Thursday, October 27, 2011

For the Love of Fall!



The weather around here has been absolutely perfect, which is why this time of year is my all. time. favorite. But, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that already. ;)

This past weekend was a busy one with family visiting, but we enjoyed every minute of it in pure Autumn fashion...

Madelyn and I headed up to an apple orchard with some friends and picked about 175 pounds of apples (and that's not counting the 90 pounds that Mo picked for her and Robin!) Yeah, we go all out when we do something, what can I say? Don't worry, they aren't all for us. We picked for family too! It was a beautiful day and the weather was perfect, so of course my camera battery died about 10 pictures in...

We got some super cute ones of Blake though and I think Mo took some more with her camera as well.


Even though it's harder to be productive, I just love bringing the little kiddos along. Madi and Blake probably bit into at least 10 apples each just because they could. It sounds sort of wasteful, but if you have ever been to an apple farm, you know how many apples are on the ground! Plus, they're delicious and it's just that hard not to, and they would sort of get distracted and drop them or throw them at some point and then remember they wanted to eat one again!

I also love it because my grandparents had apple orchards when I was a little girl and I have wonderful memories of spending long days out in the trees. We could eat as many apples as we wanted and they were absolutely delicious! My Grandma would drive us around on the four wheeler and we would reach up and pick apples as we drove down the rows. We thought it was so cool! We also thought we were going so fast, but I sort of doubt that was true. One time I fell off reaching for an apple and Grandma somehow managed to run over my leg... she was damaged for a long time, but I was fine! Oh the memories... if my mom knew how to operate a camera we might have pictures of those days, but oh well! (I still love her anyway ;)

Some of our partners in crime...


This boy is TOO cute!


"Oma" was our wonderful entertainment! She sang songs and did chicken dances for the kiddos! So fun!!! =) I'm pretty sure this is where the camera died... =(

Can't you tell they're chickens? =)

Saturday afternoon I made a giant patch of caramel corn and I had great intentions of sharing it with lots of friends.

{cough, cough}

The Moodys got some, and so did the Dukes and then my love handles have me to thank for the rest of it.

Ooops.


It was really good though, and maybe, just maybe I'll make more to share!

Or maybe I shouldn't. That's sort of just asking for myself to get fatter.

Anyway, we enjoyed each other's company and late Sunday night Matt pulled out the pumpkin carver and got a little crazy with Madelyn!









Yeah, we're not super artistic around here. Have I mentioned that before?

Please don't show our daughter pictures of your amazing jack-o-lanterns that took 4 hours to carve. We sort of prefer the simple smiley faces.

And in case you're wondering why there is only three pumpkins, mine was turned into a funkin...


Don't be jealous. Mine wasn't nearly as cute as the magazine and Jess' wasn't nearly as cute as mine... ;)

It was a midnight craft project with my sister, but more on that trip later...

I hope you're all enjoying Fall as much as we are! Sunshine, I hope you never go away!!!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Wakey, wakey!

It's been one of those mornings, all to myself!

Well, sort of, myself and Emmitt. I was woken up by a sweet little girl sometime around 7 this morning and I couldn't bare to think about getting up quite yet (not that I usually get up any later, evidently I was just enjoying my sleep this morning). So, I whispered to Madelyn that it was still the middle of the night, walked her back to her bed and snuggled her back down. All she was really concerned about was finding her lost binki anyway. After that was found, she asked me to kiss penguin on the nose, kiss ducky on the nose and her eyes were shut! Aw, I love 2 year olds... and the fact that it's still dark out at 7!

I stumbled back to bed and laid there for a minute before I decided my peaceful sleep was officially over. Oh the things I could do if she really slept for another hour... or two!

The covers flew off and turbo mode kicked in... until the baby woke up and wanted to eat, in which case I stared blankly out the front window for about twenty minutes. However, I'm happy to report that the second load of laundry is in the washer, the dishwasher is going, the bedsheets are stripped and I had a delicious breakfast all to myself...

Mmm... my mouth is watering just looking at it again. That would be scrambled eggs topped with pepper jack cheese, homemade salsa and avocado! Don't worry, I saved some scrambled eggs for Madi...

I had a great Fall blog all planned out in my head with beautiful pictures that I've been attempting to write since Saturday, but I just wasn't feeling it this morning. So, unfortunately you're getting stuck with a picture of my delicious breakfast concoction and pictures of a sweet little boy who watched happily as I ate my amazing breakfast!



Happy hump day!

(You do know that means Wednesday, right mom? ;)

Is it Wednesday?

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Homecoming!

This post is completely and utterly inspired by our daughter's desire to wear last year's Christmas dress yesterday. And being the good mom that I am (and the fact that we weren't planning on going anywhere ;), I let her indulge! She slipped into this beauty and we "ooed" and "awed" over what a beautiful princess she is!

But please, girls, does she not fit in perfectly with this year's trends?!?

Super puffy and way too short! =)

The shall is probably a little cheesy for high schoolers and no, she does not have spaghetti straps underneath there, but come on?!?



You have to also appreciate her desire to wear her purple Nike's with the dress?


Yup.


She's got style!



And a classic pre-festivities homecoming picture with Nana. ;)

The whole thing was pretty much cracking me up!

And if you're interested in more laughs, here you go...

11 years ago to this day (Yes, it was Friday, October 13th) Matt and I were dressing up to head out to homecoming as well!


This last Saturday Matt and I snuck away for dinner (and almost a movie... we didn't quite make it in time) and we couldn't help but smile as we ironically ended up at Red Robin amongst 30 other ex-students who were out celebrating homecoming together! Yeah, weird how that always seems to happen. Anyway, it was fun to watch kids hanging out and of course check out all of the beautiful dresses! My have things changed in the last 11 years!

*Sigh*

It sort of makes me feel old to know that I've watched styles come in and then go out...

Oh well.


Thanks for that "romantic" night 11 years ago, Matt! I sort of liked our low-key evening we spent together this year instead! I love my family. I love my life!

Happy Homecoming Kids! =)

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Party in a Cup!


This pair made my morning!

Let's be honest. I may talk about coffee a lot, but I'm sort of just a party drinker. AKA, I prefer lattes and fancy mochas, but I rarely drink any at home. Although, that just might be changing. I absolutely LOVE the smell of coffee brewing and Matt has started a new routine this year where he brews his coffee at work instead of at home. It's sort of sad to not hear the coffee grinder every morning and wake up to the sweet aroma of a fresh pot (with the exception of Saturday and Sunday when he's home).

Well, when the holiday creamers hit the shelves, it's time for me to jump on the bandwagon. In fact, I was so excited that I paid full price for this creamer (and probably way too much for this whipped cream) at Safeway yesterday just so that I could have a delicious cup to wake up to this morning!

Honestly, I think the whipped cream was the perfect touch! I couldn't believe how delicious it was! If you happen to show up on my front door tomorrow morning, I'll make you some!


Aw!

It was delicious!


So I went ahead and cuddled up on our "Picasso" couch with pandora and drank two cups!

Here's my simple view, from my simple life.


I love watching the leaves slowly turn this time of year! This tree peeks over the top of our neighbor's house and is absolutely beautiful this time of year!

Unfortunately this picture doesn't do it justice!



I was even blessed to have a few minutes to myself this morning.

And although, I should exclaim that I spent a few minutes reading and praying alone, what I really did was pull out my phone to read this article... and this one. Honestly, I can't get this awful tragedy out of my head. I'm not sure why I feel it has hit so close to home. Maybe because this guy is technically from Stayton, maybe it's because Matt is friends with the poor victim, Cody Meyers, brother-in-law (they graduated from HS together), or maybe it's because it's just so awful... I'm not really sure, but it has totally freaked me out, to say the least.

I first saw that Cody was missing on FB on Sunday when quite a bit of friends kept posting a note about him going missing. Lots of people were re-posting it and it sounded pretty sad, but also hopeful that they might find him somewhere. After his car was spotted on Sunday driven by the suspected murderers, I sort of felt all hope was lost and couldn't imagine what the family was going through. Unfortunately, they found his body just a few days later, and the unimaginable was true. I'm sure you've all heard the story though, as it has been all over the news. And for some reason, I have had a new wave of fear come over me. Ridiculous, I know, but it's true. We had a Redbox movie to return the other night and I selfishly asked Matt to take it back after his 14 hour day because I was too afraid to get out of the car in the McDonald's parking lot at 9:30 at night. Yeah, I'm a baby.

I'm also driving up to my sister's place tomorrow night with the kids (Tacoma) and I have already informed Matt that I will not be stopping for anything. Emmitt may have to scream (hopefully it won't come to that) his head off and Madelyn will be wearing a pull up because this Mama is not stopping! They can thank me later for not being murdered at a young age cause you can guarantee we won't be pulling over until we see my sister's front door, which happens to be a completely gated condo...

We have some meth heads that live down the street and they've never really scared me before (despite their crazy yelling) just annoyed me, but now they freak me out. Stereotyping? Yes, but it's true. The lights go down around here and I get a little jumpier. Matt wouldn't let me read these articles last night because he knew I would dream of being attacked. And I would have. The night before I dreamt that our car was being stolen from the driveway. I'm pretty sure I shot the people, which Matt later informed me would have been illegal because you can only shoot someone if they are "threatening your threshold", or something like that... good thing it was just a dream!

More than anything, I can't seem to stop thinking about what would drive someone to take another person's life. Or better yet, why do we as a society in general tend to respect one another's lives, as in not kill one another? Is it really the fear of the law? I don't know and I suppose I never will relate to serial killers.

What I do know is that there are families out there grieving the loss of a loved one, reliving over and over what may have happened before their mother, father, son, or brother was tragically murdered, and I can't imagine that either. My heart goes out to them and I will continue to pray for healing in their lives.

My heart also goes out to the murderers' families. I read an article that said they attempted to interview Pedersen's mother and all she said was, "He's my son and I love him. I always will." I can relate to that. I can't imagine the pain of watching or knowing that your son has done something so horrible, but I can imagine that you would love them no.matter.what. What an awful pain for a mother.

And likewise, it made me think about God's unconditional love. It doesn't matter what we've done, he will always love us. His last words on the cross were, "Father forgive them for they know not what they've done." He loves these murderers and he always will. He loves me when I sin and he always will. How incredible is that?

Oh how we need His GRACE!

Eventually, I was greeted with this:



And she snuggled her baby, while I snuggled her.



And I couldn't help but think, thank you Lord for this sweet girl!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

All Smiles!


Okay, so the title to this blog is probably a little deceiving. All is sort of an exaggeration; about 90% of the time, this is the typical look you'll get from Emmitt.



He is very serious! He has the sweetest little cheeks and he's the best cuddler (at least for Mommy), but life is pretty intense, or so he let's on...

I often here, "Oh, he's grumpy right now."

I have all different kinds of comments in my head, but usually I just smile and say, "Yeah, he's pretty serious."

And he is.

Lately, however, we've been able to buy a couple smiles out of him. Not too many, of course, and usually they're for his Daddy (or sister), but they're making their way out of him, and we even caught a few on camera!





(Madelyn is such a good big sister. I wish I could record her little voice when she talks to her "brudder". It's so "cooey" and sweet! ;)



It's amazing how different two kids can be. We're still learning so much about both our kids' personalities, but I'm pretty sure Madelyn was born smiling. After she warms up to people, she is generally anyone's best friend. I have a feeling Emmitt is going to be much quieter and reserved. Time will tell. I must say, it is so fun watching them develop into little people! I certainly don't want to wish time away, but I also can't wait to see who they will become!

For now, we'll enjoy all the smiles we can get! =)

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Our First Trip to the Patch...

As I sit here rockin' out to pandora, my family is all sleeping blissfully... just like I should be. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time grasping time, but ever since Emmitt was born I feel like time has just stopped. Can it really be October? I honestly never know what day of the month it is. I usually try and guess a number that seems way farther away than it really is and then I'm still short by about a week. It's probably going to be Christmas any day now and I will have just finalized Madelyn's Halloween costume. It's a good thing she's only two... maybe she'll never know the difference! Anybody up for stockings and trick or treating? Talk about a seriously "over stimulating" combination!

Speaking of costumes, I asked my sister in law if we could borrow "the" tiger costume for Madi this year and I was SO excited for her to try it on. After convincing Madelyn that it would be oh-so-cozy, she reluctantly put it on and looked in the mirror. I put on my super-excited-mommy-face and told her how cool she looked and said, "Don't you want to be a tiger for Halloween?"

She gave me an extremely pathetic look and said, "No, Madi wants to be Pinkalicious!"

I don't think there will be any changing of minds around here...

*sigh*

Now for a Pinkalicious costume...

is it still October?

Anyway, in an attempt to celebrate Fall (sans the 4 loaves of pumpkin bread I may or may not have baked this week and may or may not have eaten... all of them) we packed up and headed out to Bauman's for our first attempt at a pumpkin patch this year!





I can NOT believe how much these two have changed in a year! Here's their picture from the patch last year...

(not to mention the fact that they both have a younger sibling now... and it's only been a year, yikes!)



So sweet... if only I could freeze this thing called "time"...





Baby Jude is so sweet. I told Madelyn that we were going to the pumpkin patch with Kade and she said, "Baby Jude gonna be there?" I said, "Yes, of course, and Kari." My reply was met with a high pitch squeal and, "Madi likes baby Jude!" =)

Sorry, Kade!




Notice how "into" this goat Madi is? Yeah, let's just say she has a ways to go on being "brave"...

I'll spare you the horrible mother story where this tiny innocent goat started walking toward Madelyn with the result being high pitched screams and buckets of tears...

No one called child services.

And on my defense, the goat didn't even touch her!

It was all for the love of a good picture.

Anyway...

Kade, on the other hand, had no problem petting the cute little baby goat that got loose!



It pays off to have men in your life...




There's just no words to express Kari and baby farm animals. =)

Love is an understatement... ;)


Emmitt pretty much just chilled the whole time! He likes to fool people into thinking he just sleeps peacefully all day when we're out and about... maybe he's trying to tell me something?



And no pumpkin patch trip is complete without hot cider and an apple cider cake donut!


Aw! Food is just so comforting.

Thank you Fall for tickling our taste buds!

Now off for some shut-eye!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Where Have We Been?

You may have thought we temporarily disappeared... sometimes I wish I could temporarily disappear, but life is still marching on. Most mornings I wake up to a little girl with the world's best bed head whispering, "Mama, I have to go potty," and other mornings it's just the faint whimper of a 6 week old who seems to think that he's starving after not eating for a whole HOUR... either way it brings me out of my sleepy bliss and occasional dream and into the world of reality. I'm trying to make the best of the fact that most days I don't get out of my pj's until nap time by embracing our mornings with deliciousness like whole wheat, banana, chocolate chip pancakes...

And then my sweet 6 week old reminds me what the pancakes will look like once they have been consumed twice and run through a good set of intestines...

Yeah, it had been too long since you've experienced baby poop hadn't it?

You can thank me later... or by coming over and changing the next one. You have approximately 5 days, as this child prefers to hold it in for almost a week before letting it ALL out...

This bouncer has been washed 4 times. Every time it's been saturated in poop. I know, you were hoping I would talk more about deliciousness like pancakes instead of poop. Sorry. I had to deal with it during breakfast, so I thought I should share the love! ;)

The rest of our days have been filled with 1st grade soccer games, a little 9th grade football, finishing off the last of the giant bag of popsicles in our freezer, and snuggling with Daddy while he's home for short breaks between school, meetings, PT, and basketball. Oh, and of course, playing in our undies. Okay, allow me to clarify, I DO wear clothes around here (even if it is just my pj's). When I say "our" I clearly meant "Madelyn"...

Phew.











I promise to post more often and less about poop!

Happy Fall! =)