August Already?

I know it's been a while since I last posted anything, but it's been crazy busy around here!

We had a wonderful visit last weekend with Jared and Sonny and the girls coming out to spend the weekend with us!!! The girls (and even Jordan too) had a wonderful time playing together, and it was just a nice time to get to hang out with them all!

On Saturday we went downtown to walk on the Canal in the morning, but since it was misting rain (and then started raining a bit harder after that), we decided to turn around and head back down to the south side. We ate lunch at O'Charley's and then headed back home for naptime.

Meggan danced at the Marion County Fair later in the afternoon, and so everybody came and watched her there (Jas and me & Jordan, Jared and Sonny & Jess and Randi, Dawn and Jer & Lucas, and of course the Johnsons were there watching Maggie dance too)! After they did their little Teddy Bear performance, we headed over to the rides. We bought the kids a wristband so they could do as many rides as they wanted to, so they had 1 1/2 hours to ride as many as they could! Jordan and Faith just got some tickets, but they had fun too!!! :)

The girls performing Teddy Bear!

The kids enjoying their first ride at the Fair!

The girls on the ride that goes around and you can make it spin!

Jordan on the Nemo ride!

The guys all went to the Brickyard 400 race on Sunday, and they had a lot of fun! The weather was actually pretty nice, so it was an enjoyable one for them - not raining and not 100 degrees either! In the meantime, the girls and the kids all went to the YMCA to hit the pool. It was really so much fun! The kids all enjoyed swimming, and Meggan even figured out how to get little diving rings off the bottom of the big pool!!!

Allstate 400 at the Brickyard - the view from the guys' seats!

Then came the start of this week. I was asked on Thursday afternoon of the week before last if I would be able to cover a trial ... THAT WAS STARTING ON MONDAY. Of course, I said I could, and so Pat and I were off to the races (literally). We started on Monday morning with jury selection, and it was a pretty exhausting week. I'm glad the weekend is here for a little bit of a break, and then we're back to it Monday morning at 8:30. The case is supposed to be submitted to the jury for deliberations on Monday, so one more day we go!

It's been a busy week, but it will be worth it in the end! :)

Hope everyone has had a great last couple weeks since I've been a little bit removed. Sorry we don't have better pictures, but I'll share a few of last weekend anyway. Until next time.....

Great Birthday Weekend!

Jason turned 31 on Saturday - another year flew right by us!


I'm not sure if I've ever said it before, but I love the weekends that Jason doesn't have to work on Saturday morning. It's something you just get used to when you work at a bank, I know, but it really does make the weekend seem so much longer and nicer when he doesn't have to get up and leave for work at 7:30 and get home around 2:00 on Saturdays. Since their base ball game was canceled, he was actually HOME the whole day!!!

And what a beautiful day it was! We headed to the YMCA for aerobics class in the morning and then went straight from there to the zoo. It was a little chilly, but it warmed up nicely by noon or so. We went through the whole zoo and even caught a dolphin show before it was time to head home and get Jordan a nap - it was so fun to be there as a family and just enjoy each other!


The kids petting the goats in the petting zoo area! Sadly, the only picture I got of any of us while we were at the zoo. I tried at the dolphin show to get a picture of Jason and the kids, but it didn't turn out very good (Jordan was getting too close to nap time, I think)!


We rested a little bit in the afternoon (after cleaning the house, just in case it rained and people had to come inside for Jason's birthday party). We got some pizza for supper and then waited for people to join us to help Jason celebrate his big day.

We had a big crowd: Matt and Jenny (Brady & Ashlynn), Micah and Angi (Maggie & Faith), Sam and Todd (Will & Ellie), Ben and Elise (Colton), Mark and Suzie (Katie, Michael & Camryn), Eric and Shara! I think I caught everyone - sorry if I missed you, but I was probably busy chasing down a kid or two!

Around 7:00 people started arriving, and we played outside all evening! It was a little chilly again, but I didn't mind it (I'll take that over 90 degrees any day)! Jordan and Faith gave out around 9:30 or so, and then we decided Meggan and Maggie were done and put them in bed around 11:00 or so! The adults got to stay up and talk for a little while, and then people started heading home for the night by 11:30 or midnight. We were in bed (Jason may have been more like passed out, but he wasn't drunk) by 1:00. What a great time to enjoy with our friends! :)


Off to church on Sunday morning and then had some lunch at Famous Dave's and headed home to rest a little/take it easy! Jordan got a nice nap, and we relaxed for a couple hours. Then it was time to go back outside and play! Jordan joined us after his 3-hour nap... Pretty low-key day really!


It really was such a great weekend, and now I'm just excited for Jason to get to start using his Pacers tickets that the kids and I got him for his birthday!!!

I think Meggan took this picture of Boe. Just because he hardly ever makes it on the blog, here he is. This is his new choice of places to sleep ... in Jordan's crib! Jordan thinks it's hilarious when we go in there and Boe is in his bed! :)

It's Been BUSY!!!!!

It's been a while since I posted, but that's just because we've been so busy!

It was fun to be back in Iowa for the Fourth of July so that we could enjoy the holiday with family and also get to be there when Jackson was baptized. He wore Jordan's baptism outfit, which I thought was pretty neat! It was a busy day (church started at 10:30 and we were all leaving in the early afternoon to drive back to Indiana). We had a wonderful lunch before we took off to head home that Jesse's mom prepared for us, which was so kind of her ... and YUMMY!!!

Jackson after his baptism!

Crystal ended up deciding to come back to Indy and spend her last week of maternity leave with us. I had a couple days off last week without much work to do, so it was fun to get to just spend time with her and the baby and chat! Lily, my brother's 4 1/2-year-old daughter, also came back to Indy to spend the week, and her and Meggan had a great time getting to play together all day and all night each day! What special time for cousins to get to do that! :)

Meggan and Lily when they stayed the night at our house one night this past week!

We are all EXHAUSTED today! Matt and Julia were here for the weekend (Matt worked on my mom's flooring almost the whole time they were here, but he got a LOT done) and they all left this afternoon after we all went to the YMCA and swam for a while. We came home and cleaned out my van (it needed it B.A.D.L.Y.) and then just hung out for the rest of the evening. Jordan was in bed at 7:45 and Meggan was in bed at 8:00 - tired little kiddos! Jason and I enjoyed an episode of Big Brother together and now he's fast asleep ... and I'm headed that way too!

Daddy and Jordan playing tonight!

Daddy and Meggan playing tonight (don't ask us why she thought this was a good idea)!

The kids playing "traffic jam because they're fixing the road" tonight! You'll notice Jordan is playing but is laying down ... that kind of sums it up for how we were all feeling tonight! :)

We're looking forward to a little less busy week this week. Jason has the church softball tournament tomorrow night starting at 6:30, but since Meggan has gymnastics (I promise to get a few pictures and post those tomorrow), we won't be able to go. Hopefully they will win it - they've had a great season! We are going to go with him to his base ball game on Tuseday night over in Richmond though, so that should be fun! It will keep us busy, but the kids like to go to his games (well, Meggan likes to and Jordan doesn't really voice an opinion quite yet). Should be fun!

Happy Fourth of July!!!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY to everyone!

It has been a while since I last posted, but you haven't missed out on much. We got to go away for the weekend last week where the guys played base ball. Jason's parents drove out to Indiana to stay the weekend with the kids, and they ended up leaving Sunday morning and bringing the kids back to Iowa with them. We were kid-free (and perhaps a little bit lost, I must admit) from the time we got home Sunday evening until we left for Iowa late on Thursday afternoon! We watched a couple movies (we NEVER get around to doing that) and just enjoyed the break and uninterrupted conversation with each other...

We're in Iowa for the Fourth of July (neat fireworks over in Reinbeck tonight) and will be heading home tomorrow. Crystal and Jesse are having Jackson baptized tomorrow at church, and after a little lunch celebration we will take off for the drive home.

Meggan is really sad that we have to leave, and it will be hard for them all to pull away from each other! What a special time that Jason's mom and dad and the kids were able to have!!!

I will post a couple pictures soon, I promise! Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday!!!

Happy Father's Day!

ON A BIT OF A SIDENOTE:

Last night was Meggan's first dance recital - what fun to watch our little girl, who has blossomed into quite the performer when it comes to her dance class and also in the choir at church. We never would have guessed that she would be so excited and ready to head up to the "center of attention" back when she was 3 ... wow, has she grown up a lot in the last couple years!!! It's so fun to see her so excited for people to watch her and how proud she is of herself (and how so proud we are of her)! They did a great job, and she really loved it! We'll see what's next in store for her - she has been wanting to try a gymnastics class, so we'll have to see what we can find out about that.

Meggan and her favorite "ballerina" pose!

Meggan and Maggie with their teddy bears (their number was called "Teddy Bear" and was pretty cute)!

Meggan with almost all of her dance class! I think we're just missing Megan and Devon...

Meggan in her Finale outfit after the performance was done! She had to have some flowers (the hot-pink roses are from all of us and the yellow carnation is from her teacher)!

Just had to post some of those dance pictures - the girls were so adorable!

NOW ON TO THE TOPIC OF THE DAY:

Today was such a nice day - we spent the whole day just the 4 of us! We headed to church and then Meggan went on to Sunday school. After that was over, we grabbed a quick little bite to eat and headed to the YMCA to do a little swimming. Meggan has figured out that she can touch in the big pool at the shallow end, and so she's been trying out all the new things she can do and LOVES it! She had to show Daddy everything, since she just figured it out yesterday when the kids and I were swimming for a little while after I did the aerobics class (Jason had to work yesterday morning).

We love our Daddy!

To my wonderful husband ... I know that I don't get the chance to say it enough, but I hope you know what a great daddy you are! I appreciate you every single day for the husband and father you are - and I just want you to know that. This parenting thing is hard work, and I couldn't do it without you!!! We all love you so much, Jason - you mean the world to us!

Hope all you fathers out there enjoyed your Father's Day! What a wonderful day to get to really show how much we love and adore our #1 SUPERHERO that we call Daddy!!!

As Promised...

Here's a few pictures of the big-boy "buzz" cut!!! We're loving it! He's looking quite BLONDE for sure after this haircut. :)

Enjoy!

Lots of Fun!

We have had a pretty busy past week or so, even though I don't have a lot of pictures to show for it!

Meggan had VBS at our church all last week from 9:00-12:00 noon, and she had tons of fun! I was off a couple days last week and didn't even have any pages of transcript out to work on, so we did a little swimming at the YMCA and had lunch with some friends, etc. It was fun! They did a little performance of the VBS program at the Sunday school hour on Sunday, and she was up there singing her heart out and doing all the moves. It's really so fun to see her going up to the front of the church with the Cherub Choir and when they do the VBS every year ... I wasn't sure she would ever be "brave" enough to do that, but she has proven me wrong! It's like once she turned 4, she was a different kid and completely came out of her shell. (She wouldn't even go up to the front of the church and listen to the children's sermon before that...)

We had a fun and busy weekend, as always! The guys had a base ball game about 1 1/2 hours away on Saturday, so they headed for that around 10:00. They got home just in time for Angi and I to leave and meet the ladies to go to dinner and see the Broadway show "Wicked" at the Murat Theatre downtown. WOW - was that fun or what! It was so much fun to be a "real" adult and have a nice dinner at Palomino and then get to witness my first show ever...

Sunday was church and then we had to get Meggan all dolled up for her dance recital pictures (I can't believe I didn't snap even ONE picture of her all dressed in her tutu and tights and her hair in a bun with her bangs curled.) She looked so pretty! She has dress rehearsal tomorrow evening and then the recital is Saturday starting at 4:30. Looking forward to watching her first dance recital performance! Once we got done with pictures, we headed to the YMCA to swim. Of course, no more had Jordan plopped himself down into the little pool than the lifeguards blew their whistles and said everybody had to clear the deck due to thunder/lightning. It was such a bummer! We headed to the indoor pool and swam for a while, but it's just not the same. Jordan wanted to get down and walk around in the water like he can in the little pool outdoors, but since the shallow end is 3 1/2 feet deep, that wasn't possible. We still had some fun splashing around and then headed home! Below are a couple pictures of swimming this week - the kids with Jason at the indoor pool on Sunday and then the kids at the outdoor pool on Saturday before we went to Brady's (our neighbor that just turned 5) birthday party. On Sunday evening Jason went paint balling with a couple of the neighbor guys, and they had a fun time doing that ... he had never been paint balling before and said it was a blast, albeit hotter than you-know-where!

This week, other than dance class on Monday night, we've been just laying low and just hanging out. I called Mom up yesterday afternoon to see how late she was working and if I could bring Jordan over to get his hair cut. His "bangs" were starting to get close to getting in his eyes. We got there and decided to go for it --- WE BUZZED JORDAN'S HAIR OFF!!! I was a little nervous, I have to admit, but I'm SO glad that we did it! He looks so cute --- and looks like Jason, everybody says! Of course, didn't get a picture of that either other than on my phone to send it to Jason, so I'll have to take one this evening when I pick them up at Nancy's and post it up here.

Speaking of which, I'd better get to working on this job. Hope everyone is having a great week!