Memorial Day Weekend 2017

We had a great weekend kicking off summer!

Lots of fresh air and sister time!

We also got to celebrate Brooke's college graduation!

And finally, a camp out at the land!

Bryndel & I had dinner over the fire, but came home to sleep. We returned in the morning with coffee & pancake batter.

Welcome summer!!

Humble Pie

As I sit here and type out this post, I am eating myself a large slice of humble pie. Last Thursday we re-homed our sweet little pup, Tikka. It has been an adventure filled couple of months for our family, and while we surely laughed more than we have in a long time, the overall stress of a new puppy on our family was too much.

For some reason, through all of the grief and sadness of losing our dads this year, getting a puppy sounded good to us. Like, if there was ever a time that kids needed a dog, it was when both of their grandpas went to heaven. Surely, taking a puppy out a dozen times a day to go potty, getting up in the night to take her out, convincing one child over another that it is their turn to pick up the poop, breaking up arguments over who's had her in their lap longer, cleaning potty from the carpet, and retrieving shoes and socks and fingers from tiny sharp puppy teeth would distract us all from the grief? Right? Wrong.

Embarrassingly, and with great humility, we now realize that we are not ready for a puppy. We are blessed, so blessed by the health and well being of our little family right now, that it is okay for that to be enough. To concentrate on letting God help us work through our grief one day at a time. And maybe, just maybe one day we'll find the right time for a dog (not a puppy!) to join our family. Until then, we are going to perk a little extra coffee to wash down the humble pie, and let God's amazing grace do the rest.

Bryndel's Last Day of Preschool

Bryndel finished out her first year of Preschool yesterday. She finished with the same joyful smile she began the school year. While she's sad it has come to a close, she can't believe 'the Sisters' will be done soon too!

I wish I could say she did this to herself at preschool and I didn't have to be the one to clean her up, but that would be too easy :)

Schools out energy!

Apparently it was a strenuous day... moments after this she was throwing magnets at her sister, followed by a time out. From her time out, she could be heard screaming, 'I'm tired. Somebody put me to bed!!' Oy! We did just that, and sleeping beauty is back to her joyful self this morning. Whew. We may have an eventful summer ahead of us.

Grandma's Retirement

We spent a really special weekend with Grandma celebrating her retirement! After bringing her infamous 'organized Olga' skills, patient demeanor, and gentle spirit to elementary students for 25 years it was time to close that chapter. We are SO excited to see what God has plans for next!

We got some serious shoe shopping done with Grandma AND Aunt LeAnne!

Followed by pancakes with Oma & Opa.

Plenty of reading time with Grandma. We did play with Nathan & Heidi's kiddos all Saturday afternoon, but we were apparently having too much fun to take a single picture.

On Sunday morning we went to church with Grandma and met Grandpa Jerry & Grandma Joan to see the first ever Gordy Graham scholarship be awarded (created by Grandpa Jerry). It was pretty special to say the least.

Mother's Day 2017

I had a lovely Mother's Day with Mom (brunch with Nathan & family too!) followed by Kyle & the girls. What a truly beautiful weekend!

May Fun

May has rolled in with spring rain, sunshine, and the promise of summer.

We started the month with a beautiful spring preschool program!

And then moved into Piper' s first softball season :)

We've even had Grandma for a visit too! We love spring!