this precious life.

after driving cross-country for a week, my flight from california got in around midnight and ellyn picked me up. we left straight from the airport to drive 4 1/2 hours to lake cumberland to spend a bit of time with the family. not the smartest decision i've made this year (driving through the wee hours of the morning on the backend of such an exhausting trip) but i'm so glad ellyn was with me and was willing to drive most of the time. we soaked up two short but wonderful days that included several sibling dance parties  and rounds of bananagrams. daddy was the sweetest and rented a double decker pontoon boat so we could all enjoy time on the lake one day and the house we stayed in overlooked jamestown marina with some beautiful views:)

i'm obviously way behind on blogging (rather behind on everything to be honest-- this whole move thing  has been a lot more time consuming than i thought) but as i adjust to a new city & new normal, i'm attempting to keep up:) here are some snaps from one fine summer eve when daddy and i took all of the chillens to get fro-yo. these faces are the ones i miss the most.

celebrating the life of this energetic munchkin was so fun!! she's the babe of the family and i couldn't imagine our lives without her! one minute she's saying something wise beyond her years and the next minute she's making us laugh over something absurdly imaginative:)  she loves elephants & giraffes and all things colorful and so we pulled together various things we had around the house to make it extra special. this was also our first meal of the year eaten on the deck!! i'm looking forward to so many more over the spring & summer! (though we're currently back to cold temps so it will be a while before we enjoy a meal outside again!) "the march five"