Fall!

So, I'm not so good at the blogging anymore. To catch up...we are enjoying the Fall here. It's my favorite time. We've been to pumpkin patches, enjoyed the cooler weather, drank lots of coffee (and hot chocolate for the kids), carved pumpkins, put out mums, roasted pumpkin seeds, had parties, etc.!!!! I won the "Great Pumpkin" at our neighborhood carving party, and the kids had a party at gymnastics and school. Sugar, costume, and party overload!!!! I made "take home treats" for their pre school class...brownie pops that look like jack o lanterns. Cute, but hellacious! Do not attempt them unless your patience far outweighs mine. Thank you, Mom, for helping:)

Our most favorite event of late is our trip to Oregon to see our best buddies, the Askews (Israel, Allison, Isaac, and Eden). I went out at the first of the year after Eden was born, but we haven't been out as an entire family in 2 years!!! To start, the kids were great on the plane...3.5 hours non stop. Piper had a few fits on the way and on the way back wet her pants so she went pantless most of the flight home, but whatever. Porter was perfect, though, and even slept! Usually, when we go there from Texas, we are shocked at the cool weather, but their temps were about the same as ours in KC if not warmer! Weird. Anyway, we had a blast with them as always...pumpkin patch, apple festival, yummy restaurants, pretty parks, lots of coffee, kids playing together...it was a great trip. At night after kids were in bed, the adults all played a game...different each night from Moods to Scrabble. We laughed and laughed at Israel's lack of expression and Tyler's lack of spelling:) Of course Allison and I were good at all of them--haha:) We were very sad to leave and still remember our time there everyday. We look forward to their visit to us in the summer.

Getting ready to trick or treat Friday night. Good news is Friday is the warmest day this week, so they won't freeze walking up and down the street:) We've already had freezing temps this week--nuts!!!

Oh yeah...Tyler has decided to get rid of Opie. Supposedly he's moving to a ranch in Wisconsin, but we're still waiting for it to be final. The kids and I want him to stay, but looks like mean ole' Daddy is winning this battle...haha. It will be nice to have paw print free windows and floors, though:)

Just ONE

Our neighbors have boy/girl twins a year younger than ours, a 4 year old boy AND a house in the Ozarks. What a blessing! Plus, we love them:) So, Matt asked Tyler and Porter to go to the lake for a guys' weekend while I stayed behind with just ONE child ALL weekend. Oh my gosh...can you say "What a breeze!"??? Yes, I love my boys and we missed them tons and it was weird to have one twin and not the other, but boy, was it easy! We had some fun girl time to boot while the boys did boy stuff and bonded...fishing, paddle boats, caves, grilling, and video games. We got our toes done, ate ice cream, shopped, rode the carousel, played with our friends, and took a long morning walk to starbucks:)!!! Both kids were angels alone with mommy and daddy and we cherished special time with each of them. Next time we'll switch! It was so funny to see Porter and Piper's reunion after being apart. They truly missed each other, but you could tell they liked their alone time, too! I guess after 3 1/2 years of togetherness, they earned a weekend apart:)

in a special chair just for her, getting her toes a nice bright orange:)

on the carousel with Jen and Elise (a little blurry since we were in motion!)

**Tyler only took pics on his phone at the lake, so I have none of their adventures:(

Tyler had to go to Denver today after the Ozark trip, so that kind of stunk, but we had a full day and visited our nearby Farmstead that we haven't been to in a while. It's all decked out for Fall!

This is how we dooz it...

Just a few random pics from the end of our summer days...

As we were washing every single toy imaginable after the dust storm from the basement...I got a big tub filled with water to make things easier. My mom was helping out and as I came upstairs with another bundle of toys to be rinsed, this is what I saw....

"Get your underoos on, kids, and go on out in the new pool!" Ha ha.


Next, Piper has an addiction to sweets, especially chocolate as you may know. She was helping me make brownies and I let her lick the bowl...and spoon, and fingers. Porter wanted nothing to do with it...odd since he's the messy one of the bunch. I guess the girl will do anything for chocolate. Won't we all?!?!

Porter insisted on wearing these red and white socks with his brown sandals to the gym one day. There was no talking him out of and really no reason to, I guess. He was very proud and didn't even care that I kept calling him "Socks".

Pre school has started. Today was their second day and they LOVE it! I'm so happy that they are happy. They tell me all about their day and their favorite parts of it...growing so fast!

Long Time No Post...

Well, needless to say, we've been a little crazy in the the Price household.



We took a trip to Houston for a wedding and to see some friends. It was fun, but too short!



After our basement flooding fiasco, we had all the basement stuff placed in various rooms all over the house. Just last week, the cement stainer man came to do our floors. First...SANDING the cement. Can you say, "DUST!"??? Then, staining, then sealing, then evacuating the house to my mom's because of the fumes!!! In the mean time, we also got an itch to re-do lots of other things in the house while we were at it...our room, guest room, kitchen back splash, kids' bathroom. I feel (and my body feels) like we're moving in all over again. It's settling down now, though. We really do like the new basement floors and just a few more walls to paint and then we're done for a WHILE!



Tyler's also been traveling in the midst of things; kids are starting pre school next week; and I'm finding time to lead a pre-teen praise band at church, sing back up vocals for an all girl praise team, and start going to a new small group. Yikes.



Kids (especially Porter!!!) are pros on the potty--woohoo! I thought the day would never come. They are even more funny and chatty than usual. Growing up so much every day. Piper is a loud talker and a non stop talker and will repeat what she wants you to hear until she is acknowledged! Porter is a ham and always making us all giggle. They play and entertain each other in their make believe worlds every day. My joys and my insanity in these two individuals:)



In the midst of it all, I often find it an ever present challenge to "be still and know...". I like to be busy, to feel productive, to have a sense of purpose. But, so quickly in my "doing" I forget that the state of my heart is what matters. Is God receiving the glory in it all? The gifts and time I have are for Him, not me. He loves me and wants me to also have rest so I can be all He desires for Himself. I am forced into that (a little, at least) this week with a nice end of summer cold. Blegh. I'm wiped out. In my "resting", I pray to come back with a newer perspective and always remember to "be still..." because He said so!



Now, all that said...it is going to take a lot to keep me from the American Idol Tour in downtown KC this Friday night. That's right, folks, we have FREE tickets and they are GOOD! It pays to have connections. Thank you, Tyler and happy birthday to me:)!!!!

Beasley's and the Basement...

We spent 5 great days in Hot Springs, AR with the Beasley's...Manley, Shirleen, and June. They are technically our friends, but I like to think they are my family. They lived across the street from us when I was in high school and Manley was the pastor of my home church. He even married Tyler and I 9 years ago. Our kids called him "Uncle Bubba" and her "Aunt Shirleen". They have an amazing place on lots of land with beautiful views, a pool, a huge deck, a fish pond, etc. So nice and relaxing. We swam every day, ate yummy food (including Shirleen's signature pancake breakfast and some delicious ice cream from "Scoops"). Overall, we just had a really fun, restful visit and enjoyed ourselves immensley. Porter and Piper were even little angels on the long car ride and entire trip! On top of a big hill looking out...
on the back deck after some yummy ice cream:)

Feeding the fish!

It's always good to be home after a trip, though. So, as we are unpacking the car, the kids want to play in their toy room in the basement. So, Porter goes down and yells up at me..."Mommy, Opie peed!" So, I run downstairs and see not Opie's little spot of pee, but an entirely FLOODED basement. We knew it rained while we were gone, but it apparently stormed enormous amounts of rain, so much so that our sump pump (for all you Texans, that is a pump in the basement that pumps water out from around your foundation during rainy times) got overwhelmed and couldn't keep up! YUCK! We frantically tried calling 20 different places to come get the water and carpet padding out, but they were all booked up since it also happened all over town. Thank GOD for amazing neighbors who rescued us with 3 wet vacs and lots of man power to take out the carpet and padding and donate tons of fans to dry up everything up. We came out of it with a few ruined toys and bags, a couple of split baseboards, and a dirty cement floor in our finished basement. However, we (unknowingly) had coverage for our sump pump on our insurance policy and the guy cut us a check the next day. So...NO more carpet (just in case). We are staining the cement and throwing down some big rugs. Yay! God is good and never fails to keep us humble, but also show us love, grace, and mercy! one of the many helpers and many wet vacs!

my wet couch slip cover--eeewww! Washable, though:)!

July 4th in 3 parts...

FIRST we started the day at the top of our long street with a 4th of July parade. A police man led it and bikes, walkers, dogs, and wagons trailed behind (all decked out in red, white and blue). It ended at the pool for popsicles and fun. The best part was we met two sets of brand new neighbors that moved onto our street. They are our age with young kids and we hit it off right away. Later that weekend, they even came to a neighborhood bbq. I see new friends in our future:)SECOND we went to another part of town called Prairie Village...very cute, quaint, older area. They had "Village Fest"...all kinds of booths, free give aways, animals, parades, you name it! It was fun! After that, we ate at a great new place, Blue Moose, where the kids got these animal masks. Piper fell in love with hers (a cow) and wore it for 2 days. Even if she was eating, she would keep it on and just flip up the bottom to put food in her mouth:)
THIRD we ended the day having dinner with friends, Paul and Missy (expecting their first baby girl soon!), at Spin Pizza on the patio...our favorite! Then all headed over to Corporate Woods to watch fireworks. It was amazing weather--don't think we ever sweated! Paul and Missy brought their little doggy, Toby, that the kids loved, and we just hung out till the sun went down and watched a great fireworks display.
What a memorable 4th! Some people recently asked me about doing stuff like this with Porter and Piper since they are so young, get in bed late, etc. But, to have experiences and live life once in a while is all worth the grumpy kids I have to deal with the next morning:)!!!! We will always sacrifice and do our best so they have some fun family memories!

Fun in this City

Have I shared how much we like it here?? First of all, it has barely hit 90 degrees and it's July!!! And there is always fun stuff to do with the kids that's accessible...no traffic to fight!!! So, this past weekend we went to the Overland Park Farmer's Market. It's in cute downtown OP...street gets blocked off, lined with vendors of all sorts of fruit, veggies, bread, herbs, flowers, etc. We ate an amazing breakfast sandwich on the sidewalk, saw a really good little band perform, and popped inside a few cute shops. We got some good stuff to cook and grill that night, too! I just kept thinking how neat it was that we could do that with our family...I never got to do stuff like that! Then, Sunday after church, I heard about something on the Plaza near downtown KC called the "Duck Derby". I thought they put rubber ducks in this creek there and race them. Well, that was only part of it! They also had streets blocked off, tents set up with all sorts of things for kids, food, free stuff, etc. If you "adopted" a duck to race, the proceeds went to a children's therapy center. They also had this group that played drums and danced come down the street and perform. They were of all ages and some were tiny, but amazingly talented! SO good and the kids loved watching them. Then, one of our local favs, "Funky Mama" performed and P&P sang and danced and Porter cried when it was all over.

So, it's not perfect here by any means, but we truly do love it! I think it's even appreciated more after having the longest winter ever of my life:) We still mourn the distance from friends and family and will always do so (but we sure love visits)!! Texas will always be our home. However, we are glad that this is our home away from home.