Just Breathe

I'm thankful for little moments like these on days where I have had to remind myself to just breathe and count to 10 more times than I care to remember.

We're all up everyday long before the sun, but today I realized that I have never paid attention to the sunrise. Beau made sure that changed today. Somewhere between the tantrum because he didn't want to go potty and put on big boy underwear and the tantrum because "the monsters" (AKA Sesame Street) weren't on yet Beau wandered over to the window.

At which time he very EXCITEDLY shouted:

"Look at the sky mom!"

ME: (equally excitedly) yes! Look at all the colors... the sun is coming up, it's beautiful!"

Beau: "it's not beautiful, it's SPARKLY!"

That left me smiling and so thankful that kids find a way to make you appreciate the little things. My nice thoughts and zen attitude were quickly interrupted with:

"I DON'T WANT TO WEAR THE GRAY SHIRT!"

ME: Well what shirt do you want to wear?

Beau: I DON'T WANT A SHIRT, I JUST WANT TO WEAR MY BIG BOY UNDERWEAR! (Insert crying and screaming here)

Ahhh... just another day in this life I wouldn't change a minute of.

Happy Halloween!!

I hope everyone had a Spooktacular Halloween today! We had a pretty relaxed day (weekly grocery and library trips), followed by some trick or treating tonight. Beau was a tiger and we even painted his face so it looked like he had a tiger nose, which he thought was pretty cool. He did pretty well saying Trick or Treat at all the houses we went to....we had a little trouble with the "thank you's" at a few houses, but he came around pretty well by the end. He didn't want to come home after we had toured the neighborhood, but when I reminded him that we had to go dump out his treats to see what he got little tiger legs came a runnin'! He ended up having fun with the trick or treaters coming to the door too.
Last night we had the neighborhood Halloween party at our house. The kids had a good time running around and we decorated Halloween cookies, which was a big hit. They were all pretty full of sugar by the end of the night though. Spoonfuls of frosting were going into little mouths and sprinkles were flying everywhere...but they had a great time! Needless to say, getting Beau to sleep last night was not an easy task!

I'll be doing an upload of lots more October and Halloween pictures to our Shutterfly share site in the next couple days, so make sure to check back for that!

I Did It!!

So this fall I put baking an apple pie from scratch on my to do list...I just thought it was something I should be able to do and say that I've done at least once. But, after my apple butter failed (it went from a chunky watery consistency to a chunky burnt consistency) I wasn't really feeling the Little House on the Prairie vibe anymore....after all, they sell these things on grocery store shelves for a reason right?? Well today I decided that I was going to put the apple butter behind me and give the pie a go (mostly because I wanted to get some apples off my counter before they got all soft and mushy). I ended up putting 3 different recipes together because one would always call for something I didn't have or was only a single crust pie and I knew I wanted to make a double. Anyway much to my surprise it turned out great!

Baked with love by Lindsay and Beau.....ok maybe the hearts are a little corny, I wanted to get a little leaf cookie cutter for that purpose but forgot, so you work with what you have.

I had to laugh at myself while Beau and I were making the apple filling though. As I was cutting up the apples Beau kept stealing the slices and eating them. I told him to stop eating them or we wouldn't have enough to make the pie. Then I thought to myself "right...that makes perfect sense....stop eating these perfectly healthy apples so I can coat them with sugar and put them in a buttery crust. Way to go Mom" After that revelation I let him eat his fill ;)

We still had enough for the pie and when Beau FINALLY got to try a piece after supper he gave it his version of a two thumbs up! Just call me Laura!

PS...I'm laughing hysterically right now because I'm listening to Beau repeatedly say "What up Dog?" on the baby monitor beside me.

Tweites

We finally got to make our trip to Tweites today! I was worried it would be a little chilly, but once the sun came out and we were moving around it was actually really nice. We had a great time, there is so much to see and do! We could have definitely spent another couple hours there but it was well past nap time and we were all losing a little bit of steam. Beau loved all the little houses to crawl through and the BIG slide. Plus we got to go through a corn maze...he always notices and comments on the corn when we are out driving somewhere so I think it was cool for him to actually get to be IN the corn. We got to take a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch, which he also liked. The pumpkin patch was a little dangerous for shuffling little feet with all of the vines, but he had a good time trying to pick the pumpkins anyway. By the time we were done wandering around the patch Beau wasn't really in the mood to pose for any pictures with his pumpkins, but as Luke was pulling him back to the entrance in the wagon I was walking behind and out of the blue heard a sweet little voice say "I'm having fun mom!" I said "Good! I'm glad". To which he responds "I'm glad too." Definitely makes me thankful that we took a day to spend just doing fun stuff as a family.

White Halloween?

Is anybody else feeling a little cheated out of fall? I've had 4 kids GLUED to the windows today watching the SNOW! Aren't we supposed to be watching the leaves change color and going to apple orchards and pumpkin patches?? I'm feeling very thankful that I'm working at home and don't have to go out in this sloppy mess! I do have to keep fighting the urge to turn on the Christmas music however. I don't know how many times I've had to remind myself that it isn't even Halloween yet.


Beau doesn't seem to care what month it is though...he just likes the snow. He was so excited when he woke up this morning. Here's a picture of him from 7:15 this morning...I couldn't resist letting him go out on the deck and tromp around in the first snow.

Could you keep a straight face?

Mealtimes seem to be a constant struggle for us to keep Beau from making an unnecessary mess. He really likes to use his silverware to play in his milk. After repeated warnings today at lunch he continued to slop around in his milk until half the glass was laying all over the table. Needless to say he ended up in time out. When his time out was over as usual I got down on his level and asked him why he was in time out... his response was "I don't know" (the typical response he tries to get away with). I replied with " yes you do, what were you doing at the table?" With a very solemn face he looks me in the eye and says "cuz I was just dinkin' around". I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing and in my head I was recalling the many, many, many times that either Luke or I say at a meal.....
"Beau quit dinkin around and eat"
or after milk ends up all over the table or floor AGAIN "well if you'd just quit your dinkin' around!"
So I guess although I have to admit he has heard the phrase many times, he has never actually used it. It was funny enough that he said it at all, but saying it with what I like to call his apology face was too much for the "serious Mommy" to handle.

Three Years Ago Today....

Happy Anniversary Babe!