Busy September Days

Our lives are very full these days. Work, school, sports, activities, etc. We are certainly never bored. Thankfully, we can still find time to sit around a fire and roast marshmallows. Andy built this one, so it actually stayed burning for more than 30 seconds!






Bella's afternoons/evenings either have volleyball practice or games. She has three games this week!




Last Saturday, our whole family volunteered with Feed My Starving Children. This is a great volunteer event for all ages and I loved that we all got to work together. As much as we can, we want to pass along to our kids a heart for serving others. We've been very blessed, so we also have a big responsibility to also pass that blessing on to others.

Like the event coordinators said, it was the most fun that we've ever had in a hair net!


The kids tried out several different jobs. Graydon started out with scooping.


Curtis was a bag opener.


Andy did some scooping.




Bella added the vitamins.




I helped seal all of the bags.






We packed over 28,000 bags in two hours!


Our countdown to Disney has begun! We're going there over Fall Break.


Since I have a class until 5:30pm on Tuesdays, Andy has taken over dinner duty on those evenings. He was really proud of his meal one night, so he took a photo of his plate. There's that part of me that wants to be Super Mom and still juggle full-time work, part-time school, and all of my household responsibilities; but I know that will just leave me tired and grumpy. And it is so nice to have a night off from meal prep.


After five years of living here, we now have a tire swing! We had one when we lived in New Jersey, but the trees here were so tall that it seemed impossible. Then Andy got the idea from a church member to attach a rope to his bow and arrow. The rest is history.


The rope is super long, which makes for a great ride!


Ignore my sandals over my socks. I only came outside to watch. I never intended to get on our have my picture taken. But I must say. . . this swing is FUN!






Graydon is running for Student Council Vice President. This is the photo he chose for his campaign poster.


Another Curtis surprise left on my phone.


Flag football season is upon us. We had a beautiful day for a game yesterday.


You can always spot where Curtis is because he likes to wear his orange hat.




Run, Graydon, run! And he scored a touchdown!


Go Colts!


After the football game, Bella got to try out Knockerball.


It's like soccer, but the kids are in these bubbles.


It was so funny to watch them bump into each other and fall all over the place.


After the game, the boys were able to try it out a little bit.


And for some really BIG news. . . we bought a Jeep!


Andy has been wanting one for a couple of months now and we finally found one at a price we were comfortable with. This is a 2018 Jeep Wrangler with under 5,000 miles!


It was such a beautiful day, so we took the top off and went for a ride.




We're going to have some fun with this.


While on our fun ride, the boys were being a little crazy in the backseat. I turned around to see Graydon crying. Apparently Curtis's hard head banged right into Graydon's eye. It swelled up immediately.  We stopped at a gas station to get him some ice. We've always known that anything that comes into contact with Curtis's helmet head is going to come out on the losing end! This was just another illustration of that yesterday.

August Days

We visited the State Fair again this year. Graydon found a way to cool off while waiting in line for ice cream.


Bella and I split this chocolate peanut butter cup funnel cake. I didn't think we'd be able to eat all of it. Not only did we eat the whole thing, it only took us a few minutes to do it. That cake was soooo good.


It looks like we have pretty strong kids.












Curtis came home from school one day and he took a nap. This is not like him. He had been sniffling and sneezing and it turned out that he caught a pretty bad cold that just wiped all of his energy.


It happened just in time to head up to Wisconsin for Kristen's wedding. We drove up to Wisconsin the Thursday evening before the wedding. We didn't get in until late and pretty much went to bed after arriving. Friday was filled with getting our nails done and the rehearsal. And then finally it was the big day!

Here is Bella getting her hair done.


All dressed up and ready for a wedding! Bella was a junior bridesmaid. She has graduated from her flower girl days.


The bride and groom see each other for the first time that day.


Big family photo!


Everything was outside, so there was a lot of places to play and explore.


Our cuties!


Since we were all dressed up, I couldn't resist.


Who needs a park when there is as big log.


On the morning of the wedding, I woke up with a sore throat. The next day, I was completely stuffed up and exhausted. I'm thankful that the only plan that day was to relax. But first, we went out to breakfast.


The rest of the day, we all hung out at my parents' house and ate leftovers from the day before. I'm so glad that we planned to take Monday off from school and work, because this day together was so nice.

Driving back to Indiana. We were all worn out from the busy weekend.


Graydon has become quite the ham for the camera.




It was my birthday a couple of days after we returned from WI. I turned 39! I got a nice birthday hug from Bella. This was just after we returned from our family dinner at Joe Willy's. Andy also surprised me with a Starbucks drink at school.


Cake time! Andy made an ice cream cake and we all dug in!


I also got these beautiful flowers!


I wish it could be my birthday every day!

A yellow "C"! Perfect for our yellow-loving Curtis.


The "Cs" actually stand for Columbus. But it would have been pretty cool if this was a "G".


Bella's volleyball season has begun! I'm a little off my game. I usually bring my nice camera to the first game. I completely forgot to do that. But I got a couple snaps of her playing. I'll try to do better as the season goes on.




We spent the Saturday of Labor Day weekend at the lake at the invitation of the couple who lead our community children's choir. It felt like a fall day, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the water.










We've got a few weeks of school under our belt and my classes for my Masters program begin on Tuesday. Life is about to become a whole new level of busy with working full time and taking two classes. Just two more semesters left! Can't wait until April 2020!!!