Happy Birthday Matt and Cooper!!

I wasn't sure in the midst of our move if we'd be able to pull it off....but we did! We were able to have a dual birthday party to celebrate my boys!

Matt turned 39 on August 26th! We were able to have some friends over to celebrate that night with Matt's favorite....cheesecake! No, I wouldn't be so insane as to make it...Walmart has a pretty good cheesecake that has lots of variety. But, I did make it over to our local Cheesecake Factory and bought Matt a piece of his favorite...Adam's peanut butter cup!

Yes, that is a big birthday cake with candles on Matt's head:) It has been a tradition in our family to wear this birthday hat when it's your big day!

Cooper Paul Hardy was born on August 27th! What a joy he is to our lives! He has become very verbal and loves to repeat any word he hears you say. He loves to wrestle with Daddy, enjoys playing with anything that has wheels and can be heard calling out for his sister in which he says, "Fava, Fava!" He didn't get cheesecake but cupcakes with cars and dump trucks on them. They were so cute. I didn't think the cars on top tasted that good but he loved them.


Here's Coop with the hat! He blew and blew and blew and blew....and finally got a little help from mommy.

Here he is playing with one of his gifts....pure delight!

We Officially Have a New Address!!

Well...we are finally in our new home!! We are thanking God for all He has provided in this home as well as our temporary home, wonderful family and friends who have helped with lots of sweat to help us move and paint and clean and for trustworthy realtors to guide us in this process!!

We need to take some more pictures but here is a before and after shot.... this is our family room before.... And here is our family room after....

We painted and put in some carpet(we needed one room at least to get on the floor with the kids to play and wrestle). Most of the boxes are unpacked but there are lots of pictures still to be hung:)

On a side note, Ava and Cooper have adjusted very well. They adjusted better here than in our temporary situation. It helped that we were here painting for a week before we actually moved our stuff.

Cousins Cousins Cousins

A few weeks ago Matt's brother and his family were going to make the trip here for a visit and wouldn't you know it Coop got sick. So Aidan and Renia and Jack promised to come in a few weeks! And we are so thankful they did!!! It was a blast seeing the kids play together! Aunt Ginny sent some "twinsee" outfits for Jack and Cooper. Jack wasn't thrilled to wear it at first (he's a smart kid) but he finally gave in.
We enjoyed catching up with Aidan and Renia and were so grateful for time to play with Jack! We went to the Children's Discovery Gardens in Dayton for a morning and let the kids get wet, run, play in the sand. We also hit the Air Force Museum for the big kids:) There was lots to keep us busy but at the same time I loved having time together to take walks and eat meals. The kids played so well together we wish we could do it more often!

We have been praying for Aidan to find a job and God answered that the day they left! They will be heading back to Colorado and we look forward to visiting them hopefully next summer!

The County Fair

We've tried these last several years to make it to the county fair with some good friends of ours who have little kids the same age as ours. At the last minute we squeaked it in this year on one of those fabulous 90 degree days:)

An extra treat this year was the 'circus' show....with elephants and camels and ponies and doggies. It was probably a half an hour show and the kids really seemed to get into it especially because it started off with eating ice cream!

Before the circus though, a fair wouldn't be a fair without the traveling rides??? Here are a few pics of the kids with their sweet friends racing away in their cars. At the end of the night I asked Ava what was one of her favorite things and she said riding the cars. She almost backed out at the last minute getting on, I'm so glad she overcame the fear.

Free prizes are always a fun part of the fair, right? Coop got a ball and can you tell what Ava won? In case you can't tell what is all over her arms and legs...it's a red heart stamp. I'm very surprised this was not her favorite thing of the night because she thoroughly enjoyed using it and sharing it with the rest of us there:)

Always Soothing to the Soul

It's always so soothing to my soul to be with good girlfriends from years gone by. Over the last few years several friends and I have gotten together a couple of times of year just to reconnect and BE together. Many of these friends have some kind of tie to IU where I was a student and on staff. This last week I headed to Batesville and dropped the kiddos off at my parents and made my way to Bloomington to spend the night for one of these get togethers. I was so bummed I forgot my camera so the only pics I have scanned in the computer are from years ago but thought you might get a kick out of it especially the one below:)
This is a picture from the summer of 1994 where I met my good friend Deb on a summer missions project. She is on the far left and yep that's me next to her both wearing the teal hats:)

This is another good friend, Sadee, and we met at IU and were roommates for several years before I married Matt. She was back in Bloomington this last week for a wedding so it was a great reason to have a girls night. These are just two of the girls I was able to see and catch up with last week and it was well worth the trip over. When asked what we did I said we ordered Chinese food in and just talked the whole night....really? Yep, just like old times. I'm so thankful to Matt who always encourages me to do whatever it takes to go and take the time to stay connected! So refreshing!Thanks girls for a fun night and can't wait til the next one!