Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

For all of my family who read this just to look at pictures of the kiddos-- this post is for you! Here's the latest from my instgram feed from the past several months. (Are you on instagram? Let's be friends!)

Poor second chid had to entertain herself during big brother's basketball practice. Good think we could put our ancient early generation ipod brick to work! It's full of Frozen music, of course.

 I've finally been able to cash in on child labor this year-- actual productive help from the kiddos! It's wonderful. Also-- we hate this tree.

I titled this, "Threenager". Also, this is the first picture that when I see it, I actually see how much she looks like me (like people always tell me!).

A few weekends ago, Derek and I enjoyed a great date night. A nice steak dinner and Captain America! 

We got invited to a Royals game the next day and my M-I-L watched the kiddos again! Two dates, two days in a row! We're so spoiled. The weather was great and we won! 

Jackson performed with kids choir at church a few Sundays ago. He sang AND he participated with the motions!!! I was so shocked. I mean, no spit bubbles or angry face! The video I have is great and he made the entire congregation laugh. 

Belle has been checking the progress of the daffodils ever since they first shot up. We've observed the closed blooms and she was super thrilled when they fully bloomed. She said, "I want to look at them forever!" Me too! I love spring flowers!!!

During a nice day last week, we walked to our favorite train spot! I can barely believe that it's been THREE years that we've been going on this walk. Kids still love it! :)

This special smile is reserved for the happy boy who finally got to wear shorts to school last week! (Not pictured: the tears that came this week when it SNOWED and I made him wear jeans.) This boy is ready for spring to come and stay!

I didn't post my a belly pic with my post last week, so I made sure to take a pic this weekend. Ya know, when I was actually showered and in real clothes! :) 

While Derek was dutifully serving our country at drill last weekend, I traveled down to Springfield with my family to visit my sister. The weather was a beautiful 80° so we took a hike! 

We visited Incredible Pizza, too and Papa Johne helped him win some tickets while giving him pointers on how to shoot a rifle. Jackson earned a ton of tickets and picked out a dozen little army men. Belle just wanted a piece of candy. (of course!)

Meet Pinkalicious, though if she heard me call her that, she'd protest, "I am not pinkalicious! I am BELLE!!!" She's pink from head to toe almost every day. And the other day when she wore blue, she cried. Good thing we have lots and lots of pink.

Lastly, this dude cooked dinner tonight! How cute is he in his camo hat and Captain America apron? Also, he's always shirtless these days.  I'm telling you, this kid was made for summer. 

Somedays I actually feel as if I don't do a good job of getting enough pictures of the kiddos. It's laughable, right? Can I blame pregnancy hormones? Well, I do still feel legitimately guilty that I have yet to get Belle's two year pictures professional done. Or her three year. Sorry sweetie! At least I have cute pictures of you checking out daffodils! 

Lately, courtesy of Instagram

I haven't been doing a spectacular job at documenting just everyday life lately. Fortunately, instagram helps me out! Here are some of the things we've been up to for the last two months!

This is Belle's favorite hairstyle. It's titled "The Minnie Mouse."

Early in December, we got our first snow which was barely enough to cover the ground, but it didn't keep these kids from being excited about it! 

 Also in December, there was an unusually warm day and so we visited the zoo! And for the first time ever, we got to see the tigers awake! Belle was so happy. 

I love this picture. This sums up the time spent up at Grammy's. No wonder the kids don't like coming home. :)

Belle sweetly climbed up on my lap and asked, "are you going to keep me?" And the only appropriate response, "OF COURSE!!"

This was the first gingerbread house anyone in our house has ever made! :)

We snacked on the leftover icing!

Jackson joined a basketball team and started practice!

For Christmas, Great Grandpa gifted us a three month membership to the local community center and we love to play in the pool!

Green smoothies! We started the month with a 30-day Green Smoothie Pledge, but we never settled back into a consistent routine after vacation. The new recipes we've tried, though, have been super tasty! Plus, we're trying all sorts of new foods and flavors.

We got all decked out in red to watch the Chiefs in the playoffs a few weeks ago.

Even though the ending was tragic, at least the kiddos were cute! We're still Chiefs fan. Next year will be our year.

My beautiful Repunzel at a Tangled birthday party. Is this not the cutest idea ever??

Per Jackson's incessant request to go bowling "in real life", we went bowling a few weeks ago. I didn't take a pic of the end score because it was embarrassing. Next time, I'll be sure to add bumpers for myself.

Last Sunday, the sun was shining and it was so warm. The kids begged to go to the park after church and so we did! They had so much fun playing that they didn't even realize that lunch was an hour late! Jackson was a total boss on the monkey bars!

More basketball practice! Fortunately, there is usually a little mat on the floor in the gym and Belle loves to do somersaults! Two sports, one fee. Perfect! :)

Tonight was another swimming night. We normally swim until close to bedtime and I pack jammies for the kiddos to change into afterwards. Tonight, we went on a small detour to Cherry Berry for a frozen yogurt bedtime snack.

In other news that doesn't prompt many photos, we've done a lot of cleaning out, organizing, and rearranging different rooms in the house. I love it. Not the work itself, but the results! I joined a running accountability group for January and my goal has been to get in 25 miles this month. I am at 17 for now, which is probably more than the sum of all the miles I've ever ran as an adult put together. 

Belle has been potty-training. It's going alright, but any progress is progress I suppose! Apparently we were too ambitious with praising her efforts for the first time and proclaiming that she was a big girl because when I mention that it's time to try to go again, she replies, "But I am already a big girl!!" and has no interest in trying again.

Jackson has been playing Mario Kart on the Wii. I only hope that teaching him to drive in real life is easier than teaching him on the video game console. Oy! Jackson did run two miles with me last week at the gym. As we were nearing the end, I told him that I was running out of energy and asked if he'd be able to share some of his. He spent the last two laps looking back over his shoulder "blowing energy" at me. It was the sweetest thing ever. He might just have to be my new running partner!

Six week photo dump

Warning: this is a long photo dump post. I just checked and the last time I shared my latest Instagram pics was in September! We've got six weeks of pics to catch up. :)

Back in September, we enjoyed a nice evening around the firepit. These are my favorite fall moments!

"Hey, Mom.... I helped!!!!!"

Jackson on crazy hair day at school!

Belle looked in the mirror, noticed her messy bun, and excitedly proclaimed, "I'm a Mommy!!!" Apparently, I don't do my hair often enough.

Jackson and I were preparing for his firefighter birthday party!

Coloring merely on paper interferes with her artistic flare?

Storytime outfit: shorts, t-shirt snow boots, chiefs helmet. Whose kid is this?!?

It was a tad windy the afternoon that the kids went to play outside in the rain!

One of the trees in our backyard has giant leaves-- and they look like hearts! So fun. 

Cousin sleepover! 

My sister-in-law and I ventured out to explore Westport last weekend. Frozen yogurt-- yum!

This past Monday our street got repaved! Trucks were here all day. My kids were so intrigued. They watched for hours. A few of the workers even came to talk to us and explain the process and others waved at the kid each time they drove by. It was so fun!

The weather turned yucky very quickly, but it didn't stop the kids from watching from inside. This was cooler than TV!

Pink scarf day at the library!

"Mom, I'm stickering!" 

I love that cameras are so accessible these days to capture fun day-to-day moments. The bad news is that I have about a hundred kazillion photos on my phone and computer. Once I've shared them though, I can go back and delete!

Have a fun weekend everyone! :)

Just another photo dump post

Oh, hello there! So, I know I haven't been around here much. Here's the deal. So we made the decision as a family to eliminate processed foods with all the additives, preservatives, and so on and so forth. And it's been three weeks and it's been going well (and delicious)! The only downside is that I have been cooking everything, for every meal, three times a day... EVERYDAY! It's getting easier the more it becomes our new normal, but then there's still the planning and then the clean up! I feel like it's all I think about... which in turn fills up all of my blogging ideas.

Oh, and I'm studying for the National Counseling Exam (the test I have to pass to secure state licensure) and boy does it ever make me feel as if I learned nothing in grad school! It's keeping me humble. Hopefully the paperwork comes quickly so I can get registered and get the silly test over with! I'm done with tests!!!

Okay, so now for the reason I know most of you are here anyway-- kids pictures. Here's my latest Instagram photo dump from the past few weeks.

Belle applied her own mascara a few days ago. And when I got the camera out she was all melodramatic. These pics, taken just moments apart just crack me up.

We visited the local fall festival a few weekends ago and we enjoyed a funnel cake! (now, before you're asking how this is considered appropriate for our non-processed foods... well, two things 1. we get to have treats every now and then and 2. it was homemade and even if the ingredients are practically all sugar-- there weren't additives, chemicals, food coloring etc.)

Belle made a hedgehog at the library!

We went to the zoo last Monday-- it was officially the beginning of sweatshirt season!! 

This girl needs a Permit Driver sign on this cart! Thankfully the other patrons just thought she was cute. In other news, my Achilles tendons were practically bleeding when we left the store.

I found these two playing the other day... They was so cute!!!! I was told that this was their "little sister" named Amy. (This was all purely imagination. We have no pregnancy news to share.)

Belle cooks me breakfast almost daily. She the cutest little chef, isn't she?

I've been doing some yoga videos these days and Belle likes to join me! She is really good at doing what she sees on the tv! How cute is the toddler downward dog???

Another thing I just happened to find my kids doing... Jackson was reading Belle a "bedtime story". A long one, too. I'm either a great mom for letting them explore and develop a love of textbooks and learning-- or I'm a terrible mother for introducing them to the world of substance abuse at this incredibly young age. Time will tell, I suppose...

Today, Chacey (and her little sister!) came over to play for several hours! The kids were SO excited. Chacey giggled like a little school girl when she walked into Jackson's room. And as I was taking the picture, Jackson said "I love you, Chacey. I'm going to give you lots of kisses!" (no kisses were exchanged!). It's hard to believe that these guys have been playing together since they were newly one year olds!! 

That concludes the photos I've taken.... I could take pics of all the food I've been cooking but I've vowed to stay away from documenting every meal. You're welcome!! Happy Monday everyone!