big huge giant catch-up {aka the never-ending blog post}

hiiiii!!!!!  i've missed this world, and considering i have no memories written down from the past 6 months, i thought i'd try to record some stuff to catch you (and myself!) up on our lives.  it's been a busy, fun, sweet 6 months.  brecken is now 11 months, and pretty confident she's the princess of this house:

and these 2 are OLD:

{blakely}

{kennedy}

if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you have to admit they've aged like 3 years in the past few months.  here's some of what those past few months have entailed...

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:: kennedy and blakely graduated preschool...

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:: k and b turned 5 in june and celebrated with...
  

{a party with family}

{a new ride}

 {walkie talkie "cell phones" to talk to each other}

{mani-pedis}

{& their first laser show experience}

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:: we finished ALOT of house projects and hosted 4 baby showers.  this has probably accounted for most every second a child has not accounted for...

{new wallpaper in our half bath (but i don't know how to put a bathroom picture up and it not look awkward)}

{a white sofa to replace our stained yellow one.  people think i'm crazy to mix kids and white, but it has actually been my very favorite home purchase yet because about once a month i take the cover off, throw it in the washer with some bleach, and have a brand new sofa.  plus it was $399 at ikea and a new cover is $50 if it ever gets totally ruined}

{i painted our black kitchen table and chairs and wondered why i didn't do it 5 years ago.  i also finally won the fight over this ceiling fan in our kitchen.  brett insisted it felt cool (true) and looked cool (not true), but i didn't like the look and it made our food cold, so i finally convinced him to nix it.  the first picture is a better picture, but i promise the new one looks better in real life}

before:

after:

{we replaced the light fixture in our dining room...a bit too traditional for the rest of our house}

before:

i actually don't have an "after" shot because my camera was dead so i just went for an iphone picture and it didn't turn out so well.  BUT, i replaced it with this and it looks much better:

{and FINALLY, after destroying starting it over 2 years ago, finished our back yard.  i still have to "decorate" it...more furniture, rugs, side tables, flower boxes, etc...but we love it and have gotten so much use out of it already.  it was a pretty horrible back yard, and we hesitated to do it because we didn't want to put more into our house than we'll ever get out of it, but with the real estate market we could be in our house for who knows how long, so we decided to go with it}

before:

during:

and after:

we also separated kennedy and blakely into their own rooms and brett destroyed our master bath about 6 months ago (does anyone see a theme here?) to begin the stages of renovating, which hasn't begun (does anyone see a theme here?).  i can't complain because when he's in charge of a project, he may be slow, but he does it right (to our liking and debt-free.  have i ever mentioned that clark howard and dave ramsey had a child and i married him?  kidding.  i really am so thankful.  i either do it cheap or swipe a card, so we leave him in charge).  i'm lucky to have a good friend to advise me, who i run every decorating or renovating decision by (kelly, who i've talked about on here before.  i have a co-dependent relationship with her when it comes to my house; i feel like i can't do anything without her "approval" because we have the same taste, but she has a billion times better eye than me.  if you ever need advice for your house, let me know because she's officially in business on her own now and i'd love to give you her contact info)

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:: we went to st simons for a week...

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:: and to chattanooga for a weekend.  we went to the aquarium and shopped around and rode the carousel and ate lots of good food and went to northshore fellowship, the church where gary that i've talked about on here before is the pastor.  kennedy and blakely were just excited to all stay in a hotel together, but brecken slept about an hour and a half the whole weekend so i think we may have to stick to renting houses for future vacations...

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:: we (sortof) went camping with friends.  brett and kennedy and blakely slept in a tent outside of brett's dad's cabin, and brecken and i slept inside.  we couldn't figure out how to stick a pack-n-play in a tent and she won't sleep unless she's in a bed of some sort...

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:: brett and i celebrated 8 years of marriage with a trip to (where else?) athens!  we checked georgia theater's schedule while we were driving there and saw that corey smith was playing.  we freaked out a little, but of course it was sold out.  he sent an e-mail to his fraternity's list serve and a guy happened to not want his tickets so we bought them.  does it mean i'm old when people at concerts get on my nerves a little?  they step on my feet and get in my way and i get claustrophobic.  it was fun for the few songs we stayed for ;)

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:: kennedy and blakely started kindergarten.  they love it and i love it.  it's only part-time, so i guess you could call it a "sacrifice", but i love that i still get to be with them for what feels like most of the day.  they actually won't go full-time until fourth grade, so i didn't have quite the emotion i probably would if i was losing them to full days this year...

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:: and if you're wondering about those 2, they really haven't changed very much from the old days of this blog...

{they still dress crazy}

{they're still serious about their performing}

{and i still find them doing things that make me laugh}

(blakely in brecken's high chair)

(giving their baby sister crazy hair do's when i'm not looking)

(kennedy in brecken's exersaucer)

(kennedy being blakely's baby)

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:: we had family pictures made with katie davidson, and all of the kids did great.  brecken cried towards the end because i didn't know it was going to be freezing when i picked out outfits and the poor little chap had to wear sleeveless and be bundled up between pictures, but katie was great as usual and still got some good shots...

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:: brett and i have adopted the paleo lifestyle (well he really has and has lost 25 pounds and i talk about it a lot but really don't do it).  if i ever find the time to blog regularly again, i have a lot of good recipes to pass along.

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that was a weird thing to end on, but i don't really think there's a whole lot more to tell.  we're enjoying the day to day, and i can safely say it's been the best and happiest 11 months of my life (besides the rough start with brecken...so maybe the best 8 months).  that doesn't mean the day to day is perfect, or that i never yell at my kids or wish my baby.would.freakin.sleep (she's an insomniac...it's ridiculous), but i am quite obsessed (most days) with the 4 people i live with, everybody's healthy, and i'm not depressed, so i can't really ask for much more.  happy fall yall...go dawgs!

p.s. i'm reminded why i never blog.  i'm about to hit publish and i started this post 2 months ago.  not even kidding.  i had to change brecken's age in the first part twice, and i actually think she's about 6 months old in that picture.