The 1st half of 2016...

Oh man. 2016 has proven to be quite a year. A very abbreviated version of life. Fittingly, the pictures are out of order.

January: I am sure it was long and cold. Duane received his stage iv pancreatic cancer diagnosis at the end of the month. It was such a shock and the following months were difficult.

February: TWO big birthdays in the house! With all of the other things going on in life, we decided just to have a lunch at pizza ranch by the red farm. For the first time, we didn't make a fancy cake but we let the boys decorate their own cake. It was much easier and they probably enjoyed it just as much. Both kids brought treats to school as well.

Nora also started walking in early February.  She pretty much went from not standing at all, to walking quite well.

I also learned how to breed cows in February. LOL. I got 1 pregnancy, I think she's due in early-December. My life as an AI tech was very short.

Leap Day: Yes, Leap Day 2016 gets it's own little shout out. It is the day I found out we are pregnant with Baby #4.  My initial reaction was YIKES! It took awhile to believe this was happening, but at 24 weeks we are excited and the kids are pumped. For the record, both boys really, really want another sister. Nora (& Levi) loves babies so hopefully she is so excited for one to actually live at our house. We did not find out the gender (we were close this time but held off!). We told the kids after the first ultrasound. Levi kept it quiet for 6 whole days before he announced at the snack table at preschool that "My mom has the same thing in her belly that McKenna's mom does!" LOL - he took care of sharing at work for me. He maintains that he never actually spilled the beans because he didn't say it was a baby, the teachers put those pieces together all on their own! I think it's safe to say that nobody saw this coming (unlike Levi or Nora) so it was fun announcing it.

Easter: (was that March or April?):

Not sure what this was from but we were celebrating warmer weather!

APRIL: We got chicks again! There was a bit of a communication break down and I didn't think we were getting them until mid-May but Erik called one day to let me know we had to go pick them up. We ordered 90 but sadly, we never even really counted them so I don't know how many we started with. We didn't know how many we had until we loaded them up to butcher them. We had a lot that transpired in those 6 weeks...but we ended up butchering 85. Levi was really into the chickens this year and loved feeding them. The weather was great too so they were able to run around outside quite a bit.

May: Duane lost his battle with cancer. Words can't really describe the awful battle he faced. I believe he did 6 rounds of chemo before his body just couldn't handle it, which is pretty average for that diagnosis. It was so hard seeing someone who was so active and involved and such a hard worker decline so rapidly.

We also had the last days of preschool and kindergarten. Charlie got the all clear for 1st grade. He loved kindergarten so much and I couldn't believe how much he learned.

June: Tyler's graduation party. Another funeral, this time for Erik's grandpa. Our kids are probably getting a little too comfortable with funerals. Father's Day was also low key. The kids and Erik planted a tree that we received from Erik's coworkers in memory of Duane.

From earlier in the year - looks like we have another book lover on our hands & the boys love reading to her.

Pre-tooth #2 falling out

Snooping on my favorite preschooler

We are loving the slower pace of summer. Charlie has been doing summer rec 4 mornings a week which kind of shoots those days but he's having fun and it gives me and the 2 little ones a chance to get our errands done with just 2 kids. Lots of outside meals, play time, some pool trips, and just a slow down which was much needed.