a girls' trip

Last month my sister and her two girls … and her little baby boy bump… came for a visit, and they were able to stay for a good chunk of time. These visits are always busy, with toddler meltdowns and potty accidents and songs at the dinner table, and they are so filled with the good stuff of life. One of the best things about living in Louisville was that Kali and Dan were a just a few hours away. Pre-babies this meant we could jump in the car and spend a day together whenever it struck our fancy [do people say "struck our fancy" anymore? :)] Though I miss those visits, and though the visits these days are a little more chaotic and a little fewer and far between, they are still so very special. 

I wanted to post some pictures I snapped [mainly on my phone] over the week and a half that they visited so that they don't get lost in a file on my computer somewhere. These are in no particular order, but capture our time together pretty well. 

Story time with Aunt Kels! Ellie is about to snap my legs in half. 

Caroline was so excited that we had snow that "wouldn't disappoint her" [meaning, it wouldn't melt when she went down for her nap!] 

Ellie was entranced with "cooking" with flour on Nana's countertop. It kept her busy for at least a half an hour! 

The girls have now become pretty fond of coming over to Aunt Kelsey's house for a little getaway during the day [or just "Kels'" as Caroline calls me. She has three aunts, her dad's sisters, and a Kels. ] They were watching a little Toy Story while Kali and I made lunch. 

They are pretty fond of Uncle Brent, too. 

This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it. I love how Ellie is looking at Blythe, and the difference in their skin tone is amazing! Not to mention baby bums are so cute! The cousins got to have a lot of baths together

Caroline was so sweet with Blythe, which is not really a surprise as she loves to mother. We would find her reading to her or holding her hand or kissing on her all the time. 

They love their nana! 

This child makes us laugh…a lot. 

Ellie was also very good with Blythe. Even though she is only 8 months older, I never worried about her tackling or pushing Blythe, because she was always so gentle with her. She also liked to read to Blythe. 

I always try and do a little something creative with Caroline when we are together. She now expects a "craft" almost every day. 

Caroline was showing Blythe how to play the cupcake game 

They don't mind their papa either…especially Ellie, she would cry when he left and then proceed to ask where he was 3948 million times until he came back. 

Morning cartoons and breakfast at Nana's

And with three kids, three and under…there is bound to be some of this. 

Caroline loves to use Papa's flashlight from his uniform belt. 

Spending time with Torri is always a lot of fun too. And Torri has figured out the best way to keep track of them…keep them contained!!! :) 

A potty treat, Veggie Tale bandaid, and bird watching 

The airplane Papa made them. 

An impromptu sink bath after a diaper explosion 

Telling Great Grandpa A.J. where the bear is. They were hunting and camping. 

Blythe discovered the necklaces while everyone was here. She puts them all on, one by one, then leaves them on while she plays until someone takes them off of her. When Caroline saw her crawling towards she said, "Here comes a FANCY MESS!" 

Here's a picture Kali sent from the plane. She is a brave woman to fly alone with them, but they do awesome! We'll see if she feels like conquering it with three :) 

I was reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" again the other day and came across this passage. It reminded me of the post I wrote HERE about my dad and all his girls. 

Some more crafting. 

Cooking with Nana 

It was a great trip. We miss them so much already! 

blythe's birthday

First I have to share this:

I posted some of the pictures that Meagan took when I wrote THIS LETTER to Blythe on her birthday, but Meagan posted the rest of\ t]Hem ]]]]]]] [<< Blythe just helped me write that….] as I was saying, the oh-so-talented Meagan posted the rest of them on her blog, HERE! Go check them out and give Meagan some love and tell her how talented she is! 

When I started this blog I did so for several reasons. One was to have a place to WRITE. Another one was to document life. I've gotten behind on posting pictures and life happenings, so I want to do that. So here are the pictures from Blythe's birthday. 

I wanted to keep it simple, so I didn't really have a theme, just colors. Meagan helped me make some cute garland and poms, and my mom and Brent's mom and my Grandma pitched in on some food and waa-laa, a party was born. 

[THese aren't fantastic pictures…I didn't have time to mess with camera settings and the lighting was terrible. I apologize. ] 

The outfit and hat we brought Blythe home from the hospital in a year ago 

CUPCAKES! 

The birthday girl in her fancy schmancy new chair from

A little toilet paper wreath action 

Turquoise drink! So easy-- blue raspberry koolaid, sugar, and lemonade. 

I made a massive collage of pictures of Blythe that went from birth to one year. I had a lot of fun picking pictures. I hung it up in the kitchen for the party, and then moved it above her crib. 

On the day she was born it was a beautiful, green spring day. This is what we got hit with the day of her one year party! 

My big [little] one year old

Life is fun with her around

This is Ellie. She was not at the party, but this picture snuck into the party pictures so I thought I would share. 

DIdn't realize it was in black and white until I took it

I set out her baby book, my belly book I kept while pregnant, and the book of cards I made with all of the cards we received when she was born. 

I made a little "Hope Jar" for Blythe, and everyone wrote down a hope or prayer they have for her

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It was so nice to have grandparents and great grandparents and cousins at her party! I told my mom that this is the kind of stuff I thought about when we decided to move home. I have fond memories of family birthday parties :) 

Blythe whispered in my ear that she wanted an ice cream cake, so I of course had to oblige. Actually, Brent and I have always done ice cream cakes for each other because that is what we like…

But Blythe did get a little cupcake action. Brent and I weren't huge fans of the whole "smash cake", but everyone thought we should let her have something…so a cupcake it was [and lots of bites of everyone else's ice cream cake when she crawled over and begged, I'm sure]

She figured it out pretty quickly 

I wasn't going to give it all to her, but while I was cutting the cake, she somehow managed to get it all back on her tray…hmmm…softies

Everyone got their cameras out and she started cheesing it up! 

Papa thought they should go check out the snowfall outside. 

It was a great evening full of friends and family. We are blessed by all these people in our lives, and not Blythe gets to be too! 

For Easter we traveled to Oklahoma to be with Brent's brother's family…and his sister and her two boys…and his parents! We had a full house, but it was a wonderful weekend and I'll post pictures of that soon [hopefully…this one took me three days to finally get posted! Sheesh]. 

Try to get 6 kids, 11 and under,  to look in the right direction