Thursday, July 28, 2022

Back to School-- for the girls!

 Today was the first day of the 2022-23 school year for our girls!  Oh my goodness were they excited and happy to get back to school.

I am seriously in shock that Isabelle is in 5th grade and that today was the first day of her last year of elementary school.  How can it be!!!!????  She is growing up so quickly!

And Madelyn is in 1st grade.  She is SO excited to see her friends.  And earlier this week when we went to meet the teacher, I couldn't help but laugh when we walked into the classroom and three of Madelyn's friends (boys that is) ran up to her to say hi.  She smiled super wide, turned her head to the side and started blushing.  Needless to say Madelyn is a talker and has made many friends.

Here are the girls on their first day...









We wish them the happiest of years.  I pray it is a year filled with friendships that are genuine and kind, lots of learning, and of discoveries that make their love of learning bloom bigger than before.


We love you girls. We believe in you and your abilities always and we will be here to cheer you on.

Until next time,

Love you always, now go shoot for the moon!

Mom and Dad

Monday, July 25, 2022

Family times

This past week was busy with moving Gabe and also Michael being gone to football camp.  So it was just the younger kids and us at home and with it being my last full week before starting my other job, I tried to soak up as much time together as possible.  We really didn't do too many things outside of just being together, but I found myself trying to be as in the moment as I possibly could.

It has become very apparent to me just how quickly the kids are growing and I feel like the sand in the hour glass falls faster and faster each day.  Man will I miss these kiddos being little.


As I begin a second job, one that I've worked so hard to get, I will forever be trying to find the balance of being a mom, a working professional and living life in the moment as much as I can.  It is hard... we don't get much sleep, there is always something pulling our attention from us, our house is often strewn with kids things, laundry (oh my lord Laundry) and list of 100 other things to do... but yet sometimes I look around and just soak up the times of this chaos.

I'm going to miss it.
Here are a few of my favorite moments from this past week.
Why does Cocomelon have an power so appealing to kids that it sucks their entire attention from everything else?


I love these moments of the little guys sleeping.... its the few moments of peace and quiet that make me want to have 6 more... and then they wake up (especially Jennings) and I'm reminded why Finn is our last. 


Madelyn is in gymnastics class... honestly she loves everything, we could put her in a class for learning how to do chores and she'd find the joy in some part of it, I'm convinced.  She brings home every flyer from school that advertises an activity, and she begs to do every single one.  


Jennings love of Spiderman and Madelyn's willingness to play alongside

of course while practicing how to do cartwheels in between.





And then there was this moment.... I happened to watch as Finn crawled up on the couch, put his head on Madelyn's and listened to the TV


That little guy, he's a lover...   he was so excited when Daddy finally got home from work.


Then we took the kids to the Museum of Musical Instruments and while the kids loved the room that you can actually touch and play the instruments, we quickly learned Finn and Jennings were too little not to want to touch every thing else in the other exhibits. 


I look at my baby and I can't believe how big he is...


Gosh I'm gonna miss the baby stage


But looking at the kids I see there is something wonderful about every age.

Just one of those blessings is seeing how well the kids interact and play with each other despite their wide range of ages.


Trying to soak up every moment... in this chaotic and busy and oh so wonderful life.



Until next time,
Angie

 

Fun with Nana and Papa in Showlow

This past weekend, the three big kids spent the weekend with Nana and Papa in Show low.  They had so much fun!  In addition to soaking up the cooler weather, Papa and Nana took them horseback riding and you can imagine how excited the kids were to do that.  Here are a few pictures from the ride!  The kids can't wait to go again and are so grateful for the opportunity they got to spend time and explore Showlow with Nana and Papa!











Until next time,
Angie

 

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Happy 3rd Birthday Jennings!

Some little buddy is super excited for tomorrow!
Can you guess who?
I can't believe Jennings is already going to be turning 3!  Where is the time going!

No matter how you look at it.... this little boy is thrilled! And we feel the same way that we get to share our lives with him.

Not gonna lie, he keeps us on our toes like no other kid in our house and it would be fair to say... he rules the roost.

But with that sweet smile and his curly locks... somehow he gets away with all his crazy antics and we just write it off as, "That's just JJ"

We love him so and are so grateful to have him in our lives.

Happy birthday Jennings Jarrett (If that's what you want us to call you today... sometimes its JJ, sometimes it's spiderman).  We all love you and hope your day is super special!


Until next time,
Mom and Dad

 

Thursday, July 7, 2022

A wonderful visit from the Germanus Family

For the last two weeks we've been so lucky to get to spend time meeting and knowing the family Jarrett lived with when he was in high school and studied abroad.  He was just a young pup (still a teenager) when he went abroad for the first time and he stayed with Wolfgang and Waltraut Germanus and their son Mario.  Mario and Jarrett are close in age and he enjoyed spending time together.  

While it had been more than 20 years since Jarrett had seen his host family, they so graciously made plans to come to America to visit and meet us. Jarrett's host family, his host brother and their two grown children made the visit a couple of weeks ago and just left this past Saturday.  It was such a wonderful trip.

 I wasn't sure how it was going to work since we thought they only spoke German and Jarrett was the only one in our family who can speak German.

Turns out almost all of them were able to speak English and we were able to communicate really well.  Turns out even Jennings was able to make friends and play.  We smiled when Jennings started playing with Wolfgang... turns out no matter what language we speak... there is a universal language of love, kindness and fun.

Here are a few photos of the fun we had sharing dinner, having pool parties and meeting Jarrett's parents, brother Nolan and husband Jarrett.














We hope to be able to visit Germany next year and see them again.  We are hopeful to see them in person again soon!

Until next time,
Angie