I'm baaaaack!!!

Hey! Did you miss me?? Probably not, but that's ok! We have been busy little bees around here for the past couple of months and the thought of blogging just completely overwhelmed me!! To play catch up, I just thought I'd let everyone know what has been going on since my last blog post.
We moved, you probably already know that, but that has been the biggest part of our "busy".  We lived with Nikki Clark for about 3 1/2 weeks.  Let me just say what an amazing person it takes to let a family of 4 come in and take over your house!  We had so much fun living at her house, Carson still asks when we are going to go back and live at "NeNe's" house.  Brad was out of town for a week and a half of our stay at Nikki's so when the kids went to bed every night Nikki and I were able to catch up on some much needed, long overdue girl time.  We also go to spend some time with Doug and Paula, who live just down the street from Nikki, so that was nice.  We did lots of shopping, eating, playing, and making big plans for my new house.  Who wouldn't want to live with one of their very best friends, if only for a month!?

BFF's are the best!!

We had a garage sale at Doug and Paula's while we lived  with Nikki

Nikki got to experience a storm shelter with 2 tiny children...
.it was a looong night! :)

One of our many shopping adventures at Pier One

While living at Nikki's house, Carson finished preschool and his first year in AWANA Cubbies.  It so hard to believe my boy is big enough to be experiencing these milestones already!

Carson at AWANA Award Night

Cubby of the Year

Carson and Cooper

Certificate of Participation for Antioch

Last day of school

Also, while living at Nikki's, Taylor and Jennifer got married and we all headed over to Fort Smith for the BIG day!!

The wedding was at naptime...that explains the faces

cousins....all grown up!

Taylor and Sissy

The bride and groom and the cousins

Sharing our 6 year anniversary with the newlyweds!

Our old house took much longer to close than we expected but it finally happened and we went over to clean everything up and say goodbye to our very first house as a family.  Of course I cried, of course tons of memories came flooding back, but I was also so thankful as I walked through the empty rooms and thought about how much our life has changed in the past several years and how far we have come.  Such wonderful blessings!!

And finally we MOVED into our new house!! The movers did an amazing job of getting everything unloaded and put in the right rooms.  NOTHING was broken or lost in the move!! Brad did LOTS of painting, the boys had new rooms to get used to, and we got new furniture.  We are still working on it.  There are still blank walls, no lamps, no rugs, no living room furniture.....but we are getting there.  It just takes a lot longer when you have 2 small children!!

Right after we moved in, we had our annual Van Hauen/Van Hauen/Donihoo/Anderson Garage Sale...we didn't do so well this year...and there are no pictures!!

About a week after moving in it was time for Vacation Bible School.  This was a BIG year of change for me with VBS.  Sami Keenen (Sissy) had to work the entire week of VBS and could not be there to be the director which put me into a new position of "fill in" director.  I missed doing crafts with the 1st -6th grade but I did enjoy overseeing everything going on.  There is a lot that goes in to making VBS run smoothly and we have an INCREDIBLE group of willing servants at our church who love kids and VBS as much as Sissy and I do.  We had a great night of canvassing the week before VBS, we had record numbers of kids during the week, we had a great Family Night, and everyone was so patient and encouraging with me in my new role.  As much work as it to have VBS, it is totally worth it and I am so thankful to be a part of it year after year.

canvassing night

decorating the stage with Sissy

1/2 our crew at our Monday tradition of eating Mexican food for lunch

the rest of the Monday crew! Whew!! We survived the first day!

Chelsea did a great job taking over crafts this year

Bi-Bi-Bi-Bi-Bi-Bi-Big Apple Adventure!

Cutie cousins loved VBS this year

Since VBS, I have spent most of the summer settling in at our new house, playing with the kids, and getting used to living in Norman/Newcastle.  We have had lots of fun and kept very busy.  We also celebrated Aden's FIRST birthday in July with lots of family and friends and had a great time.

Aden's very first spaghetti experience

Gabe and all the Hillis crew went to Disneyworld and brought
Carson and Aden Mickey hats with their names on them.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day

First sno-cone of the summer

Pedicures courtesy of Vicki Andreww

Aden's first time in a pool

Nothing like finding TWO boys in the crib in the morning

My sweet boy has to have more tests and surgeries,
Not really the way I wanted to end our summer

Chelsea and Jeremy's church shower

Aden's 1 year pictures with Katy Berry

More 1 year pictures with Katy Berry

Lots of fun play time with Murphee and Shannon
this summer

Carson LOVES swimming at Donna's house

Cars 2

good car nappin'

Aden is not a big fan of swimming

Carson, on the other hand, LOVES to swim.  He has no fear

 

Aden's birthday morning, opening presents from Mommy,
Daddy, and Carson

Happy first birthday on the 4th of July!

Aden was a bit grouchy on his first birthday and
was NOT pleased with us trying to take his picture

Waiting to watch fireworks

Happy 4th of July!

Another swim day at Donna's

Back into the coupon groove 

 

Sitting at Dr. Digoy's office waiting to schedule
surgery

Swimming buddies

Carson loves to play in our new big backyard

What is summer without Girls Night!?

Carson's "best friend" Harper at the library

Date Night

Carson and this bunch just finished their last week in the nursery
and are headed to Donna's Sunday School class at to
Children's Church....ugh!! where has the time gone?

Happy Birthday Brad!!

This is from Aden's party, some how they
got a little out of order

So since you have last heard from me there has been lots of "new" in our lives.  I am so thankful for the amazing summer we have had.  It has been very busy, I have not slept nearly enough, I have not always been on the positive side of things but even with all of that I feel so very blessed.  God has done amazing things in our lives, I continue to be humbled by His goodness and mercy that is new every morning.  We are lovin' our life, lovin' our kids, lovin' our new house and looking forward to the next chapter in our lives.  Brad and I have celebrated 6 years of marriage and on September 1 we will be celebrating 8 years of being together.   Carson is turning 4 in just a week and starting pre-k in 2 weeks.  So much new, so much exciting, so much to look forward to.  Brad, Carson, and Aden make me so happy and they are my constant, daily reminders of what faithful and loving God I serve!  

Hopefully from here on out I will do better about blogging and I will keep it updated more frequently.  I love the blogging world, I love keeping up with everyone else's blogs, now it's my time to stick to it and be a bloggin' woman!