a new year

Well.
I'm not even sure what to say.
I knew it had been awhile, but jeez...

When I finally logged in and dusted off the old blog and saw the date I actually last posted... ouch.


I mean, I've had little lapses before, but four months??!?
Never in the eight years I've been babbling here blogging has that happened.
I don't even know what to say. Not even sure I know how to jump back in. It must be kinda like riding a bike, eh?

What a crazy four months it has been.
But I'm just going to jump into January and pretend like that little leave of absence never happened and back fill things in as I go.

And so, New Years!

Our only out of town-ers to ring in the New Year with us were the Laughlins.  They came and stayed a couple of nights before and we had a great time hanging with them. We all ate lots and played lots and laughed lots and our two kids made it to midnight (which 3/4 of the adults did not!) on New Years Eve.

And then of course our New Years Day Dinner.  Eighth Annual, fyi. :)
[Here are 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2007 if you like trips down memory lane like me!]

It was a bit of a smaller affair this year; The Harkins again, The Laughlins, one half of the Wrights again and us, which made 7 adults and 8 kids. We had a full afternoon with a colorful table, a symbolic menu, fun fortune cookies, kid decorated toasting cups, breaking and sharing the peppermint pig and wonderful friends...

 L-R grown-ups: Mike, Ryan, Me, Mindy, Kevin, Kelly and Kasey

L-R kids: Evan (4.5), Wesley (2.5), Baby C, Kyle (8.5), Sawyer (8), Savannah (10.5), Alex (2.5) and Micah (4.5)

Always the best way to start off the New Year!

like I said...

What did I tell you?
If you spend enough time with us, we all start to look alike...














We ran up for a quick visit with the Robertsons this past weekend and quickly realized the girls had matching dresses as well as three out of the four boys all having the same color shirt on. That fourth boy had did a quick change and whah-lah...


our very own version of sextuplets
...with about six different shades of skin tone :)

a long weekend

It seems like it was a whole week of a weekend around here... it's kind of nice to have a quiet, normal days this week. ;)

Last Thursday Amie and the kids came down for a quick visit and we had so much fun with them! We hadn't seen them all since February (?!) and that was way too long since we only live a couple of hours away. So, so great to see them, to have some kid play time, some girlie chat time (we missed you David!) and of course, the traditional kids on the stairs pictures!:






















































On Friday, the Robertsons stuck around to see the Laughlins who were coming down for the holiday weekend. We got a quick couple of shots of all the kids










whoops! only seven here...



ah, there's all of them...































before the Robertsons took off and we settled into a busy but relaxing long weekend with the Laughlins.
We took them to the zoo on Saturday, we spent a couple of afternoons at the pool, we grilled out a lot, we played a few dozen rounds of beer frisbee in the backyard, and spent an evening playing games with our neighbors who also had family in town.


Sawyer got Kasey hooked on Doodlejump. :)


















We did a little mini-abbreviated 4th of July celebration on Sunday evening for the kids. Yes, these are boring pictures because we're lame and made them do sparklers in the daylight. Smoke balls and sparklers flame and smoke-lers were enough to satisfy them!









































































































Thanks for spending time with us Friends!!

it's catching

Remember how I mentioned that my kids like to think they're twins all the time now?


Well, apparently it's spreading...















and we've somehow morphed into quadruplets around here...
















Be forewarned... if you sleep at our house, we might all start to look the same. :)

weekend report

Let's see... how did the weekend fly by this time?

Friday evening Sawyer had a friend with a birthday pool party we went to. The kids had a blast... two diving boards and a waterslide. Need I say more? We've never had diving boards at our own pools, so while Savannah has braved the board a handful of times during swim lessons, Sawyer had never had the opportunity in his short five years. He was just the slightest bit of hesitant walking out the first time high over the water, but after that first jump, he was hooked! He probably jumped off the diving boards fifty times that night. Backwards, twists, tricks, and the works with some of his favorite friends. They were fun to watch. :)

Ryan had a friend down visiting from Chicago, staying with us all weekend, so Saturday we took him downtown and showed him around, had lunch at a nice little brewery down by the river and came home to finish out the afternoon at the pool.

Sunday morning Mr. L left super early and the rest of us were still in bed when Ryan got back from the airport. He came back to bed and we didn't wake up until about 9... Ryan was still sleeping and I heard the kids downstairs, but they were entertaining themselves so I picked up my book and we didn't actually get out of bed until 10am! So nice. :)
Needless to say, we skipped church and just had an honest day of rest. Which was nice because I feel like we've been going going going and with all the visitors we still have on tap (Laughlins this weekend, yay!!) it was nice to just have a whole day of nothing to do but relax with the family time. We did head out to the zoo for a bit because it had been a nice morning, but the rain caught up with us and we threw the towel in after an hour or so. We had a lazy afternoon just lounging around waiting for the Malones to show up... they were our final houseguests to cap off the weekend, stopping in on their way home to STL. We had a really fun night with Chinese food, some Beer Frisbee in the backyard, and lots of great stories to tell. The kids all slept great, Ryan made us all pancakes this morning and then we sent them on their way with lots of hugs goodbye.

And now we're onto another week.
How oh how do these Mondays always come so fast??!?

this is what its all about...

here's (part of) our calendar for this summer:

JUNE:
H Family staying w/us 12th-15th
M Family staying w/ us June 18th-19th
LH staying w/ us June 24th-25th
M Family staying w/ us June 25th-26th
R Family staying w/ us June 30th- July 1st

JULY:
L Family staying w/ us July 2nd-5th
[Nic and LA, I have just enough room for you to book in here somewhere?!!] ;)
G Family staying w/ us July 15th-31st

AUGUST:
B Family staying w/ us first week of August
[and then school starts August 11]

END SUMMER (boo!)

plus:
C Family staying w/ us in September, S Family coming in October, and G Family again at the end of November.

(and that' just people staying here with us. not taking into account things we're doing/places we're going!!)

Some people might think we're crazy.
(especially this summer)
But I love it. :)















I love that we have the space and the means and the desire to fill our house... to fill empty beds and empty plates and host friends and family who either need or want a place to stay with us. I love that my kids get a chance to practice hospitality (and practice and practice and practice) and what it means to serve others. I love that we get to spend time with all these people -even people we don't know all that well- and get to share even just a bit of our life with them. I love that they take time out of their busy life (or their busy vacation!) to stop and relax and be here with us for even just a meal.
I love it.

the week end

I feel like I say this almost every week, but I honestly cannot believe it is Sunday night already! If normal weeks fly by, this one was mach speed... but also incredibly loooong at the same time. :)

We had VBS all week with all of us having to be at the church from 8 to noon every morning. And then we had swimming lessons at a private pool over in Smyrna (a 30 minute drive for us) for both kids having us out of the house from about 2:15 to 4:30 every afternoon. Bookend that with houseguests last Sunday thru Wednesday and then houseguests this weekend and you have got one tired mama! And kids.
So glad this week is (so far) more laid back!

Last weekend it was the Howards who were here visiting. LeeAnn's sister lives here in Nashville and they used our house as a crashpad. It was fun to catch up with LeeAnn... I've always been a little disappointed that we didn't become friends until just literally weeks before we left Michigan. And the fact that two of our boys are just a week apart in age... Sawyer and Lukas were fast friends this week (not having remembered each other from before). They were basically joined at the hip and there really wasn't one ounce of tension or arguing, they got along so well! And LOVED sharing a bedroom. I always think it's so funny... when we have girls over it takes hours for Savannah and her friends -or even when it's Sawyer and Lucy- to settle down and we usually end up having to move one of them to another room before they'll actually settle down and go to sleep by midnight. But every time we've had another boy stay in Sawyer's room, they are out like lights. Love it!

This weekend, the Malones made a pit stop (I'd link to their blog too, but it hasn't been touched in two years(?!) so....) for the start of their vacation. Always great to see them... the kids all had a blast and we so enjoyed our time with old friends! They came to church with us this morning and we all went out to lunch for Father's Day before they hit the road again.

After lunch (at Ryan's favorite bbq joint) and bidding the Malones adieu, we did a little Father's Day shopping to celebrate the resident father here (he's had a few things on his list from Academy Sports so we hit that up... new sunglasses, flip flops, a bike pump and a new frisbee!) and then the four of us went to see a movie (KFP2) and are following it up with a fairly early bedtime... we all need it!
All in all I'd say it was a happy day!

a laughlin weekend

We took off for the long weekend and headed up to Columbia to see the Laughlins for Evan's birthday and of course to meet baby Alex. :)

It was a great long weekend with a birthday party, lots of cake and ice cream and yummy food, lots of games, lots of catching up, and of course, lots of baby holding...



































Other random picts from the weekend...
















































































And I'm sure Kasey will have more of the party!