so little time

we had another full weekend.

saturday we had a friend's wedding.

i have a bias toward fall weddings,

they're my fave. obviously.

this one involved cowboy boots,

a whole table of desserts and 

literally a boatload of beer,

so ronnie and i were in heaven.

luckily it was in warrensburg, so

my parents watched both girls for me

and i was able to run home in between the

wedding and the reception to nurse reid.

ronnie and i had a fun night.

i think we both feel the need to make the

most of the time we get out of the house.

just imagine us running toward the light,

yelling  F R E E D O M  like braveheart.

yeah, its a lot like that.

that being said, i'm good staying home until,

lets say, new year's.

it's hard to stay out late and then get up at

5:30am to take care of little ones.

not to mention, pack, load up the car

and fly down the highway back home

so i could spend my sunday with

my college roommates, margie and shannon.

and our 7 kids

(with another one on the way...

marge is due with her third nugget this january.)

let me give a small piece of advice:

if you are overrun with kids and you don't

feel like entertaining just make

your husband bust out some sort of heavy

equipment and let the kids watch.

it gave us some actual alone time on the deck while

the crazy kids watched ronnie on the excavator,

took turns riding with him,

and helped him pick up sticks.

free labor.

i'll take it.

they even found a huge black snake,

which none of them were afraid of,

so they eagerly watched ronnie chopped it up

while i silently freaked out from 50 yards away.

seriously, brette. back the hell up.

and all too soon, it was monday,

but luckily it was columbus day

so the bank was closed.

unfortunately, it's a "working" holiday

so i spend my morning painting an

old lady's house.

no worries though.

i was home in time to put both girls

down for a nap and watch the most amazing

comeback by the royals.

which ps- i'm crossing my fingers for tomorrow.

and now i'm just trying to recuperate and

catch up around the house.

hope you had a great weekend too!

hallow's eve up in here

i decorated for halloween.

i love getting my house ready for the holidays.

especially this time of year.

i think it makes my house feel more homey.

pumpkins, fall leaves, mums...

and then in october i add spiders,

ghosts and jack-o-lanterns.

i still need to buy a mum and get

out my milk carton ghosts,

but things are definitely looking fall around here.

 

i have sunflowers on my mantel,

with leaf garland and orange lights.

i have pumpkin, gourds and my

sparkly jack-o-lantern on the island.

fake pumpkins and gourds with fall sprigs

and orange candles on the dining room table.

spider webs and spiders across the door.

 

 

 

 

next up,

i have a few fun crafts for brette and i to

work on to finish things up.

today i had her paint her pumpkin and

and old egg carton.

i put her name in stickers on the pumpkin

so it would show up through the paint when she was done.

unfortunately, some of the paint peeled off too.

 

 

 

as for the egg carton,

i plan on making some fun bats to hang from our light fixture.

 

 

i want to take our fake bowl of oranges and

turn them into eyeballs! ew.

i've been considering also decorating my front door.

 

 

 

 

 

patches

another fun filled fall weekend.

this time we ventured to the pumpkin patch.

and unlike the apple orchard,

things were a tidbit more expensive.

good thing we invited mimi & papa

and my brother & his girls.

papa generously footed the bill.

(thanks sorry papa)

it was fun for the girls and they

got to run around like crazy people for a few hours.

and then we wrapped up the day with greasy pumpkin

doughnuts and hot apple cider.

tis the season.

 

once again, reid slept through the whole thing.

i'm wondering next year,

when she wants to be apart of the clan,

how well she'll be able to manage.

she'll try to keep up while the older three run wild.

should be interesting.

i'm also thinking that in two years,

things could be even more interesting.

[or crazy.]

i'm pretty sure people will want to steer clear.

 

 

i took about a million pictures,

but here's some favorites.

 

one more fun family fall day and

we should be good until next year.

no wonder this is my favorite season.

 

 

brette tidbits

a little factual information about life with brette.

she is basically the best version of my worst nightmare.

 

 

her applesauce is pink.

her goldfish are pink princesses.

her favorite shoes are frozen flip flops.

her favorite dress is a sparkly minnie mouse one.

she doesn't like her hair done or

shoes that match her outfit.

her string cheese is elsa and anna.

her band aids are doc mcstuffins.
she loves tinker bell

and just the other day she told me that

for halloween she NEEDS a frozen dress.
not gonna happen.

(have i mentioned how much i HATE character crap?)

she yells instead of talks. AND she never stops talking.

she's the loudest kid i know.

ronnie wants to have her hearing checked because he

swears she can't hear herself.

and that's super fun when reid's asleep.

nothing is more frustrating than having one child wake up the other.

she loves country music (which i dig)

and will ask e v e r y  time "what is this song?"

or better yet, she'll already know and scream

the song title or artist until you acknowledge her.

"JASON ALDEAN! MOM, ITS JASON ALDEAN!

ITS JASON ALDEAN! ITS JASON ALDEAN! MOM! MOM!"

(yes, she's starting calling me mom instead of mama or mommy.)

and sometimes you can tell her who is singing and she'll say,

"no, it's not.

yes it is.

no, its not."

... you get the point.

there are times you could tell her the grass is green

and she will fight you on it.

she's starting hitting, which kills me.

i've been reading up on how to handle it,

but who knows what will work.

she has to have her back rubbed at night and

she might try to talk you into one more trip to the potty,

which i've stopped falling for.

she wants to be held unless

you're at the store and then she'll insist on walking.

she is really polite, which makes me proud.

she says please, thank you, excuse me and sorry.

she has an obsession with the hospital and mcdonalds.

she always asks to go to both.

she's not scared of villains in the movies.

in fact, one of her favorite characters in frozen

is the snow monster that chases anna.

i dig that she's a tough little cookie.

unless she falls down or hasn't slept

and then she'll cry at the drop of a hat.

just today, she cried because i had to put on make up.

she can mostly count to 20,

but she thinks Es are 5s.

she knows all her colors and

none of her letters.

she never watches where she's going.

most of her injuries literally comes from walking right into something.

i keep telling her to pay attention,

but she's too busy making sure i'm right behind her.

because heaven forbid she go anywhere by herself.

unless it's down our super steep stairs that end in a brick floor,

and then she can "do it by myself."

her favorite foods (besides said pink goldfish) are red peppers,

dill pickles, bacon, string cheese, peanut butter, grapes, peperoni, cuties

turkey sandwiches, marshmallows and chicken nuggets.

she does not like pasta or potatoes and

has stopped eating avocado.

she always has to have a drink.

always. ronnie calls her uncle si.

her absolute favorite thing are suckers.

she'd pick a sucker over a cookie any day.
(i might have a stash of them in our diaper bag for emergencies.)

she does not like to share,

but always wants people to come over to play.

she loves naming off people in our family and

we pretend to call them on the phone.

most of the time she lets me know they are either "working" or "pooping."

she just looooves the word poopy.

she's the best test for how patient you really are
and how long you can keep up a pointless conversation.
 

oh and she's

beautiful and smart and goofy.

and hilarious. so hilarious.

 

basically, she's ronnie and i.

we have no one to blame but ourselves.

(except for the word "poopy butt," that's all mimi.)

 

crazy season

september hits and things gets busy.

we have birthdays, weddings, trips to the

apple orchard, trips to the pumpkin patch,

a high school reunion, fall family day,

and then all of a sudden its halloween.

and bam - the holidays are among us.

so, i'm sorry i've been slacking over here.

i've been really busy "out there" and

things aren't over yet.

i will say that so far, reid is doing well

with her time apart from me.

i think she is enjoying her

extra time with my mom and dad.

and as long as they keep lots of milk

warm and ready at a moments notice,

then she's as happy as a clam.

brette had a rough first day when i went back to work.

she had five accidents and then

it took me almost an hour to get her to sleep.

if you don't know,

it takes me less than 2 minutes to lay my kid down.

we say goodnight, lay her down,

i rub her back for 15 seconds,

say i love you and i'm out the door.

that night she screamed and cried

and clung to me and wouldn't lay down.

my mom tried too, but she wouldn't settle.

i finally had to just leave the room

and after 5 minutes of losing her mind,

she passed out.

it was awful and i was nervous she

was going to be like this for awhile.

but she was over it the next day and

she seems to be used to it now.

i think it helps that she still gets me

throughout the week.

 

but yes,

fall equals crazy around here,

but it's all so fun,

it's hard to complain.

 

 

reid: two months

growth:

we went in for her two month check-up

(everything is great)

and she weighs 11lbs 8ozs (50th percentile).

she was 23.25 inches (75th percentile)

and i can't remember her exact head measurement,

but i know it was the 40th percentile.

she's a growin'!

she's still in size one diapers and is wearing only

0-3 months clothing.

she definitely can't fit into newborn sizes anymore.

her eyes are blue and i'm hoping she keeps that color.

i want to have a couple of blue eyed girls,

just so they can have one thing in common because

i don't see many similarities between brette and reid.

her cheeks are chunking up,

which i love and her hair is still red and growing great up top.

she does have some cradle cap right now,

but we're getting the medicated shampoo and that

should clear things right up.

 

 

sleeps:

i got lucky again.

thank jesus.

she goes down around 7:45pm and

will sleep anywhere between 4am - 6:30am.

then she takes a wonderful morning and afternoon nap

along with a few other cat naps during the day.

i made sure to keep her in crib for napping.

i remember battling brette to get her to sleep

outside her swing during the day

and i didn't want to start that again.

when you know better, you do better.

she has a sound machine, swaddle,

a pacifier and she'll just drift right off.

easy peasy.

 

 

eats:

reid is no longer exclusively nursing.

as of monday i started back to work,

so a couple days a week she'll be eating from a bottle.

i'm thankful i still get 5 days a week with her,

i'll take nursing over pumping any day.

 since i've been pumping for the last month

and freezing milk, she still gets breastmilk,

but i'm not opposed to adding some formula

if i can't keep up with the demands.

as of right now, i have plenty.

 

 

plays:

still not playing

but she is talking.

lots of coos and conversations.

and she smiles now too.

how precious are little baby smiles?

i can't get enough.

she still loves being outside,

watching ceiling fans and

listening to the washing machine.

maybe in the next few months,

i'll introduce some toys.

 

 

firsts:

first smile.

first day without mommy.

first trip to the zoo.

first boat ride.

first coos.

 

she's such a chill baby and makes

it really easy on me to take time for brette too.

i'm excited to see what october brings.