family pictures

Miss Danielle did it again and captured some beautiful pictures of our family!  I overthought our outfits, just like I always do, but I love how it all came together.  Our babies are precious, and I'm glad we have so many pictures that capture their personalities and relationship. 

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Outtakes, haha...

Danielle makes the whole process so low-key, which is great since I over-stress before the actual pictures! The kids are so comfortable with her, and she encourages them to explore and play which allows them to relax.  At the end, they just wanted to run up and down this random street we used for our pictures.  

Another funny thing to remember: we took a lot of the pictures on the property of my OB/GYN's office, haha.  They have beautiful trees and a small field to the side of their building, which seemed perfect for what I had envisioned.  Plus, it's close to our house and since Kevin would be coming straight from work, we would have more daylight.  (Danielle came to us, which was much appreciated!!)  The funny part was that as the nurses were leaving the building, they kept looking over at us.  I knew they recognized me, and at my next appointment, they told me that they were texting Dr. Northrop when they saw us taking the pictures, haha.  Then they all wanted to see the final pictures :) 

arlington patch

Although only 2 of the 4 of us actually still live in Arlington, this group of friends will always be know as "The Arlington Gang" in my book :)  We were missing Andreia and her kids, and a few of Tracy's kids, but it was a great time together!  We've been meeting up at this pumpkin patch for years, and my kids adore our time there. Brooke loves Cam Cam...

Colby loves his Maddy...

And I love watching the kids run and play together...

The pumpkin patch doesn't really change year to year, so we have these same pictures from over the years.  It really is great since you know I love a good comparison picture :)

Danielle snapped a few pictures while we were there, which I am always grateful for.  It seems vain to want to be in the pictures sometimes, but I want to be remembered with my kids as well. Mom life is amazing, but definitely not easy.  I really put a lot of effort into being the best mom I can be and providing a happy, nurturing, safe life for my kids, so when I see a picture of me being mom, it makes me feel valued and important. Maybe that seems silly, but these pictures mean a lot to me.

I love these girls so much!  They really have been such great friends and supports to me over the past 11 years.  

At the last minute, I decided to also make this an impromptu birthday party for Colby.  We were going camping on his birthday, and having a family birthday the next weekend, but Brooke started asking Colby about what kind of party he wanted to have which brought the whole "friend party" conversation to the table.  I was going to buy cupcakes to eat with friends at the pumpkin patch, but the morning of, my friend posted that she had extra sugar cookies for sale.  They were adorable (as always), and Halloween themed, which would go perfectly with a pumpkin patch outing.  I quickly messaged her about buying all the cookies, and the party was ready :)  Easy, Peasy!!

Colby was so stinkin' adorable as we sang to him, and it made me so happy that it all came together. 

He was surrounded my little friends (and their Mamas) that love him, which made my Mama heart SO grateful. 

Happy third birthday, little buddy!

green meadows

Fall comes with so many fun traditions, and Green Meadows is definitely one of them! We've been coming here the last 5 years, and I love looking back at my babies with the farm animals.  They close at 3 PM, which is tricky since Brooke doesn't get out of school until 3:30.   I debated back and forth about taking her out early, but in the end I figured I could do whatever I wanted, haha.  I am her mother, after all, and missing the last hour or so of school wasn't going to kill her. We had the entire place (mostly) to ourselves, so I will definitely go at this time next year as well :)

They still held the pig race, even though the audience consisted of 4 people, haha. Brooke and Colby were able to ring the bells for the race to start, so their days were made! Except that Brooke kept making comments about how disgusting it smelled in that area, which were my thoughts exactly.

We enjoyed the hayride around the lake, only without the hay. We had SO much rain this Fall, so they had to remove all the hay from the trailers.  Colby was thrilled since he doesn't like sitting on the hay anyway...

The highlight of the whole afternoon was our time with the goats.  They have feed available for free, and I'm pretty sure my kids used 30 handfuls for those hungry goats and sheep.

Before we left, we made one last visit to the baby bunnies and chicks.  The farm employee was putting metal grates over their big boxes, and when Brooke inquired about why she was doing that, the employee told her that a bobcat lived within the park and they didn't want the baby animals to become a midnight snack.  Brooke was obviously disturbed by this news, but I told her that the animals would be fine.  We then went to pick our pumpkins, but she was acting weird about posing for a picture.  She was refusing to stand where I wanted her to, and I was getting frustrated. She finally said, "I don't want to put my back towards the bushes, I hear something in there."  Hahahaha, I started laughing which made her mad.  I assured her that a bobcat wouldn't come out in broad daylight, but I allowed her to move about 10 steps closer to me so that I could keep her safe :)

Love my little pumpkins :)

flower mound pumpkin patch

We kept up our annual tradition of going to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch with Grandma, Auntie Mel Mel, Kinley, and Aubrey!  The girls all had the same Monday off school, so we met up early before the patch became crowded.  The kids love all the wooden trucks and trains to climb on, the wooden cut-outs of their favorite characters, the Cinderella Coach, hay maze, bounce houses and obstacle courses, hay ride, pumpkin house, and wagons for pulling gigantic pumpkins around the patch. I love that it only costs $5 per car and provides hours of entertainment!

Colby cracks me up with his antics. He was SURE that he could lift this enormous pumpkin :)

The kids each picked a pumpkin, then we headed to Grandma's house for pizza, Halloween crafts (Thanks, Auntie Mel Mel!), costumes, and treats for Grandma's birthday.

We love this tradition, and are grateful for the time we have to spend with family!  I never had cousins close by, so I'm glad our kids can have these fun experiences together.

hand-foot-mouth

This poor kid caught the hand-foot-mouth (HFM) bug going around, which was literally the worst.  The day before I took him to the doctor, he broke out with a red rash around his mouth.  I was sure that it was related to the strawberries he ate the day before, so when he started complaining about his throat hurting and kept swallowing in a weird way, I freaked out that he was having an allergic reaction and that his throat was swelling or something :/

As we waited for the nurse to arrive, I helped Colby out of his jammies and noticed the bumps on his feet.  Since Brooke had HFM, I knew what it was right away. The weird thing was that those bumps showed up overnight! They definitely weren't there during his bath the night before.  Sure enough, the nurse confirmed that he had HFM, but there really isn't much you can do about it. It is highly contagious, so we were basically on house arrest forever. I could give Colby Motrin to keep him comfortable, but his poor feet definitely got the worst of it. His mouth only seemed sore for the first two days, but it totally affected his appetite.  We supplemented with lots of popsicles and juice.

During our house arrest, we played a lot!  As I showered one morning, Colby tried to get out of his pajama shirt, but his method was a bit interesting...

It literally took weeks for those dang sores to heal on his feet and hands, so even though he wasn't contagious anymore, I kept him on my lap during Brooke's piano lesson.  He was content to watch a show and leave the toys alone :)

I've heard that kids only get HFM once, which I hope is true! Now that both kids have had it, we should be good to go!