Update

It made me laugh how many people have commented on my lack of blogging lately!  I'll be honest, we are starting this new season of life and it's BUSY!  I'm still trying to figure out how to balance my time.  Those of you that have multiple kids involved in multiple activities where parents are expected to participate and donate (their time and talents) get what I mean!  And we only have two kids in school that are involved in extracurricular activities... so Lord have mercy on me, I can only imagine what our normal chaos will be when they are all in school!

I normally get a little down time during the afternoon when the kids nap.  Sometimes Krissy naps, sometimes she sits in her room for 20-30 mins and decides she's not tired.  But regardless, I've been using this time to do a little cardio workout DVD, and work on projects (sewing/baking/crafting).  I need to add blogging to that mix because I don't want to look back on these years and it be a big blur!  Here are some headliners from the last few weeks:

Hayden joined scouts.  He did this 2 years ago, loved it, but us parents were totally over it.  3+ meetings a month, plus lots of weekend activities left us overwhelmed.  It also didn't help we were leading Hayden's den and knew nothing about scouting!  So, Hayden said over and over when school started he wanted to join again.  We agreed to it, but Kevin and I promised each other we weren't taking any leadership spots this time, though we've been asked several times!  He's a few weeks in, things are going much better, and we are gearing up for popcorn sales that start in 9 days!

Allie is cheering for Castle Youth Football League.  She's got the full uniform, pom-poms, huge bow, and has had weekly practices to learn cheers.  She cheers at a game every Saturday.  The season only lasts through October, but she's LOVING it!  She asks if she can do cartwheels though Walmart, and the only time she's gotten in trouble at school was for doing cartwheels in the classroom.  The girl just wants to tumble and I think it's adorable!

Krissy is turning 4 next week!  Is this really possible?  We are having a little family party on Sunday and will take her out for a special morning of fun followed by lunch on her actual birthday.  We just did some pictures tonight and I can't wait to share them with you!

Austin is such a ham.  He makes us laugh all day.  Right now we are working on keeping hands to yourself.  (Krissy is working on that too.)  He also insists everyone gets hugs before they leave. 

I joined the mom's Wednesday bible study group at our church.  It meets every week for a couple hours and we are going through the study on Missional Motherhood.  It's been really good for me to get ready and get out of the house and make some new friends.  The kids get to go to a little class where they do projects and hear bible stories and they enjoy it too.

We sold our van.  It was nice having the van, the expedition, and the truck, but we are trying to get debt free (except the house) and we both felt like selling a vehicle was the right move. 

I'm volunteering in Allie's class once a week.

Kevin was on day shift these past two weeks and it's thrown off our usual 2nd shift schedule.

I've had two good friends come in town this month that I've got to visit with.  I really enjoy these girls and the fact we've been friends for 20+ years!

We went to Holiday World last weekend for Kevin's work party.  This was the first time our whole family has gone.  The kids are asking, "When can we go back?"

This month I've made strawberry cupcakes, homemade bread and butter, chocolate chip cookies (2 times), pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing, salted caramel macrons, yellow cupcakes with chocolate icing, and sugar cookies. I love baking sweets AND eating sweets but I'm trying to cut back on my sugar consumption, so I gave away most of what I baked!

I am doing a wedding cupcake/cake order for a friend in a couple weeks.  It's amazing to me how many people still think of me when they need a cake.   It's truly flattering.  But, I get all kinds of anxiety about whether or not a cake order will be up to par and whether or not it meets their expectations.  So, I've decided to bake for the fun of it (my kids birthday cakes, cakes for parties I host, teacher and bus driver gifts, and on the rare occasion of baby showers for close friends, etc).  I have a dream that one day when all the kids are in school I may find time to start taking orders again.  I really do love baking, but right now, taking orders isn't doable most weeks.

Ok, so that's kind of the gist of what's been going on.  I have an ongoing list of blog ideas on my phone that I may finally write up... or expand more on some of the things I mentioned above.  Be looking for Krissy's birthday posts starting next week!