Hellos and Goodbyes

Last week, we had a little family reunion of sorts.

Josh's great grandmother is not doing so well and isn't expected to live much longer. So his brother and his family decided to come into town to say their goodbyes.

So while the circumstances weren't the best, we finally got to meet our new nephew and see our nieces for the first time since Christmas!

We had a really good day spending time with family. It was a short visit, but a really good one.

Josh's grandparents with all of their great grandkids 

Uncle Josh and his youngest niece 

 Me with the girl who made me an Auntie

Our nephew! Isn't he so cute? 

I love these pictures so much 

My sister-in-law and I with our nephew

We would have spent more time with family that evening, but my car broke down, so we were not able to (thank goodness it was an easy fix!). But we really enjoyed our time together and were so glad that we were able to spend some quality time with Josh's family.

September Days

Once again, another month has gone by...and it's time for a little blog recap.

We started off September with a trip to the beach! Since Josh and I both had Labor Day off, we escaped the heat (well, sort of. It was still warm at the beach) to spend some time with our toes in the sand. We went with our friends K. and S. and had a great day!

Later that week, I got to celebrate my bestie's birthday. We had a fun sushi night out with some girlfriends. It was much needed and such a good time.

The next night, I went to a little Pinterest craft night with some girlfriends. We had a lot of fun working on fall and Christmas projects.

One of my unfinished projects 

I was most excited about this. I wanted to make a fall wreath, so when I searched on Pinterest for them, this one came up. I knew it was perfect! 

My first ever fall mantel. I hope to add more to it next year, but I'm pretty happy with it for now

The following evening, we went to a friend's birthday party. We played lots of fun games and enjoyed each other's company.

The next day, our re-vamped Sunday morning service started and I was asked to sing on the worship team. It's definitely different than our evening service was, but we are making the best of it and trying to focus on the positive.

Later that week, I was able to have a fun date with my friend M.D. She moved into a new house, so I was able to go over and check it out. And then we went and grabbed shaved ice at our favorite local place. So good!

That weekend, I had a fun girls night with some friends while the guys went out to try a new beer house.

I had another small craft night with a couple of friends the next week. I was able to finish up a couple of the projects I'd been working on.

Later that week, we celebrated our niece's 3rd birthday! I still can't believe she is already 3! We had a little family celebration on her actual birthday with cake and presents. And then that weekend, we had a bigger party with some of her little friends. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law set up a movie screen in their backyard so the little ones (and the big ones...who am I kidding?) could watch Frozen.

These two melt my heart. I love when she tells him how much she loves him, or calls him a "bad girl" when he makes her mad 

This kid loves singing happy birthday and blowing out candles. We may have sung happy birthday multiple times at each birthday celebration

She was eager to use the birthday gift we got her 

This was at her bigger party. You can see part of the movie screen behind us 

 This spider scared her at first, but she quickly grew to like him and named him Mr. Skinny Legs

Earlier that day, we went to a co-ed baby shower for our friends M. and A. They are having a little girl in a couple of weeks and we are really excited that their little family is growing!

The only picture I got at the shower. My husband went to get me a drink and came back with one that said Soulmate. He can be a bit sappy at times.

And after our niece's party, we stopped by a friend's birthday party for a little while.

The next day, we went to see Josh's great grandma to say our goodbyes (more in my next blog post about that). That evening, we went over to my brother-in-law's for dinner because they had a lot of extra food from the party. We got round two on the s'mores from the movie night before as well!

The following day, we spent all day with family (more in my next blog post about what that looked like).

Later that week, our transitional pastor and his wife took Josh and I out to dinner at our favorite BBQ place, partly as a thank you for Josh helping them with some computer issues, and partly to get to know us better. We had a nice time with them.

This past weekend, we went out to dinner with two of our friends to celebrate their birthdays. Most of the boys went to play video games while the rest of us went out dancing. It was a fun night trying out a new restaurant and getting to spend some time with friends.

Other highlights for this month:

A couple of fun hang outs/coffee dates with my friend L.B. I always enjoy my time with her and our conversations.

A couple of video chats with my book club friends. We read a really funny book called Beauty Queens. I look forward to our chats so very much.

And of course, most of my fall shows have started back up! I'm excited to have some of my favorites back on TV.

It also rained a couple of times this month! I seriously love the rain and was so excited to be able to drive in it the other day.

I promise the car wasn't moving when I took this

Overall, September was a very fun month filled with a lot of good memories.

Hot August Nights

Another month has gone by this year...so crazy!

August was a full month, with some good, bad and bittersweet. Here's a little recap:

I got my hair dyed...and put some purple in it! Josh has been wanting me to do that for awhile now, and it's something I really wanted to do a few years back...so I went for it! It was only really bright for about two weeks and is pretty much gone at this point, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted!

Right after I got it done. I'm not usually one to post a lot of selfies, but I was trying to get a good picture of the color. 

At the beginning of the month, our friends found out they are having a boy! We are so excited for them, even though we were initially on Team Pink.

Team Pink was wrong!

We went to a fundraiser for our local police department's tactical team with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. As it was their first one, the night didn't quite go as planned, but we had a good time.

 Doing a little dancing...with a very grainy picture

The next day, I went to a winery event with my friend L.B. and her parents. It was a lot of fun. We also went out to lunch and hit up a couple other wineries after that. It was such a good day and I was so thankful to be able to spend it with them. That evening, we went and watched our friends's band play a little show at a coffee shop. They always do such a good job and we love being able to support them.

The following weekend, Josh's parents were in town for his dad's birthday. We did a little family get together on his actual birthday. The next day, we went to a baseball game as a family to celebrate his birthday. Our team won, which was pretty exciting, and they had fireworks after the game! It was such a good fireworks show, and I'm so glad we stayed. For being a sold out game and with how hard it was to get down on the field to watch the fireworks, it definitely ended up being worth it.

 Yep. That's how we roll

A few days later, my mom and I went to visit my grandma. We had a really nice time chatting and catching up on life and what's been going on lately. Later that day, my friend S.W. and I got to unlock pumpkin spice lattes a day early! Even though it was really hot outside, we thoroughly enjoyed our drinks.

Later that week, we celebrated K.W.'s birthday during our Bible study. It was a fun night of pizza, funfetti cake, and talking about following Jesus.

That weekend, we went to our friends's house warming party for their new place. We had a lot of fun hanging out and chatting with our friends, and "warming" their beautiful home.

The next day marked the end of an era. Our beloved Sunday evening service ended. It was a very bittersweet night and it was pretty hard to sit through, knowing it was coming to an end. I am so incredibly thankful for what it was, what was accomplished through it, and the people I know because of it...but I am definitely bummed that it's over. It's going to be a big adjustment transitioning to going back to church on Sunday mornings, after attending and being a part of the evening service for six years. I am hopeful God is going to use this time to do some amazing things, but I am definitely still very sad that the evening service is over, and that it all happened so suddenly.

Some other highlights for August:

My book club girls and I finished that series I mentioned in my last post (Delirium. We were not overly impressed), and also read Paper Towns by John Green and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. I really enjoyed Paper Towns for the most part, but We Were Liars just made me angry. I also re-read Mockingjay during a break in our reading since the first part of the movie comes out later this year. I had forgotten how much I like that book, and how emotional it makes me.

I have been pinning all sorts of ideas for decorating for fall (I am really excited for a craft night coming up so I can get some of those ideas nailed down), as well as ideas for Halloween costumes. I've decided I need to be a bit more crafty this year and I really want to decorate my home (at least a little bit) for more than just Christmas each year.

We also saw Guardians of the Galaxy...twice! We first went with our friends and we were pleasantly surprised with how much we enjoyed it. The following weekend, we went with my family. I really liked it both times...even though our second time got interrupted by a fire alarm and we had to leave the theater for about half an hour while they sorted everything out!

We also babysat our niece all day on a Sunday while her parents went to a football game. We had such a good day with her. She always makes life a lot more fun.

We took the little cheeseball out for ice cream for being such a good girl

I also had some fun coffee dates, a wine night, hang outs, and game nights with good friends this month. Overall, it was a really good month.