Autumn Bucket List

This weekend we headed down to see the grandparents. On the agenda: a parade and a trip to the pumpkin patch, all in the same day. 

I thought the kids' heads might explode.

Brooke loved the parade.  She stayed glued to Papa's side.  Because she loves her Papa.  And also because Papa's not shy about helping his granddaughter rake in the parade candy. 

 

They were quite the pair.



Nathan decided sleep was for the weak on Friday night, so Saturday morning was a little rough.  Even the excitement of a parade didn't perk him up much.  He got some major Daddy snuggles in, though.

After we loaded up with tons of pre-Halloween candy, we were ready to do some pumpkin picking!  I love going to the pumpkin patch.  Love it.

Nathan finally woke up and decided he needed to pick him some pumpkins. He was all business.

But every now and then you have to rest, you know.

As if that wasn't enough "fall" for one weekend, we also made apple pie, carved a pumpkin and raked and jumped in the leaves. 

Our Autumn Bucket List is officially complete, people.

Brooke demonstrated the face she wanted on the pumpkin. 

I drew and Scot carved.  Not bad, huh?

A new fall hairstyle...

A lovely fall weekend.  Thank you to the g-parents!! 

A (Big!) Little Announcement

So I've been MIA the last couple of months.

It's just that I've been a little tired.  And a little nauseous.

Because...

 Me at 21 weeks.  Official due date: February 27.

YIPEE!!!  We are thrilled to be expecting baby #3!  Here's my goofy attempt at a belly shot.   

And some other news:  It's a BOY!!!

(A certain little girl wasn't thrilled about that part.  Thankfully, all was well after dinner at her favorite restaurant and a promise that she could help name and feed the baby.)


I might be slightly biased, but I happen to think he's awfully cute. 

And check this one out!  An ear!  He's sleeping on his tummy with his little legs tucked under his little bottom and you can see his ear.  I love this one.  I can imagine holding him just like this.  Plus...it's an ear. I haven't even thought about how he's going to have cute little ears.  But there it is.

There's a real little baby in there.

What an amazing blessing.

I can't wait until February to introduce him to his big sister and big brother.  And to hold my new little guy that has at least one ear.  :-)

She's 4!

My girl is four today.

And okay, so I know I get a little sentimental about birthdays.  It's just...she's already four.  Four! And next year she'll be five. 

Don't even get me started on six.

She does all the big girl things now.  She works the words "actually" and "exactly" into conversation as much as possible. She's all about favorite colors and princesses and dressing up.  She rides her little bike all the way around the neighborhood without stopping.  She helps Nate build towers with the Legos and "reads" him the books she has memorized. She kisses my head if I tell her I have a headache. She's independent and nurturing.

I want to keep her little and I want to see who she'll become all at the same time. 

 I so love that girl of mine.  What a blessing she is to me.

Happy 4th birthday to you, Brooke!  Love, me

A Princess Party, Of Course

Oh, how I love the princess thing! I love the imagination and sweetness and innocence.  As I watch Brooke grow up right before my eyes I have a whole new appreciation for it. The "princess" years don't last long, you know. 

This weekend both sets of grandparents came in and we had us a little princess party.

I would love to be the super creative mom bursting with ideas for my childrens' birthdays months in advance, with tons of ideas to share with you.  But I'm more the "keep it simple" type.  We had flowers and balloons and every princess birthday item Target has to offer.

Four is a really fun age.  Brooke was thrilled for her birthday.  This smile just makes me happy.  I love this girl.

 Gifts of the princess variety, of course.

I did a horrible job of taking pictures at the party!  I didn't get any of my dad or of Scot's parents.  I didn't hand off my camera to be in one myself. I only took two of Nathan and about 20 pictures total.  I'm not sure what I was doing.  Something very important, no doubt.   

But anyway...happy 4th birthday to Brooke!  And thank you, thank you to the wonderful grandparents that make her the happiest princess in all the land.  :-)

Just Peachy

This weekend we went to the local orchard and picked some peaches and blackberries. 

We found a box...

...and waited for the tractor to take us to the peach trees.

And then we dove in and started pickin'.  There were rows and rows of trees, all loaded with ripe peaches.  YUM!

Sampling was allowed.  That's good because we ate our weight in "samples."

After we loaded our box with peaches, it was off to the blackberry bushes. Blackberry season officially ended two weeks ago, so we were told picking blackberries would be a bit of a "treasure hunt." Information that would have been more useful before we went all the way out to the blackberry patch, but we were up for the challenge.

Every blackberry that Brooke picked went right into her mouth....

  or somewhere around there.

I don't know what my deal is with wanting to bake lately.  I usually HATE baking.  There's such a strict formula and if you leave out one little ingredient or make one mistake you're done for.  But for some reason I couldn't stand to leave our fruit in its natural, healthy state. 

I made blackberry crisp AND peach pie. So now I have blackberry crisp and peach sitting in my kitchen.

Come over to my house and you will be force-fed dessert.  Just warning you. 

B-O-R-E-D

Bored, we are.

We're totally in Groundhog's Day mode. Every day we wake up and every day it's so stinkin' hot.  We go through our baby pool/Play-Doh/painting/tv/dress-up/other assorted playing rotation.  A sprinkling of playdates and errands. Lunch. Nap. Repeat. Not that it's all bad.  It's just the same.  Nothing blogworthy going on here.

And I have to say, this girl who dreamed of hot summer weather just a couple of months ago is now longing for the pumpkin patch and Halloween costumes and wearing jeans.  Football games and chili in the crock pot and pulling out the warm blankets.  Doesn't that just sound like heaven??

But, until then, we're passing the time.

We paint. 

Well, okay, so twice we painted.  Only twice because...

but mostly because...

We bake.  So we can heat the house up and really see what the air conditioner's made of.

I read that if you add a stick of butter to a box mix, the cupcakes taste more like homemade.  A tip that must come straight from the Paula Deen School of Cooking. I found a great icing recipe (about halfway down in this link). And check out the S'mores cupcakes in the link.  Someday I'll try to make them and report back.  They look amazing. 

An evening of decent temperatures isn't lost on us.  When it finally cooled down one night (and only one night) we went to the park.  It was nice to be outside for a little while. 

 Nathan, that's called a tree.  Remember trees from when we used to go outside?

 This sweet sibling moment brought to you by the clearance bubbles from Walgreens...

...short-lived as it was.  Nate dumped his bubbles and got ahold of Brooke's  shortly after.

Is it September yet???