US of A

July the 4th.  My favorite holiday.  The holiday that is the entrance to my favorite month. And okay, my birthday month.  This year we shot some photos in a nearby forest on July 1st to kick off the holiday weekend, and are so glad we did.  The rest of the holiday was met with on and off again rain...and coincidently no more photos were taken.  The activities were still in abundance even without the pictures to remember them.  I really don't think we could have packed much more in but some of them were...fishing, picnics, parties, fireworks, church picnic, swimming, parties, and more fireworks.  Fireworks have not been the most fun in the past few years since Jude has always been frightened by them. This year that changed and he along with Ezra & Theo loved them. *hooray!*  Seriously, I could fall in love with this holiday all over again.

Tree Farm Tradition + Back To Blogging

Hello there, old + familiar blog world.  Goodness, it's been awhile + boy oh boy, A LOT has happened.  Life hasn't offered a lot of free time lately, so I assume if I am going to keep up in this space that I love dearly I will have to do exactly what I am doing right now...work while the house sleeps.  Anyhow, I know I have a lot to catch up on {I am not even going to mention the serious need for a blog facelift + update}, but that will come in time.  Today I will just tell you that it's good to be back + I wanted to share some pics of our yearly visit to the tree farm to get our Christmas tree.  It was unseasonably warm day yesterday (50ish) + we were able to enjoy it even more than usual.  Matt brought his two-man saw in which he + Jude cut down the most perfect tree.  Today will be all about decorating it while watching Christmas movies.  Let the holiday season begin!! XO

America's Birthday 2015

One of my favorite holidays happens to be July 4th.  Maybe because it's summertime or maybe because fireworks are just amazing or maybe because you eat lots yummy grilled food or maybe because it signifies the beginning of my birthday month, but regardless it's tops.  We had a great weekend celebrating.  Ezra's first experience with fireworks was too cute for words.  He was mesmerized, not taking his eyes off of them.  Then, out of nowhere he started applauding (his newest trick) on his own during the show.  We had a blast celebrating with family + friends.  It's kinda bittersweet as life gets back to normal + the partying is over.  Here are some family pics we took in front of our gigantic flag that Matt hung in front of our house for the second year in a row. :)

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day...a special day to remember those who fought + died for our freedom, but it is also the signal for summer to begin.  Since summer is my favorite season, I am not mad about this notification to get things started.  We have already started having summer-like weather, so this just prepares us for more of it.  We spent the weekend going to graduation parties, visiting OTR in Cincinnati, and putting up our American decor.