Thank You Danielle!

Here it is! Our new look! I really enjoyed working with Danielle, from the Design Girl, on this blog design. Oh, who am I kidding! I didn't "work" I just asked questions and she did all the work! I love it and am so inspired to get back in the swing of blogging more often! Thanks again, Danielle!

Way Back When-sday!

Our family computer bit the dust last summer during a lightening storm and with it, hundreds and hundreds of our digital pictures!! Or so we thought. We didn't even bother to try to get it fixed until this spring, when a co-worker of Britton's mentioned that he had recently had the same thing happen and was able to recover all the lost data and pictures. So Britton took our computer in and ta-da!! All our pictures right there where we left them! I was so happy I almost cried!

I have been looking back through file after file of "old" pictures and I am so happy that they weren't lost forever. There are so many precious memories stored on our hard drive, and we are working quickly to get them all saved over to disks so that we never lose them again!

So for today's walk down memory lane. . .

From the moment that Kaylen found out that our new baby would be a girl, she started dreaming (out loud) about all the fun things that they would do together! First item on her agenda? Play dress-up! I explained to her that it might be a little while before her baby sister was old enough to play dress-up, but Kaylen was patient. One day when Avery was about seven or eight months old I was folding laundry and Kaylen and Avery were playing in her room. Pretty soon, Kaylen called to me, "Mommy, mommy! Come see! Come see!"

And this is what I found!

Oh. My. Gosh. Were they ever this little? They are so precious it makes me want to cry!

And I'll let you in on a little secret. . . They are so precious it makes me want another one. . .

Shhhhh!

Yikes! July?!!

I can hardly believe that its already the end of July and in a few short weeks school will be starting again! It has been a busy, busy summer and a blog-free one too! I can't believe how I've neglected this poor, abandonded blog!

Who knew that a little thing like this blog o' mine could cause me so much guilt. Each day I stop by here and see my last post from (GASP) April and I feel so guilty. Guilty for not updating more often and guiltly for ignoring my blog!! I know this is silly because there are probably only two other people in the world reading this, but still. . . I don't like to start something and not keep up with it, so here goes. . .

So what have the Harts been up to since I last posted?

Well what a better time than July than to talk about what happened in May I say! In May, Kaylen Rose turned seven!! We celebrated by throwing a rock-star themed sleep over and it was a hit! I ordered these rockin' invitations from Designs by Georgia off of Etsy! If you need a fun invitation and a quick turnaround time, Georgia is your gal!

We decorated our basement with tons of balloons, sparkly stars, and streamers. To create the effect of a "dance party" we even had a friend of ours who is a DJ bring over some fancy "strobe" lights that flashed in bright colors to the beat of the music. With the lights turned down and the music cranked up it was the perfect setting for the little divas to get their groove on!

As you can see in the picture above, it was kind of hard to get good pictures of the rock stars as they were "dancing" - aka, chasing each other around our living room:) But you can see the fun "disco" lights!

This is the only shot I got of all the girls together, as the night was winding down and they stopped for a minute to watch High School Musical 3 in their jammies. This party was so much fun, it really deserves a post all of its own. . . we'll see;)

After Kaylen's birthday weekend was Dance Recital Week. This was Kaylen's second year in jazz and ballet here in Emporia and gearing up for recitals is always a big deal! Kaylen had dress rehersals EVERY night for a week and then perfromed on two different nights! In the end it was worth it and the dances turned out very cute!

Here are Kaylen and two of her dance buddies at rehearsals.

After school was out, we took Kaylen to Chicago to visit the American Girl Store. What a fun trip! Yup, that trip certainly deserves its own post!

Here are Kaylen and I eating lunch with her doll, Mia, in the American Girl Cafe! What an amazing place to visit! More on that later. . .

We also took Kaylen to Branson at the end of June for a quick weekend getaway. I didn't even take pictures on the trip. We've been there so many times, and we were having so much fun, I just didn't snap away away like I normally do!

While in Branson we took Kaylen to White Water- a water park with tons of wild and crazy slides. I had no idea Kaylen was such a daredevil! Just last summer she wanted nothing to do with the water slide at our local pool, but she didn't say no to a single ride at White Water!!! She even went down Kaluni Falls, the picture you see below! It was a little scary, even for me, let alone Kaylen, who was just barely tall enough to ride it!!






At the end of June our best friends visited from Arizona! We always enjoy having them stop by, even if their visits always feel too short. You can see the amazing pictures my friend Bethany took of our family while she was in town by clicking here.

Another fun part of summer for us is hanging out on the lake on our friends' boat. We enjoy boating so much that we are thinking about getting a boat of our own for next summer!! Kaylen had a blast tubing with daddy and our friend Garrett!



Avery even got to go tubing for the first time! I don't know how much you can see here, but in between Daddy's feet is her little face. You can't hear it on the video, but she was laughing and clapping the whole time! She loved it! I guess we have two daredevils in our family! For the most part she loves being in the boat and hanging out in the water!






Well, that pretty much sums up May and June! Wow! Birthday parties, dance recitals, vacationing, lake trips, and visits from friends! I guess I didn't realize how busy we really were this summer! See. . . no wonder I haven't found the time to blog:)


I really am going to start blogging at least a little more often than every three months because I'm getting a blog makeover soon!! I can't wait to reveal my new look!