The Brickers: Hi. My name is Beth. Have we met?

Yes, yes, yes. I know. It's been a loooong time since I've last blogged. This summer has been unreal. And here we are at the end of it and I'm stuck wondering what exactly we did that kept us so very busy.

Most of the photos I take anymore are from my phone so they aren't the best quality but you still get the "picture". :-D

Lauren and I had a special date around her birthday - we got our nails done together. We'd gone once before and she had pretty much been asking to do it again since the drive home! Her and I went and had lunch with a girlfriend and then the three of us all went together. We had a blast and Lauren LOVED being one of the "big" girls!

She doesn't look anything like me, does she? ;-)

We've been doing a ton of home improvement projects around the house this summer. And after this past weekend I can officially say that every room in our house has been touched since we've moved in. One of the smaller projects involved Lauren and I keeping busy at Menard's while they cut down all the new blinds. So her and I went out to the playground area and had the thing to ourselves! There were tons of things to play on and it was all in the shade! We had a blast!

I ran another 5k on the 4th of July. It was a different route than last year and had one huge hill at the end. I was hoping to cut a few more minutes off my time but considering the heat and the intesity of the sun that day....I'm just glad I finished with my normal time! It was CRAZY!

I have three more coming up this fall and am hoping to finish with an 8k in November! Still working on the weight loss and have hit 87 pounds!! Pretty excited to be so close to the 100 pounds mark!

The kids went to VBS at Zion one week and the evenings were just me and Ella. It was pretty weird just having one kid to watch after. And with as little as Ella says....it was pretty quiet. Each night we did something different, whether it be a movie night or a walk. One night we did both.

During the movie:

After the walk:

She was exhausted!! She was laying next to me and I heard a snoring and looked over to find her mouth wide open and her sound asleep. It was too funny!

Lauren also picked up a new trick. It totally creeps Dustin out and Josh can't stand to watch her do it.

Yes, she has figured out how to cross her eyes! We were sitting at the dinner table one night and she said, "I can see two mommies". Confused, I looked over at her and busted out. Seriously...it is one of the funniest things to see. And she always has a big smile on her face when she does it!

We've been going on quite a few bike rides this summer. Lauren is getting really good on hers and Josh is officially off training wheels! It's so nice to be active with the kids and they love it just as much. The girls are still able to both fit in the bike trailer but I think this may be our last summer for that. It's a bit of a tight squeeze.

Ella's hair is still as curly as ever. She has the most adorable ringlets on really humid days. I'm still trying to figure out how to do her hair with all those curls!