I'm Back...

It's been a super long, crazy, and stressful month thanks to work and school but thank goodness there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Trent is very disappointed in my blog performance here lately so here's some goodies so he'll quit nagging ;)  And I promise to step up my blog-game again.

It's official- Jeryn gets wilder and wilder everyday and I LOVE it!!  I told Ashley that I literally tell Jeryn stories everyday- people probably get sick of it but it's not stopping me.  I love my Country Mouth Jr...  even when her mother does blog posts hatin' on me ;)

 I came home from work and left my shoes out which of course meant the wild child wanted to prance around in them.  I would also like to point out that yet again, Jeryn is topless.  I see a pattern here...

 

If there's such a thing as reincarnation... can I come back as this ridiculous dog?!  He has the best life...

 Babysitting is entirely too much fun.  Oh, you wanna wear your shirt as a hat, Jeryn?  Sure :)

 She also has a deep side... pondering life...

 Ryan and Katie's wedding in Lawrence- great day- wayyyy too cold for September!

 The Kiss pics- always my favorite.

 The Oread in Lawrence- one of the prettiest buildings ever.  You should've seen their honeymoon suite!!!  We got a tour and I almost died...

 Friends since diaper days

 The guys

 The beautiful bride and her hot red shoes- loved them!

 With the happy couple!

 Ryan took us up for a tour of their suite and this was the view of Jayhawk Boulevard from their honeymoon suite.

 Afterparty at The Cave.  We had a blast!!

 Time for ole' Trenton to be taken home. For once I was the responsible one haha ;)  But it was entertaining to be woken up at 3 am with him shouting, "What is that light?! Why is is so bright in here?!" Needless to say somebody fell asleep face down on their arm with their glowstick bracelets on.  Trent was a fist pumpin' raver that night lol!

 If you read the blog last October then you know the battle that little Henry Hermon faced when he was born.  After two open heart surgeries in the last year, and months of his life spent in the NICU at Children's Mercy, it was truly a special day to celebrate with Dave and Dana as their little guy turned 1!!

 Love his wild hair- just like his dad :)

 Big turnout at the Hermon farm- Henry, you are so loved by so many people!!

 This little darling, Miss Emery, was also in attendance and made it reallllllly hard to not want one of my own- she's just so precious!!

 All about the cake!

 The first little boy who ever stole my heart- P Man :)  Can't believe he's gonna be four this coming summer.   I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday.  Caysie was induced 10 days before our wedding just to make sure that she could still be a bridesmaid.  Now that's what I call a best friend!! 

 Henry LOVES tractors. Glad we bought him some more John Deere toys to add to his collection.  Although, I think Trenton and Dave played with it more than Henry did!

 After the kids party that day, some of the gang got together that night so Dave and Dana could have a much needed adults only party!

 We made a surprise trip back to GB to surprise Bob for his birthday.  Nothing like some Friday night high school football.  This was actually my first time ever at a GB game and I'm glad I can say I was finally there after having to watch the highlight tape some 25 times when Trent and the crew get together... Wendy can commiserate with me on that one!!

 I even left my Blazer blue at home and sported some red and black for the Panthers!

 Nothing says birthday like some well needed margaritas at La Fiesta!  When the name of the place is "The Party" you won't leave disappointed.

 Babysitting at Ashley's volleyball game.  The last match of the year had a western theme so little miss had to rock a new outfit.  Check out the boots!

 Real cowgirls wear hats AND tutus.

At the game I had Jeryn yelling all sorts of stuff- "Go Blazers!" and "Go Big Blue" were her favorites.  "Go Fight Win" came out more like "Go Light In"... not ready for that one yet.  Then I asked her if she wanted to play volleyball or cheer when she grows up.   I swear on my scrapbooks she told me "Cheer."  Ask Trent- this happened. 

And last but not least... my new favorite picture.  What a diva :)

My 4th Year

My darling teammate, Amanda, so kindly reprimanded me today about my back-logged blog.  She reminded me that I forgot a VERY important blog post- the back to school post.  My bad Amanda, my bad.

 Team ROC- together a second year!  This was technically the second day of school but whatev... we forgot pics with the first day madness.

 Some of the 5th grade gals!

Back to School flowers from the hubs.  Well played mister ;)

The first Friday after our full week deserved a team BBQ for everybody.  It was awesome because all 10 teachers plus all the spouses and kiddos came to our house for lots of food, fun, and games.

 KanJam was our new lawn game this year- thanks to Rusco and Dynamic Discs.  Shout out! You should go check out Rusco's blog for the latest on Dynamic Discs!  KanJam was a HUGE hit with all the guys.  Us girls never got a chance to play cause the guys were so amped up about it.  I'd like to say that meant my beer frisbee game improved... but that would be a lie.

 We welcomed some new teammates this year- Cara and Anna.  That meant a warm welcome with some beer barrels :)  BTW... still best drink ever if you haven't had one yet.

 The Ridge family- it's gonna be a great year :)

Miami County Wine Trail Tour

This past weekend Trenton planned out a day for us at some local wineries.

 

We started the day at Nighthawk Vineyard & Winery.  It is located just south of Paola which is only 20 minutes away from us.

We clearly beat everyone else out that day cause we were the first ones to arrive.  Fine by me... more pours in the tasting room when it's just me, Trent, and the owner ;)

Trent had packed a picnic lunch for us and we pretty much had the choice of any seat in the house.  We picked the spot that was nearest the wind chimes and had the best view of the pond.

 Bottle 1 to have with our lunch.

 The grapes on the vine ready to be harvested the next day.

 Ignore the wire in front of the grapes- they said the birds were nuts this year.

 

 It was the most beautiful day out.  70 degrees, light wind, blue skies and sunshine.

 Ran down the field just in time for a dip ;)  We LOVED Nighthawk and enjoyed how peaceful and serene it was.

Stop #2 on the Wine Trail Tour- Somerset Ridge which was just 5 minutes down the road from Nighthawk.

It was much busier and active than the first one.  They had just had a harvest that day so there was lots of people, fun, and live music going on.

They have triple the number of wines that Nighthawk has so we got lots more samples here :)

 Trent's choice from their vast selection.

 Perfect September day!  We highly encourage doing the Miami Country Wine Trail.  There's three wineries and vineyards that you can visit all within 10-15 minutes of each other.  We only hit up two of them on Saturday so now I know which one we'll be visiting soon....

Days 10-13

 Day 10: Something I Made
The office/scrapbook room is still a work in progress but one of my last projects of the summer before heading back to work was making these curtains.

 Day 11: Something Fun
The Mother's Day gifts we made for our moms this year were the little teacup birdfeeders that I blogged about back in April.  As a souvenir from our cruise this summer we all bought teacups in Cozumel and Trent made 4 birdfeeders for everybody.  I love the one we have in our backyard.

 Day 12: Close-Up
Trent wanted me to take pics of how much our grasses grew this summer in the corners of our yard... while I was out there a butterfly flew up and let me get in really close.  I got about 13 shots in before he flew away.

Day 13: From A Distance
Yesterday Trent planned a fun day at some local wineries.  It was the perfect day to have a picnic lunch and enjoy several bottles of wine :)

Day 9: Faceless Self Portrait

Not gonna lie... didn't feel that into today's photo challenge.  We just got home from stuffing ourselves at our fave Mexican restaurant for my mom's birthday so I'm kinda in a Mexi-coma right now...

  

The challenge was to take a faceless self portrait.  Does that mean I'm in it... minus my nugget sized noggin'?  Does it mean to take a picture of something that represents me......?  Too tired and stuffed to figure it out I just set the camera to automatic, hit the timer, and loved on the furbabies who needed some cuddle time after being in their kennels all day :)  Day 9... donezo.

Photo Challenge- back on board!

Remind me to never start a "fun project" the week before I head back to work.  What was I thinking?  But now that September has rolled around it's time to get back into the blogging world and my 30 day photo challenge!

Day 8: Technology
Clearly I included our desktop computer.  I spend more time on the laptop doing fun stuff (facebook, blogging, blog-stalking, pinteresting) but grad school homework which has consumed my life for the past year and a half has been done on this bad boy.  Once that ends (6 more weeks!!!) I may never sit here for hours at a time again!!! 

Baby Jax

Welcome to the world baby Jax!  While we were in Emporia last weekend for a DD tourney we got the surprising phone call that Kim was being induced- 3 weeks early!  Mom and baby are both doing well and we were thrilled to be in Emporia the same weekend of his arrival!

 

We were there to witness the first time he peed on good old Dad :)  Kodak moment for sure.

 I think he was much happier being back in mom's arms.

 Only 1/2 a day old :)

 The next person that says I look like a natural or that I need one of my own is going to get poked in the eye ;)  I like getting my baby fix via friends and family.

 Poking eye rule applies if you refer to this guy as well lol.

 He was swaddled up so snugly... and I especially loved how his hospital hat made it look like he had horns- adorable.

Charles was definitely a proud papa getting to show off his little man!

 And Baby Jax got his first shout out at the family motorcycle shop- he's a pretty big deal!