Independence Day

Family, parade, Subway, kiddie pool, ladder ball, sunshine, grilling, fireworks!  So blessed to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Here is what I wore! (A big thank you to my sister for taking some outdoor photos for me!  Can't wait to buy myself a tripod!)

 

Entire outfit:  Old Navy

I swear my shorts are red!

 

Red, sparkly toes!

 

Here is our parade group.  My crew and my sister's crew.  We were so blessed to find a perfect spot in the grass, under a tree!  The weather was gorgeous and the parade wasn't painfully long.  Haha!

 LOVE this picture of my sister and me!  Isn't she GORGEOUS?!!

And I sure do love these four!!!

We spent the afternoon hanging out in our backyard.  Love cuddling with my girl in the hammock!

Our town puts on THE BEST fireworks show around!

I hope you all had a fabulous 4th of July!

Linking up:
Weekend Shenanigans
What I Wore Wednesday

1998 to Present

We met.

It was love at first sight... for him.

I was... not interested.

We became great friends.

I would “never like him like that.”

He waited.

I dated.

He gave up.

I got my heart broken.

He was my shoulder to cry on.

I fell in love with him.

I asked him out!

He said “yes.”

He asked me to marry him.

I said “yes!”

We said “I do.”

We had three babies.

To be continued... 

2012 Christmas Letter

 Happy New Year's Eve!  One goal I have for 2013 is to make an effort to be more consistent with blogging.  I'm thinking I'll start with once a week...  I decided to start off easy by sharing our Christmas letter.  I wrote this a month ago, so when it says we'll be celebrating a birthday soon, yeah...  we already did!  :)  Anyways, here it is, enjoy!

Hello! This is my first ever Christmas letter! I've never written one before, but in the last two years (yeah, I never even got a Christmas card sent out last year) our family has experienced a few major life changes, so I thought now would be the perfect time to send out an update!

One of those changes is our location! Yep, we moved! I know this is old news to some, as it's been over a year, but I do want to make sure that everyone has our current address. We are enjoying our new home, and we absolutely love being back in Clear Lake!

Perhaps the most exciting event of the last couple years was the addition of our sweet Koen James to our family. He was due to arrive on Christmas day, but blessed us with an early arrival on December 17^th, 2011. He weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz, a big baby if I do say so myself! We will be celebrating his 1^stbirthday in a couple weeks, and he is already walking! He is more and more fun every day!

Lena turned four on June 21^st. What a joy she is! She spends her days at home, working on learning her letters and numbers and playing with her brothers!

Eli turned six on August 24^th. How did our first little miracle baby grow up so fast?!? He is doing kindergarten at home this year, learning how to read, addition, and some world geography! We are so proud of all that he has accomplished so far!

Autumn (that's me!) is keeping busy teaching, feeding, changing, cleaning up after (etc., etc., etc....) the three previously mentioned ragamuffins! My hands may be full, but my heart is overflowing!

Joe's business, Advantage Business Solutions, has been growing and thriving, praise the Lord! They have been able to hire a few new employees and opened an office, which means that Joe is no longer working from home. He's a busy guy!

We will also be celebrating another big milestone on January 11th, our 10 year wedding anniversary! What a crazy, beautiful roller coaster the last decade has been! We are so blessed to have each other and our amazing family!

So that's what's been going on in our neck of the woods. To those that live near, I hope to see you soon and often. To those who live far, I hope you'll keep in touch. Thank you all for being a part of our lives.

Merry Christmas to you and yours! And a happy New Year, too! :-)

With love,

Joe, Autumn, Eli, Lena & Koen