home again home again

We're back! (Did you even notice we were gone?) ;)

After ten days of life on the road, we made it home and can say the kids were (mostly) awesome little travelers. Arley is up to 5/50 states now (8 if you count last summer's trips). (B didn't add any new states this time around so he's still at 12/50.)

I did a horrible job of taking pictures. Mostly because our adventures weren't really conducive to packing around a big camera (plus a baby while chasing a three year old).

We attempted a group shot (but even failed at that as not everyone was ever ready for a shot at the same time). So here's most of the crew. (My sister got that sweet cabin. We're trying to talk mom into buying a similar one on a lake somewhere… You can rent this one here: vrbo)

The quick overview of the trip:
Leon. We had to head down early for a funeral so we stayed in town for the Fourth of July where B took in his first Leon Rodeo. We also watched the parade and then later headed to great-grandma's for the fireworks (her driveway may be the best seat in town for them). B loved the sparklers but may have been a little too excited about setting them on fire…
Table Rock lake. It rained most of the time we were there but the one day it was (mostly) nice my mom rented a boat and it was maybe the highlight of the trip for us. B chose not to tube and was worried about my safety when I was. ;) After witnessing his cousin take a turn (and finding her way underwater), it might be awhile before he hops on one. Related to the rain- the kids didn't get a chance to do s'mores in the fire pit so we found a campfire on youtube and they sat around the iPad campfire while eating microwave s'mores and telling stories with the flashlight. It's definitely an activity worth adding to your summer bucket list. :)
Branson. See above on the rain. We attempted some fun stuff but had a hard time finding things for B in the rain. (We had planned on bumper boats, mini golf and go karts so those all got crossed off the list pretty quick.) We did take a nice little walk down the boardwalk by the landing which was great until we walked straight into a cold front and couldn't see through the fog. We also did the fish hatchery (in the rain). And our best meal in town was Steak N Shake. Ripley's was a bust but B loved riding the Ducks (and even got to drive once the duck hit the water).
Arkansas. We literally drove across the state line to sit on the square of Blue Eye and feed the kids just so we could cross Arkansas off Arley's list. (Hey, it's one of 50 and at least now she won't have to go back and my brother in law pointed out she's too young to remember so double bonus. No offense to anyone from Arkansas...) ;) It felt a lot like being in Lineville. I'm sure there are nicer places in Arkansas to visit. Maybe someday…
Tulsa. We took a little detour on the way home to visit the Oklahoma cousins. It was a last minute, unplanned leg of the trip but was a fun one! We met up with them at the children's museum where B went down the packing tape slide no less than 1,452,872 times (or so). We had the best meal of the week with Hideaway Pizza and B had the highlight of his week at the Kiddie Park (a mini amusement park of sorts). The weather was iffy so we basically had the park to ourselves and it was a blast. The kids ran from ride to ride and B LOVED it. He talks about this more than anything else from vacation (even Legoland). I did manage to take the camera along this night.
Kansas City. Our plan was to head into town for Legoland and then spend the night and do some watermark time or shopping the next day. B loved Legoland but was ready to go to grandma's by the end so we passed on the $400/night water park room and drove to grandma's for the night before heading home.

Both kids had a pretty good week... though B really wanted to stay at a hotel with an elevator. :)

(A few kiddie park pics… Like I said.. B LOVED it. He was literally the last kid off the last ride of the night. These kiddos shut the place down! One of his favorite rides was the tiny cars and he always picked the cop car. When we had to leave the next day his cousin gave him The Sheriff (from Cars) for him to take home. He didn't let go of it the whole way to KC and really wanted to take it inside with him but we talked him out of it. His favorite (okay and only) souvenir from the trip.)

my people

I'm so used to saying 'my boys' when talking about B and R I catch myself saying 'my…' then switch it up to people instead.

These are my people.

Christmas '14

We're in the 'long winter's nap' portion of Christmas '14 and there was so much goodness this year I had to get to the blog before I forgot.

Three is the most magical age for Christmas and B has been saying all day (and last night), "This was the best Christmas ever!" Seeing Christmas through his eyes really is the best Christmas ever!

Highlights from our best Christmas ever….

Visiting Santa at Bass pro. B was mesmerized by the Christmas set up there. He froze when he saw Santa but managed to ask for 'Planes Fire & Rescue' movie. Once we explored the store, he had added several other wishes to the list (an ice fishing tent and four wheeler topped the list).

Working the clothes pantry. Our local clothing pantry does the wishing tree for local families and we were blessed to get to help out with it several days. For the first year, B really got the concept of meeting the needs of others and really got it when we went shopping for our wishing tree family. It was a huge improvement from even packing shoe boxes the month before. Having him actually put in the work before the shopping gave him a lot better idea of what was going on. He will randomly talk about it and say the sweetest things. His little (huge) heart just melts me every time.

Decorating gingerbread house and cookies. We had never done a gingerbread house but B kept asking for one this year so we (finally) got one. He was very meticulous in his decorating. Only putting on candy that made sense (donut holes for 'bushes,' a gumdrop for a 'ding bell,' green candy for 'grass,' etc.) and eating the rest. He definitely did more eating than decorating. I finally asked if he wanted to decorate it some more and he said, "Let's just eat it instead!" It wasn't long before even the roof was being eaten.  When it was time for the cookies, I took the advice of my friend Angie and bought the pre made/prerolled gingerbread cookie dough from Hy-Vee. Genius. Easiest cookie making ever (we used the leftover gingerbread house frosting). B made a couple gingerbread men then asked if he could make some angels instead so we ended up with mostly angels. Perfection.

Caroling. Confession: I missed out on it this year. In the past we've taken our niece and nephew and made goodie bags to go along with the caroling but we didn't get to that this year. We were in charge of planning this month's cg social so we planned on caroling at the nursing home followed by soup/dinner at our house. When it was time to leave, R admitted he had no idea how to finish the soup so he ended up taking B caroling and I stayed home to finish the soup. I heard B was adorable though. Of course. ;)

Tree Farm. It was our first visit to the tree farm and our first real tree. B is SO proud of his little tree he picked out and decorated himself. He loves showing it to everyone. It is definitely a tradition we'll add to the to do list.

North Pole Express. Or Polar Express? I'm not sure of the name anymore.. but we watched the movie then rode the train with B's cousins. He was SO excited about it. The boys looked adorable in their matching jammies and the dinner beforehand was delicious but B was a little disappointed he didn't actually get to get out and play at the North Pole. The movie had set his expectations up pretty high so we would have been better not to watch it. :) I thought it was great though because he was bummed and tired so he sat in my lap and snuggled the whole way back to the train station. I'll take all the snuggles I can get so that was probably the highlight of the trip for me. Since then, he talks about the train ride all the time so I think he really did love it, even if he was sad he didn't get to hang with Santa more.

Brunch with Santa. Our local orchard does all kinds of fun stuff during the Christmas season. We spent one Saturday morning there eating pancakes with Santa, taking a carriage ride through the farm, and visiting with Santa. B was thrilled to get to hang with Santa for a bit since the other two times he got to see him, Santa was pretty busy. We spent another morning there making Christmas ornaments with friends and I spent an evening there with mommy friends making our own Christmas crafts and eating dinner. So much fun stuff so close by. Definitely a must do if you're in the area.

Advent countdown. We joined our friends at the library and made the cutest advent tubes to hang up (we used last year's Advent stick to hang them from). We read 'Advent for the very young' and B totally gets it. He would wake up most mornings the month of December asking to 'talk about Jesus.' It really encouraged him to pray more too (and prayers other than 'thank you for my toys'). He can (mostly) accurately retell the story of Jesus' birth and loves finding all the different nativity scenes (aka 'baby Jesus barns' at everyone's homes.

Christmas Eve Candlelight. This didn't go as great as I had pictured in my mind but one sweet moment that I don't want to forget… when the candles were handed out and the kids lined up along the wall together, it got real quiet as they were getting ready to begin and B started (not so quietly) singing, "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. I whispered to him that it was quiet time and he said, "but we gotta blow out Jesus' birthday candles first!"

Waterpark Christmas. Again, not exactly as we pictured (a cancelled flight for R's sister changed some plans and we ended up with an impromptu- but fun- middle of the night airport run) but still super fun. B LOVES the water park and is a big fan of the pirate ship. He's also a big fan of his cousins and family so he of course had an all around blast. I love seeing him hang out with his cousin B (they are just months apart in age), they act like little old men together. One of my favorite quotes from eavesdropping on them was when B said to his cousin, "It's okay [BP], I like wearing diapers too." The stuff they say cracks me up. And if you follow us on instagram, you may have seen our lovely family picture from the night. It was clearly a wear your best pajamas party. I think R succeeded at that. B was spoiled with gifts at all Christmases this year and he got a super cool set of Magformers from grandma this night. If your kids (or you for that matter) don't have them, you should definitely look into them. Pretty sure these span the ages more than legos. So fun for the littles and big kids!

Christmas Eve at grandmas. Again, B loves playing with cousins so he had a blast. My favorite moments were watching him with his baby cousin Clara. He is a big fan of hers and is so sweet and gentle with her. He talks about her all the time and talks about how she and [sister] will be such good friends. The fact that he thinks ahead to stuff like that is so awesome. I think he'll be an awesome big brother. He got a super cool Plasma car at this Christmas but his favorite gift was nutcrackers. He opened the box and screamed, "NUTCRACKERS!!!!" They were the first 'toy' he went to this morning when we woke up and he talks about them all the time. (The story behind him getting them is that every time we've been to Target this winter, he asks to stop and see the nutcrackers. He plays with every single one of them each time we visit the store and asked for one every visit but never got one. He was so excited to get some of his own.)

Christmas day. I feel like this needs it's own blog post. The short story is he slept in late (yay) so I had time to make peppermint waffles (with whip cream and red/green gummy bears). When he woke up, I snuck into his room and said, "Merry Christmas, buddy." He said, "What?!?" He had no clue it was Christmas morning. He jumped out of bed and looked out the window and said, "It is! It snowed! It did! It is Christmas! Santa came!" (We aren't sure why he associates snow with Christmas but he does.) We headed out to the living room where he saw his new race car waiting for him and the look on his face was priceless. He was SO excited about it. He decided it was okay that Santa came to his house and was even impressed that Santa ate all his cookies (though the truth is that Dakota ate them instead). After soaking up the new car smell, we encouraged him to open his gifts. He gets one Santa gift, three gifts from mom and dad, and a stocking. He opened his three gifts and was SO excited and thankful for each one. He got 'Planes Fire & Rescue' and said, "It's just what I always wanted!!!" He got Frank the combine and a tractor for tipping (from the movie Cars) and was completely obsessed with them. He literally carried them around ALL Christmas day. He also got a Pigeon matching game. I wanted to start getting him some games or things he can do where he has to follow rules so this was a good start. (We played today and he has a little ways to go before mastering the rule following part.) ;) He dug through his stocking and LOVED everything in it. His favorites were a 'lazer gun,' a Chicago Cubs nutcracker ornament, super hero socks, a lego shirt & a flashlight (don't tell but that may have been re-gifted from one of R's students)… He's been playing with or wearing everything on that list today and keeps saying, "Oh mom thank you for…. (fill in the blank)." He was super excited for mommy and daddy to open their stockings. (He did the shopping this year and did an awesome job.) Then we had him open [sister's] stocking for her. He picked out her goodies at the store as well and 'showed' her each one as he told her about them (socks, a swaddling blanket, a toy car, booties & a teddy bear). He was very excited when I told her she loved everything he got for her. After presents, we ate breakfast (those peppermint waffles) and got ready for grandma's where we spent most of the day. On the car ride there, he was asking to see Jesus again (this started after we told him baby Avery went to live with Jesus) and closed his eyes real tight as he prayed. That will never get old to me. We had a nice laid back day at grandma's then headed home for naps before picking up from Christmas. It was almost bedtime before he had a chance to drive his race car so we pushed bedtime back and went for a late night cruise. B drove his car up and down the street while R & I walked behind (and Dakota too). It was the perfect end of Christmas day activity. At bedtime, he laid in bed and told Daddy, "This was the best Christmas ever!!" And since waking this morning, he's been saying it ever since.

We agree buddy, we agree.


I hope you and your family had a very blessed Christmas too.


We have so much to be thankful for.




(Pictures to come once I get them off the camera but you can check out some of the fun on instgram.)

It's a.....

...GIRL!!!!

Baby girl 'donuts' (one of big brother's current favorite names) is due in March and we're all super excited!


(Big thanks to Sara at Like A Fox Photography for the family shots!)

beach life

In case you missed my over gramming all week.... we spent the week at Lake Michigan. First in Chicago, followed by a pit stop at Indiana Dunes and ending in Michigan at the ocean (I mean lake).

If you ask B his favorite part of vacation he will tell you 'driving the firetruck' (thanks Chicago FD) and 'the racer car drive' (thanks fast taxi cab dude). R will just tell you 'Chicago' (he totally feeds off the energy of the city) and I'd tell you the beach (because, duh).

First off- how have I lived 5 1/2 hours from this place and never known about it?! It seriously feels like being at the ocean. The sand is amazing, the dunes are gorgeous and the waves are so peaceful. I'd love to spend all of my summers there. :)

Second- I have a ton of work to catch up on but I'm letting myself edit one vacation picture for every 25 work pictures.... clearly I haven't gotten very far yet. ;)

Hopefully I'll be back with a proper vacation update soon. It was a great week!

hello, des moines!

I had to head downtown for some shots for a little project and I drug my boys along. Since I was taking my camera anyway, I finally took some shots of my boys. Unfortunately, B prefers my cell phone camera. To see him really ham it up, check him out on instagram. :) 

Don't mind the shorts change on B (we thought he peed his pants in the car; as it turns out he actually just poured all his water bottle into his lap and whined about being thirsty until we made it to our next stop). (Also, somewhat unrelated but completely mortifying..... we stopped for a sandwich while on our little adventure. When I was walking in I noticed a lady sitting outside on the curb with several (not shopping) bags of 'stuff.' I said, 'are you hungry ma'am? would you like to grab a sandwich with us?' to which HE responded, 'I'm waiting for my wife.' I'm not sure what was more mortifying.... thinking he was homeless or thinking he was a she. You can officially be embarrassed to be seen in public with me now. I was (am) completely mortified over the deal and probably wont ever offer to help another stranger again. Rusty on the other hand got a great laugh out of the deal.) (In my defense... who sits outside to wait when it's 100+ degrees out?!?) Oy. 

obligatory family pic at Easter

When you have about 3.2 seconds to get a family picture between church and lunch, you take what you can get. ;)

Happy Easter!

malory and shawn

We got to spend last week in Arizona with family to celebrate 'aunt Mal's' (R's sister) wedding! It was beautiful weather and an awesome time with family. I was super honored to get to stand up next to my sister-in-law as she married her best friend. Being a bridesmaid also meant I was able to relax and focus on the bride without worrying about taking too many pictures. Awesome for having a great time but a bummer for the pictures I have to share with you cause it's pretty choppy. These pictures don't tell the full story of the day but Nia (the awesome photographer and a great friend of a friend whom I adore) got some awesome shots and we'll get to see those later. In the meantime, here's a few shots I was able to get in between hanging out with the bride and worrying about a certain ring bearer making it down the aisle. Thanks for an awesome time, Mr. & Mrs. Smith. We are so happy for you guys and love you so much!!

P.S. Ring Bearer #2 did surprisingly well strutting down the aisle and even sat quiet and (mostly) still in the front for the entire wedding. Whew! (We wont discuss how he did for pics though.....) ;)

Christmas '13

This Christmas was so different than we had expected it to be but it was good.

And this post got way longer than I expected. Proceed with caution.




B is at the most fun age right now. He is so into everything. He is curious about everything and in awe of everything awesome. Christmas was pretty magical for him his year.

It started around the end of November. We put up the tree and decorations and he was so excited about the 'kissmas yights.' Then he started seeing things about Santa Claus on tv. We hadn't actually decided what we would tell B about Santa Claus so we've just kind of let him figure it out on his own (great plan, I know) and he's pretty sure Santa is the coolest guy ever.

Leading up to Christmas, we did an Advent for the first time ever. Made some Christmas crafts. Watched some Christmas movies. Worked on the Christmas checklist.

Christmas celebrations with family:

Kansas City Christmas. This one was SO fun. Maybe the best Christmas ever. We met family from Iowa, Oklahoma and Florida in KC. We stayed at a hotel (which was super fun for the kids in itself). The kids got to hang out the entire time (including a slumber party for the older boys). We ate a big family dinner at Cheesecake Factory. We all took an open sleigh ride to look at the Christmas Lights on the Plaza (so fun!). We did lots of fun stuff for the kids (T-Rex Cafe, Legoland, Fritzs, Crown Center) and a tiny bit of shopping for the rest of us (hello, H&M). My little family left thinking this was the most fun family Christmas and definitely worth a redo!

Water park Christmas. The last few years we've met R's family at the cabins for Christmas but this year we mixed it up and met at a water park instead. B absolutely loves the water so this was right up his alley. He also got to spend a whole bunch of quarters in the arcade and he thought that was pretty awesome too. This was his second weekend in a row staying in a hotel and he was pretty much loving it. He's got the elevator button thing all figured out and is probably wondering why we don't have one of those things in our house. He got a super fun train to put around the bottom of his Christmas tree and he has played with it every day since. He loves it. The morning we were packing to come home, B asked if he could go open more presents. Oye.

Christmas in Boone. We missed this one last year with a bunch of sickness hitting our house so it was fun to get to go this year. B of course loves playing with his cousins and had so much fun with all the toys. His grandpa built him a super cool clothes rack for his room. A bunch of us played games and we got the pleasure of watching 'how to' basketball videos by R. I'll try to get those uploaded to youtube for your viewing pleasure.










Christmas Eve Service. This was the first year we did Christmas Eve service at home (usually we are at mom's for it).  I missed all the candles. And I was totally caught off guard by lyrics I had never really paid much attention to at Christmas before ('bless all the dear children in thy tender care'). And I cried a whole lot. But it was beautiful and I'm glad we went. After the service, I ran into one of my sweet friends. She lost her husband in an accident and we shared a long hug and talked about grief and loss and blessings. It sounds strange to say but it was just what I needed.

Christmas Morning. We had told B on Christmas Eve that he needed to go to bed and when he woke up we could see if Santa had come. He was standing up in his crib at 2:30 am asking about Santa (he typically sleeps till about 9 am). He maybe slept another hour before we all got up and had the most magical Christmas together. He came around the corner to see his tool bench set sitting under the tree and was SO excited about it. He played with it for quite awhile before we went through our stockings.  He loved every single little treasure in his stocking but his favorite was a sucker that I had stuck in there to hide from him one day and had totally forgotten about. I found a surprise in mine too. Several weeks ago, a little necklace with two birds arrived in our mailbox. I had ordered it not long after finding out we were expecting baby #2. I stuck it in my stocking and had totally forgotten about it. I laid it to the side after finding it and B found it soon after and wanted to put it on me. I let him and it was a sweet reminder. Next we told him he could open his presents. He saw there were three boxes under the tree so he handed one to daddy and one to mommy and kept one for himself. It was seriously the sweetest thing that he thought we each had one present under the tree and he couldn't believe it when I told him all three presents were actually for him! He was super impressed to be getting 'all those' presents. I love that. He got a backpack, a vacuum and a shaving kit. Again, he played with each one for several minutes before moving on to the next one. Even though we only had a few presents under the tree, we savored the gift opening and let it last as long as he wanted. It was perfect.

Leon Christmas. B took a nap in the car (thankgoodness) and we headed to Leon for the rest of Christmas day. We had lunch with our family and B got way too many gifts. His favorite were his snow shovel and a train set. He also got some new cars that he's been packing ALL over in his new backpack and even more tools for his new tool bench. He's been playing non-stop with all of his new toys since he got them. We had a snowman building contest (making toilet paper snowmen, not with real snow) and Mo & I won. We were also teammates for Cranium and we won pretty big there too. :)

Other favorite Christmas moments: 

B was SO excited about Santa coming (we aren't sure where he figured that out but most likely tv? again with the great parenting I know...). One day while we were downstairs playing, we heard daddy coming in the door. He got SO excited and said, 'Santa Claus??!!' He ran up the stairs to see Santa. When he realized it was daddy he laid his head down on the floor and started crying, 'Oh no, it's not Santa.' I felt pretty bad for R but it was so funny.

On Christmas day, B climbed up in the chair next to my mom and asked her, 'Did YOU see Santa Claus???' He has the sweetest little voice and it was the cutest thing.


When we went to visit Santa at Bass Pro and it was B's turn in line, I asked him if he wanted to go see Santa. He said, "Sure!" and ran right up to Santa and gave him a big hug. Everyone in line (and all of Santa's elves) said a collective, 'awwww' (and B's mommy thought it was pretty sweet too). Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas and he whispered, 'train tracks!' Unfortunately, Santa's helpers had already found the tool bench and didn't get the trains. B did get that train from his grandma though and he and his daddy (and mommy and whoever else he can talk into it) spend a lot of time sitting at the tree watching the train.

B loved Jolly Holiday Lights. We finally turned him forward facing in the car (he'd been rear until this night) and it was the most magical thing ever. He loved seeing all the 'yights' and told us what everything was. He may have a career as a sports announcer someday cause his play by play action calling is pretty great.

On Christmas evening, B was having a hard time going to sleep at grandma's house so R & I laid in bed with him. In the night, I was dry heaving from all the pain I was in. B leaned over to rub my back and whispered, 'It's okay mama, don't be scared.' Then a little bit later he said, 'I'll go get daddy.' (Daddy had bailed on the family bed and went to sleep on the couch.) It was the sweetest thing ever and such a sweet reminder of how blessed we are.

B was not interested in the handprint ornaments that I super love but I did convince him to make some cinnamon/applesauce ornaments. I tried to get him to use some 'Christmasy' ornaments but he insisted on using only the cross. Have you heard the song, 'It's About The Cross?' Maybe B has. And I love our cross ornament he made for me.

B picked out two ornaments this year for his tree. One was a train (his newest obsession since visiting Santa) and another a Buzz Lightyear. Unfortunately, Buzz's arm busted off right after getting him out of the box so we decided he would be a Toy Story 1 Buzz. Then we got home and realized he was a Spanish speaking Buzz making him from Toy Story 3 instead. Oops...

B super loved Advent because he got to open a gift each day. They were tiny gifts (like suckers, stickers, and other random things from around the house) but he loved it. Then today he asked if he could open a present and wanted to know where all the presents were (I swear we only gave him THREE for Christmas but he obviously got super spoiled this month). He helped me wrap up a little thing of play doh and was so excited to open it. Silly boy.

And because no Christmas post is good without an Ugly Sweater... Ugly Sweater Bunco.... You may or may not of noticed no ugly sweaters were harmed in the making of this year's Christmas card. I say 'may not of' because for the second year in a row I did a really bad job of getting all of our cards out. I still have some on my desk if you'd like one. ;)

Merry Christmas!