Kinast Connection

11.21.2016

Enjoying the Fall Colors

The old saying "'no news is good news" pretty much sums up our post this time.
With that in mind we decided to enjoy the fall colors and pass the pictures on.

The last rose of summer.

The Rivers girls decided to help when they visited.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. Love, Grandma & Grandpa

11.11.2016

Hello Family,

You know, I can't even remember the last time that we posted on the blog. Life is going so quickly right now and my brain is filled with so many little moments that I often forget other things currently. And that is just fine with me!

Kurtis and I have had the great pleasure of enjoying time together with our daughter, Aurora. (See, I don't remember whether or not I officially posted her birth on the blog...) He took about a week and a half off right after she was born. Then a lay off at the shop for a short while gave us another month together. Basically the first two months of Aurora's life we got to spend as a family. How lucky! Sometimes there are perks to our jobs being a little less predictable!

We have had a few family members come to visit. First, Mom and Dad for about a week. Rori was only two weeks old at this point, so we spent the days just watching and enjoying cuddles with her. A few wanders out in to the sunshine. Then, Sarah, Emily, Hannah and Susan came to visit at the beginning of October. Again, it was mostly cuddles, but some wandering through the neighborhood too. This was during Mary's recovery period, which she and Kurtis took very seriously to ward off any postpartum depression with plenty of rest.

A couple weeks ago we were finally able to start feeling like we were coming out of the wonderfully intoxicating newborn haze and began to piece together how life would now be working as a family of three. It's such an exciting adventure to be on together!

I head back to work this weekend. Kurtis and I will be able to switch off care for a while, so lucky for little Miss Rori, she will have time with both of her parents. We look forward to seeing all of you for a quick visit coming up at the end of November and hope to make a longer visit in the following near future so everyone can get even more time with Aurora.

In the meantime, with a week that has left some disappointment with the president-elect, I encourage all of you to remember that each day is new, God never sends us more than we can handle and we each have the ultimate power of love to send out in to the world around us.

Love to all,
Mary, Kurtis and Aurora

Pictures mostly from when Aurora was a newborn...

I'll figure out how to download more recent pictures next time...

and I'm sure you'll be bored with all of them soon enough, but I'll keep sharing ;)

11.06.2016

Oh, the places we shall go-

Hello family:

For once, the Givan’s have actually gone places..

In September, I went to the State Fair. Hey, it was somewhere. It was a great 10 days spent with many people. Jeni, best friend since Junior High, came for the 1^st weekend. She really got into it and think it was good she left when she did as she was starting to be lured in by many products. I introduced Theresa to more of the fair and think she could become a convert (Sorry, Chris). My themed Christmas tree won third prize. When I went to pick it up, the workers were apologizing that I didn’t get any prize money. I assured them I was fine as long as I got my ribbon.

My Sunflower Benny Tree.

K-State Booth with Jeni.

At the end of September, Kate and I flew to Chicago to visit her friend and see Dr. Beth (her therapist) present at the National Eating Disorder Conference. Gus did great with all the public transportation. Thanks to Andrew for all the help with planning the subway and etc. We enjoyed a nice dinner with Andrew and Katie and in fact our hotel was within blocks of Katie’s work. I, however, did not enjoy driving in Chicago. The not knowing where I was or going kind of freaked me out.

In October, Tim, Theresa and I went to the Buddy Walk in Wichita. We really enjoyed it and it was a beautiful day. Since it wasn’t miles and miles long, I didn’t have to do a lot of prep work to be able to make it.

Walking for Emmie Roo's Crew

We returned to Wichita a week later for Family Pictures. It was a windy day, but with the help of a talented photographer we ended up looking pretty good. Here’s a sample. There’s 104 total so if you’d like to see more, just let me know.

Bartlett, our van, made a trip to Missouri for a wedding with Chris and Theresa. The following weekend Bartlett headed to Colorado with Kate and Tyson for a dog show. Coming up is Tim’s trip to Colorado to visit his mom.

I think we are now back to our stay at home ways. Looking forward to seeing many of you over the holidays.

10.30.2016

Fall Fun Activities

The house is nearly complete now with the latest addition being a refinished front door. The windows are on their way but wanted to share the door with you as it really looks nice if you remember the way it was! Work is busy for both Randy and I. I am still hanging in there at Faris although a lot has changed and I'm not too sure how I feel some days about it. Oh, well, time is short so it will be alright. Randy is traveling again. We enjoyed him being home for several weeks and got the house back in a livable order but now have the hard parts to go as well as the time consuming parts of sorting. Oh, my! We have also been enjoying the grandchildren this fall in some fun ways. Below is a picture journey of these activities.