Doggy Anniversary

Dearest Benton,

A year ago today, we brought home our bundle of fur. Oh, how you have enriched our lives! From a recently shaved shelter dog who was brought in as a stray and hoarded treats to a well-adjusted beautiful dog, you have grown so much in only one year! We knew immediately when we saw you that you were special.
And now, we couldn't imagine our lives without you. You are smart, sweet, and still the best cuddler we've ever met!
Happy "Anniversary" Benton! We love you more than we can put into words!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Doggy Sitters

Kevin and I took care of his Aunt Julie's beagles while she was away on a family vacation. Mabel and Ivy were fun to watch!

We made sure they had plenty of cuddle time to make up for their Mommy being away!

Catching up

Over the last couple of weeks, we've had fun making changes to our house and having visitors!

Here's a brief review:

Kevin's sisters and mom visited for a few days. They came over one afternoon to play with Benton.


We finally received our patio panel for our sliding glass door that leads out to the deck. We ordered it months ago, but the fabric we painstakingly chose was on back order. It was settle for something else or wait...we chose to wait. I really don't like vertical blinds, and we open the door constantly for Benton to go in and out, so we wanted a retractable curtain.


And, we continue to enjoy cooking together. This one wasn't really Weight Watchers friendly, but it turned out well.

Hildebrand Visit

Kevin and I were so excited to hear that our friends, the Hildebrand's, were coming to Wichita last weekend! I used to babysit for them starting right after Andrew was born, and he is starting kindergarten next year! gasp!

They came to Wichita for a softball tournament. Dave is the coach, and Amber, the oldest (10 now!), is a pitcher. They were happy that we could watch Aubrey and Andrew on Saturday afternoon/evening during the tournament since it was SO hot, and it gave them something fun to do. I was so happy to see them!

We went to Exploration place, and they enjoyed some of the mind teasers.

Aubrey focusing
Andrew concentrating


They also loved playing on our Wii at home. We played DDR and Mario Cart. Benton enjoyed having company.

For dinner, we took them to Olive Garden. It was yummy!

Silly Andrew :)

Dave and Darci came over to our house for a little while after the last game of the evening was over (Amber desperately needed to cool off at their hotel pool, so I didn't end up getting to see her). It was great to catch up.

I hadn't seen them since our wedding over a year ago!



Oh, and their team won third place! Congrats, Dominators!

4th festivities

Kevin and I had a wonderful, restful weekend. Saturday, we relaxed most of the day and had a date night. We saw Knight and Day, and really enjoyed it. After the movie, we ate dinner at Abuelo's.

Not the best photo, but we were in a hurry to head to the movie.Sunday, we did some major cooking! Kevin grilled a fabulous flank steak, and we had potato salad, green beans and bacon, watermelon, and blueberry cheesecake for dessert.
We hosted Emily and Jose Sunday evening after going with Kevin's aunt and grandparents to see fireworks (Emily's brother was in a fireworks accident in Manhattan and had to be moved to Via Christi's burn unit in Wichita. Thankfully, he is doing much better now).

Monday morning, Kevin made a wonderful quiche for breakfast, and later I did some shopping while Kevin enjoyed playing video games. It was so great to have a long weekend!
Benton also enjoyed himself, but we found him in a secluded corner Monday morning with his blanket. Apparently, he had about as much fun as he could take!

Guest room paint

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from painting our guest room over Memorial Day weekend. Kevin and I really like how it turned out. We wanted it to be a light gray to coordinate with the linens we have in there for the guest room now. It doesn't show up super well in the photos, but you can definitely tell it is gray in person. Someday, this will become the nursery, so it didn't have to be a long-term commitment to the color. We chose dolphin fin grey in an eggshell finish by Behr.