Our Little Monster turned 2....here's how we celebrated

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

For those of you who don't know, summer has been a little hectic around here!

We took a trip to Lake Tahoe for my family reunion in June, an amazing trip with an amazing family. Cori (Chad's sister) got engaged while we were there...so fun to be in on the big surprise. I got a call from Stephen and Clark (Chad's dad and Cori's fiance) the week before we left asking for help picking out a ring. Clark, Elliott, and I went on that fun excursion and then had the ring shipped to my FABULOUS Auntie Karen in California. She (after a comedy of errors with the UPS guy) drove the ring to Tahoe for us. By the time Clark proposed, my entire family....well, really everyone there with the exception of Cori and Marla (my mother-in-law) were in on the secret. The weather and resort were amazing, definitely a place we could go back to.  I'm in the process of getting all of the pictures from this from everyone organized so look for a bigger post with lots of pics later.

When we got home, we jumped into planning Elliott's 2nd birthday party (which will be a post in itself when I get the pictures from the photog), and looking for a home for Trish and the kids, and also looking at homes for us while getting our house ready to go on the market. Our house is currently listed (which means the bulk of my day is trying to prevent Elliott from making it messy), and we are hopeful it'll sell quickly.  We've put offers on 5 homes now only to have them be outbid in very odd circumstances. I'm confident that God is slamming those doors shut for a reason and will bring us the perfect home...although the emotional roller coaster has been trying.

But, before we left (in May...I think) we took family pictures with the **insert any complimentary adjective here** Nine Photography. I wanted something different and fun...so we went all out 1940's!