Little Things {Fall/Winter 2013 & 2014}

Little Things {Fall/Winter 2013 & 2014}

I always love looking through my pictures...looking for the little moments that I happened to snap and catch on camera.  It's like little reminders to me of the happy and calm moments in my life.  This particular Fall and Winter have been tough for everyone... the main reason being pregnancy-induced exhaustion, constant nausea, lack of patience, and an inability to accomplish much of anything!  When I'm not myself, it affects everyone.  So seeing smiling faces and happy moments from this "off" season of life makes me extra happy and feel less like a mom-failure.   Admittedly though, I'm ready for warmer temps, less sickness, sunnier days, and more energy!  Fortunately, Spring is coming!  But here are some moments from the shorter, colder days of Fall and Winter...

*****

{Molly's 1st Day of Preschool 8.26.13}
It's her turn!  Molly followed in her older siblings footsteps and started preschool at Little Lambs preschool.  She wore a special dress made just for this big occasion and carried her brand new backpack proudly to meet her teacher... Miss Ginger.  She had some kind of allergic reaction in her right eye... which was the only cause for the red eyes and tears!

{Abby Discovers Chapstick} 
Oh no!  Abby has discovered her sister's chapstick and lip gloss.  We have to be careful... there is a consequence to her getting ahold of it when we aren't supervising... GREASE everywhere!

{Molly Starts Gymnastics}
Her turn again!  Molly finally got to start gymnastics!  She is finally getting her turn to do all of the fun activities she watched Emily do from the sidelines for several years.

{I'm finally a Godmother}
I always joke that my convert husband was asked to be a godfather before me!  I guess he is still winning (if we were actually keeping score!) because he now has two god-daughters, but I finally have ONE... my niece, Alyson!

{Pretty Fall Color on the Porch}
It's always so refreshing to clean the porch up from the summer heat... eliminating cobwebs and dead flowers in favor of Fall mums and pumpkins!  This transition always signals the changing of the seasons for me and Fall is by far my most favorite time to do outside porch decor!

{Pumpkin Patch}
We were not able to make our annual trip to Kansas City for our pumpkin patch outing.  This October was filled with activities; making a pumpkin patch trip nearly impossible.  So on a day when the kids were out of school for Fall break, I ventured out to the Patch with the kids by myself!  It was a super windy and fairly cold day, but the kids still managed to have a great time!  And Nonny joined us at the end of the excursion to help us pick the perfect pumpkins!

{Molly feeding the farm animals... I love Emily's face in the top picture!

{train ride}

{this was their favorite thing... BOUNCING1}

{pumpkin slingshot} 

{slide!}

{Joining the Boys}
I never join "just the boys" at the KU football games.  We try to attend one as a family each season, but all of the other games are for "just the boys"!  It's Noah's extra special "thing" and in all honesty, he doesn't like any females honing in on his "thing"!  But, he tolerated me joining them for one game this season (after Vance and I had spent the weekend in KC for our 15 year Anniversary!).  It was a gorgeous day in Lawrence, as usual!

{Molly learns something new}
It occurred to me that now that Molly is in preschool, I should probably work on teaching her some preschool appropriate skills.  We started with her name and I was surprised by how quickly she picked it up!

{First visit to the American Girl Store}
Emily made her first visit to the American Girl store in KC; accompanied by her friend, Claira!  It was Claira's birthday celebration and she invited me and Emily to join she and her mama for a "girls day" playing dolls, riding the carrousel and dining at The Cheesecake Factory!  Emily's dolls, Holly and Caroline, got much needed make overs at the doll salon ( you can see the pre-hair in the first picture! ).

{Biggest Mess Ever}
Oh. my. goodness!  How do I even describe this mess!  It was, hands down, the biggest mess EVER made by one of my children!  I had just purchased a brand new container of diaper paste and as I took a shower, Abby found it and proceeded to COVER herself in it!  All of her hair, face, arms and legs was completely soaked in non-water-soluable diaper paste.  I had to research online to figure out what to do about it.  The process took several hours and multiple steps involving coke, vinegar, shampoo, and Dawn dish soap.  And that only got the majority of the white out!  It took days and days for all of the grease to completely disappear.  As you can see, she was pretty proud of herself though!

{Little Moments}

{meeting their first girl cousin for the first time}

{a glimpse inside her kindergarten world}

{tutus are always moment worthy}

{she is cracking us up by cracking herself up}

{noah got to play a special instrument in his school music program}

{Emily's 6th Birthday}
Emily's birthday is always tough as it falls the day before Christmas Eve.  This year, I just didn't have the energy to plan a birthday party in the midst of trying to "survive" Christmas in a constant state of nausea.  But we always manage to have a family meal with a small celebration ON her actual birthday. And this year, I attempted something that I have honestly never attempted before... homemade cupcakes!  She picked out the toppers herself and was so excited to help "make" something!  I can't take credit for making the icing because my friend took pity on me and made that for me, but I colored it and put it on the cupcakes :)  They were oversized (first timer error), incredibly ugly, but sincerely LOVED by Emily!  She proudly took them to school to share with her friends.  

{New Year's Eve Party...with kids!}
When your circle of friends involves 23 kids, you celebrate New Year's Eve with lots of noise... mainly from the kids! 

{Lunch Date at Daddy's Office}
It's been a long time since we've had a "lunch date" at Daddy's office, so we were overdue for a trip to the Koch Cafe!  The kids think Daddy's office is lots of fun... especially his white board that prints the pictures they drew!

{Snow Days}
Oh my goodness... this day was FREEZING!  Not only was it snowing, but the wind chills were below zero!  We lasted about 20 minutes sledding while the snow blew everywhere!

{Dress Up}
It makes me SO happy to see the little girls dress up together.  It's one of the things I miss the most about having Emily in school all day.  Since Emily is the imaginative player and the one who initiates the dress up, it doesn't happen as often as it used to.  So I cherish the times when it does even more!  The girls found these old flower girl dresses in the closet and played in them for 2 or 3 days straight.  They were from my brother's wedding a year ago when Emily and Molly wore them.  in just a short year, the two littlest ones are now wearing them!  And even though Emily says she doesn't like to dress up "that much" anymore, she still does it occasionally.  She was invited to a Barbie Fashion Show birthday party and she was completely in her element... totally dressed up!

{Valentine Treats}
I was really, really tempted to opt out of doing Valentines for the kids to take to school this year.  They were going to miss their school parties because of our Colorado Ski vacation, but I ended up doing them anyway so they could pass them out a day early.  Both girls made what might have been the most popular Valentine this year... the FROZEN "Do you want to be a snowman?" marshmallow treat bag.  They both assembled their treat bags on their own and Molly was proud to be able to write her own name on all her tags while Emily was able to personalize hers for all 24 of her classmates.  Noah went with more of a practical joke and gave his friends a "sticky hand" Valentine which turned out to be a big hit! 

{Jayhawk Date}
I have not been to a KU Basketball game since before I graduated from grad school circa 1998.  Vance and Noah have been going to as many games as possible for as long as we have lived in Kansas again... nearly 9 years.  As Vance approached his milestone birthday, he didn't have many requests for a celebration.  In fact, his single request was that I attend a KU game with he and Noah in Lawrence.  I obliged and had a great time on a special "date" with my boys.  It's been so many years since I was in the Field house and I have to say, it's still incredibly awesome!

{Sweet Sisters}
These two littlest sisters have come a long way since Emily went to Kindergarten in the Fall.  They are playing more and more everyday.  They still have lots of fighting moments, but they are having more and more sweet moments too.  Perhaps the very sweetest time between them is when we pick Molly up from preschool.  She loves to ask her teacher... "can I get one for my baby too?", as she refers to the stamp or sticker she gets each time she exits her classroom.  And then she insists that she be the one to hold Abby's hand as we walk through the parking lot to our car.  Pretty darn sweet!

{A Milestone Birthday}
How can it be?  Vance and I have almost known each other for HALF of our lives!  We celebrated Vance's milestone birthday in February.  I can't help but look at these pictures and remember how we celebrated his 30th birthday.  10 years ago, I threw him a surprise casino party when we were living in Austin, TX and had NO kids!  10 years later, we celebrated with a simple family dinner back in Kansas with our FOUR kids (and one on the way!).  What a difference a decade makes!

{Let the Sun Shine In}
Though they seem to have been few and far between during this very long winter, the sunny days seem to be coming a little more often these days.  I changed my table decorations in anticipation of what I hope will be here very soon... SPRING!

Welcome SPRING 2014!