June fun...

A night out with friends!  Woo Hoo.

Andrew stayed home with the other kids, but Mikey enjoyed the evening with the adults.

The Capital City Senators annual auction is full of fun.  Lots of dancing and lots of fun.

The boys at the end of the year picnic.  Nathan, Logan and Luke.  Can't believe my boy is going on to Kindergarten!

Pooping dominos. Really???  Gotta love how much fun poop can be when your little. :)

Celebrating with "what kind of cake do you want?".  It's more about the colors than the taste at this point.

A visit from Nana and Papa.

Our beautiful tree

This was my favorite tree when we cleared the land to build our house. Thus, it stayed. Many people encouraged us to cut it down. Their reasons seemed to revolve around the maintenance that it would cause. We're not afraid of work, and we loved this old beauty, so we resisted.

It did distract from the view of our house when you drove up. And as we planned to landscape our front yard we realized it would be better to remove it now than in a few years (an arborist said we had 5 years or so before she would need to be removed).

I need to go take a picture from the back of the house so I can compare the difference.

I was SO sad on the day we were actually cutting her down ... very truly emotionally sad. It just felt a bit wrong to cut down such an old and beautiful tree (and maybe I'm still a bit postpartum)

If it can be said, the fall was both awesome and graceful.

Definitely opens up the front of the house. And once the tree was down we were able to see that about 40% was rotting. I felt a whole lot better knowing that.

Summer is almost here :)

Trever took Nathan to watch a housefire with our friend Coby. I could see the eagerness in Trever, he was looking forward to sharing a bit of his profession with his son (always a bit of hope that someone will follow in the family footsteps). We know so many kids who are in awe of firefighters. Not our kids. Don't get me wrong, they like to see a firetruck, and they love the idea of going to see Daddy at work... but ask my son what he wants to be when he grows up....

A ROCKSTAR of course! Lovin' the rockstar pose :)

A little playdate with some friends. I am looking forward to a summer filled with giggling kids and time chatting with my friends.

For the 3rd time my friend Marissa and I have kids very close in age. (Nathan and Logan are 2 weeks apart, Natalie and Anna are 7 months apart, Andrew and Michael are 2 months apart). You would almost think we were some crazy ex-cheerleaders who had planned this craziness. Nope, just lucky.

The faces of Natalie... partially serious/somewhat pouty.

Happy smiles!

A girl who takes after her brother, she LOVES her rain boots!

Natalie is learning fashion, aparantly you can't have too many polka dots. I keep trying to edit her closet :) Truthfully, I think it's darling to see a child in mix-matched attire. To see a child in a self-chosen outfit always brings a smile to my face.

Time for a change

I've been wanting to change the way I blog... but waiting until I get caught up. Well, that clearly isn't going to happen anytime soon, so I'm moving ahead (and hopefully going back to finish posting between January and May!).

Rather than trying to post about specific events in our life I am going to try to post at least once a week and capture the charm and fun that occurs in our daily life. We'll see how it goes. :)

We're so blessed, Andrew is getting tons of time with his Daddy (we all are). I keep kidding that my kids are going to start thinking that we are independantly wealthy. Trever was able to take almost 12 weeks off when Andrew was born (he worked off and on during the last 6 weeks). Life went back to normal for a bit and then Trever found himself with an injury that is keeping him from work again. It's frusterating for him to be injured, this is the time of year that he is able to really enjoy his favorite activities. The Rainier trip is questionable, Trever is determined not to throw in the towel until he has to so we'll see. That frustration is balanced by the joy we've found in spending so much time together as a family.

Andrew is the sweetest baby! Everywhere I go I am asked if he is "always this calm?". Yes. He is super laid back, loves to watch what's going on around him, and adores his siblings. I just love to cuddle him and try to burn the image of this baby stage in my mind, it's going by so quickly. Andrew just got his first tooth, he's trying so hard to sit up, and he starting to roll over (although only in his crib when he's supposed to be going to sleep).

I'm SO thankful for each of our beautiful children.

We were finially able to squeeze in a visit with the Spencers! It shouldn't be so difficult to find time for friends, but life is busy. Hopefully our next visit will come sooner. It was fun to have Beth get a quick break from motherhood and watch her have fun on the dirt bike.

Nathan's Parents Tea. It's going so fast, especially since we only did one year of Preschool for Nathan. Off to Kindergarten all ready???? My heart is going to ache in September, my oldest is starting the process of gaining independence from us. It makes me so proud and so sad. :)

So we'll take each day as it comes... and we'll cherish the moments making memories as a family and with our wonderful friends.

Pictures with Oona, 4 days old

Oona has such a way of capturing natural, beautiful moments.  Doesn't our photo shoot look so peaceful??  It was, kind of.  He pooped on me twice and peed on me multiple times.  Showin' his love for his Mama, not that I would have minded if he had shared some of that love with his Daddy! :)

Big Sister Love

Natalie is enjoying being a big sister... kind of.  She hasn't focused too much on Andrew.  But she is gentle and sweet when she remembers that he's around.  We really wouldn't ask for more, we're so thankful that she is secure in her love from us and not feeling jealous.

1 day old

Trever's parents took pictures each month with a sign.  When Nathan was born Trever got a bit competitive and decided we would take "1 Day Old" pics.  It's a nod to our appreciation for their desire to document everything. :)

Trever always takes the first nap with the new baby.  So peaceful bundled up next to his newest love.

Andrew's visitors

Andrew brought Nathan and Natalie some nerf guns.  A big hit for them and Papa :)

Gaggy and Papo with their grand babies (there is one more on the way from Mike and Amy!)

We love having visitors come by to meet our little loves. (Jen Houk)

Greg Thiehen

Bree Orr

Uncle Tony

Katie Turcotte

Katie and Beth Spencer

Andrew Michael Kissel

Arriving for our induction. It was so strange to set an alarm, get up and be able to get ready for a delivery.  We were so excited to find out who this little bundle would be.

When we checked in the doctor and nurses thought labor would go quickly.  You can't be right every time.  13 hours later (which isn't long per se, but it was my longest and most of the time was spent waiting for labor to begin).

Any wait is worth it.  Our darling BOY was born healthy at 8:44pm

Toasting with the grandparents.

Our sweet Andrew Michael Kissel (it took us a few days to decide on the name... he was Baby Boy Kissel for a bit).