More cousin time!

 Since Josh came to our house with the 15 passenger van, he was able to fit more kids on the way home and took ours! Yep, Joe and I had a few days to ourselves at home. It was wonderful. :)

The kids love going to Kansas and love extra cousin time.

Val took them to the library one day. 

How cute is this picture?!

 I drove up to Kansas early Saturday morning to see Mackenzie play in a club volleyball tournament. I loved watching her and being in the gym all day watching volleyball. A great day! And she did awesome! (And she's only 12!!!) 

The kids all cheered her on too with these fun signs. 

We headed back to Joe's parents house for the night where we got to meet my new nephew Thomas (Jason and Heidi's new baby). He was so cute and so smiley.

Of course my girls wanted to hold him right away...

And feed him...

We headed back home Sunday morning to get ready to start the week back to school. My kids sure loved their spring break full of cousin time!

Cousin weekend

 We had some fun cousin time this weekend. Both Josh and Jake's families came to visit. It was so fun having a houseful of kids and adults. We love that we can host so many people now! And the weather was beautiful!

The three "little" girl cousins enjoyed a lot of time playing and being together.

The kids also enjoyed eating outside on the deck since it was so nice (and we like not having much clean up!)

While the daddies watched basketball on Saturday, us moms loaded up all the kids to go to the trails. Josh brought a 15 passenger van from the church in Kansas, so we used it and all rode together. The kids loved all being in the same car!

I love the trail system where we live and love that they maintain it so well.

We brought the wagon for the littles to ride in and had lots of helpers to pull the wagon.
And you will notice that Norah and Naomi are dressed alike. They still resemble each other so much that I kept mixing them up! They really are twin cousins. 

Then the littles got carried when we started hiking up the rocky trails.

We found caves and waterfalls. So fun!

I love these cousins!

Joe even got some snuggles in with little Eve.

What a fun weekend together.

Basketball season is over

Basketball season has come to an end. Both Joey and Kylah played this year, and Joe coached both of their teams. They both seemed to love it.

Kylah is so fun to watch. She knows her job and does her job well. She doesn't shoot a lot yet, but when she does she has great form (which means she can't quite make it all the way to the basket all the time yet). But at this age form is most important!!

She is quite the little defender.

And she sets a mean screen...

She smiles almost the whole time she is playing. I love it.

Kylah loves having her daddy coach her.

And she got to play with her good friend Marin. Marin's sister Jane played in the younger league but Jane and Kylah will be on the same team next year! Joe had fun coaching with their dad Matt. It's so fun having friends with kids our ages that we can do things like this together with!

Kylah's team won their league championship which was so fun!

Post season celebration with ice cream.

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Norah has been to a lot of basketball games this year. She says she can't wait to play next year (we made Kylah wait until 2nd grade, but Norah is pretty set on wanting to play so we'll see!)

The little kids enjoyed a lot of snacks during the games.

And every timeout or halftime they all run onto the floor to get a few shots in.

Something about Joey guarding Audrey doesn't seem fair...

See!!!

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Joey had a great season too. He played for his school team, which was a little chaotic at first, but they really improved a lot. It's fun to see how much Joey improves each year.

Driving to the basket. Joey also has an awesome looking shot. Joe has taught them well (like he says "no kid of mine will have bad shooting form") :)

I think one of my favorite things about Joey's season this year was that he got to play on the same team as Connor. These boys have never been on a team together, and it was so much fun to see them working together on the court. Connor was the point guard, and Joey was the shooting guard. Joe and Dave coached together which was also fun to watch.

Post season celebration at Braum's.

Now on to baseball and softball!

Mother/son dance

Joey had a 4th grade mother/son dance on Saturday. The theme was a sock hop, so we managed to get together some good costumes.

We had so much fun dancing. Joey loved dancing with me, and we even made up some fun dances together! Joey asked if we could make it a real date and eat dinner out before the dance. He chose a local Chinese buffet (that we normally only get takeout from because it's a rip off to eat inside!!) We got a few smiles and looks because of how we were dressed, but we were cool with it. :) 

I mean, come on, how cute is he?!?!

I love spending time with Joey and love getting to know his friends too!

front porch view

We have been loving our front porch. It has always been my dream to have a big front porch, and it has not disappointed. From morning coffee to evening sunsets to watching the kids play. We love it. 

(this is a random HOT day in February so the kids were playing in the sprinkler! Crazy!)

I love those sunsets.

The kids an I enjoyed reading our books on the front porch waiting for Joe to get home from a baseball meeting.

Now it's been cold again, but I can't wait for more warm nights!

Mandair kid weekend

We watched the Adair kids while Dave and Meredith had a weekend getaway for their upcoming anniversary. It was a full house with lots of kids, but we had a great time. Thankfully it was nice outside so the kids did a lot of playing outside.

Audrey and Joey have been learning the recorder at school. They can test on each song at their own pace, so you know these two are all about seeing how many songs they can do. So, you know, one recorder is hard enough to hear, but two records...that's a treat! :) (actually they are both good at playing the recorder so we don't hear that annoying squeak too often!!)

Andrew was my little sidekick. I love that boy!

We managed to all get up and dressed and fed and to church on time on Sunday. 

 And the silly picture (as you can tell Andrew wasn't really wanting to take a picture!!) 

They all did great all weekend!

Happy 6th Birthday Norah!

I really can't quite believe my BABY is 6 years old. Even when I threatened her with a big spanking if she turned 6, she still did! :)

I think she enjoyed her birthday this year. This was the year for a family birthday celebration (the kids get to choose something fun to do as a family that we wouldn't normally do instead of having a friend birthday party.) Norah's birthday fell on a Thursday, so she got to celebrate two days in a row!

Joe went to have lunch at school with the birthday girl.

Meredith picked our kids up after school and took the birthday girl for ice cream.

This is a fun video that Meredith took of Norah...

IMG 1007.MOV (1) from Michelle Manthe on Vimeo.

Joey and Kylah both had basketball practice, so Norah and I had a nice quiet dinner together. I took her to a fun Italian restaurant downtown. It was so fun and fancy! 

We had a little time to kill before Joe and the other kids got home, so Norah got to take a nice long bubble bath in my big bathtub (a big treat because I don't normally let them take baths!)

Norah got to facetime and open her present from Papa and Gramma also while she was waiting.

And she got a special present the weekend before from Nana and Grandpa...her very own REAL American Girl Doll! She loves her and named her Lily Grace.

Finally daddy and the other kids got home, and it was time for birthday cake (cookie cake) and presents.

She got some fun new presents!

The next night we went to a trampoline park as her birthday activity, and the Adairs joined us. Then it was burgers and shakes at Steak 'n Shake!

Happy Birthday sweet Norah Mae. We love you!!