October was the best because...

Some day I'll be caught up on this blog but probably not any time soon.  November is almost over (like in a few hours) but October was pretty great and here's why...

One reason I think I love fall is that my birthday falls right in the middle of it.  I turned the big 3-0 this year and I have zero reservations about turning the corner into another decade.  I have so much to be thankful for!

Jed took my birthday off and these two made me a delicious breakfast!

I even got to enjoy a fancy pedicure during nap time!  Score!

And got to enjoy a dinner out WITH friends, WITHOUT kids (seriously, so rare!).  There are 7, soon to be 9 kids between our 3 families so it was a real treat to enjoy an evening out!  The food at Eatery A on Ingersoll was awesome too!

Evening snacks like this aren't too shabby!

We are still playing dress up on a regular basis around here.

We are enjoying our little preschool small group too.  Miss Julie did a "babies" theme one week since all of the kiddos are about to be (or as of the end of October have become again) big siblings and will have new babies around!  They made these cute "blankets" and necklaces and Lainey wasted no time finding her baby car seat and covering up (or smothering) her baby doll with the blanket.  We are doing lots of things to prepare for the new baby and having lots of conversations about her too.

We don't really get in to Halloween too much around here so I originally planned on just having Lainey wear one of her princess costumes and then throwing something together for Wyatt just to do Jed's office's Halloween party.  But then I think Lainey saw an Elsa costume in a Target ad and really wanted to be Elsa.  I thought I'd buy her a new costume and (again) throw something together for Wyatt to be Olaf.  But THEN I found a NO SEW (this is very important) DIY Elsa costume on Pinterest and decided we'd try that.  Doing the math I only spent SLIGHTLY more than I would have on an Elsa dress at Target and it didn't even matter.  Lainey had the time of her life putting this costume together.  It was really fun to create and go through each step with her.  

We started with a plain long sleeve tshirt and I penciled in the outline for the top of the dress.  Then we painted a layer of turquoise fabric paint.  Then a layer of glitter paint.  Then came Lainey's favorite part of all.

Sparkles and jewels!

I deviated a little from the tutorial and just grabbed a few of the packs of rhinestones and pearls from the dollar area at Michaels.

That was all for the top.  Then the skirt was just 4 or 5 rolls of different tulle tied to an elastic ribbon.

I think it turned out super beautiful!  She loved it.  I saw soooo many Elsa's at both Night Eyes at the zoo and when we were out at other Halloween events but I didn't see any other DIY Elsa's so I was pretty irrationally proud of myself.  

Night Eyes was way more fun this year than last year.  The weather was PERFECT and we went before it was dark which helped a lot.

Plus Ma and Papa joined us which was exciting too!

Another October highlight was cheering Jed on running the Des Moines Half Marathon!

Again... very thankful my parents were there.  I don't think I could have managed with the kids and waddled all over town trying to spot him at different mile markers if it weren't for them!  Nor could I have kept Wyatt from running away with the pack.

We were soooo proud of him.  He beat his Dam to Dam time by a good 12 or 13 minutes and he felt really good about his race.

(And here I am, just being thankful his training is OVER! ... for now!)

I'm not sure how easily we'll manage lots of Christmas treats and cookies this year with the new baby so I thought I'd make frosted sugar cookies with Lainey with a pumpkin cookie cutter.  She loves helping with baking and cooking projects and this was no exception!

Especially the decorating and the sprinkles!

Because everyone loves a napping picture.  I'm even afraid to type this out but I think we are contemplating transitioning out of nap time for her.  She goes to bed SOOO much better at night on the evenings she didn't happen to nap during the day.  I don't think we will completely give it up, especially on Mondays (she has dance class then we go straight to community group and it's kind of a late night), but I'm thinking we may start to give her a few days of just having "quiet times" in her room for a period of time in the afternoon while Wyatt (and hopefully the baby) are napping.

We also carved a pumpkin!  Yay October fun!

One of the real highlights of October for me was a beautiful baby sprinkle held for me by some of my dearest friends to celebrate this sweet girl on the way.  It was just a fun and relaxing afternoon with some of my favorite people and was such a blessing. I can't really imagine living life without the blessing of community and mom friends.  These women encourage and challenge me in so many different ways each and every day!

Thankful for such a beautiful fall here in Iowa!

Best Buddies

Maybe it's just the pregnancy hormones or maybe it's reality but I feel like Lainey and Wyatt have reached a new level of sibling-ship in the past few months that has been so precious to watch.  I remember a few other moms with kids really close in age telling me, the first couple years are hard but then, it's so great.  There is the struggle of learning to share, there's learning how to wait for needs or wants to be met, there's all of that.... but they have each other.  Lainey was so young when Wyatt came along that she too will never know life without her brother, just like he'll always know life with his sis.  I feel like I've gotten pictures of some really fun moments that needed shared...

It's monkey see, monkey do... ALL. OF. THE. TIME.  Usually Lainey is the instigator but sometimes it's Wyatt.  Like here, yelling, screaming, singing at the dinner table.  

They are  really affectionate with one another, a lot of times without being prompted.  Precious.

They may be best buddies but they certainly have different taste buds.  Wyatt loves sweets (like his mom).  Lainey will eat a few bites and be done.

The pajama band!

Miraculously, they can even share the iPad.


One of their favorite places to hang out is in Lainey's room.  Lainey always "reads" Wyatt one bedtime story before they go their separate ways.  We aren't sure if we'll have them share a room sometime in the future or not... it kind of depends on if this little lady coming is a good sleeper or not.  Wyatt is SUCH a good sleeper that I don't want to put them together and have Lainey ruin it for him.  She literally sleeps a good 2-4 hours less per night than he does.  It's crazy.



Snuggles!  Even my 31 week bump showed up in this one!

Thankful that God chose to surprise us with these two so close in age.  I'm sure as time goes on some things will get harder and some will get sweeter and sweeter.  Love being their mom!

Fall Fun

We've been living it up this fall season... it really is my favorite.  I love summer but I ADORE fall.  I love the cool mornings, the colors of the leaves, making chili, and all of the rest of it.  Even though I know what's around the corner...  So we get out and enjoy it as much as we can.  Or as much as my pregnant body will tolerate.  This pregnancy was treating me pretty well until a few weeks ago.  Lots of pelvic pain and soreness, more than the typical aches and pains of the third trimester.  I endured it for a few weeks and finally made time to go see my chiropractor.  Love that lady.  Not being in constant pain is pretty great but I'm trying to not push it so much so that my adjustments last longer and I can get out more and ENJOY my family!

We drove down the road to Easter Lake the other day for a little nature walk.  Kids loved it, it was a beautiful day and we collected some acorns and rocks (of course).

This is Wyatt right now.  Always holding me hand and leading me where he wants to go.  Until I say no or try and go a different way... then it's loosey goosey, Betty spaghetti, fall on the ground, etc.  That's a fun game buddy.  Not.

Lainey was getting over a cold on this day, which you can see in her eyes, but also needed to note her fantastic hiking outfit.  Right down to the fancy clicky shoes.

We also went to a teeny tiny little pumpkin patch in Ankeny with some friends a few weeks ago.  This place leaves much to be desired, but it's free and it's pretty close so we'll take it.

A few homeschool moms from our church have graciously volunteered to organize some field trips for all ages of kiddos.  The first one was to Jester Park for an insect hunt.  Thankfully, Jed took the morning and joined us, which really made the experience easier for me but WAY more fun for my kids.  Everything is better when Daddy is with us!

See?  He's the fun one.  This was right up his alley.  He was grabbing the bugs, showing the kids, getting burrs all over himself, etc.

Sister had some serious patterns going on that day.

Letting the bugs go back into the forest!  Lainey really wanted to take them home.

Wyatt was asleep before we hit the highway.

I'm sure there's more fall fun to be had in the next few weeks, we still have a bigger pumpkin patch trip planned and Halloween fun coming up too!

Oops, September happened...

So, September came and went.  It was fun... we did some things and stuff.  I think I have a serious dip in the brain cell department when I'm pregnant because I have a hard time remembering what I ate for breakfast let alone what we did a month ago but thankfully, there are pictures to remind me.

We enjoyed a few more warm barefoot evenings before the temperatures really started to dip.

Getting outside is the best in September.  The weather is mild and the scenery starts to change.

We started a little small group preschool meet up with a few friends every other week.  We rotate who hosts and plans the lesson and who brings a snack.  It's been a great time.  All 3 of these munchkins are 3, they all have younger brothers and they all are awaiting another younger sibling in the next few months.  Also, their moms are all so great and I love that we can do this together.  It's been really motivating for me to do more learning activities with Lainey at home myself.

We ventured to the Berry Patch Farm again to do some apple picking!

Still loving arts and crafts every chance she gets!

Nothing better than a warm evening and some chalk to keep us busy and happy on the evenings this momma is too tired and sore from chasing toddlers and being pregnant.  Glad Daddy has taken over most bath night duties these days as well! :)

The Last Hurrah

We spent many, many glorious mornings at the splash park this summer.  If it's hot and sunny, my ideal spot is near the water.  Most of these pictures look pretty similar but I thought since we spent at least one morning a week at a splash park, I better devote a whole blog post to it as an ode to our summer.  It wasn't an overly hot summer but we managed to still get there pretty often.

Lainey love love LOVES the water.  Wyatt... not so much.  Many mornings I'd spend more time following around a wandering Wyatt, or appeasing him with another snack.  Sometimes he'd play in the water and be content, but not too often.  You might think this would hinder me from taking them, but no.  Summer is too short to not enjoy some water play time!

We planned one final splash park outing for a forecasted 90 degree sunny day in early September.  It did not disappoint.  It might be my favorite splash park day of the summer.

This happened.  Which was hilarious and reminiscent of the Wyatt we knew last summer.  I was actually a little concerned this particular morning because Wy woke up earlier than normal (and by that I mean before 8) and I wasn't sure he'd last very long, especially since he doesn't have a lot of patience for the splash park to begin with.  But low and behold, I pulled in the parking lot, parked, unloaded the stroller and all of our junk, then Lainey and went to get Wyatt and he was asleep!  He miraculously transferred from car seat to stroller and proceeded to take a good 30-40 minute nap.  This meant we lasted a lot longer than I anticipated which was great!

We enjoyed the company of many friends and familiar faces (even our dentist!) and had a great time.  But now, it's truly time to retire the swim suits (since my belly no longer fits in to mine anyway!) and pack away the sunscreen and water squirters.  Thankful that I was able to enjoy so many summer mornings at the splash park with my kids and our friends.

Until next summer!