july it kit and HUGE sale!

so i'm only 15 days late in posting my it kit projects. at least it's not officially july yet, right? lol! kelly is having a HUGE sale! be sure to check IT out!

hello again!

we're home! yay! we had a GREAT time in florida!!! the kids loved the beach and the pool and spending lots of fun times with their cousins and aunts and uncles and grandpa k and barb. of course i have tons of pictures to post sometime!

while we were gone we missed a lot. but most of all we missed the birth of noah john hoffman! he was born on tuesday, and is 13 inches long and weighs 2 lbs. quite a big boy for only 28 weeks! he is doing ok for being so little, but he does have some bleeding on the brain that is worrysome. tall anna has been posting all about their journey here - anna's blog. we got to see noah for the first time saturday night. when i saw his teeny tiny hands and fingers and body all i could think of is what a miracle he is. i have pictures of noah to post soon too!

hello goodbye

like the target commercials? maybe? lol! this month has been a whirlwind! we've been visiting and had visitors every weekend. we planned on spending a weekend in ankeny and ended up there for 5 days. the next weekend i got to go the walnut antique show where i met becky and my mom and her friend. i spent about half the day with becky and half with my mom and had such a GREAT time with both! i bought all kinds of goodies that i need to take pictures of. in my "spare" time. i'm still taking the allison tyler jones photography class and i'm sooooo far behind in it that i missed the last assignment. i scrapped for 2 days straight and made 3 projects for this month's it kit. then grandpa k and his wife barb came for 2 days. 2 hours after they left mimi and papa came. they were here for father's day, which was also anna's first dance recital. she did great! i have pictures of that too. they left monday and since then we've been shopping and packing because tomorrow we leave for the koenigsfeld family reunion in florida! oh yeah, and sometime in there we had to get our house totally spic and span and ready for showings. but we were SO lucky because the first family to look at it loved it and is renting it! yay! so i think that explains why i haven't blogged for awhile. sorry! i have tons of pictures to edit and post and i need to post my it kit projects. they are over in it kit gallery if you want to check them out there. but goodbye for now - i'll probably have a MAMMOTH post FULL of pictures when we get back. if there's time between sorting and purging because the packers are coming sometime around july 15th i think. heeeelp! :)

you go, God!

we had some pretty strong, scary thunderstorms roll through tonight, and the girls and i headed to the basement to hang out. it was cooler down there (our air conditioner hasn't been serviced for the summer yet - ugh). and anna was a little freaked out from the sirens and the loud thunder. i wasn't because i'm very brave during tornado warnings and those sirens don't freak me out a bit. yeah. i didn't fool the kids either, i don't think. but ella with her imagination said to us that maybe God was up there playing bowling, and the loudest booms were when he got a strike and if there wasn't a boom he must have gotten a gutter ball. i'm pretty sure God doesn't bowl gutter balls, but i wasn't about to argue. ;) it was funny, because as kids my brothers and i talked about God bowling too. i don't remember ever mentioning that to ella, but i might have. we were cleared pretty quickly from the actual tornado warning, but the weatherman (it was bill, not jimbo. sorry denise and becca. ;) ) said it was hailing right at our intersection so we all went up to see. just as we got up a HUGE bolt of lighting and clap of thunder hit. anna hugged me, still a little scared. but ella stood up, pumped her fist in the air, and shouted, "you go, God!"

summer!

_MG_5412, originally uploaded by holly k 123.

it's finally here!!! it's kind of chilly and rainy so far this morning, but we're ready for fun!!! the end of the school year was so bittersweet for us. i'm not sure if i've mentioned this (probably only 500 times so far), but, as wilson says, "i no wanna" move. saying goodbye to teachers and friends was so hard, we've all been so blessed to find amazing schools and we're even more blessed by our sweet, wonderful friends. thank goodness we have most of the summer to play and have fun!

speaking of fun, becky invited all of the bagels to her house for dinner on thursday and we had a blast! becky made the most delicious chicken and salad and kelly and glue brought desserts that were sooo good. becky's house is full of her amazing photography and beautiful artwork and is shabby chic and just perfect. i always feel inspired by just being there. we had such a great time just hanging out and talking. i'm so blessed to have all of them.

this weekend kurt's sister deb and her family came for a quick visit. the kids were ready to party all night long! that kind of came back to haunt us on saturday at the zoo. we had some tired eyes and a wilson had quite a case of the crankies. it was a beautiful day and we had a great time, though!

this morning the girls slept until 8:30 (wilson was up at 6:15) and our neighbor came over in her pjs and we've already colored, watched sesame street, built with legos, played hulabaloo and now they're down playing house in the cool basement. i'm really looking forward to just hanging out and reading and doing all of the fun kid summer activities. speaking of reading, ella read her first full sentence last night. "a princess loves to dance." of course. ;) i'm so glad it's summer!