Making the best of summer.

It was four years ago that I took a very unsure Hope Elizabeth downtown to play in the fountains, you know for FUN! Even though she wasn't so sure about how FUN it was. 

It was hotter than hot and she just stood back and watched. Those things freaked her out!

But given time she finally jumped in and had a blast.

Fast forward four years. 

Brittany and I decided to take the kids to the fountains for an afternoon of fun. And just like my baby, Brittany's baby was thinking I DO NOT THINK SO. 

The other four jumped right in.

Free fun, it doesn't get much better than that.

But it didn't take Emie long at all to warm up, especially with her buddy by her side.

Boys.

You take them to play in water on a hot day, and they find a ball and decide a game of catch is a better idea.  SUCH BOYS.

But these two were in it to win it.

And it really was quite adorable.

Emie loved it!

And Hope loved that Emie loved it.

These two are just too much.

Finally the boys gave in a played IN the water.

Much better idea, IN MY OPINION.

Summer is already going by so fast!

And I'm bumming hard.

My summers as a child always felt long

Summer for kids these days are much shorter, and I hate that.

But hopefully we are making the best of it.

Baseball and Braces

Moving messes with your time reference. Oh and your brain and body. But for now I am just going to stick with the time reference thing. For example, I think one day last week we had our end of the baseball celebration? Maybe two weeks ago? 

BUT REALLY WHO CARES, RIGHT? 

Baseball is over, and there was a fun picnic to end it all. 

So many talented moms out there, but I AM NOT ONE. Hello, I brought the balloons.  Amy made these sweet buckets with the names of the players on them, WAY CUTE! 

And another mom went to all the effort to take pictures of each of the boys and then print these awesome collages for each of us. 

Love. 

Once we were there, Pierce was off with 678 other boys and I lost him in a sea of baseball outfits. So Hope and I just hung out and did fun stuff.

Even though she was a little horrified at this face painting. We were thinking small butterfly.... but you know, GIANT WORKS TOO.

The highlight of the evening for the A's was receiving trophies for finishing the season in second place. This was really a great season, with great kids, and fantastic coaches. Honestly, we couldn't have asked for a better one.

Sad to see the season end, but the end of that meant new beginnings elsewhere....

Pierce's mouth.

I purposely waited to schedule braces for Pierce until after the season because I remember the pain that braces can cause. I was in the sixth grade when I got my brace face. My mom had left for a trip with grandma, and I thought I was gonna die. I have a distinct memory of being in the lunchroom at school and taking of bite of something, when my teeth hit each other? Not sure how I managed that one, but it hurt SO BADLY. I wanted my mom, but she was on a bus with a bunch of old people. So dad had to do, I think he gave me Tylenol and took me out to eat.

I digress.

Pierce's time had finally come, and he was so ready!

Braces sure have changed since my day! Now it's in phases, and the process of getting them is pretty simple. Other than the keeping his mouth open for thirty minutes, he did really well.

And now my sweet boy has a different smile.

Pierce hates his teeth, so he's very excited to see the change. I think no matter what he's a cutie pie, but I'm with him, excited to watch the change.

WAIT! I HAVE A SELFIE STICK!

In all my house madness, I realized I never blogged about Eric's 40th birthday! What kind of friend am I? 

It was the weekend before we were scheduled to move and we headed up to Indiana so we could celebrate a dear friend. If it would have been 39, we may have had to skip on it, but 40? NO WAY. Two hours away, and an impending move? NOT A PROBLEM. 

I had one major mission before we went out, a ghetto selfie stick.

I knew we would have fun with it.

And besides fun, I knew how annoying we would be with it. Sometimes it's just fun to be annoying.

And my hat? That wasn't me trying to be Gap-tastic, I just needed to color my hair.

So we went to this Brazilian steakhouse where they serve meat on a stick. I mean what kind of mans paradise is that? The food was actually really good, and we threw down! Good pick, Eric!

But you know all I cared about what using my new fantastic selfie stick! Obviously from picture below and my hand, IN THE PICTURE, I was not very good at it....

But I didn't care.

I just kept saying the same thing all night long

WAIT! I HAVE A SELFIE STICK!

We honestly had so much fun.

It was one of those nights I will never forget.

Laughing until my cheeks literally hurt.

There really were a dozen reasons for Paul and I to miss this celebration. If you look hard enough you can always find ways to back out of something, but then you miss all the memories, and well I'm so glad we didn't.

 Thanks for being born Eric, and thanks for letting me torture you all night with MY SELFIE STICK.

Our home.

Six years. 

That's how long we've been waiting for a house. 

Six years to wait sort of felt like a long time. 

And in many ways, I had sort of resigned myself to the process of waiting. I knew the feeling of waiting. 

Waiting on Paul to get well, waiting on the phone calls from the doctors to give us answers, waiting for the surgeon to come out, and I could go on and on.  

Waiting changes a person. Waiting on a house? Waiting on a baby? Waiting on the right person? Waiting on any sort of answer? Well that is what changes you. 

It grows you, it stretches you, it pushes the limits of your faith, and sometimes it makes you angry and just plain over it all. 

But hope is a funny thing. Just when you say I AM DONE, hope will rise. 

It's this verse: But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will RUN AND NOT GROW WEARY, they will walk and not be faint.

The new strength comes, and it keeps coming.

Until it's six years later, and you are breaking ground on a new home. 

Our home. 

I didn't blog about it. 

I didn't Facebook about it.

I didn't Twitter about it.

I didn't do anything much about it, except tell close friends and family.

I just kept this in my heart, with I will admit it, fear. I was afraid things would fall through, so I thought it best to just keep mum. 

So for months we've been going through this whole house process.

I won't even admit how many annoying pictures I've taken.

Paul and I would send each other the most MUNDANE pictures. OH HEY, LOOK AT THIS! IT'S A FLOOR.

LOOK SOME BABY SHRUBS.

Yeah, we've almost bored ourselves.

But all the monontoneous pictures weren't in vain.

Because in the end nothing fell through, and now we own a home.

Our home.

A moment I've been waiting six years for.