What's happening. Everyone is losing their minds.

I don't know what happened but IT IS AUGUST.

I got the shingles a few months ago. Period. I don't want to talk about it anymore. It was awful and the doctor said it was caused 100% by stress, so I've been drinking "Tension Tamer" herbal tea every morning. I don't think it's working. And my arm pit is still numb. You know what does work though? Some sort of exotic mushroom pills. My mom found them.... :)

My baby is nearing an entire .5 of a year, and is now barrel rolling and scooting and basically crawling across all floors and beds. And she fall off those beds, too. That happened twice (so far).   I feel like this is way too early, but most likely she's perfectly on schedule. You know how you're all worried about reaching milestones with child #1? I don't even know what the milestones actually *are* and find myself wishing she was on the slower end of the spectrum instead of trying to crawl (STOP. IT. I have stairs now!)

These pajama's fit her 2 days before this picture was taken.

Mitchell successfully survived 1st grade and I successfully didn't freak out at his teacher more than once. Fun times to be had by all.  Good news is that second grade is just around the corner and we just found out he has the best teacher in all the land! WHAT?! THANK YOU! Also, Mike and I are on a first name basis with the principal and also a first name basis with the front office, only with the front office because he's late getting to school and I'm always late picking him up. I'm pretty sure they recognize my voice now. Somethings just never change.

Ali finished her dance season with a little tap dance number that was just adorable. The girl lives for dance. She routinely puts on little dance parties for everyone in our front room we call "the dancing room" because what good is a front room unless you can dance in it? She really loves shopping and *every* day says, "can you please buy me something? Lets go to target and buy me new shoes and mitchell a new shirt! Please? We NEVER GO SHOPPING! BEST FRIENDS GO  SHOPPING!"  Girlfriend, best friends also clean their rooms. And I buy you A LOT OF STUFF. She tried to convince us that Arby's wasn't a store so it was perfectly fine to go to Arby's on a Sunday.

And I did finally actually buy a crib. It took Mike going out of town and me spending time with a friend that just gets stuff done instead of whining about it. Audrey loves her crib and sleeps so much more in it, something I never ever expected. So I'd say I'm sleeping more, but actually I'm just loving more quiet alone time and still never go to bed before 2am. You'd think this would get better as I age, but actually I just stay up later and later and learn to function with a lot less sleep. Bad habits, yeah yeah, but I can't help loving quiet peaceful hours. I'll never be a morning person. Ever.

This summer has been insanely busy and super fun. You know how a picture says 1000 words? Yeah, I'm done talking.

Mike's work had a party at boondocks. We only lost Ali once.

I have the baby with the cutest smile. And she loves her big brother and sister and they love her and I love that:

My grandparents have been married 50 years! Mitchell said, "Oh my goodness! They haven't divorced yet!" -- which just is super sad. He has friends at school whose parents are divorcing and I find that heartbreaking. But anyway, my grandparents are incredible people and we celebrated.

My mom took Mitchell to Minions and Ali to Inside Out for some quality grandma time. We love grandma time! 

Audrey spent a good part of summer with her BFF Kate. 

Mitchell lost both front teeth a matter of days. The last one holding on like this for quite some time:

Mitchell turns 7! We gathered up half the neighborhood and spent the day at the splash pad - so fun! And he requested a chocolate superhero cake. I talked him into the bat signal, and then he strategically put a bunch of figurines on top of it. It looked ridiculous but it was super tasty. He got a ton of awesome lego sets and his first chapter book - (diary of a whimpy kid) - he reads it almost every night and is about half way done!

We went camping with Mike's dad and step-family. Mike's taken the kids camping before but I hate it, so I usually bail- but not this time! I put on my brave face and we had our first official family camping trip. It was fun! It took 500 years to get the campfire smell out of my hair, but it was all worth it to see the little darlings have the time of their lives. 

I hit a deer on a well-lit highway. Came out of nowhere. 2nd accident ever. First was on my wedding night also involving a deer. They don't like me or my cars. There's not much to say except look how gross this dead deer's hair is:

Taught the kids how to play croquet. Because why not?

Ali found her name on a coke bottle. "It's too bad it's not diet coke, right mom?" Right.

Audrey's officially on my sleep schedule, which means she's super happy and alert at 2am:

 Auds and I took a girls trip to California with a bunch of friends from the neighborhood. It was amazing and should probably happen every other month. But I'll settle for the late night weekly chats.   And mom made audrey the cutest little sun hat!

And then I turned 28, and tried to convince everyone I'm actually 28 and not 30-something. Like my father-in-law thought I was joking when I said 28. I don't know what's happening. 

And just like that summer's over! This is Ali's last year at home, so we're going to soak up all the fun while we can! And hope that switching over to the traditional calendar school year works out better for my hate-all-change boy.