Pumpkin Patch

This past Sunday afternoon our family visited our local pumpkin patch. We have yet to go to one of those super fun places with all the animals to pet & swings & whatnot. Nope, we just head down the road to the Methodist church. Is that just a regional thing, or is it all Methodist churches everywhere? Now I'm curious... Not the point.

We drive by the pumpkin patch evvvvery morning & evvvvvery afternoon & B almost never fails to point out the pumpkins. "PUMPKINS, MOM!!!" It really amuses me that she is so excited every time. You would think the novelty would wear off. Nope.

I was really impressed with our little Fannett, TX pumpkin patch this year. They always do a good job, but I feel like this year they went above & beyond. There were numerous different places to take pictures, a little tunnel for the kids to run through & lots of scarecrows, etc. B had so much fun running from one thing to another. E, again, is still a little too non-mobile to have a great time, but he did enjoy banging on the pumpkins & playing in the grass.

I wanted to get a good family picture while we were there, but who am I kidding? I got a couple real great ones of B, but E wasn't into sitting still.

Stay tuned for pictures of our carved pumpkins. Robert really got creative this year. There may have been a drill involved :)

& It Begins...

October means hunting season around these parts. I'm not an expert, but I do know that in the last 3 weeks my husband has been duck, dove & deer hunting. This past weekend we packed the family up & headed to our lease for a couple nights. We left Friday around 7pm & stayed until early Sunday morning, when we piled back into the car & rushed to make it to church.

It's a simple life at the lease. B colors, dances & plays on the swingset. Poor E just 'hangs out' as you can see :) Hopefully he'll be running around soon!

Around lunchtime on Saturday the weather had gotten pretty warm & E was way overdue for a nap. We though maybe a drive in the car with some AC would do the trick so we took a little trip over to R's hunting lanes to check the feeders & whatnot. R got my mommy-mobile stuck & I had to drive while he pushed. This was the first time I had done this & I consider it a success because no one was angry by the end :) Oh, and E never fell asleep... so there's that.

Thankfully we are on our lease with some sweet friends. Carly doesn't have any kids of her own yet, but she is so good with ours. E loved swinging with her & sister.

After what seemed like a 48 hour day, the kids finally went to bed & the adults got to spend some time around the campfire with a pretty great sunset backdrop.

We had a great time & I'm actually looking forward to going back. Just looking forward to the day when my kids can play with each other & don't need 'momma entertainment'!

Softball Tuesday

I have a love/hate relationship with Tuesday nights. I'm hoping as the kids get older it will turn into more of a love relationship. Most Tuesday nights, I load the kids up & go to the ballpark to watch R play recreational softball. I love to watch him play & B has a blast. Having a small child who can't walk yet isn't ideal. Also, the earliest we get home is 9:30... which is wayyyy past everyone's bed time. Including mine :)

With all that said, we have a ball. Except maybe E, who is only happy if he gets to crawl & cruise the bleachers. That makes me cringe, & I'm not even a germaphobe like the typical mom these days. But even I have to admit, ballparks are gross.

                

Last night R's team won both their games. That was exciting!! E passed out during the second game (thank the good Lord!).

It might be a little crazy & dirty, but we love our nights at the ballpark cheering on Daddy & his team.

TRF Weekend

This weekend was the annual Texas Rice Festival in Winnie. If I'm being honest, I've never been a huge fan. I'm more of a South Texas State Fair girl :) I guess that's because I grew up in Beaumont & not the H-F/Winnie area. To me, the Rice Festival is over-priced & doesn't have enough rides, especially when you have a 3 year-old. BUT we live in Fannett & Robert grew up going, so we go :)

And Brylee had a blast. She rode rides & got her face painted. She loved all of the different 'fun-houses'. She called them playgrounds :)

Of course Easton is only 1, so there wasn't much for him to do. Okay, there wasn't anything at all for him to do. He was a trooper riding in the stroller, though. The weather was absolutely perfect & we really enjoyed our time in the sunshine. So much so that we went TWICE, Friday & Saturday mornings :)

 I couldn't leave this post without showing y'all Brylee's adorable western wear. Robert's mom got her a few sets of Wrangler shirts/jeans & they are just too cute. My little cowgirl :)

Facebook

It's really kind of embarrassing to admit that I've gotten to this point. Admitting I have a problem is the first step, right? HA!

It has come to my attention, partially on my own, but mostly at the urging of people I respect in my life, that Facebook has become a large distraction in my life. I check it first thing when I wake up & last thing before I go to bed. I even go so far as to sometimes browse through it after I have been woken up by one of my children in the wee hours of the morning. I use the excuse that it helps my mind to relax and drift back to sleep, but who am I kidding??

I find myself zoned out in front of my phone far more often than I would like. While the kids play on the swing-set. While I ride in the car with my family. While I 'watch a movie' with B. It has become an addiction. I know for a fact I'm not the only one who struggles with it.

I'm quickly realizing that the phrase 'The days are long but the years are short' is so true. My kids are growing up before my eyes & I'm glued to a silly website watching what everyone else's kids are doing. I have to ask myself, when did everyone else's lives become more important, more captivating, more worthy of my time than my own children's lives?? Y'all. I'm ashamed.

And the worst part is, I'm seriously struggling with just getting rid of it. I have family literally all over the world. Russia, Australia, England, Canada, sometimes Korea just to name a few**. I love that I can hop onto Facebook & see what is going on with them. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do about that. Deleting Facebook all together means that I won't be able to see pictures of my family or hear updates about what is going on in their lives.

Anyways, the point to this big long rant is that whatever happens, I do plan to stop posting on Facebook & hopefully make 1 or 2 posts a week here on the blog with photos & updates. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can cut the probably close to 20hrs/week I spend on Facebook down to a couple blog posts. Only time will tell if it works out :)

**Disclaimer: I purposefully didn't list India because my brother doesn't have a Facebook, so India doesn't count in this case. I didn't forget my only brother!

If you've made it this far, I'll leave you with some pictures of my awesome kids as a reward :) :)

2 Years

Brylee -

I am awarding myself the mom of the year award because I have had this window pulled up all day long and I have yet to come up with anything to say about the 2nd anniversary of the day of your birth. Or maybe I just have too much to say and don't know where to start? Yea, we'll go with that one.

Two years! A Toddler. Sheesh, the time has flown by so quickly. Now I look at baby pictures & don't even remember you ever looking like that. It is hard to believe that you have learned & grown so much in 2 short years. Your vocabulary surprises me every day. And to think that last year I was worried that you would never talk :)

 

You frequently put together 4 and 5 word sentences, my little smarty pants! Your favorite thing to say is "What doing?" followed by "Why?". "What's that?" is a close second. You are very curious and adventurous. I'm convinced you get that from your daddy. Just last night you were climbing up his ladder like it was nothing. You were going for the third step before we realized you weren't going to stop!! I can't believe how brave you are.

You love to bark orders at people and animals. You recently started telling everyone to "Stop it" and I often hear you saying "C'mere dogs!" or "No no doggy!". You definitely think you are in charge... all the time :)

I have to bribe you to get hugs & kisses out of you. You never have been all that affectionate. I'm hoping that as you get older you will learn to love to cuddle with me, but even if you don't that will be okay :) Maybe your baby brother will be a cuddler like his mommy.

Speaking of your brother, he'll be here soon and I can't wait to see you in action as a big sister. I had been a little worried about it, but in the last 2 weeks you have really taken to carrying your babies/stuffed animals around with you. You are becoming quite the little mommy & I am so excited to see you interact with Easton.

I love you, Brylee Paige. You make me proud every single day. Watching you grow up is my favorite thing!

Love,

Momma

Big Girl Bed

I have always heard people say that life goes by so much quicker when you have kids. I didn't necessarily not believe them, I just (obviously) never completely understood. Well now I have a kiddo... and I understand.

Brylee is going to be TWO next week! Six short days away. I feel like we brought her home from the hospital, we blinked & now she's 2. I could talk all night about how quickly the time has flown by, but that's not the point of this post.

Brylee's first night spent in her crib

 

Point is, she's almost 2 and there is another baby on the way. Mr Easton will be here soon & he's going to need a place to sleep! Enter: the toddler bed (dun dun dun...)

I wasn't really sure what to expect during B's transition to the toddler bed. Bedtime has always been pretty easy for us. Sunday night we set up her 'Big Girl Bed', made a big huge deal about it & let her climb in and out to her little heart's content up until bed time. When it was finally time to say goodnight, things actually went ridiculously smoothly. No crying, no getting out of bed, nothing.

 

I'm really not sure why it didn't occur to me earlier, but as soon as we closed her bedroom door I realized she's going to fall out of that bed. Now, before you go accusing me of being a bad parent, let's remember that this is only a toddler bed that is only about a foot off the ground.

My mommy instincts were right on par this time. Not an hour after she went to bed, R heard a very distinct thump. She had rolled off the bed, but was still sleeping peacefully. He picked her up and placed her back in the bed. An hour or so later we heard another thump. Again, B had rolled of the bed & was again still sleeping peacefully. This time R decided we should leave her on the floor to sleep since she would most likely fall again if we put her back in bed.

She eventually woke up on the floor & wasn't thrilled about that. Back in the bed she went. By 1:00am she had rolled off of (the same side of) the bed 2 more times to make a total of 4 falls. At this point I picked her up off of the floor & brought her into our bed. Mommy needed some (uninterrupted) sleep!!

And that is the story of B's first night in her toddler bed! We have since acquired a railing for the side of the bed & have not had anymore thumps in the night :) I'm just praying that her good bedtime habits continue!