halloween

I adore these kiddos. 

The only thing missing is our little newborn in a pumpkin outfit. 

Apparently the baby wants to stay in my tummy.

Elias - Captain America

Isaiah - Spiderman

Raelynn - Tinker Bell

Raelynn was so proud of her bucket

 We went to the harvest party at Bethel, and the boys stocked up on candy and had a great time playing all sorts of games.

The cousins joined in on the fun. I love this picture of them!

Then we stopped in to see Aunt Cindy, Grams, and Gramps and scored on more candy

 An attempt to get a picture with all 6 kiddos.

We went treat or treating around the neighborhood, and these two hitched a ride. Too cute.

this little piggy

I painted Raelynn's toes for the first time. She absolutely loved them painted and kept saying, "pretty". So darn cute. I love having a girl!

12ish days

I have less than two weeks of being ginormous! I'm very excited to meet our new family member! We've been busy getting last minute stuff ready for the baby, packing, and homeschooling.

I just washed all the little newborn clothes last week!

I cannot even believe the emotions that flooded me as I was folding each little piece of clothing. Isaiah was helping me, and I just couldn't get over the smallness of the clothes and the largeness of my oldest child. Yes, I was on emotion overload. Such gifts I've been given.

Isaiah was so funny when he started helping. He looked at the clothes and asked me why we were folding boy clothes. He is completely convinced we're having a girl, yet he is adamant that if we have a boy, his name will be Simon. He has no opinion on the girl name. My funny little man.

I've been packing 2-3 boxes a day, trying to get ready for our move mid-November.

We have so many boxes stacked up in the master bedroom, but it also has piles of laundry to attend to. So, I will not be showing you all my work!

These are the little outfits we picked out for our new little one. So excited to meet our new boy or girl!

In the middle of all this, I decided we needed new bedding. Ours was very neutral, which was awesome for our red bedroom in Gladstone. Since renting, our room was soooo dull. So tan and white and boring! So, I updated it. It's a little girly (okay, a lot) for Bry's taste, but I love it! It makes me happy every time I walk into the room. After this baby is born and we move, I'll work on some throw pillows for it. So excited to love it even more.

I was thinking I am pretty much ready for this little one, but I realized today, I have no idea where our infant car seat is. I remember washing the cover, but no idea what happened from there. I'll have to have the hubs help me find it! I know that will keep me up tonight trying to figure it out.

Here's to less than two weeks! I think I'll celebrate by eating a caramel apple!

caramel apple on a stick

We finally made caramel apples! I love caramel, so I do believe this yumminess was more for me than anything! Oh well, my kiddos loved it as well. I think they had more fun decorating than eating - which is CRAZY to me. It was fun (other than the one time I wasn't paying attention and might have burned my middle child...maybe).

 I love that Raelynn always wants to be part of the action. We put her to bed after we unwrapped all the caramels, and we got to the decorating. (Hello baby belly)

 Raelynn might have figured out how to unwrap the caramel 

(yes, I only have 12 days left!)

 Elias made some great faces during this

 Whatcha got in your mouth, Rae? 

Sneaky little one

 Again with the faces 

I love Isaiah's REAL smile here even if he's not looking at me

 All done!!!

 My handsome, favorite men

Enjoying the fruits of their labor...kind of enjoying

They weren't huge fans of the stickiness

Silly boys

a visit from the shoes

Great Grandpa Ray, Great Grandma Dee, Papa and Grami came to visit.

homeschool crafting

I'm so very relaxed with our homeschooling. Some weeks we'll have four days of school; some weeks we'll have two days. I don't have a planner because I know I'd just set myself up for failure. These little boys are only 4 and 5. They are learning, but not on a crazy strict schedule. I love it. I love the freedom we have to drop whatever we're doing and head to the park or meet up with friends. I love the freedom to teach in my sweat pants and too small of tank top (because I'm quite huge these days). I also love the freedom of art.

It seems weird, but one thing that really bugs me about teachers is their need for everyone to do an art project the exact same way. I don't know why that bothers me so much! I just remember having pre-cut paper and the teacher hanging her art project on the board. Then she'd continue about the steps and exactly how it should look when we are done. I hated it. I wanted to add my own twist to things, but would get reprimanded if I did. Did anyone else have teachers like that? We all went home with the exact same project with a different name written on the back? I want my boys to be able to create in a way that uniquely expresses them. I want to tell them what we're going to make, but let them create it any way they want.

My boys love crafts, but I've been so bad about doing them lately! Fall crafts are always so fun, so I've gotten my tail into gear and we've started on a few.

I told the boys we were going to make pumpkins. They were so excited! I just handed them an orange sheet of construction paper and a small sheet of green construction paper.

They were so proud of their pumpkins, and we hung them right away. Elias even decided he needed a tractor to help move his pumpkin around, so he made a tractor and trailer as well (that's at the top). Isaiah's is on the left, Elias's on the right.  Love it.

Next, we made a candy corn wreathe. I cut out the cardboard backing for it, and they painted it orange and went to town gluing all those candies on. (They had a few for snacking on while they worked.)

Our next few projects (depending on when this little baby decides to make an appearance) will be a mask and maybe some kind of silly monster project. Like I said, I'm not quite scheduled. I do know that we'll be making caramel apple slices. I consider this art because I'll let them dip their caramel apple slices into some fun halloween sprinkles. That counts as art, right? Now that I'm thinking of it, we just may need to work on some leaf shaped sugar cookies. Yum! I love homeschool "crafts"!

pumpkin patch 2012

We headed to Linder Farms with Josh and his family and Mom. It was a great time, and the kids loved it! I love going on weekdays when it isn't too busy.

We started off with a swing ride

Then fed some goats, and pet some bunnies, pigs, and cows

Then played on the slides and the jump house

Tried a cute photo. This is the best I could get out of them

Then took a ride out to the pumpkin patch

Then picked out our pumpkins

Then went for a ride in the barrels

This little lady was so tired from not napping

I love fall!