Well Hello There!

Long time no hear, huh?  Yowsa, I can't believe the 4th of July was my last post.  Sad.

This summer was absolute CRAZY!!!  I'm not kidding.  It was great, we did a lot of fun stuff, but, I was seriously ready for fall by the end of July!  This summer was just a lot of planning on how to get to kids to activities and such.  Honestly, if it wasn't for my mom and Brad's mom, our kids would have been home bound all summer.  THANK YOU!!!

So here's a recap of our summer...

Alayna played softball again this year and had such a great season... They ended up coming in 2nd in house and won the championship!  She struggled the first half hitting, but found her groove!

My BFF's and I did a painting party at a brewery in our town and had such a blast!  And I clearly forgot to take a picture of our paintings, haha!  This is also the same day that I had a second interview for a different job and was offered the job!  I started in August and absolutely LOVE it!  It's 10 minutes from our house (compared to 30) and love the variety and the people I work with!

Some more fun evenings with friends...

We were able to take the boat out a couple times for some fishing.

Mousey did a Blazer volleyball camp and had a blast and made her big sister proud!

We had a weekend up at my dads with all the siblings and cousins and had a ton of fun!

Of course the best part was seeing this sweet little nugget!  Love him so much!

Lots and lots of evenings sitting on the porch watching these two bump the volleyball.

These two really enjoyed watching them, haha!

August started school sports.  This year Rachel transferred to a different school, and I am SO glad we made the change!  She absolutely loves it and has made some great friends already.

Emma has decided this year to try swimming, and we are SO proud of this girl!  She has learned so much in a short amount of time and has really enjoyed it!

We celebrated Brad's oldest brother Mike's 50th birthday over Labor Day weekend.  We had a lot of fun and lots of laughs!  

I love this picture of Rachel and her cousin Madalyn, and especially because of the two yahoos on the hay bales behind them!!

Mousey and William, two peas in a pod!

So I completely failed in the 1st day of school pics.  Rachel started the day before the other two, so I was able to get one of her, but have yet to take one of all three.  Oops!

This is probably my all time favorite picture.  Our group of friends went to a local winery for their fall festival.  It was a gorgeous day and was so fun to hang with some of our favorite peeps!

So unfortunately this post is going to end on a down note.  The last 6 weeks has been very hard on our community.  The end of August a sweet, beautiful little 6 year old girl, Alayna was kidnapped and murdered by a family friend of her parents.  It has shaken us all to the core.  Roughly 2 weeks later Jacob Wetterlings body was found 27 years after he was kidnapped.  He was kidnapped from the sweet little town we live in now, and his body was found in the town I graduated from high school.  

It has honestly been surreal that after all these years, we now know what happened.

My hometown has been shaken to the core.  When I was in middle school, we all knew that you

didn't stay out past 9 at night because "Chester the Molester" might come and get you.  I had no idea this was actually a real person that had been terrorizing young boys in my town.  This monster is the one who kidnapped and murdered Jacob.

Last week my brother in laws sweet little 8 year old nephew passed away suddenly from a blood clot to the brain.  His parents have not just buried one child, but three, as they had two stillborn daughters.  Friends of ours also lost their 20 year old nephew a few days later from a motorcycle accident.  Where is the fairness in any of these deaths?  I will never know that answer.

Last Friday our local mall was terrorized by a young man with a knife, stabbing people.  This is the mall that I have  dropped my girls off to shop with their friends.  No more.  I hate to live in a bubble, but I could not be ok with them being alone there anymore. 

I'm not gonna lie.  I am SO ANGRY with all these horrific tragedies happening way too often around us.  Why so much horror in the deaths of these sweet children?  I could keep asking why until I'm blue in the face, but it is not for me to know why.  I will say that my faith has become SO much stronger lately.  I have had daily reminders of God's love for me and my family.  Are we immune to these horrors?  Nope, but I know my faith and relationship with God will always be there no matter what.

Hug your sweet babies tonight and every night.  Give in a little, say yes more.  We are not guaranteed tomorrow...