My 3 KSU fans.

We all dressed up in our purple for Saturday's home football game despite the rain. With the kiddos looking so cute it screamed photo-op...plus I've been bad lately about taking updated pictures of Kessly. All 3 kids obliged and we succeeded in capturing a few good photos. Regardless of the rain we lasted til half and finished up the game from our cozy couch. We look forward to many more purple weekends in the upcoming years with all 3 kids for both KSU football & basketball.

Training wheels no more!!

The 2 biking pros after a mere 30 minutes of riding. Much to our surprise these 2 took only 1 try without their training wheels in place to take off without any hesitation or stumbles. Kip and I were both anticipating numerous crashes, skinned knees/elbows, & many tears...but not Linley & Thayer. To watch them you would think they had been riding on two wheels the whole summer. Now I'm not saying they need practice, but what was anticipated to be an entire day of getting rid of the training wheels turned out to be just 1 turn and they were off.

Paxton turns 1.

Lauren, Paxton, & Drew


Birthday boy Paxton enjoying his Yo Gabba cake

Linley took our photo:)

Giggles all around!!


This past week we made our last trip down to Fort Scott to celebrate my nephew Paxton's 1st birthday...Yo Gabba Gabba style!! We went a tad early to enjoy some down time with family before our lives become consumed with school and extracurricular activities. Plus most of my extended family had yet to meet Kessly, so we thought this was a perfect time to introduce her. The weather was gorgeous which meant the kids were able to play outside at my parents without needing full parental monitoring as well as some relaxing porch swinging:)

Also while we were back I was able to enjoy a night out for drinks with 2 of my sisters and cousin April. Even though it wasn't very long it was very much needed and nice to not be interrupted every 5 minutes by "Mom...mom". I look forward to our next chance at getting together for another round!!

Unfortunately that is likely to be our last trip back to my hometown until Thanksgiving...which is much too far off. We do have one more 1st birthday to celebrate next month for Miss Londyn; let the countdown begin.

Growing families.

I'm a bit behind in blogging due to little sleep, constant diaper changing, bottle feedings, and entertaining our 2 older children. The addition of one more to our brood is finally catching up with me and left little time to surf the net, keep up with our blog, snap endless photos...etc. With school less than 2 weeks away I have been trying to enjoy every minute of being home and soaking in all the family time I can before life becomes crazy busy again. My constant mantra this year is "9 more months"...that is til I graduate and move into a new phase; career!!

Linley's summer camp comes to an end today and both Kip and I know she's going to miss it regardless of her brave face. She has made the memories that both of us had hoped she would...she wants to do something different next summer; more than likely it will be sports related! Thayer has been a tremendous help and has been able to some fun things on his own while Linley's been at camp. He's starting to come out of his shy stage and into a more independent personality, which I hope helps him this fall when he starts attending a new preschool.

I do believe now even though we weren't planning to expand our family that 5 of us is much more manageable than either of us anticipated. Now if we could just make it 1 more year in our tiny house without driving one another batty or fighting for the 1 bathroom:)

On a side note: in the span of 6 years my parents have been given 6 grandchildren, more than doubling in size over the last year. Kessly's birth brought all of my sisters to Manhattan which of course had to include a photo-op of all us and our babies!! We are going to have some fantastic birthdays and holidays...not that they weren't already, just more entertaining:)

Kessly Briar Wilson.

Our lives forever changed on July 19, 2011 at 2:28pm! The newest addition to our family finally decided to join us without being induced!! She weighed in at 7lb 5oz and 20.5in long. I couldn't have asked for a better delivery experience either. She has fit in so well already and it's only been 2 days. Here are a couple of pictures of her going home from the hospital sporting her adorable headband her Aunt Meg made for her...unfortunately she's got a small head so we had to improvise and make it a tad smaller.

Linley and Thayer have been so good at being patient and taking turns holding her...they do such an awesome job at making sure she's taken care of:)

I definately won't be short on helpers once family leaves!

Five.

The time is officially come when our family of four will become five. I honestly can't quite get over the realization that it's been 9 months since we found out we were going to be expanding our family. Time has gone by quicker than I believe either of us expected it to especially with her arrival soon approaching in less than 72 hours thanks to a scheduled induction. I have found myself wondering what our life is going to be like....full of diaper changing, sleepless nights, juggling school & housework, meal prepping, exercising, etc. It all sounds overwhelming at the moment but I know GOD only gives us what we can handle and apparently he has a great faith in both Kip and I.

So sometime after 7am Wednesday July 20, 2011 Kessly Briar will enter our lives and forever change our life as well as forever being loved by so many who are anxiously awaiting her arrival.

4th of July and then some...

Wrestling in the Voos' yard...end result=chigger bites

Linley teaching Indie "Patty Cake": she's gonna be a great big Sis

Anxiously waiting for Thunder over Manhattan to begin

Thayer (4) & Linley (6)

Photo courtesy of Linley:)

We spent the 4th at Cico pools free swim til 3:45 and then headed home to relax before the firework festivities. The Voos' invited us to their party which is full of yummy food and good company...plus they have great seats to watch the firework show at Cico. Both kids caught lightning bugs, played tag, entertained Indie....basically wore themselves out prior to the start of the show. Thayer of course passed out on the blanket halfway through and Linley kept saying "this is so AWWesome". That's her new favorite saying at the moment!

Baby girl is staying put for the time being...however we have made some progress which only means we are getting closer to her actual arrival.

All of us are beyond excited and ready for her to join our family...the kids especially;) If she doesn't decide to come prior to her due date, I will be induced July 22nd; thanks to Thayer being such a big baby.

Thayer and I are getting used to our days without Linley now that she started her summer camp. Looks like we will still be spending most of them at the pool or park, til baby arrives. That's about all that's going on in our household at the moment...plenty to keep us busy that's for sure.

Hoping everyone had a safe and fabulous holiday weekend!!