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!

reunion tower

One afternoon, we headed to the Reunion Tower in Dallas to check out the observation deck.  This has been on my bucket list for a long time, and when our Bishop gave us free tickets that expired at the end of September, we made it happen! 

It was so fun to check out this Dallas Icon, but I'm glad we didn't have to pay for the tickets because it seemed really expensive! (Like $17 for adults and $8 for kids.) The kids thought it was super cool, and whenever we drive near Downtown Dallas, they quickly point out the tower and comment on how we've been there. I love sharing these first time experiences with my littles.

When we left, Kevin found one of those city scooters and gave it a whirl.  He really wanted to try them on my birthday weekend, but I wasn't quite confident enough to ride them around Deep Ellum. I tried it as well, but don't have a picture to prove it, haha.

birthday weekend

For my birthday this year, Kevin planned a weekend getaway for the two of us.  It was SO nice to get away from our daily routine, and do something out of the ordinary. Jerry and Bev came to watch the kids, which made this whole weekend possible :)  They came down early Friday afternoon so that I could pick Kevin up early from work.  We stayed at the Cambria Hotel in Deep Ellum, and walked to Pecan Lodge for an early dinner. After a yummy BBQ dinner, we headed over to The Bomb Factory for the Lord Huron concert. We have been listening to them for a few years now, and really love the vibe of their music.  Since we were there early, we secured our "spot" on the floor and waited patiently for the concert to start.  We basically stood there forever, and then the opener started.  By the time they were done, my legs were seriously tired.  Kevin and I kept joking that we were old if we couldn't stand for the duration of the concert, haha.  It took a long time before Lord Huron came on, but it was a great concert and a lot of fun to just pal around together.  Outings are so different with kids, so it was nice to have a break.

Thanks for a fun birthday, Cutes :)

TOFW weekend

Last year was the first annual Time Out For Women (TOFW) weekend with my mom and sister in Denver, and this year they came to Texas. Mom flew in on Memorial Day (Monday) to spend extra time with us, and we were all glad that she did. Brooke and I went in to get her while Kevin and Colby waited at the curb.  Those first hugs are always the best...

We enjoyed some boating in the afternoon...

Brooke was bummed that she had to go to school while Nay Nay was here, but she sure enjoyed having someone to read her stories as she ate breakfast every day.

We took Nay Nay to Katherine Rose park, which is one of our favorite places to go.  Colby enjoyed having all the attention, and I had to remind myself to not feel guilty because Brooke had this same opportunity when she was little.

Kimberly, Josh, and Claire arrived on Thursday afternoon, and Brooke was ALL about baby Claire.  She wanted to be involved in all things Claire, and Kimmie and Josh were both super patient with her desire to help with everything.

On Friday, we headed to the Dallas World Aquarium.  Again, I felt guilty doing it without Brooke, but I also didn't think I should take her out of school when she had missed almost a full week with her UTI.

The aquarium definitely exceeded my expectations, despite being a bit pricey. It's located in the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas, and had a lot of unique animals you don't typically see at zoos. Colby was able to feed blueberries to some bird with a gigantic beak, so he felt pretty brave about that :). They also had several endangered monkeys, which I especially enjoyed.

We rushed home from the aquarium so that Nay Nay could attend Grandparent's day at Brooke's school.  This picture melts my heart because you can see the happiness on Brooke's face that her beloved Nay Nay was with her.

After school, Brooke and I were watching Claire so that Kimmie could take a nap. Claire was having the time of her life, until she fell off the slug and hit her head on the tile :/  She calmed down quickly, but as we sat on the couch reading books, a goose egg began forming on her little forehead.  I felt SO bad, but at least I had pictures and videos to show how much fun Claire was having before the fall. 

Friday night was TOFW, and the weather was the worst.  Like, flash flood kind of weather.  It was dumping buckets as we drove to the Arlington Convention Center, and I'm just lucky that we made it there alive.  Once we parked, Mom and I realized that we were wearing our Birkenstocks, so we waded barefoot through the parking lot to save our sandals, haha. We only took one picture, but we had a lot of laughs.

Nathan Pacheco was supposed to perform that night, but due to illness, David Archuleta filled in for him.  The lady in front of us was so excited, and was acting like a teenage groupie, haha.  It was a great evening, filled with wonderful speakers and songs.

Saturday, we headed back for a full day of TOFW goodness.  I really enjoyed all of the speakers, and felt a spiritual boost from the messages shared.  It was also really nice to be kid-free and spending time with my mom and sister.  I hope we keep this tradition alive, or at least do a girl trip every few years. Hopefully next time my sister-in-law Madi can join us as well :)

Everyone left Sunday morning, but we took one last picture after baths on Saturday night.  We loved having everyone visit, and we hope to see everyone again soon.