Farms, Pumpkins, and kids...oh my!

I have had a couple rough weeks with the boys.

Parenting with 1 parent being gone a lot, while pregnant (which means 1/2 the amount of patience), with 2 busy and extremely ornery boys can be TOUGH (exhausting, emotionally draining, overwhelming, you get the idea)!

I wanted to blog about my children and how I would love to freeze the stage Kallen is in and fast-forward the stage Lincoln is in. But after another rough morning, I don't really feel like blogging about them anymore. :P

So instead I will do a little photo dump of our recent visits to the farm and Carrol's Pumpkin Patch in Grinnell (this pumpkin patch is AMAZING! Probably our favorite one right now!).

 

This boy LOVES kitties! (he does NOT get that from me!!)

 

And this boy LOVES puppies! :)

 

 

We always love quality time with Grandma Mary!!

 

 

Future football player?

(hey I will take any sport that gives him something to pour his energy into other than "working" on our house with his little, oh so destructive, tools)

 

 

Feeding the goats at the pumpkin patch with Papa Ken!

Alydia is SO good with Lincoln!

Makes me wish we lived closer so I could have her come over and babysit. ;)



 

Can you find Lincoln?

 

So a cute story about Alydia: she asked her mom "When Tiffany has her baby who will I play with?" and I got to thinking about how Lincoln is getting to that age where he will soon probably ditch her to hang out with the boys. Don't worry Alydia- we have a cute snuggly baby on the way for you! :)

 

Cousins!

 

Little ornery buddies!

 

That is all for now- hopefully coming soon is a blog about my boys. ;)



Ode to Mothers

My Aunt just gave me a book that I am really excited to read: Out of the Spin Cycle by Jen Hatmaker. I opened the front cover to read this and just thought it was worth sharing (because let's be real- we could all stand to read this):

 

A (fairly lame) Ode to Mothers

 

An ode to the marvelous woman called "Mother"

Though not one of us is exactly like another.

From the second we're born to the minute we die

Our preference are as limitless as stars in the sky.

 

We might have been perfectly gracious before

But childbirth entered us in the Mommy War.

Rather than letting everyone else be

We criticize perenting that isn't exactly like...me.

 

So once and for all let me put this to rest

None of us owns the title of "best."

Natural childbirth does not make you a hippy

Epidurals are not just for women who want to feel trippy.

In a bathtub with a doula or in a hospital bed

We all got a baby with limbs and a head.

 

Nursing is great if nothing goes wrong

But some nipples turn inward and refuse to play along.

This is a choice for each mom- it's her route

So it's just A+B= and everyone else can C their way out.

 

Schedules and timers do not make you cruel

Feeding on demand does not make you a fool.

In the nursery with a monitor or in the family bed

Every chick gets to pick where her baby lays his head.

 

If I see one more mom roll her eyes at "organic.."

"Partically hydrogenated" throws some of us into panic.

But neither judge Sonic burgers and fries

Some of us just want to enjoy food before we die.

 

Preschool, home school, public, or Montessori

Listen, my friends, and I'll tell you a story:

Two moms differed on favorite school trends

Their kids turned out pretty much the same. The end.

 

If a girl gets the title of "mom" accidentally

The worst thing we can do is treat her judgmentally.

How about some love,  some help, some advice?

She needs our love and we shouldn't think twice.

 

Discipline through various methods will prevail

Look, we're all just trying to keep our kids out of jail.

These things are just preferences, not right or wrong

What matters more is teaching our kids to get along-

To love and to share, to speak gently and kind,

To obey so that mom won't go out of her mind.

 

Showing them Jesus is our common groun

Teaching them how he can always be found.

He's present in public school and Waldorf (so trendy)

He's over at Whole Foods but also at Wendy's.

Jesus never cared about these sorts of things

It's our hearts that he wants to the worship we bring.

 

It's time for us moms to declare a truce

Regardless if we buy Capri Sun or 100 percent juice.

My way is not your way, and  your way isn't mine

But both of our kids will turn out just fine.

 

Rather than judging and looking down our noses

Let's enjoy the common ground motherhood poses.

As believers, we all love the same good Lord

We all have children who tell us "I'm bored."

 

We all need more sleep than these tiny five hours

Most of us struggle to find time for a shower.

We haven't been to the bathroom alone in an age

Our mothers have all told us, "Relax, this is just a stage."

 

We all love our babies so much we coud die

We'd take a bullet for each one without batting an eye.

Though we are different, we're in the same tribe

Motherhood requires a similar vibe-

Love and affection, sacrifice and grace

laughter, which keeps the whole mechanism in place.

 

Though different, by the grace of God, I suspect:

ALL our children will rise up and call us...collect.

 

She looks well to how things go in her household...Her children rise up and call her blessed.

Proverbs 31:27-28

 

 

 

 



Cousins!

Hey boys lets line you up and take a cousins picture!

Mr. Cru I did not say wrestle! Now everybody look at the camera and smile:

 

Ahem, Cru you are still trying to wrestle!

 

 

Oh my goodness I think we got one!

(although I'm pretty sure Cru is thinking ok I'll lay here but I'm not going to be happy about it)

 

 

Maybe if I keep looking at the camera she won't notice my arm sneaking over.

 

 

Ok, I think we'll call it quits.

 

 

LOVE THESE BOYS!!



Unfortunate Mishap

This picture is from last Sunday, but it still makes me laugh out loud every time I see it:

 

 

This is why you do not let your kids play in the tackle box (ahem- Shawn :P).

Lincoln got himself into quite the predicament!

The Ledges

So I realize it is a little late to be blogging about labor day weekend, but that is the story of my life. :)

 

Have you ever been to Ledges State Park up between Boone and Madrid? It is AWESOME!!

Shawn and I used to go there a lot when we lived in Woodward, but we had not gone since we had kids. I really don't know why it took us so long to take the boys there, they were in heaven!!

 

They started by sliding down this nice little dirt slide:

 

And headed straight for the stream!

 



 

Shawn had them trying to catch minnows but they were a little too fast for my boys.

 

 

I can't believe how easy this picture was to take, I just told them both to sit on this rock and smile and they didn't even hesitate. Definately a first for these two.

 



 

Lincoln has been into picking up rocks lately so you can imagine the pure joy he felt when he saw how many there were. Once his hands were full, he started finding other places to stash them. :P

 

"Mom, look at my strong muscles! I moved all of these rocks!"

 

 

You know a little boy is having fun when his clothes look like this:

 

 

We packed a very "manly" picnic of deer brats, and Dorritos. ( I know terribly unhealthy)

 

 

Then, after a quick change of clothes, we decided to try hiking.

Kallen actually turned out to be a Great little hiker! But with Lincoln and his obsession of picking up every single stick and rock he sees, we were doing a little too much of this:

 

 

So we ended up hiking like this:

 

 Kallen spent a lot of time exploring off of the trails

 

 

And a little bit of time doing this:

 

 

Kallen was excited to make it all the way to the top and thought he needed to touch the sign.

 

 

A quick family photo to capture the moment and our day was complete.

 

 

Like I said, I don't know why it took us so long to take the boys there but we will definately be doing it again soon!

 

Adventureland!!

Last year while we were working on potty training Kallen we used a sticker chart in which the reward was Adventureland. Being the amazing parents that we are, we never followed through and took him.....until Thursday. Shawn and I were way more excited than the boys (but I guess that would make sense considering they didn't even know what "going on a ride" meant).

We got to the park around 10:30 and headed straight for "the big tall thing"- the giant ferris wheel.

The boys did a pretty good job of waiting in line:

It was SO fun to watch their faces as the ferris wheel started to move. :)

Lincoln didn't seem to be phased at all (which is pretty typical for him)

I took the next two pictures because they show the personality differences between our boys perfectly.

Kallen wrapped his arms around Shawn, taking everything in, and needing a little reassurance that it was ok to be up so high in the air.

Lincoln, on the other hand, would not let me touch him, had to sit by himself, and was not phased at all by the ride. (which made me a nervous wreck between his squirminess and how close he was to the swinging exit door) 

I am not sure if Kallen is a little scared of heights or if he just warmed up quickly, but after the ferris wheel he rode all the rides without hesitation. It was so fun to follow the boys around and watch their excitement as they tried out each of the rides. 

I think we heard "Wow! Look at that!" about every 10 seconds.

When we came to this pig, Kallen said "Woah look at dat big pig! I want to touch it!" He went to check it out and in surprise exclaimed "There's a wady in dat pig!" haha

Behind the pig was this little pond, and I think Shawn was pretty proud when Kallen said "I don't want to ride anymore rides, I just want to fish in this pond."

I'm pretty sure Lincoln wore this smile every time he was on a ride. He Loved it!

I was really proud of Kallen for walking right up and getting on this one without hesitation. We even got him to put his hands up!

Moments like these make my heart happy.

Just to show you a little window into what life is like with this child with Way too much personality, Lincoln will sometimes randomly start walking like this:

It is kind of embarrassing.

And he will go straight from that goofiness to this boy with Lots of attitude:



We actually did not have to wait in very many lines, but when we did the boys had a great time swinging on the bars.

I knew we were taking a risk in the timing of our Adventureland trip (my boys are usually napping by 11:30) but I figured the boys would be so excited that they would do fine without a nap. That plan worked pretty well, but Lincoln finally gave up his fight around 2. 



We took advantage of our chance to only have one busy child and made our way over to the water park.

And this is where our adventureland pictures end. The water park was kind of fun but our boys are way too fast, with no fear of the water, so they had Shawn and I on high alert at all times!

I woke Lincoln up around 3:15 so he would get a chance to play in the water...

....and we decided to head out by 4pm. That water park was just a little too exhausting. :)

We had such a fun day!! And while I don't think Lincoln will remember much, I know Kallen will be talking about our trip for a long time!