Time Away

Can you guess from the picture below where we got away? Those might be called hills by some and others would say for sure those are mountains....we went to the Smoky Mountains. Gatlinburg to be exact. One of our good friends was turning 40 so it was a great reason to get away with some friends and celebrate!

We always seem to talk about getting away with good friends but it rarely seems to happen probably for lots of reasons...one of which just being our season of life with young ones. But, thanks to our friend who picked a weekend, invited us, booked this AMAZING cabin...we actually did it!!! (THANKS too to our parents who loved on and took incredible delight in watching our kiddos:)

This cabin was incredible and a great price to top it off...because we went one weekend before the peek season it was so much cheaper! Anyway....3 stories, 3 big bedrooms all with wrap around porches, hot tub, full kitchen!! Definitely a keeper!We were really only there a short time but we were able to do so much plus relax and get rich time with friends!! The only bummer was the extra 2 hours in the car heading out of Gatlinburg sitting in traffic.....oops, next time we'll know everyone leaves Sunday morning at the same time! It was a great weekend and a good reminder that we need to do this more often!

A Schmattering of Things

You never know what you might find us doing these days! I actually love routine and a "normal" schedule in life but these days you won't find that here. Part of it because of the time of year...it's the fall and there are LOTS of fun things to do, it's the beginning of another school year (not for our kids because they're not in school yet) but for the athletes we have the privilege of getting to know at CSU,and we have only been in our house for a month....oh the list goes on.

One of the "new" things for the kids has been moving up a class at church. Cooper really had no clue although he now is in a room with lots more toys he likes. Ava on the other hand was nervous (she went from being downstairs to upstairs which is kind of scary for her). After several weeks she LOVES it. There is a lot more interaction and she went from a room of about 15 kids to a room of about 6! Here she is after church posing in her "coat of many colors" that she made....any thoughts on what to do with all these crafts????

We also have had tons of "projects" to do around the house. A few weeks ago we finally decided to paint the dreaded mud room. As you can see it's a very tall ceiling and of course the ceiling needed to be done too! Oh, and on top of that the texture is really rough...kind of stucco like..which is hard to paint! Thankfully it's finished! Now on to the next project....here's what our kitchen looked like today....

Matt worked hard last night pulling out the countertops and sink (thanks to a friend as well who came over to help when my muscles couldn't do the deed)! Anyway....I don't have an after picture but it is done...new countertops! It looks great..changed the whole look....of course it would when the old ones were a really bad shade of blue.

Don't worry we aren't all work and no play around here....we made it out to Young's Dairy on Saturday...they had a festival going on with all the fun and flair...oh and one of my favorites, pumpkin ice cream!! I didn't realize I uploaded the pic below but I'll just keep it here...the kids have really started to enjoy making cookies so we decided to make cookies one morning and send them to grandparents....you have to notice of course not just the aprons but the tutu's underneath:) Who knows what tomorrow has in store???

This one is for Matt!

Go Bears is a common saying around here these days!! Not just from my husband but from my sweet Ava!! Her daddy is loving it!

Here's a family photo shoot before the game on Sunday!! Yes, that is Ava in a bears shirt and just her tights...who needs pants?? Let's just say Coop wasn't really in the mood for any Bears schananagans!!

I was behind the camera taking these pics but some of you would be surprised that I too had on a bears shirt...that's right all 4 of us...OBNOXIOUS!! And even worse is we headed out after the game to Kohl's for a little shopping....all in navy and orange!! As I was paying, the man at the cash register says to me, "Go bears...they had a good one, huh?" Me.... "Um.....yeah..... well I have to be honest I didn't watch any of it but my husband did tell me it was a good game:)"

Here's to football season!!

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:)