Gracie goes to preschool...

Gracie started preschool last week, she is going three afternoons a week this year. She is really enjoying it!

Showing off her 'new' backpack. Sydney carried it for a few years and thankfully Gracie was excited about inheriting it!

Ready for school!

The First Day of 3rd Grade!

My baby on her first day of 3rd grade... yes... 3rd grade! I can hardly believe it myself. She was looking forward to it and was not even nervous. Is this my child?

Our conversation went something like this this morning:

Her: You're not dropping me off?

Me: No, we are all going to walk you in, Mommy wants to take some pictures!

Her: You don't have to walk me in, I know where I need to go

Me: I know but I want to , it is the first day of school

Her: (big sigh) okay

Dad: Sydney, when you are a senior in high school we will still be walking you in on your first day and taking pictures (probably just kidding, but we will see)

Her: Mom how many pictures are you going to take

Me: only a couple

Her: Okay, only two.. okay?!

Me: We'll see ;-)

I took way more than two pictures and she survived her mom embarrassing her on the first day :)

Summer Vacation!

As most of you know we had a fabulous vacation to Colorado at the end of July! We spent a couple of days with Tony and Heather (Barry's brother and family) in Colorado Springs and then went to camp at Horn Creek with Barry's parents for a week and then came back to spend a couple more days with Tony, Heather, Hadley and Leila. We had a wonderful time! If you are my Facebook friend you have already seen these and these few pictures are just a few of my favorites out of many pictures we took. I hope you have enjoyed your summer whether you traveled or had a 'staycation'!

Here is our family at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. It was a nice little walk and very hot that day!

Barry and his girls relaxing on the porch of our lodge at camp. We shared a lodge with 7 other families... in our lodge was a total of 30 kids! It was great!

We had a family hike up to Venable Falls, it was a lot of fun!

One of the many things we enjoyed... the water slides in the afternoon. Okay, okay... Sydney and Barry enjoyed the water slides. Gracie and Molly played in the pool and I captured the fun!

Sydney and Gracie relaxing by the creek in the mountains on our hike.

Cousins!

Here is one wonderful part of our vacation... visiting family! We had lots of great time with Tony, Heather, Hadley and Leila while visiting Colorado Springs. We even enjoyed a visit from Brad and Gina Chapin and their boys while we were there.

Grandma and Grandpa with all but one of their granddaughters!

Sydney, Hadley, Molly, Leila and Gracie. My girls loved playing with their cousins and Hadley and Leila shared their toys so nicely :)

VanHorn girls with the Chapin boys!

All three of our families, what a great time!

Happy 4th of July!!!

We had a great time this holiday weekend enjoying lots of family and friends! We spent the night at Grandma Mitzie's house Saturday night and went to church with them on Sunday morning, the 4th. We got back home to enjoy a nice cookout and fireworks with great friends!

Happy Birthday America!

My girls before church on Sunday morning.

It was pouring rain and we could not see fireworks so we had our own fun in the rain with Sparklers.

It was so smoky and rainy but it sure was fun!

We took the girls up to the park by our house fresh from baths and in pjs on Monday the 5th to hopefully catch some fireworks that were rescheduled from the 4th and the rain. We finished off the rest of the sparklers while waiting for the sun to go down.

We did not see many fireworks but it was still fun relaxing and making fun family memories!

Happy 4th of July and God Bless America!!!!

Old Shawnee Days Fun

We always enjoy our time at Old Shawnee Days each year! The parade is always great and we come home with SO much candy. I always look forward to Old Shawnee Days most because of one thing... funnel cakes!!

Getting ready to go find our funnel cakes, sno cones, kettle corn and free stuff!

Gracie and Molly at the parade, we were showing off our VBS tshirts to support our friends from church who were in the parade advertising our VBS.

Watching the parade with Tyler and Bria.

Julie and Keegan even joined in on the fun... look how patriotic he is even at his young age :)

Here comes our church float!

Big 8

My baby turned 8 on June 11th! I know I am a little behind on my blog posting. We had a great party and she had a couple friends over. We had a wonderful time with our friends and family. I enjoy so much celebrating birthdays and what a better way to do it than with friends and family! Enjoy the pictures!

Sydney and her sweet smile!

A wonderful gift... a mini Psalm book from PaPa Dick and Nannie.

Friends... Megan, Sydney and Hannah.

Daddy and his girls.

The best party... a fabulous Little Pet Shoppe Cake made by Grammy!