the most magical place on earth

Nope, not disneyland. For our little family, it's Buena Vista.

We went up to BV this weekend. Piper Jane met Grandpa Jim (my dad's dad) and Uncle Gary, Burke hung out with the llamas, the leaves in the mountains were gorgeous, we got to hang out at Frontier Ranch (the Young Life camp where Adam was on summer staff during college)... It was so terrific to get away for the weekend as a family!

a couple things...

1. Still working on getting Miss Piper Jane's acid reflux (or whatever is wrong) under control. Poor baby girl! She sure is cute, even when she's crying. :)

2. Jordi and I got to guest at Made (our favorite craft blog) yesterday with the teacher bag we made for mama! So fun!

3. Summer is officially over tomorrow. I hate that. Maybe this winter won't be as bad as last year?

the highlight of going downtown

 

If you asked Burke what we did last night, I bet he wouldn't be able to tell you what we ate for our celebratory Adam/Mom birthday dinner (I take that back- he might be able to tell you about the ice cream they brought out for dessert...).  But he would tell you over and over (and over) again about riding the train to get to dinner; he has a serious passion for riding the train downtown.  Good thing mom and dad live so close to a train station and indulge his wish to ride the train as often as possible. :)  Aren't grandparents great?

two birthdays

Happy birthday mama!

Happy birthday (a day late), love of my life. 

That boy picture from this summer makes me smile, by the way.

cupcakes and cousins!

our cupcake contest entry- the magnolia bakery vanilla cupcakes (adam's favorite)

 the hostesses with the mostest-es

burke wrestling with the cousins

 autumn and cody with miss piper- they were so sweet with her!

more sweet girls- check out Piper's deer-in-the-headlights eyes- haha!

cupcake scoring- serious business

My dad's family is so cool!  They are fun and funny and creative and terrific at caring for each other.  I love hanging out with them and am so thankful that lots of them live nearby...

This weekend, one of my dad's sisters (my aunt Chrissy) and her daughter (my cousin Autumn) put together a Cupcake Competition.  So fun!  Burke loved hanging out with the cousins, we loved having the chance to catch up with everyone, and the eleven different kinds of yummy cupcakes were an added bonus.  I love these guys!

of course...

I go and write on the internet that things seem to be looking up and Little Miss Priss screams. all. day. long.  She showed me who's boss... just the first of many times, I am sure.

Please pray that we get this figured out- holding a screaming baby all day long is a bit rough.

good news

Adam jokes that Piper Jane only has four modes- sleeping, spitting, screaming and snuggling (she'll calm down if she's being held upright).  But that picture above marks the beginning of a new era for us- see that baby girl?  She is by herself, not asleep, and not crying!  YAY!  I think the acid reflux meds are working... thank the Lord. :)

Also, I love this picture of Burke and Piper.  Oh how he loves her. :)

what a week

So in the last week or so, Adam's red scooter was stolen, our car had to have $700 of work done, we found out Little Miss Piper has acid reflux (which means she's in pain most of the time... which also means she's fussing most of the time), Mark's 59th birthday would've been yesterday (though, I should say that normal, everyday stuff has been much more difficult for us than 'big' days like Father's Day and Mark's birthday), Burke got a cold (pray with us that he doesn't give that to Piper)... Add all of that to far-too-little sleep lately and it's kind of a mess around here.

love this picture of the two of them- LOVE it

A couple things to be thankful for-
1. I know the Lord will take care of us financially; He's shown us that over and over again. 
2. Burke LOVES his baby sister.  Adores her, really.  Kisses her all the time (see our prayer request that he doesn't get her sick).  Just loves her.
3. Our families are so fantastic.  I am so thankful for them.
4. We have such great friends.  I don't think I've made a meal in a month (and still have a couple weeks before I'll need to!).

Cheers to a long weekend ahead! And maybe there's a week to come that's a little less stressful than this one has been. :)