hey, blog! long time no see!

So! Hi! It's been a hot minute. :) But that's what you get when I'm in night school for my real estate license, Meg is graduating early, R3 breaking his leg, moving into a house, getting the littles for 6+ weeks, planning a wedding... you know, the usual! Posting has taken a backseat to all the craziness in the past 6 months, but here we are, alive and well!

I think the best part of this little project of mine is how much my sweet family talked about it in it's absence. "Take a picture for the blog!" "Ky's going to have a lot of blogging to do!" "Can you blog so I can show Mema XYZ?" I always feel so satisfied when I'm posting regularly, but we all know how it goes. :) So, here's a craaazy amount of iPhone photos we've taken since... the last time I blogged? Something like that. :) Kitten birthdays and wedding pictures are soon to follow!

Emily and Richard subtly loving the shit out of each other (video game edition)

Sadie giving her daddy a beautiful make-over (if you ever had any doubt they are actually Agnes and Gru from "Despicable Me")

Emily, with the most epic morning pony ever.

An actual Kylie Scouts date with the girls! It was a small scheduling miracle. ;)

R3, who was literally in this singular position all afternoon while watching YouTube.

Meg helping Sadie skate... (warning: cutness overload ahead)

Richard and I sneaking away to try the lobster roll and fried fish at 20 Feet (which were epic, but my favorite was the coleslaw... game changer!)

Meghan's mirror notes, IE: SHE'S LIKE MEEE.

Getting ready for a fancy dinner with friends at Toulouse. 

And goofy 2AM faces with Nancy at IHOP after our fancy meal @ Toulouse!

Annnd my huge hungover breakfast after after fancy dinner & 2am IHOP run!

I can't remember what was on TV, but this was too good to pass up. :)

Emily and I did homework for FIVE HOURS pool-side (me, real estate; she, TAKS math). That girl was a trooper. Thank goodness it was such a pretty day!

Take the kittens out for a nice family dinner at Enchilada's, and this is what happens... 

 My adorable R, watching "Josie & The Pussycats" one lazy Sunday.

Pie Five in bed, which fixes most.

Couples pedicures with my favorite person. :)

And Emily very diligently painting his nails afterwards... (that headlight!)

Meghan and one of her most adorable friends, Lizzibelle, WHO JUST RANDOMLY TEXTED ME THIS AT SCHOOL TEARS.

Flowers + a dinner at Whiskey Cake for my 26th birthday. Um, Whiskey Cake? It was amazing. Like, so amazing. Like, Richard said, "Thank you for having a birthday so we could try Whiskey Cake!" amazing. YUMMM.

Sitting on our new backyard porch drinking wine!

Mommy-date with my sweet mommy seeing Eddie Izzard (our favorite) at the Majestic on his Force Majeure tour. We were trying to take selfies (we're both kinda terrible at selfies--I don't know where to look!)

Fourth of July at Nancy & Nery's with... watermelon jello shots! On a watermelon rind! (Nancy's a genius)

Watching "Sleeping Beauty" in bed with my girls, a critical part of their Kylie Education.

Backyard chaos before a planned movie night one Friday...

... which went awry when the pipe to the outdoor hose was torn apart by some rambunctious kittens. So the planned movie night turned into an impromptu family date to Home Depot! And daddy fixed it because he's amazing (that's a welder, yes). :)

Richard III, who can still find uses for deflated toys long after they've been broken (Meg just walked in on him like this watching TV in his room)

Sadie's before-and-after, via her sassy new haircut! So in love!

A little preview of the family wedding attire... :)

  

My husband at Steak and Shake after our wedding. :) After an early morning ceremony, a big BBQ/swim party afterwards, and bringing everything back home that afternoon, we went with Hilary after putting the kids to bed. Really sexy, huh? ;P

life lately, according to my iphone

My new personal goal: always get my face-painted when we offer it at work. This time, I texted Meg and asked her what I should get, and she came back with the best idea ever: "Narwhal!" I asked for some additional hearts because it was around Valentine's Day, of course. :)

R3 and Emily giggling while he plays his Nintendo DS.

A movie date with the littles! (Meg was invited, but ceremoniously declined... teenagers!) We went to the Alamo Drafthouse to see "The Lego Movie," and it was every bit as awesome as we imagined it would be. (And then there's the Drafthouse popcorn, too, which is amazing!)

Plenty of picture-taking opportunities inside the movie theatre... the girls will never pass that up! 

My cuties cleaning our cars one beautiful Sunday morning. :)

Studying for my first final exam for my license... whiskey was necessary... and I got an A in the class! Grades don't really matter, but they matter to me, plus it's kinda awesome to have the kittens see me study as much as I do and it pay off!

I was really kinda majorly grumpy this weekend (ugh!) and Emily took me aside to have some Emmy time, and she ended up drawing a mustache on my finger to make me giggle. Then I returned the favor (I was going for "French stick mustache") and we took alot of selfies and texted Hilary about it. I LOVE HER.

and then came february!

I know this Wreck It Ralph song is kinda old news (hey, 2012!), but Richard will go out of his way to play this song because it makes him so super happy, so it makes me really super happy now, too. But don't tell anyone, because everyone knows R's all gruff n' tuff n' stuff, right?!

This year is just flying by! I started taking classes two nights a week to get my real estate license, so I'm pretty much exhausted all the time. All I have to do is blink and then it's Monday again! Meggie's gearing up for her last (!) semester of high-school, and on Wednesday I came home to a blue-haired Richard (just another Wednesday, you know!). I got new popsicle molds, so I've been able to make little treats for the kittens (including rainbow popsicles and a banana/chocolate/peanut-butter fudgsicle that just kinda happened!). We're all stoked for The Lego Movie and I finally got my new little car all fixed with new brakes and tires. R & I are doing really well getting all of our other annoying grown-up chores done and drinking our veggie smoothies, too, thanks to alot of love, appreciations, and extra high-fives. Hilary also came to spend a weekend with us, which was simultaneously wonderful and terrible because it made me realize just how much I miss her all the time. CJ bought me a purse reminiscent of Ulyana Sergeenko (!) and curated an entire set of "I Love Lucy" reaction-GIFs (!!!), both of which are completely perfect and amazing (just like him). Obviously, sleep is never plentiful, but Richard and I always manage to squeeze in a fun date-night, aka The Highlight of My Week, no matter how tired we are. ;)

In sum: very busy with lots of blessings. :)

a few moments from 2013, not to be forgotten

As I was going through my iPhone for the past few posts, I realized I had over-looked some pictures/video from last year. :)

Meg and Sadie (who just had to cuddle at.that.moment) at Plucker's.

When Cindy came to spend the night, and Meg dolled the up for a fashion show! Sadie "won" (R, R3 and I were "judges") for Best Dress, Emily won for Best Make-up, and Cindy won for Best Presentation (girl knows how to walk a fake-runway, lemme tell you). And Sadie's "tiger" eye-makeup was just too good to not take a picture.

Emily, who was determined to master the pogo stick one weekend (after Meghan found one on the side of the road--literally!). Today she can jump forever long!

senior picture outtakes

Today we started taking (some of!) Meggie's senior pictures, and while we got more amazing shots than we'll ever need, we got these two gems which just make me giggle so much! I'll share all of her senior pictures in a few months (she wants to take some more after she dyes her hair again), but the outtakes are just too good to sit on. ;) I like to refer to these as "obligatory Facebook profile picture" and "derp!" ;P

holiday round-up

Phew! It took me a few weeks, but I officially finished all the posts from the holiday season. Yay! They're not all on this main page (too many!), so here's are the links to each one of them...

1. The Ice-Pocalypse!
2. Hilary's graduation party
3. Grandpa Jim's 90th birthday party
4. Christmas Day adventures
5. A trip to Six Flags...
6. Second Christmas (with the littles!)
7. New Year's Eve
8. Holiday blessings (the random photographs throughout the season)

So, if you've seen some posts over the past few weeks, I've back-posted more around the date the fun actually happened. Or, you can just keep scrolling. :) Enjoy!

holiday blessings :)

Can you believe it's all over? I feel like the last time checked the calendar it was Halloween, and now we're into the second week of January!

Anywho, here's a few pictures I took throughout the month of December... it's such a hectic time of year, but I try very hard to stop and enjoy the little things when I'm feeling overwhelmed. :)

1 || Sweet Meggie, who was so intent on helping with the present wrapping this year. Girlfriend wrapped about 75% of the gifts once it was said and done, which allowed us more time to relax after work (and R more time to watch "The Hobbit!"). <3 <3 <3

2 || This shirt I just had to get Richard as an early Christmas present! And it came in the same day he bought himself a bottle of Lagavulin (which is what's in the glass in his hand)--coincidence much?! I told you guys, he's Ron Swanson.

3 || Seasonal Oreos from my mommy. :) I was really wanted to have them this year but couldn't find them whenever I looked, so my mom had them shipped to me from Amazon. I mean, really. :)

4 || Chocolate pumpkin pie hot toddies to help combat sickly days. Honestly, they weren't that amazing (I just kinda improvised the recipe), but I was really proud of myself for trying. :)

5 || Going to see Jay-Z in concert with my sweet R-Z. :) He put on such a great show!

... great shot of the crowd during his Nelson Mandela tribute :)...

6 || These lillies! I have no idea what they are called, but they were at work and they were gorgeous. A lily within a lily!

7 || Christmas cookie baking with Meghan after work (while watching "It's A Wonderful Life" and "The Breakfast Club"). I also made 3 great coffee cakes and 2 batches of chocolate chip cookie dough (side note: I ended up completely botching the batches of chocolate chip cookies trying to rush, which lead in a total Christmas Eve "ugh!" moment, but in hindsight I'm proud of myself for having the stamina to do it all after work in the first place! My Holiday Stamina is officially building!)

8 || Getting to hang out with my sister-cuz, Tonya, and her sweet hubby, Stephen, the day after Christmas. They drove up to play with us after we got off work, and it was such a sweet afternoon. :) Stop living in Denver, guys!

9 || This picture of Sadie after her first shot (what an aim!) and the fact that Meghan can take/send pictures to me on her iPhone now. :)

10 || How much R3 enjoyed his pocket-knife gift (the first thing he played with!)

11 || Hanging out with my family and my family on New Year's Day, and playing Apples to Apples and Scrabble. :) (Ok, this one was technically taken in January, but it fits the theme!)

new year's eve 2013

This New Year's Eve was pretty epic, if I do say so myself! We had an amazing little family party that included lots of games and music and munchies, and I can't think of anywhere else I would have rather been.

Meghan making the sacred queso. :)

Emily, who insisted on taking her picture like this.

A fun video we enjoyed watching (a few times!). For the past few years, this guy mashes up the ending-years' top pop songs, which is a pretty accurate representation of what the kittens want to play in the car 90% of the time.

R3 and Sadie put their respective hats on R3's new Christmas toys, which they drove around the house half the night. I was in stitches!

Playing Apples to Apples! I bought this as a family gift, and I didn't really feel the need to get the "kids'  version" since our little dumplings are so smart and hilarious. (As you can tell by the card selection in this picture!)

And this is what Meg and Da look like playing our new dancing game we got for Christmas! This was alot harder than I anticipated, but we had such a fun time playing this together. Richard even managed to get top score of the night, which made him very proud. ;)

Annnd, I managed to pass out on the couch at 11 that night while the family continued to play, but they made sure to wake me up at 11:45 so I could see the Dallas ball drop and get kisses before they all sent me to bed. Awesome family, much? Yeah, I thought so. :)