Fun with the Knouse Family

Last week I had the pleasure of going back down to my hometown with my favorite family of seven. My best friend Tara, her husband Kelly, her five precious kiddos and I packed up two cars and headed to Homestead. Kelly was the guest speaker at the annual Good Friday Community Prayer Breakfast that my mom helps to put on and we figured we'd all make a fun trip out of it. We got down their Thursday afternoon after a fun road trip and only two stops-which isn't bad considering we had 8 people with us! My sister Debi and her family of 3 met us at my parent's house so that Alex could spend some time with the other kids. But not before we all stopped at Robert's fruit stand for a delicious milk shake and the miniature petting zoo. She helped me babysit all 6 of them while Kelly and Tara went out to dinner with the prayer breakfast committee. After several hours of playtime, Debi and I had them all fed and in pajamas within an hour. I must say, we were a well oiled machine!
The next morning, we were all up early and headed to the prayer breakfast, which started at the crazy hour of 7:15. The kids were so wonderful and all of them were ready to go without even a hint of complaining. Kelly did a wonderful job of sharing the Good News and the hope of Easter with everyone at the breakfast, and I think everyone was glad they got to hear him speak. Following the breakfast we all headed to the Alligator farm for a little afternoon fun.








I think their favorite part was the airboat ride, although, getting to pet the alligator was a close second!
After heading back to the house for lunch followed by a good long nap, we loaded back up and headed for home. All the kids were so good and I think my parents enjoyed the fun chaos of a house filled with kids again. Which is good, since J and I are planning to send our kids to "grammy and papa summer camp" for at least a few weeks every year when we have them!
Overall, everyone enjoyed themselves and it was a quick, but enjoyable trip. And I'm pretty sure some new friendships were made...

March Madness

Yes, I realize that March has come and gone, but I wanted to at least acknowledge the month since it consisted of a lot of fun and family.
The beginning of the month I had the chance to head home to my parent's house for a week to relax and spend time with everybody. Plus, it was my father's birthday and I wanted to be home to help celebrate that. During my time at home I got to spend a lot of moments spoiling my adorable nephew. We went to the zoo and to run errands and just spend some time together. Of course the whole time he spent asking me where "J" was and telling me to "send gum". Here are a few pictures of our zoo adventures.




One thing I did learn, Alex enjoys his ice cream and sweets just about as much as his Aunt Jessica does!
While at home my brother and sister and I had the chance to give my parents their anniversary present. This April marks their 35th wedding anniversary and so the three of us (along with some sweet family friends) are sending them to Chicago for a long weekend. I think they were surprised, and I can't wait to hear how the trip goes. I'm so thankful to have them as an example of what commitment and joy of marriage is.

Speaking of wedding anniversaries, J and I celebrated our first on March 20th. We went and stayed at a hotel in Orlando overnight, but didn't do much else since I was under the weather. We had already planned to celebrate a little late with a trip to Savannah, which we will be taking this weekend. We did enjoy the top layer of our cake, which was surprisingly tasty after a year....and I'm glad to have the freezer space back!


I've also had the chance to work on some sewing and crafting projects. I am loving my new sewing machine and have been doing some experimenting. My sweet friend Nicole recently added a little boy to her beautiful family and I made a few things for him and his big sister Kate.




Here's another one of my projects, that I got from a fun website I found. They have a lot of great ideas, so if you're into DIY projects, check them out.


I know that was a long update, but I guess that's what happens when you don't blog for a month. There are some exciting things going on right now and so I'm hoping to be a little more consistent in my blogging. Be sure to check back tomorrow for a post about my fun trip with the Knouse family!