Beaches in the 'Burg: Long time comin'!

It's been a while since I've added anything new to the blog. I suppose I should start by changing the name "Beaches in the 'Burg" to something new since we no longer live in Phillipsburg. I just haven't come up with anything creative yet. Any suggestions?!

A lot has happened since my last post nearly 2 months ago!

Kennedy had her first dance recital

She and the other 2 girls in her class performed a ballet number and a tap routine. It was so cute to watch them. Her favorite part of the whole ordeal was getting to dress up in her fancy costume and getting to wear REAL makeup!

Kennedy dances to the beat of her own drum! She was always a few beats behind the other girls, but she was also a year younger than them, so we'll give her that! I think she wanted to do the choreography that she had in mind instead of what the teacher drummed up!

Her second favorite part of the night was when all the parents presented the dancers with gifts when the recital was finished. She was so surprised because she wasn't aware of this tradition.

Judah turned 1!

Although it didn't seem to go by quickly at the time, when I look back it's crazy how fast the last year has passed. I couldn't believe it when Judah's 1st birthday snuck up on us! Since we were in Phillipsburg and didn't have any family around to join us, we celebrated his actual birthday as a family of four. The week before we were in Atchison, so he got a sneak peak at the birthday festivities with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Larry, Grandma Scott, and Grandma Frannie.

"I'm a big boy!"

Judah LOVED the cupcake that we let him devour. In fact, we didn't have much to clean up when he was finished because he was a pro at sucking up all the crumbs!

We moved!

The day after Ken's last day of school we packed up the UHaul (for the 2nd time in less than 10 months) and headed back to Atchison. Ken's contract wasn't renewed at Phillipsburg for the 2011-2012 school year, so we decided to move closer to family in the meantime. Although he hasn't landed another teaching job yet, we are sure that God is in control and has a plan for us. He's had a couple leads in the KC area, so we might be moving for the 3rd time in 12 months if he gets hired there!

We moved into an apartment that is right around the corner from the place we called home for the last 3 years. It was nice to be greated by a few friendly faces when our favorite neighbors came to help us move in! What a welcome gift!

We've been crafty!

When we packed our UHaul last summer we loaded an entertainment center that all of the guys were cursing. It was heavy, huge, bulky and not in great shape. Ken really didn't want to take it to Phillipsburg, but we didn't have anything else to set our TV on and I didn't know if there would be a good place to buy a new stand when we got there. So, in the truck it went.

On our move back Ken and I were both in solid agreement that the entertainment center would be left behind. By this time the center board had bowed and was sagging in the middle and the left door was nearly impossible to open.

When we got to Atchison we decided to try our hand at furniture repurposing. We bought a couple of cheap dressers off of Craigslist and several cans of spray paint. The dressers were in horrible shape, but within a day we had them looking really nice. For $100 we got a new TV stand and a new dresser for Ken to store his clothes.