Pumpkin Time

It is officially pumpkin time. We are seeing them everywhere. Yesterday we joined some friends at a Pumpkin Patch. That is always a fun fall treat. Especially for boys that love to run free and get dirty. Here are a few pictures from our fun morning yesterday.

 Silly little boys

 Pax and Mickey - a favorite character at our house!

 Sweet brothers. So happy to catch this moment of them laughing. They were probably laughing at me because I couldn't seem to get a picture of both of them smiling. Well, I got one. Now who's laughing...suckers!

 A little train ride for our bunch. And the dude driving the tractor was so sweet. I caught a glimpse of him grinning as he pulled each child out of their cart after the train ride. He was loving his job and it made me very happy. :)

 Pax...

 Holden...

 Max...

and Whitney.

 The hay bale maze!

 I caught someone hiding!

 Peek-a-boo from Whitney. Man, she's cute. And she likes me...which makes her even cuter. :)

 

 A fun, little hayride made our morning almost complete.

Then today we had a pumpkin themed morning of fun crafts and story books. We even had pumpkin muffins to go along with it. Have I mentioned how much the boys LOVE LOVE LOVE these days?! Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I have. ;) These days often take more prep time than I care to sacrifice (during the moment I'm prepping for it)...but how delighted Holden and Pax are to sit and do crafts and listen to me read story after story. And how delighted I am that it's something that they love to do.  I'm very blessed to enjoy these days with my little boys!

 

 

 

 



just catching up

I have been a little behind on the blog. Well, a little behind for my own taste. Especially considering there was a time that I blogged, almost daily. Those days are long gone. I've really been trying to be better at my time management over the last 6 months or so. Which means the blog doesn't get updated near as often. So today will just be a little photo catch up of the little things going on at our house lately. Or at least the things I've caught with my camera.

I've been doing school at home with the boys just 1 day per week. It's been fun for them. They love the structure and planned activities of those days. So far we've had an "All About Me Day". They spent some time working on their names. They did a little presentation for Jeremy that evening of their favorite things. And they did some other fun activities. We've had an "Apple Day" and made homemade apple sauce along with some other letter A activities. And today we had a "Dinosaur Day". We read tons of Dinosaur books. Discussed and checked out pictures of different types. We talked about carnivores and herbivores. And we worked on couting out and sorting dinosaur eggs (or dry black beans).

 

 

We've been going to the public library weekly. We load up on tons of books for the boys. (Did you know that 50 is the limit you can check out at once?! Whoa that's a lot of books!) Then we read these books 2,317 times before we return them the next week and do it all again. Last night Jeremy said to me, "It's amazing how quickly they memorize books."  They do. My boys memorize them. Then they pretend to read to one another. It's the cutest thing ever! And I catch them daily sitting and flipping through books, like the picture below. I love how much they love reading. I tell each baby sitter that comes here; if you need something to calm them down, tell them to pick out a book. They will quickly pick out books, crawl into your lap and sit for an hour as someone reads to them. It really is one of my favorite things to do with my boys. And I'm pretty sure it is one of their favorites as well.

This little guy LOVES his Hungry Hungry Hippos game. And this big guy is never too busy to play a round or two with him.

We hosted our own little family soccer practice. Jeremy found it important to teach Holden that kicking the soccer ball was a big purpose of the game. Rather than just running the field like a crazy child. We were rained out this past weekend, so this Saturday should be his 2nd game. It almost seems like little brother would be more into the sport than big. I'm not surprised. But it's only been one game, so we shall see.

We've enjoyed some beautiful fall days and even busted out some long sleeves and pants. It hasn't been too consistent here in Texas. But when those days come, we've tried to enjoy the time outside.

 

And that is the latest on my family. :) 

Soccer!

We recently enrolled Holden for a season of soccer. We were told about this great organization that doesn't eat up all of your time. So the kids have soccer practice just 30 minutes before their Saturday morning games.  It's perfect for us! It's just about an hour per week for Holden to have fun and play a sport. When Jeremy signed Holden up online he checked a box that he would be willing to assist in coaching if there was a need. Well, guess what? Daddy is now one of the coaches. I guess that when you check the box that you are willing, you're probably going to be asked. It should be a fun season for Holden and Jeremy. Yesterday was their first practice and scrimage. It was fun to watch the cute little 3 and 4 year olds run all over the soccer field. I think our team scored 2 or 3 goals, which completely impressed me. Must have been the stellar coaching. ;)  And honestly, I don't know which team even won. I don't necessarily care. My little boy had fun running all over the field. Not necessarily paying attention to the soccer ball or the game. But he loved the running.  Holden is pretty coordinated. He always has been. And during the warm-up practice drills, he looked so good dribbling the soccer ball. But during the game, he just wanted to run with the other teammates. I don't think he ever kicked the soccer ball after the practice drills were over. We'll have to work on the other stuff this week. But at least he had fun!  A few pictures from our first Saturday of soccer. More to come...

the boy who ate everything

Pax is a great eater. He's not too picky. There are only a few things that he really dislikes to eat.  Tomatoes and....well, maybe there's just one thing. I honestly can't think of much of anything else that he refuses.  So I don't know why tonight surprised me. He had eaten his turkey burger and was working on some raw veggies and sweet potato fries. He noticed some large fresh spinach leaves on my plate and he said "I want some sah-wed" as if I was holding out on him by originally not offering it. Well, I'm not one to deprive my kids of extra veggies! I took 2 large leaves and tore them smaller and set them on his plate. No dressing, no dip, yet he immediately started chowing down. I have a feeling this isn't very common for 3 year olds. My little fellow veggie lover! It sure makes my heart happy!

More summer fun

I haven't been very good to blog each and every event, like I used to. So I'm just posting some pictues and a second and final summer recap of 2012.

We took a short weekend trip to Kansas City to visit some friends. It was kind of a cool city, though we didn't have a whole lot of time to see much of it.

The boys got to have their first Lego Land experience while we were there.

Pax's birthmother and family came for a visit a couple of weeks before his birthday. He wracked up on the gifts, once again. :)

Our days with friends at the water park came to an end. The kiddos all enjoyed Dippin' Dots on our last day!  By the way, I had NEVER ever tasted Dippin' Dots until this very day. Isn't that weird!?

Pax had his first professional haircut. Can you tell he's excited? His was a much different reaction than what Holden had at his first haircut with a stranger. Since that time, when Holden completely freaked out, Jeremy has done all haircuts at home.

 

The Myers came to our house and spent part of Labor Day weekend with us. It was so so so much fun. The boys love sweet Camryn and Reid. It's fun to watch their relationships blossom, especially with a family that is so special to us. I didn't take many pictures but here are a few of the kids playing outside in the water and on the new slip and slide.

 

 

 

Summer is officially over for us. Though I'm pretty sure it's gone into the triple digits more than once this week. I'm hoping those hot days will soon be behind us. I washed some of the boys fall clothes today, hoping I could wish the new season upon us. The boys and I are starting to get settled into a new routine these days. Bible Study on Wednesday mornings, their school day on Thursdays and other preschool things at home on the other days, with me as the teacher. We are definitely experimenting and trying some things out right now. Routine is good. I welcome it.



First Day of School!

This past Thursday, the boys headed back to their Mother's Day Out program. Surprisingly to me, Holden was feeling a little anxious and Pax was indifferent to the whole event. Not indifferent, I guess. He was happy to be there. In fact, he walked right into his classroom, began playing and never looked back at the door for me. I like drop offs like those. On the otherhand, Holden just made this face with gritted teeth and furrowed brows as we stood outside his classroom. He was letting me know he was not so sure about this first day. But he walked in by himself, saw some kids playing with trains and immediately sat down, grabbed a train and joined the playtime. :) I've learned over time that my oldest has a little struggle with changes in his routine. But once the change is made, he tends to adapt quickly to it. He's just not always excited about the actual change. The boys are in the same church program as last year, which Holden quickly fell in love with. But this year, it's new teachers for him and several new faces in his classroom. There were also a few familiar faces in both of the boys classrooms, which made me happy. One quick picture before we left home for their first day.

After picking them both up, they had both decided that it was a very fun day. I'm grateful to have just one day a week of quiet and grocery shopping (alone) and other errands (alone) and a little selfish time. My introverted self really appreciates Thursdays. That one day a week makes a big difference for me. And it's a huge bonus that my boys tend to love their day at school just as much as I do.