Love You More: July 2015

July 7

Most nights are spent with us outside playing and Memphis loves it (Noah does too as he is always with the neighborhood kids). But Memphis has been working on his bike riding skills! Tonight was no different and he even took time to stop for a moment and smile at the camera.

I love that we have a sidewalk in front of our house and that the kids can ride their bikes, scooters, etc on it and don't have to worry so much about them. Memphis just goes up and down that sidewalk all night long!!

4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July. We started the day off by going to the Downtown Farmer's Market. We thought we would take Enzo with us as this was her first experience down there. She did really well with all of those people.

After Farmer's Market we headed home as Kelli and her boys were coming over for the day. We had lunch and then headed to the pool for some swimming!!!

Swimming was a blast and the boys were tired, so we had them all relax a bit when we got back home. However, Landon was the only one that did fall asleep! Too much going on for the others to sleep. For dinner, Tony, Britney, Craig, Peggy and my friend Brenna all came over for dinner. We headed out to see fireworks at dusk, which Memphis was beyond excited!!!

And some of my favorites from the 4th!

Grandma and Memphis

Kelli, me and Brenna

Concentrating on that sparkler!

My boys enjoying the fireworks!

July 2

Happy Birthday to Craig! We are pretty lucky to have an amazing Papa! Our boys love him so much and Memphis loves those tractor rides!
Memphis and I made Craig some yummy cookie ice cream sandwiches for his birthday! We hope you had a wonderful day, Craig/Dad/Papa!

Tuesday June 30

Today I decided it was time to finally get my tattoo that I have been wanting for about 2 years now. When Nan, passed away August 2013 all of us cousins (Tyler, myself, Bre and Brit) all decided that we would get a tattoo with her favorite saying, "All who wander are not lost." Tyler got his and so did Brit. I thought it was finally time for me to do the same.

Thankfully, my friend Kathy called and wanted to do lunch, she just didn't know that she was going with me to get a tattoo!!! She went along with and even took pictures for me!

As you can see it was a little painful but I so LOVE my tattoo. I now have one more I want to do, but it will have to wait for a while!

June 30

Not only did Kelli move to Des Moines so did another really good friend of mine, Brenna!!! Brenna and I have been friends since I started my teaching career in Lamoni. Just this month, Brenna decided that she was going to move to Des Moines, yay for me!!!!!

Memphis and I stopped over at her place and she volunteered to watch Memphis for a bit so that I could run some errands. She was a little worried that Memphis might get a little scared so she told him a secret (that they would go swimming, seriously the easiest way to Memphis' heart)! The instant I left they headed to the pool!

Left picture, Memphis is sleeping (yeah right, but Brenna said that he "took" his nap!!! Top right is Memphis being Memphis! And bottom right he was showing off his baking goods. Brenna said that he was baking while swimming.

Didn't take long for Memphis to get his real nap in because about 3 minutes after leaving Brenna's house he was out!

Monday June 29

This morning Randy and I thought that we would take the boys downtown for a little bit of fun. Every time we drive by the pedestrian bridge downtown Memphis is always asking to walk across it. We finally took the time to do it. We parked further away than we thought from the bridge but we were able to walk along the river for a while and it was such a beautiful day that we just all soaked in the sun and being outside together.

After a long walk and some playing along the way we decided that Zombie Burger sounded really good for lunch!

June 27

Words cannot express the excitement I have that one of my best friends has moved to the Des Moines Area!!!! Kelli I am so happy that you and your family decided to live in Iowa. I have missed having my best friend around and I feel so blessed that she moved back and it seems so surreal that we are able to do things together again!

This afternoon she brought her 3 boys (Luke, Liam, and Landon) over to Peggy and Craig's to go swimming. It was a wonderful afternoon!

It was so nice to have our boys play together and I think Noah and Luke have become quick friends! LOVE IT!

Friday June 26

Tonight we went to my friend Angie Koob's (now Feldman) wedding at Jasper Winery in Des Moines! It was so beautiful there and what a great spot for a wedding. Angie of course looked beautiful. We didn't think we were going to make the wedding but thankfully Peggy and Craig were able to watch the boys while we went.
The wedding was probably one of the coolest wedding I have been to in a long time. They had dueling pianos for their dance! TOTALLY AMAZING!!!! It was a great night to spend with Randy and a lot of my school friends!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

Our boys are very lucky to have Randy. He is seriously an amazing dad and loves our boys to pieces! And they love him back just as much. We started out the day with the boys and I making Randy breakfast (biscuits and gravy).
After breakfast we all just hung out and enjoyed the day together (and of course we went swimming)!

Also, Happy Father's Day to my dad! He is another amazing man who always looks out for me!

Yummy breakfast!

Randy and the boys!

Love this picture from our wedding of Dad, myself and Grandpa!

Saturday June 20

This morning we headed to the Green Days Parade in Johnston. We met my friends Jessica and Jesse Dowell with their two little boys! We had a nice time at the parade.

After some lunch, Noah, Memphis and I did a little bit of swimming!

June 18

Today Memphis and I went swimming over at Craig and Peggy's house. Memphis is starting to do so well in the pool and he loves swimming, we will be spending a lot of time in this pool over the summer!!!

Getting ready to jump in!

And after swimming...HILARIOUS!

Brandon's Celebration of Life

Friday June 12

Tonight we celebrated the life of my cousin Brandon Hanson. I had the honor of reading part of his eulogy with Mitch Sorenson (another cousin of Brandon's from his mom's side. There was a wonderful turn out of family and friends at his memorial. It was nice to catch up but we all wish it was under different circumstances.

Saturday June 13

After a night of tears, my aunt and uncle thought it would be best to actually celebrate Brandon's life. We all gathered at the park in Creston. We had a huge pot luck. We also got out the bags and started a bags "tournament." Well kinda, Tyler and Tori dominated!

Before we did anything we got balloons and we each wrote a note to Brandon. And then as a group we released the balloons. It was one of the most moving things I had seen in a while.


As you can see above it was pretty cool!!!

Here is a video of all of us releasing the balloons! (I hope you are all able to view it, sorry if you can't, I am not real tech savvy)

Below is just some pictures of the day and the fun we had. We also decided we are going to try to make this a yearly event in memory of Brandon. And actually set up a bags tournament and then maybe even on Friday do a golf outing! I do hope we follow through with this as it is a great time to get together with family we do not always get to see.