Saturday - Wedding Day

Ben is VERY excited about his "smiley face" tator tots!

Our last day of vacation was spent celebrating the wedding of Luke and Cate. Luke is Doug's cousin and what a blessed day it was! The wedding was beautiful..... I loved the way the priest kept referencing during the homily how God has always been such an integral part of Luke and Cate's life.....always present and how his light has shined so brightly throughout their lives (childhoods, schools, families), and current careers (she is a physician and Luke is working for the college). The rest of the afternoon/evening was spent enjoying time with family over dinner, drinks and of course dancing ~~~ what a great time we had! The perfect way to finish off an amazing week of vacation!

Kate, Hailey, and Annie (cousins) -- sorry Miss Hailey if we spelled your name wrong!
The new Mr. and Mrs....

Enjoying our evening Miss Kate, getting her groove on!

Kate and Doug showing off the best wedding favors EVER -- personalized tattoo's of Luke and Cate!

First Day of School

My driveway greeting!
Totally psyched about 1st and 4th Grade

Kate and her teacher

Ben and his teacher

We kicked off the school year on Wednesday this week. Kate and Ben were both so excited and Doug and I were loving that! We could not have asked for a better day for both of them. They love the teachers that they have this year, they each have a few of their buddies in their rooms, and we are ready to dive in for another exciting year of learning!!! I can't wait to see what God has instore for both of them this year......watching it all unfold is such an amazing blessing as the parent. I know at times, there are days when they are driving each other crazy (and maybe even Doug and I at times (-;) but as I stood there, watched them hold up their "1st grade and 4th grade" fingers, I could not help but think......WOW, this time is going by way too fast! How can this be???

My friend Stephanie quoted a note in her blog this past week about something that her friend had once told her....."there are LONG days, days that seem like they will never end, but the years.....they are so short...."

I couldn't help but think that, and pray that as Kate and Ben continue to grow that I find myself cherishing those days/moments more and more as the years go by here at the Cairney house!

I love you kiddo's -- have an amazing year of school!

xoxox -- Mom

VBS - 2011 - Wild for Jesus!!!!

Sporting the new t-shirts
We thought it was so cool that there was a "tiger" jeep on stage!

the countdown for closing

I know that we had VBS in July - but I could not forget to post a few comments regarding how much we enjoyed our Wild for Jesus week. Every year, I think to myself, "this was just the best year ever" and then the next year, I feel the same way. I was able to help shephard a few of the days and I always get so much out of seeing the Holy Spirit just fill those 2,000+ kids up each and every day. Just them hearing over and over how much God loves them immediately puts a HUGE smile on their little faces, and watching them jump, sing, dance, and yell at the top of their lungs about how much they love him just totally gets to me! At closing each night, we sang the song "We believe" and the tears were just rolling down my cheeks as I stopped and looked around the room at all of the children --- singing their hearts out to the "One true GOD" - the energy in the room was so intense! The themes for the week were: Thank God, Follow God, Trust God, Believe God and LOVE GOD -- which is what we all strive to do each and every day.

In case you are all wondering, Kate and Ben had an amazing time too!! (-: They especially love watching the "big guys/gals" dance, sing and praise with all of them -- that is totally COOL!!! Thanks Hope for another fantastic week of VBS - you guys are amazing!!!

Summer Fun

This was one of the funniest things that I saw all Summer -- even though the weather was fairly mild, we did have a couple of weeks of the heat/humidity!

Kassi, Ben & Kate -- proudly displaying their sign

We were very blessed this summer to be able to have our friend Kassi entertain the kids a few days a week while I was at work. They had a blast! Their days were filled with trips to the pool, the park, the library, movies, the bowling alley, picnics, and countless hours of playing board games (they became expert "LIFE" players). We decided to make Kassi a sign for her last day, decorating it with all of their favorite memories of the summer. Ben and Kate created the entire thing - it looked GREAT! As the Mom, it was always such a relief to come home, knowing that they had a fun day together....thanks again Kassi for everything -- we so appreciated it!

Iowa State Fair

Enjoying the morning at the Fair
The biggest pumpkin 1,295# -- WOW!

To start off our week of vacation, we spent Sunday morning at the Fair. We all decided to go, even though I offered Doug the "out" for the day (-: He was a great sport, and at times, even appeared to enjoy himself! The weather was absolutely perfect, our choice of treats delicious (cheese curds, a hot beef mashed potato sundae, a hot dog, ice cream/cookie sandwiches, and a salted nut roll) and all of the fun events that the Fair has to offer. Tops for the kids was the farrowing barn with all of the baby animals, the horse show, the butter cow, the biggest boar, the biggest pumpkin (who would have guessed that this would end up weighing more than the boar by about 100#??) - CRAZY! and of course all of the tattoo's in the varied industries building. Kate and I have decided that for some reason, her and I LOVE the fair and everything about it, so next year, we will just make it a "girls" outing! With the boys doing something else that they love that day (:

As we were leaving Doug managed to completely crack me up, as he often does with his charming wit. The kids were saying "thanks for taking us, thanks for the treats, etc.,.etc.,. and Doug says, "Mommy, really what we should be thanking you the most for is for letting us leave!!!!" -- Just love that guy!!!

Meeting Miss Scarlet

We really wore her out on our first visit!
Aunt Wendi, Kate, Miss Scarlet and Ben

Getting a little towel off before heading home -- kind of muddy playing in the park!

Saying our first "hello's"

a little idea of the sandbagging from the floods

The kids love to get up to Pender for a few days every summer. It worked out that they were able to stay with Papa and Nanny for a few days last week. We had decided to meet and exchange the kids in Mo. Valley and invited Aunt Wendi and their new puppy to come also. We have been dying to meet her and have not been able to buzz over to Omaha since she arrived at the Loftis home on the 4th of July. Miss Scarlet is about 12 weeks old, a golden retriever and ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE if you can't tell -- we love her!!! The kids did great helping out with the leash, walking her, feeding her snacks, etc.,. we are ready to puppy sit any time (-: