Vacation: Last Stop, Atlanta!

Our second half of vacation was spent with Daniel's brother and his family.  We always have such an eventful time *ahem* when we are there :)  a.k.a. something drastic always happens!!

I can't tell you how much they mean to us and how much we miss them everyday.  Tara (Jason's wife) and I are like two peas in a pod together.  We have so much in common and we just click really well :)  Visiting them is always a short trip, but we try to make a lot of short trips instead of less long trips.  Even though they are short, at least we get to see them more often!

Their 2 kids are adorable.  If we have a little girl half as cute as Elaina, I have no idea what we will do.  Daniel will be worthless, ha! (just kidding!)  He melts when he even sees a picture of Elaina :) 

Picture time!

Daniel and Ethan playing baseball

This is the look I got every morning from Elaina.  For some reason she liked me on a day to day basis!  hehe!  In the morning she wasn't sure about me, by the afternoon she was almost ok with me, then by night time, she loved me!  Then the next day rolls around and we started all over :)

But as you can tell my this picture, she loved Uncle Daniel right away!  Almost right as soon as we walked in the door from the airport :)  He loves her so much.

Time for homemade ice cream!!  Jason makes the best homemade ice cream I have ever had.  The kids loved to "help" ;)

She is the most adorable girl. ever.

Doesn't he look just like buzz lightyear? :)  This was a present from one of Tara and Jason's good friends.  It was good that Tara had waited to give these gifts because it help smooth over a situation that happened earlier that day.  Jason, Daniel and Ethan took an adventure to go find a treasure at a near by park.  While poking around to find it, Ethan poked his stick into something....well....that didn't like to be poked!  He had found a bee nest.  Soon he was covered in bees and Jason & Daniel were getting swarmed too.  They all came away with at least 4 bites (Ethan had 6!).  Thankfully, Ethan's body reacted really well.  Also thankful that he wasn't allergic!!  So after they got home, mom gave this costume (and a really cool Superman cape) to help him feel a little better :)

Elaina got a ballerina outfit :)

Mommy and Elaina!  Tara is about 30 weeks pregnant!  Little Emmarie is due in December :)

Uncle Daniel & Ethan playing Superman

Then Tara and I took the kids to a birthday party for one of Ethan's friends from church.  They had it in the play area at Burger King, which worked out really well!

Ethan and his best friend Jake eating lunch at the party

I couldn't believe he posed for this :)  He is such a cutie!

Overall, our trip was relaxing and great to spend time with everyone :)  I will leave with my favorite image from our trip.

Hope everyone is having a great week! :)

Sneak Peak + Prayer

Well I wanted to Blog about our trip to Atlanta today, but instead I have been frantically getting ready to leave town.

You see, my uncle passed away today and we are heading down for his funeral this Saturday.  He has been battling cancer for the past month or so.  I can't remember exactly when they diagnosed him--it all has happened so fast.  But I would appreciate it if you would keep our family in your prayers.  My uncle billy was in much suffering and pain, so it is good he isn't suffering anymore.  And what makes it even better is that we had to comfort in knowing he was saved.  He is know spending eternity with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we will see him again someday.

I also wanted to give you a sneak peak to the Atlanta trip before we head down to Mississippi!  I might be able to get a blog out while we are driving, but just in case.

I love this.  Daniel loves Elaina so much and this shows it :)

Stay tuned for more pictures from our trip! :)

Love,

Courtney



Vacation: First Stop...Florida!

When I was younger, I took my family for granted.  I had (have) parents who love each other, grandparents who were just a bike ride away and other family just a few hours away.  I always had family at all of my swim meets, dance rectials (all 3 nights!!), musicals, orchestra concerts--you name it, they were all there supporting me.  And I don't think I ever really, truly thanked them for that support as a teenager.

Now that they have all moved away (except for my parents) we rarely see each other.  As I mentioned before, seeing most of my immediate family was a monthly thing.  Now it is more like once or twice a year.  But when we do spend time together, I try to cherish every moment we are together. 

Our first trip on our vacation was my Uncle Terry and his family.  They have 3 boys, Xander, Ian & Eli.  They are a crazy family and we love that about them! :)  Ok, I will shush and show you pictures now :)

We started out our trip to the beach at night! :)

Then spent time with the kids at Terry & Angela's house...they don't like clothes.
This is Ian :)

This is Eli :)

Eli likes to wear underwear on his head.  These kids make me so happy :)

Angela and I--people always ask if we are sisters :) 
(excuse my bad looks, I was so sun burnt!)

Then Daniel and I took our own little trip to the beach!

Daniel is on a boogie board out in the ocean!  You can barely see him..

Me and Ian :)

Ian and Mommy!

Eli and daddy putting on his cool spiderman slippers so we can go out to a cool Frozen Yogurt place!

We thought we would get a nice family photo before we headed out.  Eli and Ian wanted to go in their superhero pajamas :)

Add Courtney & Daniel!

Brothers :)



And the reason why we AREN'T ready for kids--Daniel encouraging this kind of behavior...  :)



Next stop--Atlanta, GA!

Love,

Courtney

A Little Visitor

Since Daniel is gone all week, I have been so lonely.  I am not the type of person who likes to be alone. I mean, seriously.  So much so, that when Daniel and I skype at night, I carry my laptop around the house so I can talk to him while I do stuff.  It's like he is right there with me! Pathetic, I know.   But I got a call from my dad yesterday asking if I could watch Callie, one of their dogs, while he takes a quick trip this weekend!  And I said, of course! :)  Finally, someone to keep me company :)

So here is Callie, chillin' out at the Howell house last night :)

I am pretty sure she was watching the door for Daniel to walk in any minute....

Then she realized, "ok, maybe Daniel isn't coming home..." after a couple of hours.  So she just relaxed :)

I grew up with callie always around, so when I left home--I missed her a lot.  I love getting to spend time with her :)  Hope you all are having a great week!

Love,

Courtney



Smoke Signal!!

Oh my goodness!!  Things have been crazy around here!  We just got back from Vacation Sunday night (which was wonderful by the way) and then last night I took a trip to Louisville, KY for NQC (more on that later...) and just drove back up for work this morning at 5:30am.  Whew!  So like I said, it has been crazy.  But in a good way.

You know when you have those relationships & friendships where you can be apart for long periods of time and once you reunite, it is like you never left each other??  Well, this is the way I feel with my family that I visited this past week. I'm not going to write a huge post today, because I want to share a lot more with you guys.

But let me just say this--that when you are down, you know, DOWN, down....God knows just how to pick you up.  He know who to put in your path to encourage you, He knows what words for them to say, He knows a song for them to sing.  He is All-Knowing, All Powerful and He is our King, our Comforter, or DELIVERER!!  The Lord is our rock in the sinking sand of this world and I am so, so grateful and thankful that He has chosen me for salvation.

Love,
Courtney

Vacation!!

Oh my goodness,  I can barely contain the joy that I have for this next coming week!!!!  You will be able to tell how excited I am right now by how many exclimation marks I use throughout this post!!! (hehe)  The first half of the week, Daniel and I are going to Miami, FL to visit my Uncle and Aunt (my mom's brother and his family).  I haven't seen them since our wedding (a.k.a--over a year ago!!).  So, I am really excited to spend time with them.  It is really hard to be away from them because I grew up with Terry and Angela being around all the time when they lived here in Indiana.  They were always there for all my dance recitals, all my musicals, all my major swim meets--If I had an event, and they were always there!  I would see them at least once every month or so.  Since they live in Florida now, it is more like once a YEAR.  They have 3 boys, and it kills me to not be around to watch them grow up!  We will be there for 5 days and then we head off to our next destination :)  Here is a picture of Terry, Angela and the boys! :)

(These are a little old, but I don't have any new ones of them right now!)

After we visit with them, we will head to Atlanta, GA to visit with Daniel's brother and his family!!! :)  They have 2 kids and one little girl on the way!!! :)  I have blogged on here about a trip we took recently to see them.  If you want to see come cute pictures of their two little ones, check out this post!  We will be visiting with them for 4 days.  We can't wait to spend time with out neice and nephew.  Since Tara is pregnant right now and her due date is in early December, we aren't sure if we will be able to see them over the holidays coming up.  So we thought, we better go see them now just in case we can't make it for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

So, I might be MIA next week, and I just wanted to warn you guys!  Don't think I fell of the face of the earth or anything :)  I will hopefully have lots of Blog ideas when I come back!

Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that Monday is Labor Day.  I hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday!

Love,
Courtney