{ the catch-up post }

So here is the post where I will attempt to bring this blog current.

I can't believe I haven't posted ONCE in the last 20 days. We have been busy!

Brian and I spent the first weekend in October at the Desiring God conference in Minneapolis.

Our church organized a group of about 30 to attend the conference. It was fantastic!

We heard Rick Warren, and Francis Chan, and John Piper, among others.

If you have a chance, PLEASE watch this. And this.

We were SO BLESSED to have my parents come to Gridley to stay with Hannah while we were gone.

She had a BLAST! And while I don't have any pictures of the weekend, here are a couple that I snapped before ReeMaw and Mustache had to head back to MO.

THANK YOU, Mom & Dad!!

The week after the conference was spent doing lots of these things:

I also got a chance to visit Hannah's preschool classroom for a special "culminating event".

They do these events when they finish up a learning unit on a topic.

This one was called "Dinosaur Museum", because they had just finished learning about dinosaurs for about 5 weeks.

Hannah had a great time showing me around her room and exploring the Dino stations with her buddies.

They even had a Volcano demonstration! The kids thought that was too cool.

The next weekend was spent on the road again - this time to go visit some new babies in Missouri.

Brian's brother welcomed a third daughter, and our good friends in KC adopted a son.

It's about a 7 hour drive to KC, so we had lots of family time in the car, and several meals on the road.

I feel the need to publicly proclaim my love affair with Sonic.

Strawberry Limeade can cure all ills.

Also, a shout out to the complimentary breakfast at Residence Inn hotels.

In a class by itself.

Hannah was SO EXCITED to see her cousins.

She talked about them almost the entire way.

When we got there, she and the girls set up a beauty shop in the backyard playhouse.

G-Ma Kurz was the first customer.

Hannah fell in love with her new cousin.

The beauties held still for about 2 minutes....long enough for this shot.

When we left the Kurz house, our next stop was in Kansas City to visit our college friends, Wendi & Kurtis.

They have a son, Luke, and just adopted another boy, Kampbell.

Their adoption story is amazing.

I would love to share it with you, but I'm not sure I'd do it justice.

Suffice to say that only God could orchestrate a story of redemption as beautiful as theirs.

Here's Hannah and her pal Luke.

And here is the beautiful Wendi and her new little man.

Doesn't he look happy? :)

After a wonderful afternoon in KC, we headed back across the state to the Kurz Farm to spend the night.

On Monday, we stopped in Hannibal to see Hannah's Great Grandma for lunch.

Kendall and her mommy & brother joined us as well.

Here are the twin cousins!

As you can see, it's been a jam-packed couple of weeks!

As I sit here and type this, I am so thankful for the time we've been able to spend as a family.

I'm thankful for the great family & friends that we have gotten to see this fall.

Life is beautiful.