Fall Fun

Being on the East Coast for fall reminds me why I love it so much! The leaves here are GORGEOUS and the weather is (typically) fantastic and there are so many fun things to do!  

Playing in the leaves

Painting pumpkins

Making Halloween sugar cookies

Making caramel apples (some were an epic fail and others turned out pretty good!)

  

 And spending every last minute we can outside!

Yes, this picture was taken in October. It was pretty hot and the kids had an impromptu puddle splashing party turned swimming naked in the road party :)

But this last week has been FREEZING and I am going to die this winter! I don't know what I'll do when we can't spend every second outside anymore. Anyone have any brilliant ideas??

Fall Festival

If any of you remember how I raved about the Easter event we went to this year at The Church Next Door, you would understand why we decided to check out their fall festival as well.  

I feel kinda guilty going to these, knowing that they are completely free for us, which I'm assuming means the people that go to that church pay for it? Anyway, once I got past my guilt, we took full advantage :)

We picked three pumpkins to take home which the girls decorated with cute faces,

ate way too much chili, hot dogs, smores, hot chocolate, and caramel apples

(WHY have I never had caramel apples like this?? They are sliced, with caramel and nuts drizzled on top.  It was AMAZING and so much better than normal dipped apples!!!)

went on a tractor ride,

and got a balloon sword and flower for our girls.  They also had face painting, marshmallow shooters, and a giant blow-up slide to play on.  It was pretty cold but definitely worth it! You really can't beat free fun close to home, especially with my three favorite people in the world!

Bye Bye Butterfly

The girls and I have had a fun experience for the last couple of weeks- we took a caterpillar from our friend's garden (with permission of course) and put him in a jar to see what he would do.  We were able to see him through all of the stages and were fascinated to watch him start as a small yellow and black caterpillar,

and then get huge and green while eating and eating and EATING parsley, 

spin a cocoon, and finally emerge as a gorgeous butterfly.  

I think I was WAY more into it than the girls were and scared them half to death when I screamed as soon as I saw that our butterfly was out. It was so pretty and was even nice enough to let us all take a turn holding it before it flew off. 

It was a really fun experience and definitely one I would do again!!!

About To Lose My Mind

If you have come into any kind of contact with me within the last month, you would know that I have a very frustrating situation on my hands. My dear, sweet little McKenna has decided that she no longer wants to sleep. Ever. She learned how to climb out of her crib and we have been fighting tooth and nail to get her to go to sleep every night since, even when she is completely exhausted.  Among the MANY things we tried are:

-Taking the bottom of the crib out and putting the mattress on the floor inside the crib frame (she STILL manages to climb out)

-Put other obstacles around or over her crib in an effort to keep her in.  She is a freaking Houdini and has gotten out of ALL of them

-Taking Kaylee out of the room and locking McKenna in (She broke the child proof lock, as well as ripping numerous books and destroying other things in the room and has gotten hurt on occasion)

-Cutting her naps short or getting rid of them altogether (she crashes at bedtime and then is up at 1 or 2 and can't go back to sleep)

-Making her bedtime routine longer and more relaxing to help calm her down

-Letting her do whatever she wants as long as she is quiet and in her room, hoping she'll fall asleep on the floor when she gets tired (so far, she hasn't gotten to the point of falling asleep anywhere. The other night we let her stay up until 11:30 before we finally forced her to go to bed)

-Letting her choose where she wants to sleep (our bed, the guest bed, the rocking chair, couch, etc. They all have the same results)

-Putting her in a tent and locking it shut (which is actually the only reason we've gotten any sleep at all)

-Lay down with her or try to rock her back to sleep (she doesn't sleep and just giggles at us or pokes/scratches/hits us

-Take away her binky or other things and telling her she will get them back if she can stay in her crib (she literally has not lasted 5 mins doing it this way)

-Put books or dolls in her crib for her to look at until she falls asleep (she looks at it for a minute and then climbs out and asks us for another one)

Mostly it's just been a lot of bribing, threatening, pleading, crying, and a LOT of screaming. I am seriously at my wit's end. I keep thinking she will just get over this and learn that no matter how many times she gets out, we put her right back in (even though our methods have changed, this is something we have been VERY consistent with). But this has been happening for over a month now!!  And even if she does go right to sleep at bedtime, she is up in the middle of the night for hours. She has always been like this- as a little baby we could not do anything to get her to fall asleep and just had to wait until she decided she was tired enough.  I don't know what else to do and even when McKenna IS asleep I have been up for hours just stressing about what to do. I have always been kind of a sleep nazi when it comes to my children and this is giving my anxiety like no other! Please, someone send the sleep fairy our way!!!!!

Little of This, Little of That

September has been a pretty busy month for us.  Besides school starting and adjusting to new schedules, we've had baby showers, ward activities, birthday parties, and lots of other fun, random things.  We had Richard's birthday on the 11th, which caused me quite a bit of stress :)  I thought he wasn't going to get home until 6:00 so I had just planned on going out to eat and then watching his new movie when we got home.  But he told me the day before that he would be home about 3:30!! So all of the sudden I had to come up with a fun way to spend the day. To make a long story short, let's just say I tried to plan a bunch of things and none of them really worked out. But it ended up being nice anyway, even if not the most exciting day ever.  We went out to eat and then walked along the Scioto Mile, which is basically a pathway that follows the Scioto River that runs through downtown Columbus.  It is GORGEOUS.  Besides looking over the beautiful river with a bunch of cool bridges, 

there is a huge splash pad, a replica of the Santa Maria, 

and the largest outdoor climbing wall in America. Honestly, my favorite part was sitting and talking to Richard on these benches that swing. 

Even though I tease him all the time about being old, I can't believe he's 30 now!!!! He didn't want a party or to make a big deal about it so hopefully this birthday was exactly what he needed. 

We have also been out exploring Columbus even more.  We visited some Indian caves that the kids were super bored in :)  (I forgot my camera so you'll just have to imagine how cool they were).

And we also found a gorgeous metro park that was not kid-friendly at all but at least it was very pretty!  You weren't supposed to eat, drink, or jog in the park and we got in trouble for letting the kids take off their shoes and walk in the little stream... 

What kind of park doesn't let kids run around??  Other than that, it was a super fun day and the kids had fun collecting little leaves and petals to show their daddies when we got home. 

 

 Kaylee with her best buddy Jude

 It seems like life just keeps getting busier but we are having tons of fun!  If only someone could teach me the trick to get McKenna to stay in her bed so we can all get some sleep...life would be just about perfect!

Preschool Redo

Kaylee got to have ANOTHER first day of preschool this week, at a new school!  We were very unhappy with our try at Headstart and I could tell that Kaylee was also very unhappy there.  I definitely did not want her first experience with preschool to be something she dreaded going to every day!  So we found a new preschool at a church that is not too far from our house.  Although it is much more expensive for us, it has been worth every penny to see the HUGE smile on her face when I pick her up every day.  She is loving her teachers and can't wait to tell me what they did that day.  It was a big difference for us and one that I am very happy about.  I don't hate dropping her off anymore and don't go home feeling like I am a horrible mother for leaving her there so sad.  Win win!  Of course we had to take new first day of school pictures and she got really into these ones.  

 

 She chose all of her own poses and where she wanted them taken.  But you won't hear any complaints from me!  I never get tired of this face, could you??

A Little Piece of My Heart

A little piece of my heart was broken today as I dropped Kaylee off for her first day of preschool. I have gone through so many emotions as we got ready for her to go that I wasn't sure how I would feel when the time actually came. When we first started talking about it, I was really nervous because it is four days a week for 3 hrs, which seems like a lot for the 1st year.  Sometimes I would get excited thinking about all of the things I would get done while McKenna is napping.  And other times I would be sad and swear I wasn't going to send her because I would miss her too much.  But what I felt as I dropped her off was completely unexpected.  

The whole morning Kaylee was SO excited she could hardly stand it. She had her backpack on most of the day and kept asking if it was time to go.  Her excitement was contagious and we were both yelling "woo hoo!" when we pulled up to the school. Kaylee is very social and loves new things so I was happy to see she was excited about this too.  However, the second we stepped into the school she got VERY quiet and even asked me to stay an extra minute, which she has NEVER done before. It was not easy at all for me to walk away and I could feel my heart getting heavier with each step.  When I got in the car I was trying to figure out my feelings and decided that what I felt most of all was fear.  Fear that nobody would take care of her as good as I do.  That nobody would see her special little spirit and know how sweet she is.  Fear that the other kids wouldn't say nice things or exclude her. And most of all, fear that I am going to be missing out on so much from now on.  I won't get to see the things that make her happy at school or the things that make her nervous.  I won't get to see how she makes new friends or what she chooses to play with at recess.  And that breaks my heart! (oh dang it, now I really am crying). Kaylee has been my little buddy from day one and there wasn't anything I did without her.  I am going to miss seeing her sweet face all day, every day.  Can't I just keep her in a bubble for the rest of our lives??

I meant to just get one "first day of school shot" but she's so adorable, I couldn't pick just one!