My Special Birthday

I had a great 38th birthday :) When I came downstairs, I noticed new chairs around our fire pit! Erik had picked out four different brightly colored chairs, because he thought they looked summery! We went outside and tried them right away! Then Mila and I shared breakfast on the front porch together.  That's one of our favorite things to do lately.  I took her to gymnastics class, and then she and I stopped off for an ice cream treat at McDonald's.

Then, most of my birthday was spent waiting to hear from Matt & Gail about the arrival of their baby girl! We've known for 2 weeks that she was going to be born on my birthday, and I couldn't have been more thrilled! Little Iyla Gail was born around 1:30 in the afternoon!

My parents came over to give me their surprise.  My Dad planned and had the kids help him build me planters!  What a special gift!  I love that they made them from scratch!

Natalie joined us for dinner and sing me Happy Birthday with key lime pie!  After that, Erik and I went to the hospital to meet baby Iyla! She is perfect! I feel honored to share my birthday with my newest little niece! I can't wait to watch her grow and love on her!

I was pretty lucky to have celebrated my birthday all week!  On Wednesday, Natalie and I went wine tasting at Cooper's Hawk.  We had torrential rains when we arrived, but after drying off in the bathroom, had a fun evening together!

Thursday, Pops and Nana stopped by to wish me a happy birthday, as well as Joy and Gram!  I truly appreciated everyone's kindness, gifts, and well wishes!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of our great Dad's, but especially our own!  The kids spent most of Saturday creating cards for Erik.  They were excited to give him everything they made and the new OSU travel mug that he can use at his new job!

tie she made for Daddy

LOVE how he's holding onto Erik's ear!

Then my parents came over for dinner.  We picked out a new shirt for my Dad, and my Mom had bought him a lawn decoration that he was hoping for!  He started cracking up when he saw it!  We all just spent the day relaxing together.  My Dad taught Caleb how to play chess, Mila played Connect 4 with Babtcha, and  Erik got to watch the US Open!

Caitlin & Brendan's Wedding

Unfortunately, Erik and I caught whatever the kids had at the end of the year and were pretty sick with upper respiratory issues. Even though we didn't feel well, we wanted to make sure that we could go to Caitlin and Brendan's wedding. We weren't sure if we would make it, but Lisa and Nick helped watch the kids in the hotel so we could rest a little, and we ended up having a great time! It was so nice to be able to see family and watch the kids have fun with their cousins and 2nd cousins!

Mila was a dancing machine! She and Scarlett danced together all night! It was so cute because they were getting anxious during the 1st dances. Erik and I were on the floor for the anniversary dance and I told her that they would get to dance next. Mila turned to me and asked if there was a brother-sister dance?!  Too cute!

Caleb was dancing at the beginning part of the night, but then he became self conscious and sat out for the rest of the night. That broke my heart! I'm not ready for him to start feeling that way yet!  He told me that he's been learning a lot about love lately, and that he'd concluded it's gross!

The next morning we all had brunch in the hotel lobby, and it was just so fun spending time with family again.