Quick Update

Dan and I have been enjoying our summer so far and are getting ready for a fun weekend trip to Topeka and Abilene for some family time, a golf tournament, two weddings, and Father's Day! It will be busy, but will be so fun! I always love getting out of P-burg for a few days! Anyway, here are some pictures from last weekend when we got semi-dressed up and went out to a nice dinner. It's not something we do very often, so it was a lot of fun!

Summer time!

Last week my eight year old niece Jordan came to stay with me and Dan. We had a lot of fun together even though the weather wasn't the best. Dan had basketball camp all week and Jordan would just wander around the house asking when he was going to get home. She just loves her Uncle Dan. I guess he's more fun to play with than me. I didn't mind.






Jordan thought it would be fun to take some pictures with my camera. I thought her pictures were so funny. She always wanted either me or Dan to come to her party in her bedroom and the picture that Jordan took of Dan laying down is when he was at her party. He looks like he's having so much fun. The one nice day we did have, we bought an inflatable swimming pool and went swimming! Jordan loved it even though the water was pretty cold! We ended up having a great week and we were happy she got to stay with us.

Then yesterday, Dan and I took five girls to the circus for Big Brothers Big Sisters. It was a small circus, and I have to say, not exactly what I was expecting. There were some impressive parts, like the trapeze artist who was swinging from a bar by her neck. I was worried she would fall and there were hard boards on the ground underneath her that would not have been fun to have break your fall. And of course, I loved the elephants. Anyway, here is a cute picture of me with the girls.

And last, but not least, here is my 16 week picture. I definitely feel bigger than last week!

What a weekend

I had such a great weekend, I wore myself out.... literally. I have a horrible cold right now and I'm pretty sure I got it just from going too hard and doing too much. But I have to say that it was all worth it. That being said, I have so many pictures, I'm going to have to choose which ones to put up. Dan and I got to Abilene Friday night and Saturday, I went out to lunch with my friends from high school. This is a picture of me and Lindsey after lunch. She's a little over five months pregnant right now. Lindsey looks so cute and and I just look chubby. I hope I look as cute as she does in a month. Then in the afternoon, me, my dad, Dan, my mom, and Dodge all went fishing. The picture on the right is my fish that my dad is holding. I do not hold gross fish. I caught a bass that was pretty big, but we didn't get a picture of it. Dan caught two pretty good sized bass and my dad caught the mother of them all. Here are those pictures. That is definitely my dad's fist in the fish's mouth, in case you were wondering!

And then there I just had to take a picture of my mom "fishing" and Dodge helping her with her "fishing." In this picture of Dodge, he was actually trying to get my fishing pole. He's so funny. Overall, we caught 15 fish and didn't keep one of them. Now that's my idea of a good fishing trip. It was so much fun!

Sunday, Dan and I headed to Topeka where we celebrated Memorial Day and Matt's birthday. I ate entirely too much because there was such good food everywhere I looked. We had fun with Camdyn, although it took her a while to warm up to us. I took some cute pictures while we were playing outside. It was really fun to see the house that Matt and Sarah want to buy and they ended up writing up a contract on it while we were there. If everything goes well, it will be there house. I didn't get a picture of it, but you can see it on their blog. Here's Camdyn and her daddy swinging outside. She loves to swing. And here's a picture of Dan, Terry, and Matt all on the swingset. It's so cute, you'd think it was staged, but it wasn't. I just looked up and they were all on the swingset, so I had to take a picture. We had a great time with Dan's family. I even learned how to play pitch, which I swore I would never do after the last time I played. But it was fun, especially boys against girls, even though the boys had to cheat to win... twice! (They didn't really cheat, I'm just a sore loser)

Anyway, the last little bit is of me and my precious nephew! We stopped at my sister's to pick Jordan up so she could stay with us this week and I got to see Dorian. He's just about the cutest little boy I've ever seen in my life. No bias here!

Finally Done!

Dan is officially done with his first year of teaching and has a busy summer planned with getting ready for next year, and of course, golfing and lifting weights. He's very excited to have the summer off, but we're already thinking it's going to fly by. We just have so much planned with going to Minnesota for the 4th of July and going to a Royals game at some point. Then we always have trips back home to visit. Before we know it, the summer will be over. I better stop thinking like that because I'm getting sad already.

Dan and I are going to Abilene and Topeka for Memorial Weekend to see family and friends. I am so excited! It's alway fun to have a weekend away. Plus, we're going fishing with my dad on Saturday and he bought a fishing boat! Hopefully I'll catch something, although I don't keep anything I catch because I feel so bad for the little fishy. But I'll post some pictures of the experience either way. Until then...

Good friends, beautiful nephew, and wonderful mothers

The title of this blog explains it all. That was exactly what my weekend was about. I spend most of Saturday with some good friends that I went to Flint Hill Christian School with and it was absolutely wonderful. We ate a fabulous lunch, spent the afternoon reminiscing about the past, and spent the evening taking pictures. So here are some pictures from the day. This is my good friend Eric with his bunny. I'm not sure if this was before or after the bunny had a seizure. Well, we're not sure it was a seizure, but it sure looked like it. We were all scared there for a little while, but it turned out to be ok. Then there's me and Anne being buddy buddy. I haven't seen this girl for... um a long time and it made me so happy to spend time with her. We had a great day together!

The three amigos!

Then that's me, Anne, Eric, and his wife Rachel in front of the giant van gogh painting. You can't see the painting in this picture, but you can see Eric's nipple. I'm not sure why he did this, but I'm sure it's because he thinks he's funny! And the last one is one we set the timer on, but it was so windy that it tilted forward as it was taking the picture. I love it anyway.

And of course, here are some pictures of my wonderful nephew. I'll only post a couple since I'm sure there will be tons more to come!

Isn't he just the most adorable baby boy ever? Well, I think so!

Anyway, this weekend was also mother's day. And while I called both of my mother's and told them how amazing they are, I just have to reiterate how much I love my mother and mother in-law. One is the best for raising me and guiding me and helping me to become who I am as well as being my best friend. The other is the best for raising and guiding a wonderful boy into a wonderful man. Both moms have nothing but unconditional love and I love them for that. I hope I can be just as wonderful for my children. Okay, I'm done.

New Nephew

My sister had her baby boy today! The first baby boy in the Russell family. His name is Dorian Vincent Stevenson and was born around 10:40 a.m. weighing in at 8 lbs. 1 oz. and 19 inches long. I won't get to see him until memorial weekend, but I'll give him lots of Aunt Kieko kisses and hugs when I do! My mom's going to send pictures so I'll post some pictures soon!

A Family Weekend

This last weekend Terry and Debi came to visit and it was wonderful! We had such a great time just hanging out and talking. Whenever we see our families, it makes me so sad that we live so far away. I guess it could be worse. We could live in another state. Either way, it's still hard not to see them as much as we would like. Anyway, here are some pictures from the weekend. Our cat doesn't really like anyone but us, so we just had to take a picture of Coda on Terry's lap. She jumped up there and took a nap with him after they got back from golfing. Dan and Terry played golf both Saturday and Sunday after church. It was so nice both days. I've never seen two people so happy. It was cute! Of course, Terry wasn't so happy when he got what he called "golfer's elbow." :) Overall, it was a great weekend with the parents.

On a totally separate note, we had our first unwelcome visitor in our house. A little mouse! I think Dan was practicing his golf swing, and yes, he does this in the house. And I think I was sitting on the couch when all of a sudden I saw Coda jump on something gray and little. I yelled at Coda and she ran off. Then Dan and I proceeded to trap the silly thing with a box. It ended up running right into the box and Dan dumped it outside. I actually like mice so I wanted to make sure it was ok. I kept going outside and checking on it because it wasn't moving. But then a couple of hours later, it was gone. We have no idea how it got in, but I'm just glad we got it out. Because Lord knows, I wasn't going to set a mouse trap to catch it!

Then, just for fun, I thought I would put a picture of our silly cat. Coda has been acting so weird lately. She likes to lay on her side, almost on her back, and put her little paws up by her face like a bunny. So that's what I've been calling her lately. Our little bunny. Speaking of little things, here is another picture of my growing belly. This is right at 12 weeks.