It's a bedtime tradition that began with Little Nutbrown Hare, and each night we try to outdo the last...I love you to the moon and back...to the beach and back...to the mountians...and one of my favorites, "to Jesus and the angels" and back...We never imagined we would be saying, I love you to Africa and back...it seems like the furthest imaginable place, but yet in God's perfect timing, we plan to go.... to Africa and back!!! And when we get back, we will have another little cheek to kiss goodnight...please keep us in your prayers and enjoy this journey with us!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Happy Summer!!!
I thought it would be forever until I got to say that! We are definitely enjoying summer activities... Since my last post we've...





Celebrated the 4th of July...

















































Celebrated Macey's 2nd birthday...
We've learned to cherish everyday that we have with Dixie, because we've learned that she has cancer and might not have much time with us...this means lots of fun doggie outings and lots of extra treats and snuggles...


We've...
smiled
had treats
played outside
made memories...





Traveled...











We've made a quick trip to Chattanooga to visit cousin Cooper (and Uncle Corey and Aunt Renee) and then on to Greysville to visit Grampa Retzer, Uncle Richard and Nauna and Papa for Father's Day...











We're off to a busy start this summer but we've enjoyed the memories we've made and are looking forward to all the summer has in store! I realize more and more how quickly time seems to pass and how important it is to cherish everyday...







































(please disregard this video block...I tried to delete it and can't... I'll post was I was meaning to on the next post... :)









Tuesday, May 18, 2010

A quick update from April and May...

Last Friday was our 10 year wedding anniversary...I thought I would put my wedding dress on (if nothing else, to make sure it still fit!) Emmaline just loved my "princess dress"!
I couldn't resist her request to "wear it"... she wanted to twirl in it but I told her she'd have to wait a few more years, she settled for just "wearing it" this time!

Last week I was able to have a week of vacation and we just stayed home instead of traveling... it was really nice having time at home to just get things done and spend time with Emmaline. Nauna and Papa were also able to come visit for a long weekend, which is always fun!
Here helping to give the dogs a much needed bath!
Dressing up in her new princess outfit... another favorite past time

Sharing a Starbucks outing with Nauna on Mother's day
Picking strawberries... we were able to pick enough strawberries while my mom was here to make 3 recipes of strawberry jam!
Last month I ran the country music 1/2 marathon, here Emmaline is "admiring" my medal
The night before the run Monica and I got to "carb load" (guilt free!) we went to dinner together and Emmaline and Avery had so much fun hanging out together, as usual!

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Emmaline's "half-birthday"! She loves saying now that she's "two and a HALF"!
Emmaline and cousin Lyla, how have they gotten so big???
she was so excited this time to blow out her candles...we celebrated with a little famly get together, cupcakes and 2 and 1/2 candles!

our "whole family" enjoying an outside lunch


picking flowers with Nauna

Working on holding up 2 and 1/2 fingers...kind-of tricky!


One of Emmaline's new favorite past times is cooking... of course always wearing her apron!
making "Big Bird lemonade" with Daddy
making her "pink princess cupcakes"

The first of April Chad and I were able to go to Cancun for the week, and Emmaline got to stay here with Nauna and Papa! While we were away, Emmaline got to do lots of fun things with Nauna and Papa (including cooking), while we got to do lots of relaxing! We all had a wonderful time!
just being silly...
Ahhh, the beach!!!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Parties!

This month has been full of parties! We started off with a Valentine's Day party at school. Emmaline thought it was so fun to have me there to watch her! We started the party with cupcakes then had free time to dance to silly music. Now when I drop her off in the mornings she wants me to sit down in the little chair next to her like I did at the party and watch her eat her breakfast...fun memories!
I got one quick picture between "dances"
We have started to have Sabbath lunch together with our friends alternating between houses. It makes mealtime a lot more fun to be able to just hangout and let the kids run around afterwards and not worry making too much noise!
Saturday night before Valentines Day we all got together at our house to decorate Valentines cookies. We had a lot of fun being creative and watching the kids experiment with creativity! Some definitely did more eating than decorating!
You can see that Emmaline had to do her decorating/tasting while wearing her princess dress!

"I do it myself!" What a big girl!
The four of them got the giggles while trying to take this picture, it was so cute...I would have loved to catch video of them laughing
Attending a 1st birthday party for Kylie, a friend from church. What a big party!

Face painting at the party: Emmaline wanted kitty whiskers, "like Avery".
Curious kitties

Mmmmmm
Worn out!

Hope everyone is doing well and I'll try to update the blog again soon with more pictures from the last couple of weeks. We've had a really busy month!