Pumpkin Patch

We waited to celebrate my birthday with my fam until Misa and Lan's made it home {sadly Kreg was gone on business, thus Misa's trip, but why he wasn't here too!}. Anyway, really I could give a care less if any one ever remember my birthday or that we celebrated it. I never have cared much for my birthday {even as a kid}, just another year to me. So alas, we celebrated.

For the past 4ish years we have been going to a pumpkin patch and corn maze. This year we went to Papa's Pumpkin Patch. It was fun and free!

And since I am pretty sure you could give a care less about my narrations, I shall get on with the pictures. :) {They are worth a thousand words, no?}

My daring daughter hearts all slides!

I seriously couldn't believe my neat freak of a sister slide down this dirty slide on her tummy in good clothes! I about died! HA!

Look at that precious face, never was there more joy in her heart than going down a slide!

Hayrack ride tour of the farm

One day we WILL get a good family picture.

Oh the joy of a life-size corn sensory tub!
At least this time I don't have to pick it up off the floor like at home!!!

Lookin' for the perfect pumpkin...
I think I found it daddy!!

Daddy, will you help me cut it?

And some obligatory birthday shots.
My mom makes me these awesome mint brownies every year, however, they must have not got the memo about my "real" age...

I love the movie Hocus Pocus, and was pretty excited to get it!

Mommies Check This Out

So this morning my sweet baby daughter is still asleep. It is currently 908A. She is up before the sun every.single.morning. However, yesterday after MOPs I noticed she was running a fever. (My sincerest apologies to the other children in there with her, she was not "sick" before we went.) Yesterday it spiked to 102/103* and only dropped to around 101* with Tylenol. But she ran around like a crazy child yesterday all day, so it's hard to say...

This is not my point or what I wanted you to check out. I have some time to kill this AM and was catching up on blogs {since I myself am so tired I have been hitting the sheets by 800/830P every night I can!}, which led to blog hopping. I stumbled upon this blog: (click on it and it should take you there)

GIRLTALK

It had a bunch of scriptural/devotional motherhood thoughts laid out, under her "Current Series" image. I was definitely uplifted today by her words and scripture she has pointed me to today.
I hope you too will find it useful and feel encouraged in your journey of motherhood (at least for today)!

PS I am also going to put it on my blog roll under favorites, so you can always find it if your forget to "follow" her.

Blessing Box

It's the day to spill out your blessings!

Here are just a few of mine.

1. Cousins. These two girls are 6ish weeks apart and they are like sisters! Thank goodness Lo has some kind of sister in her life since she won't be getting one. ;) Sadly, Landrey lives WAY TOO FAR, but when she and her mommy come home it is so much fun! They just pick up right where they left off! I love them both to pieces!

The following photos are NOT staged, they did that all on their own, which makes it all the more precious!

2. My hubs who has been helping me out a lot in the evenings when I leave to go work Judgment House. Plus, he is always sneaky and leaves me little gifts or treats around. I wish I was more like that!

3. All the salvation's we have had through Judgment House! Last count as of Sunday night 393! That just makes me thrilled to no end!!
For those of you who don't know what JH is, it is a walk-through drama that shows you two different lives and their choices that lead them to their judgment day, one accepted Christ and goes to Heaven to be with our Lord and Savior, and the other sadly chose not to accept Jesus' free gift of salvation and now has to spend eternity in Hell. You walk through both Heaven and Hell and see how they will be spending eternity. It is a very intense drama, but oh so worth it. It makes me think every year about how a simple choice of accepting Christ changes your life forever, and it makes me want to make sure everyone I know comes with me to Heaven, I don't want anyone to spend a moment in Hell!!

4. My MOPs group. I just love getting together with other mom's of young children and talking about Jesus, life, and kids. I love how we encourage and build each other up to make it through another week.

The Playdate We Have All Been Waiting For...

Sadly, it was missing two girls, but getting these four girls together was a feat all in itself! All of us went to High School AND cheered together. And all of us had our FIRST babies one right after the other. One of the girls' missing kicked it off with her son in Nov '08, followed by me and Jendy in Feb '09 (3 days apart!) and then my sister in April, Ginger in May, and our last cheer buddy in Aug. Making for a grand total of 3 boys and 3 girls, a nice even pairing if I do say so myself.

Anyway, from the time we learned we were all pregnant we all wanted to have a play date together, however, schedules, jobs and locations make that hard! My sister is home for a very short week, so we got as many of us together as we could.

We had fun, or at least I did. The kids took some time to 'warm' up to one another, but then they took off and had a blast, or at least so it appeared. :) Here are some pics from our morning! Here's hoping we can get together again, ALL of us sometime, since some of us are already on baby #2! :)

This picture makes me laugh, because it shows parallel play at it's best! :)

Avery and Lo.
Ginger and I were best friends in HS, maybe this is a start of a great friendship with our daughters!

Here are the 3 Girls: Avery, Landrey and Lo...Brody didn't want to sit with a bunch of girls and take his picture. Oh well, that is toddler's for you!

This is Brody running as fast as he can from those girls!
One day he may be chasing one of them. :)

I had tons of fun girls! Hope we can do it again soon!

Leighton's Second Year Scrapbook Pt. 4

Here are my latest (as in now I am behind again) pages in Lo's 2nd year scrapbook. I also am trying to get a "family" scrapbook going, but we (ie Chad and I) are not nearly as scrap worthy as our darling daughter and soon to be son! :)

Because I have to give credit where credit is due, the pictures in the "In My Daughter's Eyes" page were taken by the lovely Ginger Skillen Photography! She is so awesome and I can't wait for her to take our NEW family pictures in late January/early February when our son arrives!! (You know along with newborn and 2 year old pics too! :) ).




I love digi scrapbooking! It becomes quite addicting for me at times. Some of the best part of digi scrapbooking is hunting for all the free downloads. Right Erin?! :) I have paid zero for every element, paper, font, and lettering I use! It is awesome. And sometimes you find really awesome quick pages like this one below and you can do an entire page in 5 minutes verse the 45min OR 2 days that it usually takes me! HA!


FAMILY Scrapbook!

I even have Baby Q's up-to-date, but I will save those for a rainy day. :)

Miscellany Monday

1. This is my new favorite song and possible band?! Don't ask me why, well actually I know why, but I won't bore you with that, just enjoy it. It also reminds me of one of my favorite movies: Anne of Green Gables because Anne was always acting out this The Lady of Shalot scene.


2. I am really sad about putting away getting rid of Lo Lo's "old" clothes. I had hoped we would have another little girl to wear them, but alas it is a boy. So next fall they will hit the consignment shop. ::tear:: I do plan on keeping just a few things for a quilt I plan on I will have my mother make :), but that won't be for years. Something I will probably do when both of them are leaving me for college and I am sad and want to remember their baby/toddler days.

3. Thank you all for your love and support for Baby Q. It means the world to us!!

4. This week begins Judgment House (click HERE for the link) for me. It is a walk-through drama that shows us the "reality" of our ultimate choice between Heaven and Hell. It is a must do for EVERYONE! Invite your friends and come experience it. This year I am volunteering at the greeter/registration table. I am really excited to be helping out with this awesome ministry, so if you live near me come and visit me. :) Now for the rest of you JH is something that is done all over the country and typically speaking no two are the same; there are different drama choices each church can choose to do.

5. Ok someone needs to tell Mother Nature it is FALL, not Summer. While most of you aren't complaining about the 80/85* temps around these parts, this "fat" pregnant lady sure is. I am getting a little glimpse into what is was sort of like for those of you having summer babies. I am just so hot all the time and these temps are NOT helping. Please bring cooler temps to STAY, Mother Nature!!

Have a Happy Monday!

20 Months

Leighton, you are 20 months! We are 4 very short months away from you being two and a Big Sister. Whoa! I love watching the big girl you are turning into. You are such a big helper to mommy and I know when the baby gets here I will have plenty of help from you.

I know you are doing and learning lots every day, but I just can't keep up. So here are a few of my favorite things you are doing:

*You say "brother" and the baby's {possible} name. It is so cute.


*You pick up your toys or whatever mess is around when I ask you to and put them up right where they go. You even beat daddy on putting things up "right." HA!

We got our exersaucer back from a friend and it is like a brand new toy.
You play with it more now then you did when you actually needed it.

our exersaucer doubles as a walker, so that is why it may not look quite right.

*You want to be just like mommy. You are my little shadow and do everything I do. I find it so weird to look at your little face sometimes and see my own, it sort of takes me back every time.


*When you wake up, you need some time to really wake up I guess because if we come in too soon you say "nooooo" and lay back down and play with your dolls.


*You are singing songs more.

Need I say more?

*All off the sudden you are afraid of thunder. You run to mommy to hold you tight when you hear it.

I gave you my old empty make-up containers and you love to put on your make-up with mommy in the morning. So stinkin' cute.

*You started gymnastics this month and love it. You especially love the stamp they give you at the end. :)

Ready for our FIRST day of Gymnastics! Sadly, I can't get other pictures of you b/c I am too busy chasing you around!

Playing with homemade playdough. This is probably your favorite "toy" right now.
Nothing like having playdough in my carpet. :)

*You also go to the Y kid zone 3x/week and play with your besties Gracie and Ju Ju and you are a Moppet, while mommy goes to MOPs every other Tues. It has taken you some time to get use to the new "day care" environments, but you are adapting well!

*You have recently learned how to give Eskimo Kisses.

*You have discovered the beauty of grandparents! You have quickly discovered they let you get away with murder and mommy and daddy are "mean." HA! You love love love when they come to babysit. Usually the next morning you go around looking for them, because again mommy and daddy are zero fun!

I fully expected to see this on Grandma Rachel's fridge TONIGHT! ;)

*You are a climber now, meaning you like to climb OUT of things, especially shopping carts when my back is turned! Yikes.

This is her "My Daddy Rocks" t-shirt she got before she was even born. I think she looked so cute.

* You love bath time and love to practice swimming while in there.


*And finally you are potty training "pro." You still have some accidents some days, but most of the time you are spot on.

*One thing I am not loving is your constant need to scream "no" and point your little finger at me when you want to assert your little independence. (Secretly, I find it a little amusing, but I never show you that! ;) ).

I know you all think I am such an awesome mom...here she is watching "Super Why."
I told you awesome. :)

*I love your heart and your vibrant personality. I am so glad you are my little girl.

Happy 20 Months Lo Lo Girl!
We both have our boots on! :)

PS:
Sorry Aunt Meg, but

K-S-U WILDCATS
Eat 'em up Eat 'em up
K-S-U!!!

We rocked those Jayhawks! :)