The Life of the Hornickels: 2012

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Fun with the girls

We've had so much fun this summer, despite all of the stress! The girls have been AMAZING through all of this transition. We couldn't have asked for anything more. At first Evie asked to play with her friends in Colorado, but now she understands that we can't do that until we go back to visit sometime. (And then I redirect by talking about all of her cousins that she gets to play with here.) Yesterday she said, "when we were in Colorado we were sad sometimes because we missed Grandma and Grandpa, right Mommy?"

While we definitely miss our friends, our church, and my job in Colorado, this truly is what we were supposed to have done right now. We've had lots of time with family which has been a blast, and WI is more beautiful than I remember it being: the fall leaves are amazing and the cloudy days are nice! (I know, we'll see how I'm doing with the lack of sun come mid-December...).

Here's a quick update on the girls:
Macey: got her first 2 teeth last week, pulls herself up and walks along the furniture, sometimes lets go to free-stand for a couple of seconds, loves to say "hi" to everyone in stores, gives "kisses", likes to clap, and is a tough cookie with her sister who's ALL OVER her.

Evie: started 3K at St. Paul's Luthern Church in town in September. (Needs a more accelerated program, but we'll have to wait until she gets into 4K. Great for her to play with other kids at least.) She also started her first ballet class a few weeks ago and LOVES it. She's obsessed with the Little Mermaid, so it was too perfect when her dance instructor choreographed their first song to an Ariel song. (Evie gets distracted from dancing by having to sing the song...) As of May she's back in full remission from her JRA (no meds right now) and other than a few colds, is feeling great! And this big sister absolutely ADORES Macey.

Here are a random selection of adorable pictures of the girls from June through September.

Our pets are AMAZING with the girls. We're very blessed!

Lounging around in their pj's.

Evie LOVES to match Macey.

"Sooo big!"

Making applesauce with Grandma & Grandpa, with the apples we picked from the orchard.

Super Evie! Ready for her cousin Aria's birthday party.

And our little ballerina.

The BIG Move!

In July, Kyle got the best news ever: he was offered a job as a Guidance Counselor at Delevan Darien High School in southern Wisconsin. After 3 years of job searching, we FINALLY got an offer!! The news was VERY bitter-sweet for us. We absolutely LOVE Colorado and have truly made it our home. We have made such great friends, finally found a church family which has been amazing for us, and I was able to make my way "up the chain" at work and had a really great position at the School of Mines. But ultimately we miss our family and friends in WI. Especially with 2 kids, it's important we move back "home" to be closer to everyone there. We want the girls to really know their grandparents, aunts/uncles, and cousins. And for the past year, each time we visited WI, it became harder and harder to leave. Watching the girls with family is precious!

So, the time came in early August for us to make the big move. Thankfully our Dads were able to fly out to help us drive back. On August 4th, our amazing friends helped us load up the 26ft U-Haul. That evening, we picked the Dads up from the airport and spent the night at the town house sleeping on the floor. On Sunday morning, we packed up the last few things, cleaned up, and headed on out! It was quite the trek: Kyle and his Dad drove the U-Haul towing his car with the canoe on top. My Dad and I drove our Highlander with Evie, Macey, Louie and Lloyd, with our car-top carrier on top, pulling our trailer. We left at around 2:00pm and drove through the night. The girls and pets were AMAZING and we made it to Lake Mills on Monday morning. Then our awesome family came Monday late afternoon to empty the truck. And now Lake Mills is our home!

It all fit!!

One last family picture in Colorado.

Pit stop for breakfast. Nothing like an egg McMuffin after a night's drive.

We're living in Kyle's childhood home, which his parents are trying to sell. (Luckily for us, it hasn't sold yet... :). We're embracing small-town life and are enjoying living in Lake Mills. We walk to the farmer's market every Wednesday, go to the park, I've taken the girls to story-time at the library, and more recently the girls and I have playdates with friends and cousins. 7 years to catch up on! More playdates to come, for sure. :) Here are pics of the house.

Our new kitchen: an actual one with PLENTY of storage!

Kitchen from other angle.

Living Room

Bonus room (play area) off of living room.

The girls' room: Macey's side.

And Evie's side.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Glenwood Springs & Lake Grandby

In July, Kyle's parents came to visit one last time, and we took a little trip into the mountains. We stayed in Glenwood Springs for a couple of nights, spending one of the days in Aspen. Great times including a ride up the gondola (Grandma & Grandpa didn't really like that part), spending time at the gorgeous John Denver memorial in Aspen, and fun the car! These pics are from the John Denver memorial:

Our other little summer trip was to Lake Grandby. In June, Evie and I attempted a camping trip there with my friend Kathleen and her family. It stormed really hard that evening, so we turned it into a fun day trip instead, but I totally fell in love with Lake Grandby and the town of Grand Lake. I'm not sure why we hadn't discovered it earlier, but lots of great camping there beside the super gorgeous lake. We got to see some moose at the campgrounds, too!

So in July we were able to pull together our friends for one last camping trip in Colorado. We stayed at the Stillwater campgrounds, RIGHT along the lake. It was a bit adventuresome for a one-night stay (including a trip to the ER for Aria and trying to camp with a handful of kiddos), but it was so great to hang out one more time with the gang!

On the first visit, Evie and I saw 4 moose!

Macey's first camping trip! Hanging with the Egleseder twins, Bailey and Dillon.

The view from our campsite! Ahhhh, Colorado.

Site Hornickel

Rena with the girls

Macey's Baptism

In May, Macey was baptized at our church in Denver: Faith Community Church. It was really special as we've grown to have such an amazing connection with Pastor Jeff and the church community as a whole. It was also great because my parents came out for it!

We didn't get many great pictures (totally forgot about even getting a family shot...), but here are some pics anyways:

Pastor Jeff performing the baptism.

Grandma and Grandpa with the girls in church.

Ready to go swim at Grandma & Grandpa's hotel pool!!

The First Move

In December we received notice that the foreclosed house we were renting was going to auction in the spring. After an initial delay, it was finally time to move towards the end of April. As luck would have it, we were able to rent month-to-month from the mother of our neighbor who had a town home about 5 miles away. They gutted the place just before we moved in, so most things were sparkling new.

It was an adjustment moving into a 2 bedroom town home. We got rid of SO MUCH STUFF! It was really great for us though to purge some things in hopes that we would be making the cross-country move back to WI soon. We ended up making friends with several of our neighbors, and our nightly routine was to watch the kids play outside on their bikes & trikes. It was also nice to have a pool within 100 yards of our place, especially during the HOT HOT summer we had.

Here are pics of our townhome: