Grandparent's Day (and a pseudo Aunt's Day)

I'm not sure if the kids or the grandparent's enjoy Grandparent day at school most! Either way, there are smiles all around! 

Grandparent day at Belle's school was in September and Grammy came down to visit. 

Jack's was in October was it was a little easier for more sets of grandparents to come! How fun are these pics?!?

Jack with his cousin Gabe, Grandpa Forrest, and Great Grandpa!

My sister, Laura, has voiced her complaint about the discrimination of special days for aunts. So, she tagged along as a helper for Belle's class when they visited the pumpkin patch. Again, I'm not sure which one had more fun! :)

We're so fortunate to have so many loved ones close by! 

Jack and Caroline's birthday party

Oh, hi there! I have been MIA for far too long and I have a lot of blogging to do to catch up! Since my last post-- we've had a birthday party, Jack finished a marathon, we took a trip to Texas, Jack turned 7, and we cheered the Royals on throughout the postseason and celebrated their World Series win. And that's on top of the normal day to day homework, packing lunches, parent teacher conferences, working, and of course, --- laundry. Ugh. Laundry! Also, I've snuggled, carried, and rocked Caroline in my arms about 78% of the time in between. This very post took an accumulation of the free time of three days to get out, but I'm determined to make it happen. I just love this space too much to hang up my hat. 

Hat. Ha. Get it? 

I left off right when Caroline turned 1. We had a joint birthday party for Jackson and Caroline in between their birthdays. It was a perfect set-up and we went to a park that accommodated both the big kids and toddlers alike! 

Caroline could feel the vibe that it was her special day.

She walked around like she owned the place. :)

She LOVED this slide. 

It's a steep hill to carry a baby up a million times in a row. Glad Grammy was there! :)

She had fun spending time with all the people who love her! :)

Caroline and her bestie, Yoona. Aren't they adorable? 

She was a bit timid with her cake at first, but was really into it once she got started.

While we did Caroline's celebration, Jackson and his friends were having a ton of fun climbing and playing on the playground.

I ordered Frisbees for the big kids and they each decorated their own with sharpies. 

They were a big hit!

Jackson and his friends! We are so blessed to be surrounded with great people in our lives. :)

Caroline's super loved coming home and finding all the tissue paper. Of course! 

The kids loved the park and the party pretty much threw itself! The kids climbed, ran around, zip-lined, and got out a ton of energy. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! I really enjoyed visiting everyone. I call it a combined birthday party success! 

12 Months: Caroline

Caroline turned ONE YEAR this week. She was, of course, very excited!

Dear Sweet Caroline, 

This has been the quickest, yet longest year ever. Makes total sense, right? I remember holding you for the first time and listening to all you had to say right after you were born all like it was yesterday. The months of ear infections and not sleeping dragged on, but we all came through and things are so  much fun with you these days!

You were my easiest newborn! You gave us a smooth transition into welcoming a third baby. And you've kept us on our toes ever since about three months! :) You have a quite the opinionated, willfull little thing. Whew! But really, I'm glad to be your Mama because I know that you're going to move mountains some day. 

Things you love: 

• berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries-- you're not picky!)
• being swaddled
• Mama! 
• belly buttons (yours and everyone else's)
• cat food and water
• cell phones
• taking clothes out of laundry basket

Things you don't love:

• getting dressed
• laying down to get diaper changed
• be buckled in any thing (high chair, carseat, cart, stroller)
• having to use a sippy cup instead of a bottle
• not being held by Mama all day when we're at home

You weigh around 20 pounds, wear 12 month clothes, size 2 shoes, and size 3 diapers. We had your 12 month check up last week and the doctor ordered some blood tests. We learned that you are allergic to oats and the wheat/rye/barley combo. I think this might have to do with some of the cranky spells you've had from time to time. And the super red eyes. I'm glad we found out so we can try to avoid those foods. 

You've started walking and love the freedom to roam. You think you're pretty cool stuff-- and you are!! I have really been soaking up your snuggles lately. It's easy to do because you want me to hold you almost all the time. But, I know you'll outgrow that some day, so some mornings we just sit and snuggle the entire 3 hours while Isabelle is at preschool. Makes us both happy! :)

Love you Sweet Caroline! I can't wait to celebrate with a party next week at yours and Jackson's party!

Can We Plees Go Boleen!

Jackson brings home several papers home from school each day. A ton, really.  I always look through them to sift out ones to keep. Right when school started, I noticed a pattern of notes from Jackson.

Not only were there the notes he had written out, he also drew pictures of him giving me the note.... and saying yes, of course. 

A couple of weekends ago, the girls spend the weekend with Grammy. Derek, Jack, and I were so productive in cleaning and organizing--it was wonderful! As a reward for all of Jackson's hard work and an opportunity to spend some quality time with just him, we took him bowling. He was thrilled.

He had a shot-put inspired bowling technique that was quite humorous, but it seemed to be effective! He even bowled a strike without even using the bumpers. I managed to get it on video, too. 

Derek won both games and Jack came in second. I am just undoubtedly a very inconsistent and therefore terrible at accumulating points in bowling (like, following up two strikes with two gutter balls). We had a ton of fun. Jackson still asks me to go bowling at least twice each week, but I haven't received any letters in awhile. :)

Weekend Recap: Chiefs game, garage sale, trampoline!

This past weekend was super fun! I absolutely love my job and I know the kids really enjoy school, but I always look forward to our family time on the weekends. We started out heading out to a preseason Chiefs game. Watching football makes me happy and fortunately it was a great game!

We even managed a great family selfie-- on the first try!

Belle enjoyed meeting some cheerleaders, but more importantly, she was excited to hold a pom-pom!

Jack threw a pass in the target. He's bummed I won't let him play football until he's older. Sorry kid, until it becomes a concussion-less sport, you're not playing anytime soon!

The kids found a face paint booth and then we came across a booth that took our family picture! I never remember to print out pictures, so it's nice to have a hard copy photo!

We cheered on the Chiefs. Belle particularly enjoyed when we scored because War Paint, the horse, runs across the field.

The Chiefs were ahead the whole game and it was an enjoyable game to watch. The weather was fantastic. Well, until 3 minutes left in the game and the sky opened up and all the rain came pouring down at once. Our family now has some fun memories running from section 327 all the way out to the furthest corner of the parking lot in a mere 12 minutes. We were drenched! Fortunately the kids love to play in the rain, so they both thought it was all great fun. :)

For the past two weeks, we've been clearing out our house for a garage sale. I mean, how do we acquire SO. MUCH. STUFF? It felt good to purge! I had the prices marked low to ensure things would get sold and it worked. We only took two boxes back away to the Salvation Army!

This guy was super eager to have a "Limanad" stand on Saturday :) 

 Jack was invited to a super fun laser tag birthday party. We got to watch on security cameras-- it was neat!

I got Derek's name on a Coke can from the vending machine! How fun is that?! Good thing he doesn't like Coke so I didn't have to share.

We had McDonald's for dinner with Great Grandpa. Caroline got a little obsessive about her french fries. She cracks me up.

My goal with the garage sale was to make enough money to get a trampoline-- and we came up perfect! It took a bit of time to put together (thanks Grandpa Forrest and Aunt Mary for helping!), but the kiddos-- and adults-- have been jumping ever since!

Derek kicked the kiddos out at one point so he could practice his "tricks". The same tricks that have forced him to take a handful of pain killers each morning and evening. He is still young at heart, but his body has aged a bit. :)

Not that I live every week in anticipation of the weekend, but we're looking forward to a low-key Labor Day weekend coming up, which at this point looks like it'll be lots of time to jump around and then recover from all the jumping.