Happy Birthday to Me :)

October 25 was my 31st birthday :).  It was such a special day...one of the very best.  I will blog all about that later...

Lucky me, we celebrated at my mom and dad's house on Saturday and I was able to have another special day.  I just love my family.  Love them!

 

Me and sweet Paisley!  I so wish her parents would just give her to me.  I would take her home and raise her as my own in an instant!

 

My hubby!  XOXO

 

Brooke and Me

 

The 3 cousins...they are so much fun together!

 

Smith and K were making their silly faces...Paisley was totally amused!

 

Crazy kids!

 

Paisley has had enough!

 

Kisses for their baby cousin

 

Brooke and Aunt Pam

 

 

 

 

 

My cousins :)

 

My sweet P.

 

I am so blessed and grateful for my family.  I had both sets of grandparents there, cousins, and aunt and uncle...lots of love.  I was just missing one person...but I know he loves me too and wishes he had been there :).

 



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Pumpkins, Ponies and Me...a hot mess!

I am a hot mess right now!  This is for all of you people who leave me comments saying, "don't you ever have a bad day?"..."aren't you ever frazzled?"...today, the answer is YES!  Yes, there are many, many people out there with real problems.  No, I'm not pretending to have any real problems at the moment but I am a more frazzled version of myself lately.  My body doesn't know what time of day it is...I've been to the moon and back, twice.  I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off...and that's not very typical for me.  And my November is C-R-A-Z-Y.  So crazy, that I've decided to put my Christmas decorations up on November 1 because if I don't do it then...it just won't happen.  So, enjoy the madness...I'm hoping collected Shay returns in the near future :).

 

My sweet boy!

 

Kensington is finally getting the hang of soccer!  Yay!

 

 

 

We went on the hottest, yuckiest day to the pumpkin patch and petting zoo (why is it always beautiful until I need it to be beautiful...then, it's just hot and humid!).  Kensington is obsessed with horses, so she was super excited!!

 

 

 

 

 

My baby loves!

 

My mama!

 

She was soooooo excited to ride a pony!

 

 

He said "ponies aren't my favorite" about 1000 times before his ride was over.  Poor Smith.

 

 

What have I been up to lately?  A lot!  I'll fill you in as I'm able.  For now, just know that no matter how frazzled I might be, I delight in the Lord every day and am blessed beyond words.  (Frazzled, but blessed!).



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Fireman Jordan

My oldest and very dearest friend is Jordan Massey.  We've known each other since the day he was born (I was 5 months old at the time).  Our parents have been best friends for almost 40 years...we are family.  Jordan has been with me through thick and thin...through good days and bad.  We lived right by each other, always went to the same school, went to church together, and were smart enough never to date :).  He is my true bestie and I love him so much.  He comes from a long line of firemen...a very proud firemen family.  While we were on vacation, Lovie was sweet enough to take the kiddos to see Fireman Jordan at work, and he was sweet enough to spoil them rotten.  Jordan is about to have a family of his own... and I know he will make the best daddy and he will have such a special family.

 

Lovie looks pretty fierce with that hose!

 

All I have to say is that Lovie is a good sport.

 

Fireman Jordan let Smith drive the fire truck.

 

Jordan Massey...my kiddos have talked non-stop about coming to see you.  Even before they came to visit, Smith has always said that he wants to be a fireman when he grows up but now he wants to be a fireman with Fireman Jordan!  They love, love, loved hanging out with you.  I wish I could have been there too!  Thank you for loving on my babies!  Love you sweet friend!

 



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Homecoming

After 10 days of being on vacation...it was sure nice to come home to these sweet faces...

 

 

Be still my heart.

 



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Belgium & Holland Days 9 & 10: Amsterdam

We finished off our vacation with one last day exploring Amsterdam.

 

While Andrew studied his map...

 

...I took a few more pics of the front of Anne Frank's house.  Can you believe that in the back of that building, 8 people hid for over 2 years?  Amazing.

 

 

 

I found a Christmas store!

 

 

 

 

 

About to eat our last pancake :(

 

Look at mine!  (Yes, that was just mine!  I didn't share!)

 

Love!

 

Up early, about to head back home on day 10!

 

And look what was waiting for us at the airport!!

 

We had the best vacation together.  Andrew and I downplay how hard we work but we both wake up before 5:00 AM, work hard all day and go 90mph.  We needed this time to spend together, recharge and relax.  We could not have done it with Papa Jay and Lovie though!  They are such a blessing to us.  We missed traveling with them and with our kiddos. 

 

So, what's next for the Shulls?  Well...next stop, Spain.  The kiddos are excited!  More adventures in our future.



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Belgium & Holland Day 8: Amsterdam Suburbs

Day 8 started out with a fabulous breakfast at our hotel.  We drank more cappuccinos and ate more food then this blog could possibly handle...it was unreal.  Everything was fabulous!  We headed out in our car to visit some of Amsterdam's suburbs.

 

First stop...the city of Delft!  Delft is famous because it's the home of Royal Delft, the blue and white pottery.  My mom is o-b-s-e-s-s-e-d with blue and white, so I knew I needed to go to the factory itself and find her a treasure (especially since she watched my kids for 10 days!).  (You can tell that it's cold out!  Look how bundled I am under my coat!)

Here I am with my treasures for my mama.  The factory was really, really neat...it was one of my favorite things we did.

 

After we left Delft, we drove to the city of Den Haag.  It was beautiful!

 

 

I told Andrew that this might have been one of the best moments of my life..first, we stopped for lunch outside under this covered patio with big heaters (so we were toasty warm), as soon as we sat down, it started raining (perfect timing for us to stop), the restaurant had Wi-Fi (so I could look at Pinterest...hey, I had spent 8 full days talking to Andrew non-stop...mama needed a moment to look at Pinterest!), their special that day was Pumpkin Soup (and well, let's face it, I'm obsessed with all-things pumpkin!) and as we sat down, they started playing a Michael Buble CD (hello!  I would leave Andrew in a nanosecond for him).  Really, the best day of my life is the day I touched Michael Buble the day my kids were born (I have to say that, right?) but this day was pretty darn close.  Happy moment!

 

We drove back to Amsterdam and finished our day with a walk to dinner...

 

...through the Red Light District.

 

This wasn't new to us.  We did what all good parents do and took our kids through there two years ago, but for some reason, I hadn't exactly remembered how gross it really is.

 

It's really unattractive, naked women standing in store windows waiting for people to come pay to have sex with them.  It's several blocks of this.  If you ever go to Amsterdam, you have to visit.  It's pretty comical in my opinion.  It's also a part of their culture and history, so you have to see it and experience it.  However, prepare yourself!  And bring a lot of anti-bacterial.  I don't know...just walking down the street made me want to wash my hands!

 

On a second note, right before dinner, my sweet hubby pulled out his map and he had marked on there my favorite little handbag store and told me we could go pick out something for my birthday (which is this Thursday).  Isn't that sweet?!  It wasn't the gift that I found so sweet, but it was the fact that he had thought about it beforehand and marked it on his map.  I'm a really blessed to girl to have met him...all thanks to my baby brother.

 

 



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