Family Portraits

Here's a few of our favorite shots from our family portrait session this weekend.  Jae, with JaeBelle Photography is AWESOME!  She is so great to work with.  Very fun & silly with the kids.  She kept Bryce & Drew smiling, laughing and happy for almost 3 hours!  That's AMAZING!!!

Uncle Eric Is Home!

Eric got back from his year-long deployment to Afghanistan in February...thankfully safe and sound!  Mom and Mike flew to visit him and the girls at Ft. Campell and decided to drive down to see us for a quick weekend.  It was wonderful seeing them all and always fun to have my niece Jordyn here to play with the boys.  We got possession of our new house that weekend so it was a little chaotic, but thankfully, I did have time to capture a few cute pics!
Jordyn is so glad to have her Daddy home!

The kiddos trying out the hot tub at our new house...

Jordyn looks so cute in her little bikini!

Grandma having "girl time" on the golf cart.

We celebrated Jordyn, Bryce & Drew's birthdays early while they were here.  I took lots of video of Jordyn but I guess forgot to snap pics!

Thanks for making the drive to see us.  We love you all and are thankful for our time with you!

Our New Home

When we moved to Georgia 6 months ago, we decided to rent a home so we could have time to get to know the area.  It's been a long, stressful, 8 month long house-hunting process but thankfully it has come to a close.  With the help of our wonderful Realtor, Kristi, we finally found the house that is best for us.  After moving 13 times in 16 years of marriage, we HOPE and PRAY this is the house we live in for a LONG, LONG time!

We are SO excited to break in our pool.  The boys are going to have so much fun on the waterslide and are looking so forward to roasting hot dogs and marshmallows on the fire pit!

Looking forward to entertaining family and friends in the years to come!

More Family!

A few days after my mom flew home, my cousin Marcy and 3 of her 4 kiddos came to visit us! We were so surprised & excited that they would make the drive all the way to our house.

The first 2 years we lived here, she and her family only lived 4 hours away in the Kansas City area. After living thousands of miles away most of our adult lives we were shocked that our husbands' jobs would bring us within 4 hours of one another! We were so blessed to be able to see them several times during those 2 years. It was great spending time with The Turners - getting to know their children, meeting their 4th child Dane and introducing them to Bryce & Drew. When Steve's job recently relocated him to the Chicago area we were so sad. They now live about 11 hours away! So, since her oldest son Trey had a baseball tournament in Kansas City she figured she would make the trek to see us since they were so close.

We met up that afternoon at the waterpark in Branson. It was the perfect way to chill out on a scorching hot & humid day!

Ellie soakin' up the rays! Something Marcy and I did a lot of at her age!
The boys playing in the water

Dane

Cy

Reading a Curious George book to the 4 extremely tired little boys!

Cy & Dane playing in our pool

Ellie driving the boys' truck

The boys watching Curious George together on my bed

Marcy, Ellie, Cy & Dane,
Thank you so much for making the huge sacrifice to come visit us. I know it was a lot of driving in a short amount of time. We had so much fun playing with you and making fun memories even though we only had 24 hours with you! Bryce and Drew were SO sad when you left. They kept saying, "I miss my cousins. Why do dey live so fa away? Come back to our house!" We sure wish you still lived in KC. We miss spending time with y'all. We love you all so much and can't wait until we can be together again. We are so glad you are our family!

Fall Fun With Papa and Grandma M

Papa and Grandma M got to come visit us again. They were also here for a Fall visit last year and got to join us for our outdoor portraits. I love this picture of the 4 of them. The boys have grown up so much since then!

Bryce and Drew LOVE to pick up their grandparents from the airport. It's not the clearest picture but when they saw Grandma and Papa in the terminal they went running with their arms outstretched to hug and kiss them. What a nice way to be greeted!

Grandma and Papa had a bag full of goodies for the boys. One of their favorites was this "geeee-tar!"

The weather was beautiful while they were here so we tried to get outside as much as possible. We went to the local pumpkin patch and had fun...

Feeding the goats!



Going on a hay ride!


And walking through the corn maze!

We had fun shopping at the outdoor mall and watching our favorite water show

Grandma and Papa took the boys to The Disney Store and told them that they would buy them a toy...they were so excited and completely overwhelmed. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is the #1 show in our home so when they walked in they immediately loaded up their arms with Mickey and his buddies! Too many choices!
We enjoyed brunch at our favorite Lodge and playing on the fall displays. The boys "rode" the corn stalk horsies!

Bryce and Drew love Grandma and Papa...they had lots of special times with them. They are getting old enough now to understand that they have to leave and fly home on an airplane. It makes them sad. Bryce especially has a hard time. We love you Grandma and Papa and are thankful for the time we have with you. Thank you for coming to see us and for all of your love!