Pink Lemonade Party

Aubrey is going to be ONE year old on Tuesday!! I can't believe it!!! Today we celebrated her birthday with friends and family with a Pink Lemonade Party! Here's a little taste of the party:

 

 

 

 

 

 

She loved LOVED her cake :) It was hilarious the way she was diving right in :)

 

Someone else liked his cake :) Or, at least the frosting! Ha!

 

 

 

What a FUN day :) Happy almost birthday, Aubrey Beth!

One Month Left!!!

I looked at the date today. June 26th. WHAT!?! Well, that came quick.....Aaron has ONE month of Nursing School left. We're excited but getting a bit nervous about the job situation! Funny how the nursing shortage that the media talks about fails to mention that most places want to hire applicants with at least 1-3 years of experience. Getting the "first nursing job" is the hard part.

We're praying Aaron's internship turns into a job because he LOVES it. He's discovered that he likes surgery (and he's married to me, who HATES the sight of blood! Opposites attract!) so he would love to pursue that avenue of Nursing but we're willing to take ANY job right about now :)

Just a warning: the next month might be completely consumed with "end of Nursing school" and job searching posts. It's hard to think of anything else right now since we don't know what we'll be doing in a month! So, you've been warned :)

And with that, I'm off to prepare for Aubrey's first birthday party this weekend! I can't believe she's going to be a year!

Our park

We have a number of fantastic parks just minutes from our house. It is wonderful because 1)Parks are free! 2)We LOVE to go on walks. The day doesn't feel complete if we don't get a walk in  3)After 6+ months of being cooped up in the house, my kids love the change of scenery (and slides!) that parks provide. As Tristen puts it, "Mama, I'm all done being home". Yep, Tristen, I get it :) So, we go to "our parks" quite frequently (daily in fact!)

So, you can imagine our shock when we promised our kids we were going to go to the "goose park" (the one with the geese and the pond) only to see this:

 

A huge tree was uprooted!

 

 

Sad!!!

We had a significant thunderstorm the night before but we didn't even think about the damage it would do to the park! It looks like we'll need to visit another one for a little while :(

We are VERY grateful that our house didn't receive any damage. Some of our neighbors had significant damage-trees falling on garages, in their backyards, and one had a tree go through their roof. Yikes. I love storms but am thankful we were all safe during this one :)

Father's Day

We headed to Aaron's parents' house this past weekend to soak up the sun and celebrate Father's Day with them. Aaron's sister and her family were there as well so we had four kids that kept us entertained and laughing for hours :) This is mostly a picture post so, here it goes:

All 4 grandkids after church on Father's Day

 

Happy Father's Day to my hubby! He is a wonderful father to our children!

 

Aubrey enjoyed climbing over everything :) We have to watch this one every second! Today she ate dirt in the split second I turned my head!

 

Jack is such a happy baby....it was so fun to see his smiles and hear his giggles :)

 

The grandparents with their granddaughters

 

Evie and Tristen are hilarious together :) They played in the water every day and loved it!

Ahhh, it was a refreshing weekend but it will feel good to be home this weekend! We have a free symphony concert in the park that we always attend so that will keep us entertained. And, maybe we can find a parade around here....oh, I love summer parades :) Happy Wednesday all!



Our Weekends

We've had a couple great weekends with family. 2 weeks ago, my cousin got married in Northern Minnesota. The rain held off so they could have their outdoor ceremony and it was SO fun to see so many family members. Aubrey and I hitched a ride with my parents since Aaron is so swamped with school right now. Tristen stayed back with him for a little father/son weekend :)

My cousin, Kerry, and I

I don't get to see her much since we're many miles apart but everytime we're together, it seems like we're right back at my grandparents' house in South Dakota, playing basketball in the park or trying to beat our brothers in a game of Risk :)

 

The reception was in an old, refurbished barn. A-MAZING! It was beautiful and I think my parents absolutely need to turn their barn into something crazy cool like this :)

 

 

My little ray of sunshine :)

My niece Iylah was there and she's just about the funniest little thing I've ever known :) So spunky and funny! My cheeks hurt from laughing at her funny mannerisms the whole weekend :) What a girl :)

The happy couple!

For my 500th post

A few days ago, I started writing an "inspirational 500th" post (I had like one sentence to it and couldn't come up with much more :) Ha!) so I just kept putting off my 500th post because I didn't have the time or energy to write something inspirational. Today, I decided to ditch the inspirational stuff and just write a post :)

Umm, I can't believe I've been blogging for this long. I can't believe how much has happened in 5 1/2 years! Back then I was an assistant preschool teacher, Aaron was a youth pastor, we were new homeowners and trying to train our very naughty puppy :)

If I could tell myself something back then, it would be to get ready for 5 years of change and the challenge to persevere through it all.

I would encourage myself to find my stability in God and not in my family, house, job, etc.

I would tell myself that living very simply is actually pretty fun and money sure doesn't buy happiness.

I would tell myself that I would learn how to cook (I hated cooking back then!).

I would shock myself by saying that my husband would go back to school to become a nurse....something that was absolutely NOT on the horizon or even a thought back then.

I would smile and tell myself that becoming a mother will be one of the greatest joys I will ever experience.

I'm so glad I didn't know all this back then, however, because it has made the surprises that much better. I am so grateful for the past 5 years and I hope to keep blogging in the coming years. Thank goodness I don't know what's in store.....makes the journey all that more exciting and makes me absolutely trust in God's leading.

Speaking of unknowns, we are currently still waiting to see what the next step in our journey will be. Aaron is job searching but we don't have any news to report. We'll keep ya'll updated :) GREAT news though is that his internship is in Mankato! Yay!! Meaning, after this week, he'll be home every night. Oh.my.goodness......we are excited to have Daddy home and enjoy some of the summer with us!

Because I haven't posted any pics of the kiddos in a LONG time, here are a few!! We FINALLY had some sunshine yesterday!

We go to the park daily when Aaron is gone and Tristen loves to play in the sand. Ahhhh, I love summer play :)