Back to School

The kids are back in school now. They started the end of August. Hailey is in 3rd grade with Mrs. Plate and Jackson is in 1st grade with Mrs. Steiner. They both love their classes and are doing very well. Most of their friends are in the other classes but that's not always a bad thing.

Typical picture outside the first day of school. We also got one of all the kids. Anderson was really upset for some reason, can't remember why now. Annaliese looks so happy like she actually gets to go too.

After we arrived at school

Annaliese started preschool August 31st. She is still going to Orchard Hill Preschool, now 3 days a week. She has a new teacher, Mrs. Stephens. She seems to like her a lot but misses Mrs. Doyle and Mrs. A. (as she called her) She is finally coming out of her shell and will answer questions in class. And all of her friends are in her class again. So happy for her. Anderson will have to wait until next year for preschool. With an August birthday, he is way too young yet. I was thinking that finally next year I would have a couple hours to myself while he is in school, but no, not the case. Now I will have another little one to take care of!

Summer!

I know this is really pitiful that I haven't updated since April. We had a full summer as I am sure most of you did. Now it's over and it still feels like summer. I'm wondering where all this hot and humid weather was in July?! So, this is a quick update on our summer. Basically, we worked on the house and went to the pool, but there were a few fun things in there...

Annaliese's picnic for the end of preschool - one of my favorite pictures.

VBS in June - kids had a blast with Crocodile Dock.

Sturgis Falls in June - We walked with the Sno-Hawks, the Cedar Valley Snowmobile club. Jackson rode his Kitty Cat and the girls were there to look pretty.

Time out for good friends. We got together with Elke, Jonna and Ellie and all the kids. I miss hanging out with them, definitely need to do it more often!

The girls had pedicures with Grandma Bev. It was Annaliese's first time, I think she's hooked!

Family reunion weekend - Friday we had a luncheon in Sumner, the girls look so pretty.

We had a Hurley family weekend at Hickory Hills, the same weekend as the Westendorf reunion, so we tried to fit it all in. The kids had fun and made t-shirts and hats to take home.

The Block Family at the reunion. One of the best family pictures we have taken.

Grandpa Wayne was even smiling!

Anderson turned 3 on August 21st (also our 10 year anniversary) I made these little pupcakes that turned out so cute. I do need to practice, but pretty good for a first try. Anderson loved them.

So, that's my update. Not sure what happened to pictures of July? Oh well, that's what I get for procrastinating. Seriously, I do hope to be a little more consistent with posting. Kids are all back in school (I should probably find those pics and post those?) for the most part it's just Annaliese and Anderson, minus her preschool time.

Things are getting more and more hectic this fall. We are on the tail end of finishing the flip house (I know, another post I should do...) the kids have started their sports. Hailey is in soccer and gymnastics, I am the assistant coach for her soccer team this year. Annaliese is in gymnastics. Jackson is doing flag football and soccer, first time for both. Fortunately, Anderson hasn't started sports yet!

We do have some things to look forward to - the flip house will be done soon and then we can start on our house. We have a floor plan finalized and I can't wait to get that going. Brad and I are also going on an Eastern Caribbean cruise at the end of October to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Hard to believe it's been that long.

I can't promise that I will be that diligent on updates but I don't think I can get much worse! I need to follow the lead of my fellow bloggers that do this so much better than me - Jen, Kimber, Jess, etc.!
Happy Fall~

Happy Birthday Annaliese!

Annaliese turned four on Sunday, April 19th. Out of all our children, I have never seen one so excited for a birthday! All day she was running around telling everyone it was her birthday and smiling from ear to ear. Starting off with church in the morning and then off to Brown Bottle for dinner, cake and ice cream at home afterwards with presents. Now, if you ask her, she will tell you she is "fohwa" - at least that's what it sounds like with her New Jersey accent. So cute! She had a great day as you can see.

Annaliese opened a few presents at the Brown Bottle - including a gift from Great Grandma Mildred - lots of tape on that one!

Brad and Jackson.

Grandpa Ron and Anderson - the kids waiting to blow out the candle with Annaliese.

Happy Birthday Annaliese!

Easter

It's been a while since I have posted. I figured that I finally needed to get these pics up. I was a little slack around Easter as I had back surgery the week before. I wasn't really moving around that well until Thursday night or so. The pictures aren't that great, but the kids had a lot of fun. Mom and Michelle helped them do Easter eggs on Saturday. They all really enjoyed that. We went to Orchard Hill for service on Saturday night. It was an awesome service reminding us why Easter is so important. The little ones weren't that thrilled with sitting through the whole service. But it was nice for all of us to be there together.

All the kids getting a little messy. They all look pretty rough - remember, I wasn't really up to dressing them and making a nice picture.

Hunting on the farm at the Block's. All the kids got into it and there were a ton of eggs for them to find. Tried to get a group picture, but it's practically impossible to get all the kids to look at the same time.

Anderson trying to get in the picture. I love his little smile!

The girls always smile so pretty.

I tried to get all four kids, but Jackson is going through this phase where he doesn't like to have his picture taken. So, it ends of being more of a hassle to convince him to smile nice. (At least I am hoping it is a phase!)

The girls got sunglasses from Grandma Bev. That and their matching coats, so cute!

Sunday we went to brunch at Grandpa Les and Grandma Mildred's. All of Brad's cousins were there with their kids. A great egg hunt for the kids, even though it was sooooo windy! Later in the day we headed back home and had another egg hunt and dinner. The kids were exhausted by the end of the day and the sugar high made them crash hard. I can't believe how much candy they have!

Happy Birthday Hailey!

Hailey is now 8 years old! I can't believe where all the time has gone and how much has happened in the last eight years. She is such a big girl now and we are so proud of the little lady she is becoming. I am savoring all these moments because I know they won't last forever.

Beautiful Butterfly cake that Grandma Hazel made.

We celebrated her birthday at the bowling alley with some of her friends and Grandparents.

A very happy Hailey!

Brad and Annaliese. Brad helped Annaliese and Anderson bowl. They loved every minute of it! The only picture I have of Jackson was him pouting because he didn't get to bowl as much as he wanted to, so I thought I would leave that one out.

This would have been a better picture if one of her friends hadn't put their fingers up behind Hailey. But what can you really expect from eight year-olds?

All her friends made a great party for Hailey. So happy for her!

St. Pat's Party

We celebrated St. Pat's this year at the Thomas home. They always throw a fun party and we definitely had fun!

A great pic of all the ladies, Jenny's in the shaker - a great drink John!

Love the glasses we got at Galena. We even brought back a pair for Ann and Buffy. You have to have props!

Gettin' Jiggy Melissa! Ann will get to show off her side pony in full glory at the Landsgard 80's party coming up!

The happy Irish couple :)

A short backtrack here. Right before we left to go to the party, Anderson fell off the couch onto the magazine rack. His eye started to swell up right away. This picture was taken the day after and he had quite a shiner for a while. Of course I took a picture and he smiled for it. Such a trooper!

DIY Weekend

Last week, out of the blue, Mom decides that she wants to redo the bathroom floor. The toilet seal had been leaking and it discolored the vinyl flooring around that area. The flooring was outdated anyway, so a change was definitely needed. However, she apparently thinks I am some sort of flooring expert and on Thursday wants to know if I have a game plan yet. What?! How did this become my project and why am I the one making the decisions? It's her bathroom, she hasn't even told me what kind of floor she wants to do, what size, color etc. So, we decided to go to Home Depot Saturday morning and pick it all out. In the meantime, I spent all Friday evening reading up on different kinds of flooring and how to do it all.

Saturday morning brings us to Home Depot and we are sidetracked by the kids' project going on in the front of the store. Hailey, Mikaela, Jackson and Anderson all put together race tracks. They did very well considering there were at least 20 nails that had to be hammered and lots of pieces. I helped Anderson and he was doing really well hammering, but he doesn't have the best aim, so after hammering my fingers one too many times, I took over and finished it for him.

Onto the flooring, we checked out all our options. After looking at how many tools we would need to do ceramic tile, we took the easy (and less expensive) route and chose peel and stick tile. Now, I would have liked to do the ceramic tile as it would have been great practice, but again, it's not my bathroom. We arrived home and started taking up all the trim (we broke almost every piece) and decided if we would cover the old flooring or take it up. We eventually decided to put the new over the old except where the toilet had leaked, we took all of that part up and let it air out overnight. Long story short, we get the new tile down, I think it looks fine. Mom doesn't like it AND she doesn't like the paint color now. Ugh!

Before~


During~

After!

Now she wants to chose a different paint color. She and dad go to Home Depot and get replacement trim and new paint. She calls me and wants me to look it up on line and tell her what I think of a new color. Okay, I can do that, but there is no way that I can really tell her which one will look the best without seeing it in person. We had decided on a "sage" color. She comes home with something that looks closer to mint. We get it up on the wall and there is no way that it looks good. We use it as a base to go over the lavender color that was on the wall previously. We still need another color. This time, I go to the store and get the right color. That is mostly up on the wall now and with just a few places that the tile needs to go in, the trim and repair next to the tub, we are done. Hah! I am not sure when this project will actually be complete, but I do think it looks better than before. So, one new floor, new toilet seat, a new mirror (to replace the one I broke), new trim (to replace all the trim we broke), and three paint colors later!!! We have a nice bathroom. After doing this project, it's not looking good for all the work on our house that I have coming up!