Texas Visitors

August 8-11th

Oh my goodness, where do I even start with this trip?!  

Our first visitors in our new home were Uncle Guy & Aunt Sharon and Grandpa Joe & Grandma Dean. 

They all drove up from Texas to see us. US.  We are the only ones left of the Texas Drysdale boys. (sad, but true. oh how we miss our brothers/sisters/aunts/uncles/cousins)

We felt so special to have them make this long trip just for us. SO.SPECIAL.

And my oh my was it a fantastic few days. We packed so much fun into our time with them.

I didn't take pictures of everything, but here's  recap of what we fit in:  a picnic at the park, snow cones, garage sale finds, antique store in town, hotel swimming, IKEA (so fun, see pics below!), date night with the adults, dinner out with the kiddos, and lots of talking and visiting. 

We just loved it so much and truly felt very loved and way too spoiled!

We were able to go swimming at the hotel where they stayed.  

Cute cute boys:

This was my first time swimming since having the baby...so nice to get in a pool again!!!

I love this crazy family of mine:

 Our lovely audience:  

Grandpa, Uncle Bob, Grandma Dean, & Aunt Susie. Love them!

Aunt Sharon was so happy to hold Cal:

Uncle Guy & Aunt Sharon:

We made sure to line up a sitter so we could go out with the adults. We planned on dinner and then were having so much fun (and Callen was doing awesome) so we decided to go to a movie too! (Thank you to our awesome sitter, we love her!)

Brick Oven + the Bourne Legacy + wonderful family and a hot date= best night!!!!

It was so awesome having so much time to visit and get to know this awesome lady.

I absolutely adore her and simply LOVE her to pieces!!!

Love love love Grandp & Grandma:

Uncle Guy & Aunt Sharon rock:

Bob & Susie are so amazing:

We introduced them to Oldify & Fatify. Funnies afternoon ever!

Ryder fell in love with Grandpa. He cried and cried when he left. It was so sweet to see them hanging out and having fun together. Our rambunctious little guy loved to sit on Grandpa's lap:

Ryder NEVER falls asleep with us. (I was a little jealous!) But really it was so neat to see how much he loved his Grandpa Joe:

The boys had a great time putting together paper airplanes with Grandma Dean:

Meeting sweet little Callen:

What's a trip without a little project to keep us busy?! Once Sharon heard about our 'sort of' plans for the mudroom, she set to work and made it happen. It was fun to design the space and get it functional!!  We are LOVING our cabinets and bench...and are finishing it up soon so we can post pictures!

a big Huge THANK YOU Guy & Sharon!

Oh my goodness, I know for a fact that I have never seen Uncle Guy run so fast in my life. It was HILARIOUS.  He chased the boys around and around (the mudroom forms a little hallway that you can go through on this side and then out the other end and back around...boys love it!) The boys had a blast with him! 

THANK YOU so much for coming to visit us. 

We absolutely LOVED our time with you and feel so honored that you came out just for us. 

We love you!

Swim Lessons

The boys had swim lessons for the first time this summer. It was a blast and came at the perfect time.
I had just returned from the family reunion in MO and we had moved.  

I had signed the boys up with some of their best friends and it was awesome.  Since we were in the new house, it was a great way to still get to see our friends everyday and not feel SO removed from everyone.

Weston is a little fish, he LOVES the water:

West with his buddy Jaron.  

The last day of class = diving board and slide!!!  He loved it and went so over and over!

The boys went down this huge slide by themselves. So fun!

Tave was in class with his best buddy, Michael. Oh my, these two have so much fun!

He loved his teacher:

I had to post this series on the diving board...he was a little nervous, especially since his teacher was out of town :(

And he did awesome on the slide:

Ryder had a hard time not getting to swim. We hung out on the sidelines with all of my mommy friends. 

Ryder absolutely loves my friend, Geniel. She was awesome and helped with him a ton!!!

We loved our swim lessons and sure do miss our friends. 

We had a blast getting to see them every day for two weeks!

July's Everyday Moments

July has been a whirlwind.

Lots of packing. ahem, or lack thereof.  

Lots of time with the boys. Play dates with friends, park time, outside time, swimming time, baby time, snuggle time, not a lot of sleeping time (for me!). It was full and it was good.

Well, you'll see a lot of Callen in these everyday moments. What can I say..he has stolen our hearts.  

We are so in love with this gentle soul:

Lots of days I wish I could be the one doing this:

But these crazy boys are worth every bit of exhaustion!  

I adore those cheeks:

and that grin:

 and the way our crazy Ryder has turned into a sweet older brother over night:

Everyone gets in their Callen-love as soon as they wake up. So cute!

The boys begged to go play in the rain, and I realized, WHY NOT?!  It's like sprinklers that come from the sky:

We also got a new play area. Heaven-sent I tell ya!  It helped me get some packing done since our closest family member (my bro) moved to CA and Jeff was back in classes summer term. Packing + 4 boys + hubby in school = some kind of torture on a mama!

I am pretty darn lucky.

Look at this goodness that I get to call mine:

Happy July, friends. :)

Our Home!

While I was away in MO, we moved.

It was cRaZy!!!  But we had people moving in to rent our townhome in a few days and the closing kept getting put off a week, 2 weeks, 3, 4, etc. So Jeff jumped on it the minute we could.  

People say I got off lucky by being gone, but packing an entire family/household up and packing for a trip, lining up sitters for while I was gone, then having to cancel when kids are sick, re-line up sitters for different days, etc etc, was such a stress! I cannot thank everyone enough who helped us out. Truly you were heaven-sent and we feel so blessed to have such good friends.

As for our home, 

we feel so incredibly blessed to have been able to buy this house. We love it and love turning it into a home. 

We have a wonderful neighborhood and live so close to our church and school. 

 We hope that all our friends and family will know how welcome they are.  

We have an open door. ANY time. 

Welcome to our home. Today you'll get to see the downstairs...I have a little work to do upstairs for it to be picture ready!

looking from the front door into the house. 

to the right is the living room, just past that the stairs, and straight ahead is the family room. The door you see goes down to the (unfinished) basement.

Living room:

 Looking at the front door/entry from the family room:

Stairs off the entry:

Right across from the stairs is the mudroom and powder room. (halfbath)  This room is the first project we've started! We put in shelves/cubbies and will add hooks for backpacks. I wanted this room functional asap!  

 Family Room (looking from mudroom door)

Family room (looking from the kitchen)

If you walk straight through the mudroom you'll run into the laundry room.  It's not the most organized place yet, but it's spacious and I love it:

Pretty much I love my entire house. But I have a special spot in my heart for my pantry:

Dining room & Kitchen (looking from the family room)

To the right of the kitchen is the sliding door going into the backyard.

Pics of backyard, garage, and upstairs in the works. :)

Thanks for taking a peek!!  I'll also try to share more as I get things decorated. I'm going to start some of DIY projects...so we'll see how they turn out!

We hope you'll come visit us soon!!