“where have we been?” you might ask…

…and a good question that would be! Where in the world have we been for the past month?? Honestly, we’ve had so much stuff happening, there is no good way to write it all out, so I’ll just have to show you in photos. Life is wild ‘n’ crazy and we are soaking up every second.

Our mini bean, Ardynn, hit her 18 month mark a couple of weeks ago, and her life, though simple & precious, is certainly no less busy than any of the rest of ours. I have heard mom say to people repeatedly that Ardynn is in constant, perpetual motion for every second that she’s not sleeping…. and that is NO exaggeration. She is busy, busy, busy! She is also finally starting to say a few more words… “da da” (aka: daddy), “da” (aka: dog), ma ma (aka: mommy), “uh oh”, “kac kac” (aka: quack, quack), “haaat” (aka: hot), “maow” (aka: meow), “nana” (aka: banana), “eesh” (aka: keys), Eeetaa (aka: keecha – our dog)... and many other words that are not as understandable to the older human ear. She is still a tiny little thing, wearing 12 month clothes & a size 3 shoe. We take her for her 18 month appt. next week, so we’ll give you an update on her percentiles then, although… what she lacks in size, she most certainly does NOT lack in personality. Her teachers at Kids’ Day Out & at bible study absolutely love her. They comment constantly about her sweet nature & spunky attitude.

As for yours truly, I had lots of firsts over the past month… my first day of preschool, my first day of ballet & tap class, and perhaps the most anticipated by my daddy…. my first dove hunt! I am loving my new big kid class at school, where I am in Ms. Coffee’s class with several of my friends from KDO last year. I go to dance class on Mondays and gymnastics on Tuesdays. Dad had thought we might try to add soccer into my mix next season, but when mom & dad asked me about soccer, I let them know in no uncertain terms that “no… I not gonna play soccer. I just gonna do ballet and gynnastics….. and shoot with daddy. Oh, and be a mommy to my babies.” I am not sure where they got the idea that I would want to play soccer!? We’ll see if that’s the end of that conversation!?

Well… I’ll give you mini updates on the pix below, otherwise… I’d be here all day! Hope all is well with your world. I will make a little better attempt at updating this not-so-captivating blog from now on. Happy Fall!

a night out at the ballfield

ardynn sat down for a total of about 10 minutes… the rest of the time was spent going up & down & up & down & up & down the steps… mommy was beat after the game!

 

playdate with jordan

we played dress up & play dough & made sugar cookies…. FUN FUN!

pool party with the hallmarks & stewarts…

helping daddy mow the grass & mommy clean the front door

fun in the sprinklers

helping daddy put together some new furniture

just choppin’ & cookin’

supper club with friends at the Hallmarks’

playdate with my long lost buddy

Syd & her family moved to Fort Worth, so it was fantastic to see her when she came in town for a visit with her gma & gpa

daddy’s birthday party… old man!

our new neighbor, Rudy, had a fun dress up birthday party… check out our outfits :o)

our first day of school… 2011

dove time!

I loved every second of my first hunt… the gunfire ain’t no thang for this girl… I am already begging daddy for a pink gun! … I hung out on the golf cart and killed flies while daddy & popi killed birds, and then helped clean the birdies when they were all done…. we even ate those yummy suckers… tasty!

 

first ballet/tap class

I am IN LOVE with my dance class… I am not sure what took mom so long to get me started??… I have been telling her for forever that I wanted to be a ballerina… and it is even better than I could have imagined. As it turns out, I am taking class from Catherine, the same teacher that taught mommy for many, many years when she was little. At first, I declared “but no mom…. I don’t want your old teacher… I want a new teacher.” I don’t know what I was thinking!? I looooove Miss Catherine!!

 

Just a few random photos from the past few weeks…