Random pics from our week

We had just come in from outside, the first day this fall Finn has had to wear his winter coat!

We realized that Mark and I are never in the pictures. So we tried to take a pic of ourselves... this is the best we could do:)

October is Near!

Usually I take an hour or two on the weekends to write posts for the blog, catch up on the next week's post (get posts ready so during the week all I have to do is publish them), and add pictures. So I'm here to say that I'll try my best to publish pictures and post when I can during October, but I have the feeling it won't be much this coming month.....here is why....

October

1st weekend: We're going to a Literacy Festival to meet some authors and get some of Ethan's children books signed. We'll also head over to my brother's house for awhile.

2nd weekend: Three days of Homecoming/H.S. days craziness over the weekend. It is an exciting time to see friends and fellow college graduates that come back for a few days.

3rd weekend: Fall Break!!!! We get a 4 day weekend, which means we'll take our fall trip, we'll be staying at the lodge and hopefully camping out one night (weather permitting).

4th weekend: Nothing....wow, I can't believe we have an open weekend...which probably means it will fill up with something going on or work.

5th weekend: We have 3 Halloween parties to try and attend. It is also the weekend of Finn's 2nd birthday party!!!!

So, don't forget about our blog and stop check in once in awhile! We'll be back full swing at some point:) The scary thing is this is what November looks like:

Photography class weekend for Mark and I, thanksgiving trip to Mo to see my grandma, thanksgiving break at my parent's house....then December I'm having a baby.....oh my! Where does the time go!!

We love all the support and people who read our blog!

Weekend

It was one of those weekends where you're too busy spending and enjoying time with family that you forget to post on your blog, check facebook, read any other blogs, or even check your e-mail. I gotta say, it was kinda nice:) Saturday night we went to a play in Lincoln at an outdoor theater. Maybe I'll blog about it a little later in the week.

But it is bedtime here at our house this Sunday night, so tomorrow we'll be back to the regular swing of things! Monday night Mark is competing in the on campus home-run derby with some friends and Ethan has gymnastics. Should be a fun start to the week!

27-week appt

Today was my 27 week appointment. Here is the update....

• I don't have gestational diabetes! Yeah!
• heartbeat looked normal
• I gained 3 pounds since my last appt about a month ago. The doctor was happier with that number. Total weight gain so far is 14 pounds.
• I measured at 27 1/2 to 28 weeks, so pretty much right on
• Due date is the same
• I won't have another ultrasound unless I measure too big or small at the next appt

Fall Walk

A sign that fall will soon take over the trees

Goals

I started on this post last week, and I'm finally posting it!

Some (not all) of our/my goals....

• Take the boys to the gym three times a week (they have mats they can jump on and a track they like to run around on, and it's free, they always love going)
• Stay healthy during this pregnancy. I've been really good at taking care of myself so far and eating more healthy, basically staying away from all fast food. I can still buckle my non-maternity pants and so far I've put on around 13 pounds (I just started my 27th week).
  
• Schedule more times for naps for Mark and I on the weekends, okay, maybe sleep more in general.
  
• Take more nature walks on the cool, crisp, fall nights.
  
• Take a trip up to Minnesota to see family. Unfortunately our schedule doesn't look good for doing this anytime soon. We thought it would work out for going up this fall, but so far it doesn't look good. Maybe in the spring?

It doesn't look like much on paper, but I'm going to try my best with these. What are your goals right now? More time with family, work on your house, manage your time better? Good luck with your goals no matter what they are, and wish me luck on mine!

For now

My little boy is turning into a older boy right before my eyes.

He has his own friends, his own hobbies, his own school, his own routine, his own favorite things, his own life.

I still remember the exact day we found out we were expecting our first, I remember every wonderful detail about the day he was born.

I give him a hug and kiss every morning because I can't believe how lucky I am that this is our first born. Everyday I think about how blessed we are that he shares his day with us and experiences life with us.

Lord willing, someday he will have his own home, his own kids, his own everything. For now, I get to wake up with him everyday, take care of him, love him, and tuck him in bed.

Here comes Halloween

It is the beginning of not only the Halloween holiday at our house,
but decorating for the Fall season.

All of Ethan's Halloween books are stacked on his book rail.

Steak Burgers with Brown Sugar Carrots

A bit of our weekend cooking....I love these carrots. The recipe below calls for 1/3 brown sugar, you can adjust that if you need less then that in your recipes.

Brown Sugar Carrots

Ingredients:
16 ounces baby carrots

2 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 cup water

In saucepan, combine all ingredients, stir to blend. Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium for about 20 minutes. (note: you will have access liquid, you can use as a sauce for other things if you want)

Steak burgers

Cook as you like, we grill ours with green peppers. We put a slight bit of seasoning on them too.

Our Life

These are the days we love, saturdays with family.....

First, we spent the morning at the town parade.

They love each other:)

After the parade, we all went to lunch together. Followed by a family trip to the store for pumpkins and paint!

After afternoon naps, we went to see the hot air balloon down the street. Then to granny/grandpa's house for snacks.

Last event of the day was taking the family to the free drive-in movie the college sponsored.

Fun and Family=Perfect Day

Some catching up to do!

This has been such a busy week! Mark has intramural games he plays in that started this week and the boys are busy with their activites, so we're ready for the weekend! I have several posts that I worked on at random times this week, so this weekend I'll try to catch up and finish/publish them. I have a couple cooking posts and my post on goals. This weekend is also Yorkfest, the town's weekend celebration/parade.

Tomorrow morning we'll take the boys and head downtown to the parade and meet my brother and his family. Tomorrow night we'll go see the hot air balloons and go to the drive-in movie with all the cousins there. Have a great weekend!

God Bless Baby Bible School Teachers!

Every year we try and sign up to teach the toddler class at church for a quarter. It doesn't seem very hard to us, but we're pretty used to toddlers around our house.

My friend Julie called today and asked if we would be subs tonight for them for the 1-year old baby class. We said sure and thought it would be fun for an hour or so during church.....

Wow, was I wrong. I'm not sure fun was the word. It was challenging and kinda stressful. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I just now have a great respect and admiration for the teachers who do the 1-year old class every week! God bless them and their talents!

During the first 10 minutes we had three babies crying for their parents. Mark and I tried to sing songs and blow bubbles and entertain them. We finally got all 5 babies calmed down, and then one of them had a poop blow out in their shorts. So we just wiped the kid down and put one of Finn's diapers on them. Then two kids started fighting over toys...and so on.... I think I finally realized after 1 hour of class how parents of multiples must feel!

What I learned tonight is to appreciate the teachers at church more. I do not have the gift of dealing with 3 crying babies at the same time. I wish I did, but I don't:( I do have the talent of teaching the toddler, aka the 2 or 3 year old class. So I'll stick with signing up for that class and stay away from the baby class:)

Book Order Day!

This is one of my favorite days of the month! I order books every month or 6 weeks from the Scholastic Club here on campus, so I order a lot of books since they are about 50-75% off. Most of them are paperbacks and they always do a seasonal thing along with your order. Not only is this my favorite time of year, but I also love reading books to the boys about fall, Halloween, October, leaves, etc. Every time our book order comes, my oldest gets so excited to add books to his library collection (I'm an English person so my kids don't have bookshelves, they have libraries:)

I love books and hope they continue to love them too. My oldest is currently taking his bath with daddy and then we'll sit down and read. He really likes to read at bedtime but on the days we get book orders in, he wants to read for over an hour. I guess I don't mind, but then again, I'm a book nerd!

Productive and Surprising

Productive Weekend: We did a lot around the house, got a lot organized, and were able to clean out some of our old stuff. I wasn't looking forward to it, but it needed done. We spent most of Saturday on our to-do list, then cooked dinner at home (steak burgers and glazed carrots). My mother-in-law was visiting for the weekend so she got some time with the boys.

Surprising: We had our 1st small group tonight of the new school year. We had been in the same group for the last 3 years and then a couple of us switched to a new group (since my parents decided to take a year off from hosting). It was nice to have some new faces, yet still be able to be in the same group with our friends. After a wonderful 2 hour small group, we went over to another friend's house to catch up for awhile. It turned out to be a wonderful evening with friends. I think we're really going to look forward to Sunday nights every week.

This week on the blog I'm going to try and focus on some of our goals as a family this year. The fall always reminds me of a new beginning, and new beginnings always bring about reflection in our house of where we are and where we are going. I'll post other things throughout the week as well. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Weekend Plans

Our list of things to-do this weekend is about 16 items long. My mother-in-law is coming this afternoon for the weekend till Monday night. So Mark and I decided to take advantage of the free entertainment for the boys and get some things down around the house that we've put off. It will be nice to get some things done but I don't necessarily enjoy to-do lists....who does really?

Our list currently includes cleaning out our storage unit (we get one free from the school and boy is it full and spilling out!), re-arranging our bedroom for the new baby, cleaning out the pantry, organizing the laundry closet, unpacking/organizing the baby clothes for our baby #3, cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning, possibly switching the bedrooms for the boys, setting up the office.....and there is actually more on the list...but I'm getting bored just typing about the list:)

We'll take a break later tonight to go to the Midnight Madness event here on campus. It is at the gym and there are events and food. Other than that, we're pretty boring this weekend with our things we're doing at home.

Ethan (my oldest) had to bring a pillow to preschool today because they had "camping" day. They also had to bring their most favorite drink, which he enjoyed picking out at the store before he went.

Finn wore a glow-in-the-dark Halloween shirt that we bought him last week to church on Wed. We weren't planning on having him wear it so early, but we left in a hurry for church and Mark took it off the pile not really thinking about it. When we picked Finn up from class, the teacher said that all the kids (all 1-year olds) really liked turning the lights off and watching him run around with his glow-in-the-dark shirt. So we apparently helped entertain the 1-year old class at church because we dressed him in the wrong thing:)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Apple Baking

After going to the orchard last weekend, we had plenty of apples. I took most the day labor day to make some apple treats. Apple pie, brown sugar apples, and applesauce. I never get tired of apples this time of year....

All the ingredients, the best ingredient: APPLES!

My oldest helped me:)

Isn't it pretty!!

I also made brown sugar bake apples. It is very easy and they are delicious either by themselves or as a topping to ice cream. You just slice up your apples (about 2 medium apples), throw about 2 tablespoons of butter in a heated pan along with 1/4 cup-1/3 cup of a brown sugar. Let the butter melt and brown sugar soak into the cooked apples. Ummm...very tasty.

Start of Fall at the Lodge

Eating Caramel Apple Popcorn snack before bedtime

We spent the weekend outside, walking the trails at the lodge, eating lunch at the apple house (barbecue pork sandwiches and iced tea), having apple pie, exploring the tree house, taking lots of pictures, picking red and green apples from the orchard, swimming at the lodge, drinking coffee and cider, watching the pumpkins grow, and just having fun and relaxing with the boys. It was nice for the four of us to get away and spend some time outside, it was such perfect weather. Saturday morning we woke up to a beautiful fog and we walked across the bridges until the sun fully rose.

I'll post later about all the apples we picked and all the apple baking we did on labor day. So many apples!

More weekend photos

Obviously I edited this one, I just really like playing with colors in the photo and seeing what happens...