Wrestling

Tonight after dinner the kids wanted to wrestle. Both Senica and Ty had BK and Seth working up a sweat! Well, Seth was probably just sweating at dinner....but they wrestled for quite awhile! It was fun to watch. :) The facial expressions were crackin' me up!

Lovin' Life!

Janae, Brenna, Senica and Ty came over tonight to hang out. Brian was cleaning the yard and the kids had so much fun jumping into the leaf pile!! It was so fun to see them laughing and laughing! We played in the leaf pile, ate some Taco Bell....and of course.....watched Elf! :)

Finished!!

Yeah!! After months....our floor is finished!! Whhoooo hhoooooo!!! Thank you to my hard-working husband and my wonderful brother-in-law for working so long and hard to get it done! It looks AWESOME!! :)

Fashion Farm

Monday after work, Brian and I met Anitra, April and all the kids at the Fashion Farm for the annual trip. It was a beautiful day and the kids had a blast! Fall is my favorite time of the year and it was finally a nice fall day! Can you believe how tall all the kids are? I love days like this...with my favorite people! My husband, my sisters and the kids!! Life is good!

Eight is Great!!

I was sitting at a cafe called the Bulldog. I was in Amsterdam. I was on my first trip to Europe by myself when I read my email...."I am pregnant!!! Brian and I are having a baby. We wanted to tell you before you left, but we hadn't told all the grandparents yet....congraulations, Addi...you are going to be an aunt!!!"

I cannot believe it has been 8 years since I got that email. I cannot believe how much you can love a child that is not your own. I cannot believe that Janae is 2 shoe sizes smaller than me and I really cannot believe that she is just about as tall as me!

What I CAN believe is how smart, FUNNY, caring, loving, artisitc and beautiful she is!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANAE!! I love you bunches!

Where did it go??

Where in the world did this last year go? I cannot believe that Jacinda is 1!! What a blessing she is! Her smile can make your saddest day bright! :)

I cannot wait to see what God has in store for her. I cannot wait to see how she develops into a toddler...to see which sister she teams up with to argue with the other two! ;) I cannot wait to hear her say my name. That is one of the most exciting times for me...the first time one of the nieces/nephew say my name! :)

Happy birthday Jacinda! I love you!

Pumpkin Patch

Ty and I headed to the Pumpkin Patch tonight so that Ty could pick out his own pumpkin. On Wednesday nights, Senica has Awana's at church and Anitra goes with her. School has started again for Seth...so he has lots of late nights...so I get some quality time with Ty! :)

Tonight Brian was planting the mums and getting the backyard ready for the colder weather, so Ty and I took a quick trip to get a pumpkin.

We had a lot of fun! Ty wanted a tiny one and that was kinda hard to find. He did find a lot of rotten ones that he thought were very interesting. We had a really good time....and ended the night with some hot cocoa. I love fall!

Chicago half marathon

I went last weekend to watch Anitra run in the half-marathon race in Chicago. I was supposed to run in it with Anitra, but because of my hip, the Dr. said no running. I transferred my registration to next year. I don't know if Anitra will do it again, but if not, she can take the pics of me running. :)

We went with our friend Mary...who is amazing! We had some fun girls time together! Mary is quite the inspiration! She ran the race...came back to help us cheer Anitra on...and then ran the rest of the way with Anitra, encouraging her! What a blessing her friendship is! Dustin and Stacy were there too. Stacy ran the 1/2 and Dustin ran the 5k. I just realized that I have a pic of Stacy running in this collage, but not Dustin. Dustin finished before I was expecting him, so I didn't get a pic of him running...just right after he crossed the finish line. I will have to post that separately.

I am extremely proud of Anitra!! She trained hard and ran a good race! Way to go sis!! :)

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Steven Seiler

Cute, Cute and CUTE!

Just had to post some pics of some of the kids. Aren't they so ADORABLE? Love 'em bunches!!! Stay tuned for the other 3...

Jessica's Non-Shower

This morning a group of us girls stopped by to pick Jessica up for a non-baby-shower-girl's-day-out! :) I love the top pic of the first collage where Jess is saying to Anitra nd Mary "What are all these people doing here??"

First stop - Dream Nails! Mary had called ahead to let them know that we were coming and when we got there, 3 people were working. One-by-one they trickled in until we had 7 people working on our feet. My guy didn't talk, Katie's lady was telling her about her friend dying and Jessica had a lady say to her "My friend had baby last week - very painful" niiiice. :) We did have fun though - lots of laughs!

Next stop - Olive Garden! YUMMY!! I never thought I was a fan of Olive Garden, but the last 2 times I have been there have been with this group of friends and I do have to say I love that soup that we can't pronounce! :) Jessica got some cute pink and purple girly clothes! So.much.fun!!

We had a great day and I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such great friends!! :)

Happy Birthday Leah

Leah's birthday was this week, so we had a carry-in lunch for her. Instead of a cake, I made some chocolate-chip zuchinni bread...yum! I love the picture of Leah doing what the card is saying and Cheryl laughing so hard she can't even look at the camera. Fun times! :)

Happy Birthday Senica!

Today Senica turns 5! I cannot believe how all my little nieces/nephew are growing up SO FAST! Senica is starting school and is already reading! She is such a sweet and caring child! Makes me so sad that pretty soon she will be like Janae - almost as tall as me! :( sniff, sniff.

Parker

One of my best friends had her 2nd little boy on July 21st. I went over when Parker was about 2 weeks old and got some cute pictures of him and his big brother, Connor. Kim is an amazing mother and an equally amazing friend! Aren't these boys just adorable?!

Grace Reunion

A few weeks ago, when we still had summer weather, we had our 1st annual Grace Road Trip Reunion. Brian and I hosted the cookout and it was so good to get together with our friends! I cannot believe all the little ones running around!! Good times. :)

I'm back...

So - I guess I took a longer break than I realized and I didn't really think that I had that many people follow my blog...but, apparently, I was wrong. :)

It's been too long to write everything that has been happening, but here are some hi-lights...

- Brian's brother got married
- Brian is playing in the church softball league...and is the pitcher. I think this is the last week and they are still waiting on their first win
- I went to the Taste of Chicago with my cousin's Nanci and Mia
- We got a lot of swimming in
- Had a Pampered Chef party with the best consultant ever. :)
- Went to BlueGate with Adam and Mary and saw His Life
- Papa's birthday, April's birthday, Adria's birthday
- Brenna's graduation
- More swimming
- Oh yeah, and I signed up to run a 1/2 marathon with my sister and some friends from church :)

Annual Birthday trip

Jacinda and I made our annual birthday trip to Chicago to watch the Cubbies. Her birthday is the 11th and mine, the 12th. Our last year of our 20's. The game was a blast!! ;) Anytime you get to sing Go Cubs Go at the end of the game it a good time! :)

Sleepovers & Prom

Friday night April and I had a date at Red Lobster. :) Brian watched Jacinda and Anitra had the rest of the kids. We ate dinner and did a little shopping. When we got home, Brian and Jacinda were hanging out downstairs and both were happy! :) They both did a great job while we were out!

Janae and Brenna were spending the night at Senica's, so April came down with Adria and Jacinda spent the night at our house. :) Brian was up at 6:30 to go to work and I got up with Jacinda. She is so happy when she wakes up...not like me! So I made breakfast and then April went to pick up the kids.

After they left, I stated working on the tile by the front door and Brian came home shortly after that. We got all the carpet and padding pulled up and then I headed to Goshen to take Mia's prom pictures. Aren't Tony and Mia absolutely adorable?! :) It was such a gorgeous day and they were just so cute!! After pictures Brian and I went to dinner at the O with Uncle Fred and Aunt Marie, Aunt Marie's sister, and Nanci and Dawn. Then after dinner I made my first trip of the year to The Chief. :) Yummmy!!!

It was a GREAT weekend...and I'm beat!

Busy week!

Monday night we hosted the Bethel baseball team at our house for dinner to give Anitra a break. Nelson had gotten tickets to the Cubs game on Wednesday night and since Bethel's game was rescheduled, he sold me his tickets. So Wednesday night, Jacinda and I drove to Chicago after work to go to the game! :) We had such great seats and it was a blast!! :)

Thursday night, we watched the kids so that Anitra could go to a spa party and get pampered. :)

Saturday Anitra dropped off Senica and Ty at 8:30 in the morning because she had a conference she had to go to, so Brian and I put them to work! :) We are changing the walls in the front room from green to a sand color and they helped to prime it. Since we are tearing up the carpet, it didn't matter if they got paint on it. Then, I gave them baths, because we had paint everywhere, and headed to Bethel for Senior Day.

It rained before the game started, but the sun came out and it was a gorgeous day! The big surprise of the day was Cam and Sam's engagement. Cam had it planned out so well and did a great job!! :) Sam had no idea about any of it and Cam had been planning it since last November. Isn't her ring beautiful?! Sam babysits Senica and Ty for Anitra and Seth and does a great job with them! :) They were high school sweethearts and it was fun to hear his grandma telling stories about when they first started dating. :)