mike, he is now forever the ultimate mall creeper photo bomber in each of her pictures...

 We put our house up on the market. We love this house but when we had it built we only had one child. Now that we have 3 we have been wanting to get into a home that's a tad bit bigger. Ideally we would love to find our "forever" home that our kids come home to someday. We want to stay in this area just in a home that fits us better. Based on what we've seen, we expected our house to sell quick. But the market came to a halt around the same time we listed and we only had 2 people look in the 6 weeks it was on the market. So we took it off and will try again later. It was too much stress trying to keep the house show ready for absolutely no reason!

Out of desperation, I made my girls a deal that if they stopped a bad habit for a whole week (one that they had both been doing since birth, I won't say exactly since it may embarrass them) I would treat them to ice cream! Haylee succeeded first so we went out on a ice cream date night.

Then a week later Rylee succeeded too and we all 3 went out. It worked like a charm, the habit is a thing of the past. Who knew bribery would work so well?

Holly and I went to see One Republic in concert. It was such a great show, we had so much fun!

Scott saved the day one Sunday morning and helped me out in the nursery at church. He always brings his A-game when he joins us. Its no wonder kids love him.

 

Scott went on a hunting trip with a friend from church. They were suppose to be hunting turkeys. We had this wonderful plan to eat the turkey(s) they got for Thanksgiving. But lo and behold, they never saw a single turkey the whole weekend. But... they did kill 2 squirrels. Yay for squirrel for our Thanksgiving feast!

And lastly, Haylee learned to ride her bike! Scott had adjusted her training wheels so they barely touched the ground so she was getting a hang of balancing. She got on Rylee's bike one day and just took off! It was amazing seeing my baby girl ride around like she had been doing it for years.

Our 9th Anniversary

This year, Scott and I celebrated our 9th anniversary. Keeping with tradition, we went to the Melting Pot for dinner. We love this place!

This past year has been great! I am so thankful that God brought us together, we have grown so much in the past 9 years and we are stronger together because of it. Life with him has just been easy lately, I love that!

School

Just a few things to share from the school year so far.

Here are their amazing school pictures. Cheesy grins and all. 

Rylee 

Haylee

Haylee had her first school performance at the morning assembly. The kindergarten class all sang a song.

Rylee had to make a sentance using her spelling words for homework and this is what she came up with. I am pretty sure one of those words is NOT a spelling word. :)

Both girls were awarded the Director's Honer Roll Award for having all A's! I was especially proud of Haylee for getting all A's. She struggles a little bit with her letters and will most likely need a little help from a speech class so this award just confirmed that she is doing just fine despite those facts!

The school also had the fun run again this year and they both completed all of their laps (2 miles)!

Zach's 3rd Birthday

Our baby boy turned 3 this year. We are still in denial that he is already 3!!

Pre-party nap.

Uncle Jeff came over early and surprised him with his first birthday gift.

We just had a "small" family get together that shaped out to be a lot of fun! Those Nave's are entertaining.

Zach was spoiled with presents, which included mostly power ranger toys.

The cake I made and Scott decorated.

Rylee cutting the cake with a sword.

These bouncy balloons were a complete hit.

I don't have pictures, but we took the party outside because the weather was absolutely perfect. It was the first day of fall and fall got the memo. The kids (and the adult male kids) played with the new remote control cars and rode bikes. It was such a great evening together! Happy Birthday Zach!!

Last Cabin Trip of the Summer

I was lucky over labor day weekend, and actually got Sunday off! So we took advantage of that rare event and headed up to the cabin! Such a relaxing weekend with beautiful, sometimes chilly rainy weather! 

A boy and his gun, it seriously just comes naturally to him.

Ahh my husband and his cigars.

My uncle surprised us and joined us too. The kids and him spent most of the day playing legos.

Balance beam on the fence around the yard.

The brave ones jumped to Daddy at the end.

First Day of School

This year I now have 2 kids in school! Haylee started school this year and Rylee is now in 2nd grade. It was so strange thinking about dropping my little Haylee off too, all day, and just having one at home! What freedom!! Haylee was a tad reluctant to go but was excited. Plus she had big sister to show her the ropes. Here they are all ready to go! 

Haylee- Kindergarten

Rylee- 2nd Grade

Once we got to school, Haylee gave us each a hug and headed to her class line. Scott was walking with her and she stopped him and said I don't need you! :( Such a brave tough girl. Rylee was very sad about going back to school. She didn't get the teacher she wanted so that didn't help. She did ok until Scott hugged her one last goodbye in her class line, then she started crying. Poor thing, at least one of them needed us! We had fun waving goodbye to them as they walked to class, Scott had a little too much fun embarrassing the kids we know by yelling out their names.

They both had a great first day. Turns out Rylee loved her teacher and Haylee came home with this new found confidence!

Zach and I enjoyed the last summer movie at the theater together with Holly and Elliott. Then later in the week we went with some friends to the aquarium and had a great day together! Having only one kid is such a breeze ;)

July

This month, Scott turned the big 3-0! I absolutely love teasing him, especially since I am still in my 20's. How fast a decade has gone by! We're getting old, I mean he's getting old.

His whole family joined us at his favorite restaurant, Pappadeux, to celebrate. He took a panoramic of all of us and all I see is my mother-in-law with her amazing wave and my giant man arm since I moved while he was taking the picture. This picture is priceless. I still laugh.

The birthday boy.

On 4th of July we went to Scott's parents house for food and then went to see fireworks. Scott's brothers joined us and I just loved it. Each one had one of the kids on their shoulders watching the show.

The kids completed another summer of swim lessons. Rylee and Haylee can almost swim now. Rylee is doing really well and knows how to swim, she is just scared to actually go for it. Haylee is brave and will jump right in but hasn't quite figured it out yet. And Zach. He loves jumping in but hates going under water. Ahh my children.

I turned 29. My last year in my 20's! I had a great birthday, a huge storm blew in that afternoon and cooled it down to the 70's. It was perfect.

We headed up to the cabin again! The first night there we did s'mores because they just lifted the no burn rule. Just after we started though we got stormed out! A huge storm blew in with crazy thunder and it down poured. It was wonderful.

We went to the lake again.

And then Scott, Haylee, Zach, Cruiser and I headed to the creek to look for crawdads. We didn't find any but we had a great time hiking around. It was beautiful.

Rylee had stayed back with Grammie and Denise and they treated us to icecream when we got back. Zach was a mess and Cruiser was right by his side catching it all...

Love my sweet boy.

Posing on the cabin tree