Summer lovin'....had us a BLAST!

Wow, it's so hard for me to get to everything I want to get on here in the summer.  We have truly been going from one event to the next it seems but I do want to try and at least debrief a little bit.  We are for sure loving summer here in Montgomery (although that's a lit

tle bit misleading, since we are barely ever here at home)!  That's the story of summer though, right!!  We have traveled to weddings,

had company, spent nights at the lake, watched a golf cart parade, 

played on the beach, I played golf with Ry (and I wasn't that bad:)!), bought G his first tricycle at a garage sale with the girls for $10

we biked to our favorite town Geneva and ate amazing french toast with a raspberry drizzle (it's called Summer in  Italy from Egg Harbor and I have to say ladies and gentlemen, this little gem of a breakfast food will blow you away!  YUM), 

helped my cousin, Jen, pick out her wedding dress, go to story time at the library, road tripped it to Nebraska with great friends (and sang all the way there),

got in time with friends,

 

and experienced life....or tried to as it is blowing by us.

I have to say, I do love getting to go, go, go in the summer...but more than that I love getting to just be.  I love to wake up with no real agenda pull G into our big bed and snuggle while we watch cartoons and "chat" about our day.  I love getting to lounge around with the boys, watch G play golf with Ryan in our yard, and listen to them giggle and wrestle each other.  I love when we have no where to go so when the mood strikes we can have a water fight in our backyard and spray each other with Griffin's beach ball sprinkler.  I love getting to put Griffin down and have sweet quiet moments with Ryan to talk about life and where it's going and how we're coping with it all.

  

I feel blessed that this summer we have had a little of both.  It works well for us too....Ry is the go getter and I am for sure a home body, so a little of each is very fitting for us both.  Griffin really isn't picky as long as we are moving and get to go outside.  I am trying to savor these sweet summer days when it's just the three of us moving through life with out summer camp, and soccer practice, baseball games, and more kids:)!  Those days will be great too, but gotta get my snuggles in with Griff before he is off to t-ball practice!  

We have more summer to go, including a trip to Nebraska this week, more weddings, and beach days!  Hope you are all in the midst of some SUMMER LOVIN yourself!

XOXO

here's to you Ry!

Griffin & I just have to say that we are so blessed to have this guy in our lives.  We adore this juice box getter, lawn mower, wrestler, bath giver, story reader, goofy voice tale teller, bed time snuggler, husband, & DAD!  

Life is so exhausting...

when we went to G's room to check on him the other night we almost started to panic when he wasn't in his bed...until we looked in the other corner and saw our little angel, straight up passed out standing up in his chair...it's tiring being Griffin!

New and Noteworthy for a 2 YEAR OLD!

Just had to post a few picks of the big boy room and the big boy sleeping in it. I can't believe that my sweet and precious crib is already empty and we own a set of bunk beds that is being filled. We've been slowly working on moving G into this new room and we are finally done with it! I had a great time decorating it, although I am sure Ryan wouldn't describe his time doing all the work as "great":)! He is an amazing daddy though, and he painted, put up molding, hung pictures, and even endured a trip to IKEA (and you can imagine what a sacrifice that was)! G and I are both lucky to have someone who helps with our whims! Here's to my BIG 2 year old....next up, potty training....AH!

Also, I just couldn't resist this pic! Here Griffin is crashed out in his car seat reading his favorite book. I kid you not, no other book has a place in Griffin's heart like The Polar Express! He carefully pours over each page and constantly brings it to us to read. He's loving the movie too! So, it's Christmas at our house all year long!

We're going to the ZOO, ZOO, ZOO!!

I have to say that one of the biggest blessings in my little life right now is my mommy friends. I can't imagine making through motherhood without someone to call about the consistency of what's in your kids diaper, when you can switch to regular yogurt, what kind of raisins to buy and the reasons to not eat lunch meat while preggers. All by the way, topics we covered this morning while power walking at the mall. When I told Ry this is what we were doing, he replied, "welcome to your 60's" and then texted later to make sure none of us had broken a hip. I am happy to report there were no broken anythings and we weren't the only stroller fitness group at the mall, although the other group was much more serious and motivated. I was clearly only motivated to move quicker so that we could get back to the side of the mall that Cinnabon was on, I could walk towards that smell for hours....so much for losing weight! HA! Anyways, I guess just feel blessed beyond belief to have a few to run around with. In very mom-esk fashion we made a calendar of events for the summer to fill our days, enjoy the warm weather, and get good sound sleeping boys after an action packed day!

This week we took a little hop, skip, and jump to the Brookfield zoo! We loaded up 2 cars, 4 car seats, 6 juice boxes, several bags of raisins, some goldfish crackers, and the mommies of coarse. The boys were much more interested in the playgrounds and birds that just happened to be living in the trees at the zoo, both things we could see by walking down our street at home...

But then we entered the aquarium section of the zoo, and the zoo found some fans......

This crazy little penguin stole the hearts of all the kids in the aquarium. He swam right up next to them and followed their hands. Griffin about passed out from joy, which in turn made my heart so happy. I have never seen him so overwhelmed with giggles, screams, and utter joy!

This is CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Charlie hug of JOY over the penguin!

Checking out the penguins....

Beautiful Micha checking out the fish

The zoo was a great time, and on the way home Erin and I were pretty sure we brought a little bit of the zoo home....2 toddlers yelling for raisins and Elmo singing away in the background...now that's WILD!

life is so messy....

When I opened my eyes this morning I sat up expecting to breath in the sweet silence of the morning and just have a moment to myself before my day got going. Instead I sat up and saw a mess....laundry all over the floor, toys strewn about from Griffin's birthday, trash on my night stand, and junk spewing out into the hallway. When I let my mind wonder down the stairs it didn't get any better....I remembered that I didn't clean up the kitchen from dinner the night before and if we're being honest the day before that too.....my floors need scrubbed and vacuumed, and I am pretty sure that not only the appearance of my house is messy, but the rest of my life seems to be a little messy too....

Thankfully I ran into this little gem in my mommies devotional the other night...

"I see that even though we made our fair share of messes. Messy time went hand in hand with making the memories we treasure the most. Being a mom is not for the purist. It's messy work. It's getting your hands dirty.

I wonder if the same can't be said of our relationship with God. If we go through life trying to keep everything together, afraid to make a mess, we can miss out on the fun, the wonder, the adventure of life. It is only when we dare to make a mess the we truly live, and it is only when we truly live that we our faith has a chance to grow. Nothing worth doing is ever easy, and so we can expect to make messes. In fact, messes can be a sign that we are not holding back-on our families, ourselves, and on our God.

Messes are nothing more than the by-product of living life abundantly."

As I sat around and thinking about and overwhelmed by the messes all around me, I realized that I am in a time that my heart and home have serious need for God. I need him to come in here with his cleaning supplies and get things all dusted off and vacuumed up. I need to be pumped up to dig back in and start again. I also need that reminder that these messes, day to day craziness, and little pit falls are the memories that build up strength and us as a family. After realizing that my tiny little baby is somehow 2 this last week, every mess, window smudge, dirty dish, and misplaced toy has got to be a reason to celebrate that we are a family. We are alive, together, and in love with each other and living like messes are nothing more than the by-product of living life abundantly is the only way for us to keep going.

time for 2!!!

The birthday has come and gone a second time for Griffin Andrew. As for all moms, it was so hard for me to believe that it has been 2 years. I can remember almost all of those days at the hospital, waiting, meeting, and falling in love with this precious little bundle...and also wondering how I would ever figure out what normal life was going to be like. 2 years later, I can say that there isn't really a "normal"...but that's how we like it. Life without G is almost unimaginable. He had a great birthday with lots of different times and functions to celebrate. Family and friends came from all over to lift us up and celebrate this little life and as parents, that's all you can ask. We are blessed far beyond we ever imagined and our life as a family is even more rich than ever thought possible.

The month of May was crazy busy, hence the lack of posts:)but we are now ready for summer to set in. We did tons of yard and house work, added a patio to the backyard, got in a weekend away for a beautiful wedding of some friends, celebrated our 4th anniversary, Griffin and I traveled with my mom to see some friends in Wisconsin, and we finally got a bike trailer so we have been taking lots of rides as a family. We have much to be thankful for and hopefully a summer full of fun and rest awaits us.

Buddies!

G-man, Micha & Charlie

Just 3 friends, 3 sippy cups, and 3 bowls of gold fish...all little boys need for an afternoon of bliss.

(ok actually they are going to need new diapers, refills on drinks and fish, and a lot of encouragement to keep watching the video so the moms can get a project done...but all in all, an afternoon enjoyed by all!)