Halloween 2016

(an old post I forgot to share!!!)

I don't care when this third baby comes, but I was really keeping my fingers crossed (and legs) that he would wait until after Halloween night. I've always loved Halloween--- who doesn't right? But having your own kids to dress up and watch them do the dirty work... it's pretty much the absolute best. All these little kids look so incredibly cute and there needs to be more holidays like this one where they get to dress up.

Nana and Papa Z had bought these costumes for them, but the past two months, Lincoln has had his mind set up on being a pumpkin. A PUMPKIN! which is totally fine other than the fact that I already had a costume for him AND that now I needed to track down a pumpkin costume. I finally got one from a friend but of course, come Halloween night and it's time to get dressed, he decides he doesn't want to be the pumpkin anymore and the two months of him requesting to be a pumpkin mean nothing. Aye aye aye. Lesson learned: my kids no longer get to choose. I'll buy whatever is cheapest and closet to their size and that's what they get. HA!

Another testament to how different Simon and Lincoln are was manifested through Halloween. Simon was loving running from house to house with his little pumpkin basket so much that he would biff it several times (the steep driveways didn't help much either). Minor war injuries and scrapes across the knees and nose wouldn't stop him from wanting to run again to the next house. And he's a mastermind and found out that as the person was putting the candy into his basket, that he had a clear shot to the candy bowl to grab one extra piece of his own. Sneaky and smart.

Lincoln on the other hand had fun for about 5 houses and was SO OVER it. WHAAATT? I've never heard of a kid not excited to receive candy from strangers. But he wasn't. I think for Lincoln he got enough pieces to satisfy him and he was ready to retire. Aye Aye Aye.

We made it out to a pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. It was about an hour drive away so we were planning on spending a good chunk of the day there. But it started out rough before we even left the house, which should have been a sign that we needed to postpone. Simon was tugging on his ear crying (he ended up having an ear infection) and Lincoln was incredibly quiet that morning (Lincoln quite in the mornings???? NOT NORMAL). Anyway, we were there for an hour and a half and the boys were absolutely MISERABLE!!!!!! We packed up and headed home for another hour drive and the boys fell asleep within the first few minutes of drive home, slept the entire way, then transferred to their beds and slept for another 2 hours. Oh the memories...

A few pictures mostly in between the pumpkin patch meltdowns...

And lastly, trying to do a fun little Halloween painting project with the boys and realizing it's hard sit back and let them dip the same paint brush into different colors. (DEEP BREATH). It's all about letting them play and be creative, right?

little chefs in training

I found these pictures from over the summer. It was one of those days where I said, "Screw keeping the kitchen clean and making this pizza dough by myself quick and efficiently!" That's one of the million things I struggle with as a mom--- Letting the kids be kids, even if it means flour everywhere and dinner taking twice as long to get ready and cook. They loved it and the mess was totally worth it. I think Lincoln had some built up frustration and took it out on the dough. :) Either way, the pizzas turned out great, the flour was eventually cleaned out of every crevice in the kitchen, and mama scored some points from the boys! I have to remind myself that the sooner they learn to cook, the sooner I can pass off that responsibility to them!!!! And now a few pictures of my little chefs in training...

Grey's first month

Here are some one month photos of Greyson. Technically the first ones were taken at 5 weeks and the second batch at 6 weeks and now I'm posting them at 8 weeks... Yikes. I'm learning very quickly why with each child, less and less photos are taken. When do I have a minute to take pictures anymore?! And getting photos of just Greyson is impossible. That's okay--- he can see all the love he was getting from his brothers.

The other day I was rocking Greyson before putting him down for a nap. Lincoln came in and was whispering something to me from across the room and I would nod my head at whatever he was saying just so he would stay quiet. (Also another impossibility--- putting Greyson to bed peacefully without having one of the boys barging in.) I watched Lincoln grabbing pillows off my bed and leave. He came back for some more and left again. When he came back the third time, he quietly walked over and whispered, "I have Greyson's bed ready in my room." After putting Greyson to bed, safely in his own crib I might add, I went in to Lincoln's room and saw his ENTIRE floor covered in pillows. Now you may have misinterpreted when I said his entire floor and think I was exaggerating. No. I'm not. His ENTIRE FLOOR. He told me he wanted Greyson to sleep on his bed and the pillows were just in case he rolled off. By the number of pillows sprawled out, he must have thought Greyson would fall and roll 10 feet away. :) He's such a sweet brother... when  he wants to be. Ha.

And a little sneak peak of these sweat pants I've been living in the past month. I figure I better have some ceremonial burning of them once Grey is sleeping through the night and I can put more effort into my appearance again. I was changing Greyson's diaper one night when he started to pee mid-change and to my misfortune, his aim got my sweats. I debated how long it would take for the urine to dry and then realized he probably just did me a huge favor because I really needed a wardrobe change. Is that what my life has come to? Only changing my clothes when I've been peed or pooped on???!!! Aye.  

And since we're on the subject of my total lack of appearance, here's an embarrassing moment:
Greyson had his one month appointment and because I am rarely getting out of the house, I actually put on make-up. It's only slightly pathetic the only times I've put on makeup the past month are for doctor's appointments.... yikes.

Anyway, from the shoulders up, it looked like I made a decent amount of effort in my appearance. The rest of me though? Eh. Not so much. My go-to post-pregnancy sweats I had been living in were dirty so I stuck on the only other pair I had which were high-waters. Lovely, I know. It gets better...

Ryan has a pair of really thick camping socks I've been wearing around the house. It's freezing outside and they feel so nice and cozy and warm and magical on my feet. That morning, I didn't think about taking them off. I just slipped on some shoes and left. It wouldn't have been THAT big of a deal if the shoes I had slipped on were boots--- ya know, something that would hide these enormous bulky socks, but instead I chose birkenstocks. Oye.

I didn't really even notice until I was in the waiting room with another mom and her little girl. The mom's makeup looked professionally done, so did her hair, and she had her designer handbag and those big knee-high furry boots (which is not my style at all, but still a better choice than what I had on). I gave myself a lookover and realized my perfectly shortened sweats clearly revealed the ENORMOUS socks bulging out of my sandals. And you know the heel part of the sock?? It was above my ankle. And I'm sure she could see I hadn't shaved my legs in... well, a month.

Whatever. I'm really not one to care or be bothered by such trivial things like fashion and shaved legs after having a baby. I had a good laugh. Especially after the fact that I met the boys at the mall afterwards to get Santa photos done. I wasn't planning on being in the picture AT ALL, but Lincoln was crying and didn't want to sit by Santa so Ryan and I joined in for moral support and because we didn't make the effort of going to the mall and not have him sit with Santa. Gosh dang-it we are making memories and you better like it!!!! Anyway, when they printed our pictures, I saw we weren't cropped in close. Nope, a full head-to-toe shot.... Now there's printed evidence of one of my many fashion faux-pas. But let's look at something much more attractive, eh?.... Greyson at one month.