It seems that Summer is coming to a close. It's almost the last day of July, and August will be here in two days. That means Iowa State Fair, school starting, cooler days (maybe?), and Fall coming; and all of those things I look forward to. I absolutely LOVE the Iowa State Fair - so much that I could seriously go every day and not be tired of it. Not even one little bit. I cannot wait for my first taste of corn dog, cheese curds, lemonade shake ups, gyros, Philly cheesesteak sandwiches...and you get the idea. School starts soon too. Every year I do something new with the decorations in my room so it's always something fun to look forward to as well. Plus, all the students come back refreshed and excited for school and to see their friends and I get a new bunch of bright-eyed seventh graders...so it's always a good start. On top of gearing up for Friday night football games, volleyball games, and just enjoying the good weather. I cannot wait to decorate for the Fall season...and after Fall comes my all-time favorite holiday; Christmas. I get so excited I get tears in my eyes...cannot WAIT!<3 It's also been a brutally hot summer (I think I've mowed a total of 5 times?), so looking forward to cooler temps as well.
We've been somewhat busy around here. We came home from the Ozarks and had days filled with re-doing the living room/dining room, Kayden's 2nd birthday, and finding time to have fun with our friends. so I'll recap a few things as of recently:
Kayden's 2nd Birthday
It's hard to believe how big K is getting! She's truly becoming so fun and aside from a few terrible two incidents, she's such a sweet, sweet little girl. She's funny and so smart; I love watching her grow! We got her a monkey backpack/leash since she loves to run around, a few outfits, and an Elmo movie. She was (of course) spoiled rotten!
Elliott is also getting big and starting to smile:
This past weekend we drove to Guthrie Center to the River Ruckus to see Eric Church, Chris Cagle and Frankie Ballard. To say it was packed is an understatement. This place was INSANE. There were virtually 25,000 at a small town county fair. It was a nuthouse. It was kind of scary at times to go to the bathroom or go to find anyone because you didn't know if you could find anyone again. And there were so many people in one place that their cell phone tower went down so you couldn't use your cell phone. So had you gotten lost you couldn't get ahold of anyone! It actually gave me some anxiety. But, regardless, we had fun and the concert was good (even though we couldn't see the stage and it was hard to hear :\)
We have been re-doing the living room/dining room and I am SMITTEN with how it has turned out. I have a shelf with some frames that I want Josh to hang before I take the final "after" photos so I'll post those when finished. It's amazing what a little paint and some new curtains will do!
Josh's birthday is also coming up and I have made him something homemade this year. I'm excited to give it to him and it took a lot of work and some help from Andy; I think he'll like it! I also am going to try my hand at sewing with my new sewing machine to finish it up...wish me luck!
And Josh's Grandma K is doing very well after surgery - she gets to come home tomorrow! I think her hip is actually doing a lot better than expected, just need to get her wrist better. So thank you everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes.
Enjoy the last few days of Summer...it will be over before we know it!
Summer is always so busy - it seems like it just flies by! It's already in July with only about a month and a half left to go before school starts again! I can't believe it. I am pretty excited for Fall though; I'll be starting my Master's at Drake to get my counseling degree and getting ready for Christmas is always my favorite thing. I am not wishing Summer away, but I absolutely love from June-December. It's magical from here on out.
We went down to the Lake of the Ozarks again this year with our friends and had a lot of fun as always! We ended up staying down there for seven days; which is quite a long time. I was pretty much ready to come home by the end of it. I missed my own bed, my dogs, and a normal routine. So I was ready to come home, but it was a nice vacation and as always spent with good friends. Craig and Virg got a band for Saturday night so there were a lot of people there and we had fun. Here are some pictures from the week:
We got back on Thursday afternoon and on Saturday my friends and I turned around and drove to Council Bluffs/Omaha to run in the Color Me Rad race! Saying it was fun was an understatement. It was a BLAST! I was pretty tired because we'd just gotten home and I felt like I didn't even have time to unpack, but I headed up with my friends and we just had so much fun. We signed up to do one in October as well so I'm super excited for that as well!
Us all clean before
Throwing color on each other
At the end
It was a lot of fun! I still have some color on me today, but for the most part it washed off in the shower. It was a lot of fun and my mom, aunt, uncle, grandma and grandpa all came out and watched so it was so nice to see them. Loved it!
That's basically what we've been doing lately. We're going to Kayden's birthday this weekend (can't believe she's two!). And sending lots of prayers for Josh's grandma Koppin because she's going in for hip surgery this week. We're praying and thinking of her a lot so any extra prayers you all can send help too! It's been a pretty fun summer so far, and we still have great things to look forward to! :)
So far I've been on summer break for about a week and it's already been busy! We went to Coralville Lake to boat for Memorial Day. Andy came down and it was fun to say the least! We all had a good time and that's all that matters. Andy tried the Bobber challenge - a 3lb cheeseburger and 1lb of fries! He almost accomplished it. It was a nice getaway for the night. Then I took on a summer project. Of course these summer projects always start off with good intentions and then either turn out very time consuming. This was no difference, plus slightly expensive. I've been staining our back fence - it has been a large project! It takes me roughly one hour to do one panel! But here's the front finished project; I still have the back to do! But it's worth it...it looks so nice! The top of the picture is before and bottom is after. Enjoy! I'll post more summer projects as we progress! :)
As I posted, Laura had Elliott early Friday morning, so we weren't able to head up there right away on Friday. Josh and I headed up on Saturday and we were lucky enough that they actually got to head home early so we got to go to the house and visit with everyone. Baby Ellie is certainly a blessing! As I mentioned, she was about 9 days overdue, and Kayden was born about a month early and it's so crazy to see the difference in their motor skills and how far they are. El was really alert while we were there and would open her eyes and actually seem to look right at you. She didn't cry as much either, and she was pretty strong as far as neck muscles go in a newborn. She also seemed a little easier to pass since she was a bit bigger. All-in-all I suppose we'll keep her; she's pretty great. <3 Here are some updated pictures of her since I just had the one within her first hour of birth haha.
And as always Kayden was a hoot! She's getting pretty fun - her favorite thing is to draw circles and basically run around like a mad woman. I'm excited this summer to hopefully take her to a little wading pool and spend some more time together now that she's a little older and they're about an hour or so closer! She's in tumbling this summer so we're hoping to go to that a few times; and of course snuggling Elliott. Babies are so much less scarier now that everyone I know is having them (I still am NOT ready for a baby anytime soon, but I am more comfortable around them and holding them). She loved impressing Uncle Josh:
KK still wasn't quite sure of El yet. She wasn't totally smitten, but she was ready to share her blanket with Ellie while she was sleeping in the swing - it was super sweet. <3 And Laura got some cute pictures of both of them, too!
This week is my LAST week of school. It feels like I've said this for the past few years (and if you would have asked me in January I would have told you it was the slowest month EVERRRR. But actually it seems like it always flys by when I look back on it. We ended our track season on a good note and the girls did really well throughout the entire season. I think we finished 41-5 for the entire season so that was AWESOME! We go to school on Monday just to do 8th grade promotion and to finish up the lose ends. I am so excited for summer; I already have a list of things I want to get done like staining our fence, re-painting the living room (ugh), taking lots of walks with the dogs, and starting to train for a 5K run I signed up for in July! I've NEVER ran more than a mile or so consequetively...so I'm hoping this is a good push for me this summer and a good challenege! I will be able to cross it off the bucket list one of these days. So I'm pretty excited about summer...just need to make it through the last few days! :) xoxo.
Laura had her baby last night! Elliott Quinn Meckley was born at 3:45 am at 8lbs 11oz and 21 inches long. Laura had thought she was going to be induced on Tuesday, showed up, and they said the hospital was all so they sent her back home to wait. Her due date was May 3rd so we've been waiting impatiently for over a week now! She went into labor at 1am, got to hospital at 2:15am and barely got settled before she was born - and she did it with no meds! I can't wait to see little E and squish her chipmunk cheeks! <3
Bryce and Jill had a little baby boy last Thursday the 3rd! He was born at 1:15 pm and was 7lbs 2oz and 19 inches long. He is simply perfect and adorable! They ended up naming him Owen Lee Halter. I posted his picture below. Mom, Dad and Owen are all doing great. I can't wait to spend more time with him!
Laura still hasn't had baby girl Meckley #2. If she doesn't have her by Wednesday she'll be induced so hopefully she has her before then. I can't wait to meet her!
We've also been somewhat busy. Josh is going to ask his Aunt Resa to come help paint the living room (hopefully she'll be able to do it while we're gone to the Ozarks next week), so I'm excited to get some things and re-decorate the living room. I've got my eye on a few new curtains, blinds, and knick-knack stuff to put on the walls. I'll keep you updated of course with before/after pictures. I am VERY excited about it!
This last weekend Andy and Kayden came down for the day and Kayden, Jane and I went to the Blank Park Zoo! It was a lot of fun...it's always hard to compare when you've been to the Omaha Zoo because that zoo ROCKS! But, it was pretty fun to say the least. Here are some of the pictures from the trip:
This crazy monkey was RIGHT up next to us!
It was fun and Kayden was good! She got a little tired towards the end, but she ran like crazy the whole time so she was probably pretty pooped. It was fun though!
Elliott is getting bigger and bigger! I went down to watch Ellie while Kayden went to tumbling class with Laura, and it's just so crazy how big she is. My arm was PRETTY sore from carrying her after being there haha. She had her professional pictures taken the other day and I think they turned out GREAT! Elliott wouldn't sleep though at all, and normally you have sleeping newborn pictures done. But they did some with her eyes open and they actually turned out really nicely. She hasn't been cross-eyed at all since Laura had her and she just seems so much more developed than Kayden was (but, Kayden was about 3 weeks early and Elliott was almost 2 weeks late.) She keeps getting cuter! Here are some of my favorite pictures that they took: 
That kind of catches everyone up with what we've been doing. We leave for the Ozarks next Thursday and we cannot WAIT! It is always our favorite vacation and I just love the people we go with. It's just so relaxing and carefree. I bought a pool yesterday (a small inflatable one) for the dogs and I since it's going to be 90 degrees the next two days and keep getting hotter. Can't wait! So we'll be lounging in the backyard all week long. Stay cool!
