In search of the perfect pumpkin....

Last weekend was the perfect weekend--relaxing, great weather, great friends, pumpkins, hay rides, apples....you get the picture. The recap of Saturday in pictures.....

Sadie loves apples...can you tell?

Kael and Ellison enjoying a few of their own

The beauty of fall in the midwest never gets old!

And now the search begins....to find the perfect pumpkin

...'perfect pumpkin' means different things to different people. Matt looks forward to being able to find the most 'artistic' pumpkin--not sure he would call it that, but that's my term for it. It's a challenge every year to find the most unique 'collection' of pumpkins. Last year, I believe we spent about $50 on pumpkins, as a result. This year was about the same! And it's rubbing off on Wyatt--but the appreciation for the amazing world we live in and the natural beauty around us is something worth passing along.

Wyatt, Sadie, Kael, and Elli

Apparently apples sitting on the ground are just asking to be used for pitching practice...

(notice the kids cheering him on?!)

After we got our apples and pumpkins, we stopped at the petting zoo/play area for a bit. Nothing too exciting here, but I had to include these pictures and quickly write about Kael and Wyatt. They rushed over to see the donkey, but once the donkey took interest in them, they slowly began backing up....

(notice how they also grabbed each other's hands?)

In many ways, Kael and Wyatt have very similar personalities and it was so cute to see them both react to this donkey in the same way. They are pretty tough boys when it comes to playing football and hockey together, but quite tentative/cautious in new situations. We are so thankful to live closer to such great friends and hope Wyatt, Kael, Sadie, and Elli will grow up to be great friends!

I had to include this one last picture--Matt's personal collection (along with Wyatt and Sadie's additions) of the most unique/colorful/random pumpkins.

As I always say, early is on time....

I went in for an ultrasound last week to make sure this little one was no longer breech. Both Sadie and Wyatt turned head down quite late in my pregnancies, so I wasn't too worried. But the midwife I saw that day gave me some exercises to do throughout the week to make sure the baby turned. And I wish I had had Matt take a picture of me because I must have looked hilarious, based on my family's reactions. I can't do them anymore (as the baby could turn into the breech position again) but I leaned an ironing board against the couch and had to lay on it for 15 minutes, 3 times a day. After the first day, I found the kids doing the same thing and it did look hilarious! All this to say, the baby is no longer breech and ready for a natural delivery. And here is a little sneak peak at #3....



I'm hoping this baby decides to be the first of my children to make an early appearance into the world. At my ultrasound, he/she was measuring 6lbs, 8oz. which is the same size Sadie was at birth--and I still have over 4 weeks left! YIKES!! Based on the picture (which I personally just think looks like a chubby, squished baby) everyone is predicting this one to be a boy--and also based on the size. We'll just have to wait and see--but hopefully not too much longer!

Baking Cookies=Making Memories

Last week the kids and I made our traditional cut-out cookies. We usually just make them for Christmas, but I thought it would be fun to make some for fall---I say fall because I'm not a big Halloween person and try to downplay the 'holiday' as much as possible, but I do love the fall and Thanksgiving. Making cutout cookies is such a process, so we did the cutouts and baking during the day and waited until Matt got home to do the decorating.

So proud of herself!!

This sequence of pics is hilarious.....the dough was mostly gone and I had been telling the kids they could eat some when we were done rolling out the cookies. I handed the bowl to them and Wyatt began to dig in....Sadie didn't say a thing, but you can tell by the expressions on her face and the mouth wide open that she was waiting...

"Forget that--I'll just do it myself then"

Finally happy with a bit of dough each!

Eating the cookies just like Daddy was.....not sure waiting for Daddy to get home was the best idea. Pretty sure we ate more than we made!

As I was working on this post, I was reminded of how thankful I am to be able to stay at home with my kids and make memories like these. I'm not sure if they appreciate them as much as I do, but the time I am able to spend with these precious blessings is irreplaceable. And it's days like these that make up for all the frustrating/difficult/trying days when I want to be anywhere but home. I never thought I would love it as much as I do, but now I can't imagine doing anything else. It has become such a huge part of me and I am proud to be a homemaker/full-time wife/mother, etc. I can think of nothing better than devoting my time to my family and making our home a 'home'. (Now just remind me of this when #3 comes and I feel overwhelmed!)

Speaking of weather...

I'm a few days behind in posting these, but as you can see on the pictures, the date was October 12, 2009 and yes, that is snow. We got lots of it (for October) and the kids were elated!! Wyatt wanted to play in it before school but I promised him we would play after he got home. And it was the first thing he asked about when I picked him up at preschool.....

He was so disappointed that all the snow that fell on the sidewalks/roads/driveway was melting because the ground was still warm, so he made the extra effort to push snow on to the sidewalk so he could shovel! Wyatt, there will be plenty of time for that.

Thankfully I had gone just 2 days earlier to get Sadie a winter coat. But the boots and snowpants were Wyatt's old ones--but I'm thinking we may just wear these for the year!

And it was perfect packing snow, as you can see from where we rolled the balls for the snowman--there is no snow left on the ground.

Sadie insisted we get a hat, scarf, eyes and a nose for our snowman--Wyatt was on to the next thing by this point but Sadie wouldn't let our snowman be without a face and proper clothing! Funny how different boys and girls are.

And my favorite part---the beautiful white snow falling. I love how everything outside looks when it's snowing and I love how everything inside looks with the bright white snow outside. It never gets old--and it helps to have kids who enjoy it just as much!

The promised pic...a bit late

So I promised I would post a picture of the landscaping once it was all done---and here it is....

....pretty disappointing, i must say. The landscaping turned out great, but by the time I actually remembered to take a picture and it wasn't pouring rain, it looked like this. Everything covered in snow--and of course most things that looked alive and colorful when they were planted are now looking pretty terrible. But we know they'll all come back in the spring, so maybe I'll post more pics then. I am, however, glad for the snow to keep the plants/shrubs/trees watered so I don't have to!!

How Blessed Are We??

Still can't believe how blessed we are.....this is the view out our backyard. We have had some amazing sunsets this fall!

I have to say that I love living in the city, being 15 minutes from the heart of downtown, and still being able to see a barn about my backyard!

A bit of a facelift

This past weekend we tackled our first big 'home improvement' project by putting in our own landscaping. You could call this "Phase I" of possibly III of IV, but it was a good start for us. And we didn't do it on our own--thank goodness!! My parents, aka the 'green thumbs' came up to help us out. They actually enjoy 'digging in the dirt', as they call it, so we readily accepted their offer to help both with manpower and also help in the design and selecting of shrubs/trees/etc.

Before...

The project begins.....

....the kids LOVED helping

(maybe they'll take after my parents and really love this stuff!!)

The plan was to pull up all the sod around the house where we were going to landscape either this fall or next spring, put the edging in all around the house, and plant shrubs/trees in the front and sides of the house and lay mulch all around the perimeter.

And what home improvement project would be complete without this? yes, we took the advice of my brother-in-law and rented a bed-edger to make laying the edging easier and thought we had everything marked out, but ended up breaking the main water pipe to our sprinkler system. The edger was immediately put away, my dad ran to Home Depot and spent the next hour or so splicing the pipe and making the repairs, and we ended up hand-digging the rest!

...starting to look good...

Wyatt loved actually helping with each task, while Sadie just loved playing in the dirt!

...the mulch pile was quite fun as well, until it started to get smaller and smaller...

I'm sure it sounds odd, but I love this picture. Getting to see my husband work on our OWN yard and our kids just enjoying playing in their own yard and helping out--something we've never experienced before and we are all still in a bit of awe that this is all ours. We are truly blessed beyond what we ever dreamed of.

And the after picture.......

...soon to come! We were so thankful for such great weather from the moment we started the project on saturday morning right up until a few hours after we finished on sunday. And it hasn't stopped raining since then--which is great for our plants! But ever since my parents left, it has been about 55 degrees, rainy, and windy! We are so thankful we got it all done when we did! And I will post an after picture just as soon as I can get outside and take one!

Thanks again Mom and Dad--we NEVER would have gotten all that done without them. They are such work horses--they never stop to rest and at times they can tire us out!! I certainly hope I'm like that at 55 years old!