Remembering June...sorta

Oh my dear long neglected but not-completely-forgotten blog. I honestly cannot for the life of me remember where my blogging time has gone. I love this outlet, I love remembering, I love capturing those funny/don't-want-to-forget-this moments. But somehow, life has evolved with our family of 5 and my time is, well...less free. I refuse to give up, I refuse to just start from today (oh how easy that would be...new year, new start) but then we would be missing 7+ months of life. The thought is overwhelming but I think I'm going to do a 'Top 10(ish)' for each month. Make it more manageable while still capturing us.

1. Schools out for summer!!

Everyone was excited for Ella's last day of 1st grade.

2. Great Wolf Lodge with Girl Scouts

As soon as school was out, we loaded in the car to head for a day of friends, water and fun!

3. Pool time!

When our crew descends on the pool, you better watch out! Lots of splashing and laughing will soon be coming. Ainsley got a "puddle jumper" life jacket and Oh.My.Goodness! How have I had 3 children and only just know found this product? Its coast guard approved as a life jacket but it doesn't flip the kid on their back, instead she stays upright, able to swim, kick and move freely in the pool safely BY HERSELF!!

4. Bowling

6 kids bowling. Some might call us crazy! We did finish a game...and didn't lose any children....and there were no major injuries. Sounds like a success to me.

5. Farmers Market

Favorite part of the farmers market by all children...honey sticks. Little $0.25 straw filled with honey...Selah glared if you mentioned taking hers, Jude and Jenna were all smiles, Ella and Aubrey's lasted maybe 30 seconds, Ainsely chewed her straw so much she couldn't get the rest out but out of fear it would be taken away, would not let us help her! The day ended up being much warmer and nicer than we hoped. Running through the fountains with clothes on and snow cones were a perfect way to spend the day.

6. Hanging out

Some days the most fun is had by just hanging out at home, passing the day with your cousins.

7. Visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Kerner...plus Miriam was born!!

9 Great grandkids with 2 great grandparents in 1 picture. It only took about 30 pictures to get one were most kids look like they are not being tortured!!! And everyone loves to hold the baby =)

June in a nutshell. Lots of fun, lots of family!

Instalife----October

Right now I have to say I am so thankful for Instagram...its the only thing allowing me to feel like I haven't completely lost the ability to blog. And oh how I love recording our life on this blog. It may look like a slow death, but stick with me...I promise to keep it alive!!

I'm so lucky to be this little girl's momma. Her smile warms my heart and her stories keep me laughing. Today she told me, "I just take what you say, put it in my head, spin it around and out pops a recipe!" Her view on life is ordinary (for some reason she always uses the word ordinary when actually it should be unique).

Big -8- Hard to believe how fast the time has gone. She is our information sponge, our follow the direction to a T then find a loophole in the instruction to do something else, our tender-hearted, imaginative, and friendly girl. She was able to have some extra birthday flare on her cake thanks to candles sent from Auntie Sarah.

Every family has to have the 1st child who needs pieced back together. Fortunately it was small and no stitches required, just a little glue! It was the perfect combination of wearing rainboots on the carpet, legos covering the floor and tripping to land precisely on the corner of the padded ottoman with her eye.

This year we were blessed to get free tickets to Bauman Farms. They don't call this the Disneyland of pumpkin patches for nothin'! We spent 3 hours here and didn't do EVERYTHING! And in Oregon, how often do you have a sunny day so warm you can eat an ice cream cone at the pumpkin patch?!?!

Thank goodness 8 year olds don't notice the little details. I won't be winning cake wars anytime soon and if nursing doesn't work out at least I can confidently say I shouldn't head to the bakery for my next job ;-) What really matters though is that Ella said this was "Exactly what I hoped it would be!"

Oh how we love rain boots!!

Evenings with Doug and Myrna are always fun. Special pumpkin decorating and Halloween crafts make it even better!

Every once in a while, just because, I really should get better about going through old pictures...Especially wedding pictures!!

I've never been one who frets about turning another year older. But I would also be lying if I didn't mention that it made me smile when the barista asked if I was 24 ;-)

Some days you are so hungry that you can't help eating a cold tamale in the church parking lot!

#selfie--- I've never been one who went all out getting dressed up for Halloween. This year one our October alphabet dinner fell right before Halloween so costumes were required. Enter my best attempt at a couple's costume!

A ponytail with 2 ponytails with 2 ponytails on each of those...Yep, that qualifies as a crazy hairdo!

Instalife----September

Thank goodness for Instagram! I promise I really do take photos on my real camera, but man...these days have been full! Fun, full, and I'm not going to lie a little exhausting at times. There are days I look around and wish I could squeeze a few more tasks into each day, but oh well...such are the days as a household of 5!

School time is here again.

Ainsley and Aubrey shared in Aubrey's excitement to be going to kindergarten!!

Face-painting fun after the Cause & Event race. Ainsley "ran" with me in the stroller and wore an official race number too. About halfway through the race she started telling people "I hurt my knee during my race." Must be hard to be pushed for 3.1 miles!!

Its a family event! Ella ran her very 1st race- 1 mile. She did great and we were so proud of her for completing it. Neal took 3rd in his division for the 5K. I walked with Gina as she was trying to nurse her stress-fractured leg, she didn't have to ask me twice to walk not run.

This year we got Halloween costumes a little early. The church had a superhero weekend and the girls wanted outfits to wear for that event. I, on the other hand, was not willing to buy 2 costumes for each girl. The compromise was that we are Batgril and Wonder Woman for Halloween this year and could wear costumes in September.

Remembering to take time on our walks home from school in the morning to enjoy the "Ainsley sized" things of the world. Each morning we stop at this same retaining wall and sit because "its an Ainsley sized bench!"

Race time once again! 3.1 miles, more running than obstacles (and either I'm stronger or the obstacles were much easier than the past races!) and for a non-beer-lover, the BEST spiced banana beer!

Some days just don't go as planned. This was one such day. From the moment I woke up, things just didn't my way. Our morning progressed in this manner and moments into church, I got paged back to the kids wing. Ainsley had pottied in her undies, dress was wet and shoes were wet. Icing on the cake, no dry clothes in the van. We only live 5 minutes from church but of course Ainsley fell asleep on the way!!

Never trust when a 2 year old is quiet. Fortunately it was only bandaids this time, at least they are easy to clean-up!

Family pictures 2014 by CRoeMedia.com

Its a little muddy but SO MUCH FUN!! Warrior Dash 2014

There ya have it. Maybe/hopefully soon I'll fill in the pieces in between. If not, at least you know what we've been up to and the adventures we are constantly having.

Instalife---August

I had grand grand plans to go back and make detailed entries to get the ol' blog back on track. Here we are getting the reality....Its October and if I don't play catch up then I'll become overwhelmed and just quit. So, we will enjoy Instagram and the high points while saying "so long" to summer!

We spent the last week of July in the Bend-Sunriver area. 11 kids, 6 adults, 6 mile bike ride with 3 waterfalls jumped into/slid down, 5 mile bike ride around Sunriver, 10 thundereggs dug, more s'mores eaten than we probably want to admit. SO M U C H FUN!!!!

This picture on our way home so beautifully captured our week--a few rain clouds couldn't damper our week, the fun always shined through!

Sneak peak of Kerner family pictures! 9 kids, 8 adults.

Another sneak peak of the family pictures. We were so blessed to be able to use the farm of a very loving family from our church.

Cousins and dress-up, always making memories!

9 years of doing life together. 9 years of high highs and learning times. 9 years that I could never imagine doing without you!

Family fun night at Oaks Park with daddy's work.

Ending the night on the Ferris Wheel. Perfect ending to a great evening!

Parenting tip #1- baby powder applied to sandy kids makes for effortless/painless sand removal. Parenting tip #2- keep said baby powder away from said sandy kid or have fun cleaning!

Beautiful sunset, beautiful family, beautiful memories.

Saying goodbye to summer on a gloomy day with donuts!!

Instalife----July

The bits and pieces of our July!

Aubrey was so So SO excited to lose her first tooth!!

We spent every morning for 4 weeks at the pool for swimming lessons. These 2 decided to have some fun decorating a picture!

Scars heal, glory fades, all we're left with are the memories made...Life is short so go on and live it! 6.89 miles, 2 hours 46 minutes (Neal finished an hour before the girls did!) Of all the races we did this summer, this one challenged me the most. There was SO M U C H upHILL running. We completely skipped 3 obstacles, but just like the rest its quite the feeling when you finish...without dying ;-)

Ella had had a sore throat for a while, slowly she started developing a swollen gland on the right side of her neck and once the little sore appeared in her throat I took her in to the doc. The doc looked in her mouth, didn't seem too impressed with the throat so she continued examining. After she looks in Ella's right ear, the doc smiles and said "Did you know you have something in your ear?" I thought the doc was just being nice talking about Ella's earring. Then she said, "No...really. She has something in her ear!" A bead!?!? Ella started to cry. I tried to calmly tell her, "Well you put it in there!" Apparently it had been in there so long that she couldn't even remember how or when it got in there. Oh kids!!!

And this just barely touches on the fun of our July!! Stay tuned. I'm slowly but surely plugging away...post by post...bringing the ol' blog back up-to-date...

Instalife-----June

Love spending just a few minutes away from the rest of the family with this girl. She is growing up so quickly!

Good thing Neal isn't bothered by a little mud ;-)

Cutting off some length to enjoy the warmer months.

Last family skate night. The local skating rink closed its doors forever.

Aubrey also wanted in on getting a new summer 'do!

Ainsley decided to give herself "a makeover." So beautiful!

Ella's Girl Scout troop sold so many cookies this year, the troop was able to treat the girls AND their families to a night at Great Wolf Lodge. Great way to welcome in summer!

Happy Father's day to the best daddy! Our girls so are blessed to have a daddy who is all about the fun, loves to pamper them and who takes being a single daddy every other weekend as a challenge to have the most fun possible. We love you!

Feeding the ducks...or the Ainsley! I think for every 1 piece the ducks got, Ainsley got 2!! Ella was able to hold still enough for the duck to take the bread from her hand.

How many cousins can you fit in one side of a Dairy Queen booth?? Ella, Jude, Aubrey and Jenna.

Pretending to be firemen and playing in the ambulance at the Tuesday market.

Its safe to assume that our summer was busy and full of lots of fun adventures. Here's to trying to recap and document all our fun times!!!