march can't get here fast enough!

To say we are looking forward to March is an understatement. We are so excited to meet Baby K in March! We feel so blessed and are thanking God for each and every day He gives us with this little one!

St. Louis

We just got back from a weekend in St. Louis. It was so much fun traveling with Brian and Rachel. We laughed so hard! We stayed the first two night with Tyler's grandparents in Greenville, IL and then two nights in downtown St. Louis. It was quite a trip, beginning with 7 am mornings awake because we were in the basement at Tyler's grandparents and you could hear every move that was made. It is funny to laugh about now that we are fully rested. We went to a cardinals game at 1 p.m. in the 94 degree weather, but Praise the Lord, we were in the shade and right beside the air conditioned red bird club that we could go into at anytime!! We lost the game in the 12th inning, so that wasn't very much fun, but it was still a great day with great seats. We ate the spaghetti factory that night...which was good and turned in early for our expected early alarm clock...aka the shower upstairs. On Friday, we headed in to St. Louis to meet up with our friends at Pappy's BBQ. Everyone really enjoyed it. Then we headed over to the brewery. I was so excited to see the horses...they were by far my favorite part. Friday night was the rehearsal and dinner at Studio 44, where we had some great food. Saturday was a nice relaxing day and then a fun wedding/reception. We had such a great time catching up with good friends, trying new foods, and celebrating with our good friends, Matt an Lindsey Lovelady! Here are some pictures of the weekend!

Starting the tour with great friends Us at the brewery

us at the brewery

love these girls

the group at the reception

the bride and groom

4th of July

This year we spend 4th of July with lunch and a swimming party at my brother's house! We had such a good time and had great food...including the pasta salad that Patti's uncle made. It was so yummy! We finished the day by spending time with Tyler's family for dinner and games. Days like this remind us of how blessed we are! Here are some pictures from the day!

Cupcakes I made

Catching up

So cute and patriotic

matching in their flag suits

grandmas with their grandkids (aunt rhonda and madi, aunt sherry and camden, laurie and maddox)

Kelly Family Reunion

What a weekend! Combine 30 Kellys, a river, and good food and you will get a lot of fun. We got the chance to hang out not only with the cousins we see routinely, but also some from out of town that we see about every 10 years. Our reunion was located up on my uncle Tim's land, called Camp Kelly. We spent a lot of time on the river, eating, and telling stories of generations. It was a great weekend and such a good time of catching up! Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Hanging out in the river

Catching up with Bobby and Joy

First float down the river

and after the fall

Tyler after looking for crawdads

They are getting married!!

I am so excited for our good friends Rachel and Brian who are getting married on December 11th. We have had so much fun with them and cannot wait to continue growing closer to them! Congrats Rach and Brian! We are so happy for you!!

May Madness!

Yes, I know we are almost to July, but as the title of this blog implies...we had a crazy May and took the month of June to recover from it! We knew it was going to be a very busy month, beginning with Tyler's graduation and 25th birthday.

(Us with the Kenyon's at graduations...we are so proud of Tyler!)

(Tyler and his yummy cake at his party)

we also had my sister, Jordan's, high school graduation (she is modeling the towel wrap I got her for college),

we were anticipating the arrival of our nephew Jude, and we were looking forward to celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary (man, does time fly)!

Little did we know, things were about to get crazy! A week after Tyler's birthday, I went into to have a test done at the hospital and Tyler came with me. He was standing there with me, when all of the sudden he falls on me and then just flips backwards onto the floor. I had no idea what was going on, but assumed he must have passed out. He has passed out before, because of medical stuff going on, so I wasn't too worried...yet. In about two minutes we had about 10 people in the room with us, bringing in back/neck braces and a stretcher. That is when I started to freak out, plus the fact that Tyler wasn't really responding and my nurse was whispering something to my mom, who thankfully was in the waiting room since she works next door to the hospital, causing her to have a concerned look on her face. That is when I realized that blood wasn't just coming from the cut on the back of his head, it was also coming from his ear. Initially they were worried that it could be due to bleeding from the brain. They finished up my test...everything with me was okay, but now Tyler was being wheeled to the ER, which thankfully was just around the corner. Looking back, we are so thankful that we were in the best place possible for him to be in at that time. By the time I got to the ER, he was in a lot of pain and had begun throwing up from the pain. They took him to get a CT scan and I began my series of panicking. I was thinking of every possible scenario and assuming the worst (as I usually do...I have to work on that), when they sent in the Chaplain, which sent me into extreme panic mode, because I could only assume he was there to comfort me because it was really bad news. Assuming is the worst thing I could do. He really was such a nice guy and was once roommates with our directional leader and my boss at Fellowship. He even made me laugh a few times during the craziness of waiting for the results. When they finally brought Tyler back and the ER doctor came to talk to us, my dad and mom, and Tyler's mom were there to support and encourage us...I am so thankful they were there to be levelheaded while I freaked out. The doctor came in saying there was good news and bad news. The bad news was that he did have a skull fracture (yes I began my freak out again), but the good news was that there wasn't any bleeding on the brain at that point. They were going to monitor him for a little while longer, but then they would let him go home. When we got ready to go home, Tyler couldn't even sit up without getting dizzy or passing out, so they decided to admit him, much to my relief. I was terrified at that point to take him home and be responsible for watching for any signs of internal bleeding. The first night was rough and I was very anxious, so my sister came and stayed the night with us. Thank you Jordan! Tyler still couldn't sit up without getting dizzy and passing out, due to the ruptured eardrum he also suffered with the fall, and I just kept thinking he was going to try and get up (he sleepwalks) and pass out and hit his head again, which would not be good. The next morning he had another CT scan and they found a little bleeding on the brain, so they kept us another night. Thankfully, on day three they did one more CT scan and didn't find any bleeding, so we were cleared to go home. By the time we got home, most of Tyler's dizziness had gone down, but I still had to walk him everywhere for about 5 more days. We are so thankful for our family and wonderful friends (especially Justin, who came every day to check on us at the hospital and sat with Tyler so I could go to my sister's graduation, his wife Sarah, who always made sure I was well fed and encouraged, Scott and Rachel who also brought us meal after meal and constantly prayed for and encouraged us, Jeremy and Abby who helped us get Tyler home from the hospital and fed us that night and who we were ironically in the hospital with at this time last year when he busted his knee open at Tyler's bday party--i hope this doesn't become his birthday trend!, and many many more friends and family who did so much to help out.) We are so very blessed and we will never forget the love, encouragement, and peace we felt from the prayers and love from our friends and family. I am an anxious person by nature, and after the initial shock and anxiety of everything, I experienced so much hope and peace that I know only comes from God alone and the prayers that our friends/family/church sent up to Him for us. I was definitely reminded not to take Tyler or our marriage for granted! We learned a lot about not relying on ourselves and our timelines/plans for our life. We were going in for one test and never expected to come out of it with Tyler having a skull fracture, a ruptured eardrum, and staples in his head, and spending three very long days in the hospital. So, as that wasn't enough...fun?....the day we were released from the hospital, our sister-in-law (Tyler's brother's wife), went into labor. Jude Timothy was born on May 20th! He is the cutest, and we were able to go down and see him (with Tyler in a wheelchair :)) the night after we got out of the hospital

(Baby Jude)

(Jenna, Jude, and Josh)

(Aunt Jess and Uncle Tyler with Baby Jude)

(Uncle Tyler and Jude...notice the cotton ball in his ear, cut on his head, and hospital bracelet he is still wearing...we literally hadn't been home from our hospital visit for 24 hours yet)

(Grandma and Baby J on Memorial Day)

We finished off May with a new nephew, Tyler's healing going well (except that he can't stand not playing sports-no pickleball or biking for a month, no basketball for 3 months, and no football/ultimate frisbee for 3 months according to our neurosurgeon and ear doctor), by celebrating our 3rd anniversary, going to family camp with our church families, and spending Memorial Day with both of our families with a fish fry and pickleball out at my dad's house. We are blessed!

All I have to say is....WHAT A CRAZY MAY!

time flies when you're having fun

To say that this spring has been busy would be an understatement. We have been running around non-stop. What have we been doing? Well, we went on such an amazing mission trip to Memphis over spring break and had such a great time with the students we took, as well as with the kids in the community there. Surprisingly enough, I didn't take any of the small children home with me, not even the five month old little guy I held for as long as I could, but I sure was tempted to bring one home! I loved them all! After Memphis, it was crunch time for Tyler's last semester of school and lots of showers to help out with for me. Easter came before we knew it and next up was Maddox's first birthday! It was such a fun day and even though Maddox had pneumonia, he had a great day! He is such a big boy and I love every moment I spend with him! As of today, Tyler is done with all his undergraduate work. He graduates this upcoming Saturday morning! I am so proud of him. He has worked extremely hard and has been so dedicated to all of his classes over the last two years! He is a great student, but he is excited for the break that he is about to have. Now begins the fun of looking at and praying about masters programs/seminaries. I think he would study the rest of his life if he could. The next two weeks are going to be all about celebrating his graduation and 25th birthday on May 10th. I will post pictures later! We are excited for the time we are in right now and looking forward to what is to come, including the birth of our 2nd nephew, Jude, and our 3rd wedding anniversary, as well as slowing down a little to enjoy the summer!!

so it's been a while...

Well I obviously took a little vacation from blogging. It honestly is a hard thing to keep up with. I always think about things to blog when I am away from the computer and then I forget all about it by the time we get home. We had a great winter spending the holidays with our wonderful family and friends, added a new entertainment room to our house, enjoyed a few fun snow days together (although I was sick for both), rejoiced as a some of our friends welcomed their baby girls, practiced parenthood by staying a week with Maddox, celebrated my 25th birthday with WAY TOO MUCH cake, and had oh so much fun through it all.

So what now? We have been unbelievable busy. Tyler got to enjoy two weekend retreats to New Life Ranch. He got to enjoy a weekend with some great men from our Mosaic congregation at this year's men's retreat and then he led worship for Blast (the camp for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade kids) a few weeks later. In between his two weekend retreats, I was given the opportunity to go on a planning trip to Memphis to prepare for our mission trip with the 7th, 8th, and 9th grade mosaic students over spring break. Before I went on the planning trip I was pretty excited, but semi nervous about going over spring break, but after we got home from planning I just wanted to go back! I am so excited about the opportunities we will have while we are there. The potential to build relationship is huge as well. I am so excited!! We are just praying that we will be vessels for God to use for His Name and His Glory while we are there!

Although our minds are on Memphis a lot right now, we are also looking forward to Tyler's quick approaching GRADUATION! It is so close and we are so excited about his finishing school and hopefully finding a job within that field sometime in the near future! I am a proud wife! He has been so dedicated to his classes while also balancing a full-time job, working at the church on Saturdays, investing in his cell guys lives, spending time with our family, friends, and small group, and making our marriage a priority.

So that is it for now! We have had such an exciting winter and are ready for what will be coming up this spring and summer. We already got a taste of spring at the Razorback baseball game today...we are looking forward to many more of those!