Come on Halloween...we've waited for you long enough!!

I enjoy Halloween as much as the next person, but come on already...if feels like we have been waiting FOREVER for this holiday to arrive!  Thankfully we are closer and closer.  This past weekend we headed to the pumpkin patch.  Good times but whoosh...busy with these three little girls.  Guess it didn't help that everyone else in STL had similar thoughts on Sunday afternoon plans :)

This morning was J's Fall party.  We had tons of fun painting pumpkins, playing Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin, Fall Bingo, yak yak.  My most favorite part of the party, by far, was seeing my J in her classroom setting. I can not even begin to express how my heart swelled seeing her so well adjusted and happy at school.  Last year I helped at Fall party and she was attached to my side...today I don't think she even cared who was there :)  She is an absolute hoot. Sooooo chatty.  It cracks me up how comfortable she is in her class - it was so hard for me last year to see this bubbly little girl clam up at school...this year she is shining with personality!! 

Tonight we headed to Grant's Farm for our annual Halloween Dance Party.  Tons of fun although we sure missed the Schwab's {this is the first year they haven't been in STL dancing the night away with us}.  J was by far our rockstar of the evening.  Guess I didn't realize but the kid can do a killer "worm" on the ground :)  E hit a wall early and spent most of the evening resting on me or Grandma.  C was her typical trooper self - clapping and dancing to the beat of the rockin' music.  We wore everyone out and all 3 were asleep before we pulled into the driveway.  And yes, J fell asleep mid-conversation.

Lots of Halloween fun to be had this coming week.  A little trunk or treating at church, a chili dump party at friends and of course neighborhood trick or treating!!  Fingers crossed I will get some pics of our resident Spider Girl, Lady Bug and Little Chick...

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!

It's hard for me to believe, but last week my baby girl turned 1.  How is that even possible?!?!  She has been an incredible blessing to our family.  As her parents we know and love her as no one else can...except her two "big" sisters.  Those girls are in LOVE with little miss C and I can not wait to see how their relationships blossom as the years go on :)  She is itching to be one of the big girls (although she doesn't seem to mind that walking is still a foreign concept).  She is a happy, go-with-the-flow girl as long as things go her way - she definitely has a mind of her own but you can almost always turn frustration into belly laughs. 

C has had a rough couple of weeks...ear infections, bronchitis, thow in a little constipation and well, you get the picture.  But, I am happy to say that she is doing so much better.  We had a great day on her birthday.  The girls and I took her to the mall and played on the playground, did Build-a-Bear, snuggled and watched a little dance class.  She got to open a couple presents on her actual birthday.  Have to admit there wasn't anything too exciting since it's hard to find something for the third daughter born in 4 years.

On Saturday we had her little birthday bash with family and some friends.  I think everyone had a good time and we were able to do lots of outdoor playing since the day was beautiful.

She had her 1-year check up today and she is doing great...21.5 lbs., 29.5 inches, 4 shots and what a trooper.  Wish her *almost* 5-year older sister had seen how awesome she was with her shots.  J has been worried about the 1 shot she gets at her check up this winter for the past year...geesh.

How was your weekend?

Well, in a nutshell...fun but busy. 

Friday J got to go with her dad to Summit's homecoming game.  He was planning on taking both the big girls but a certain 3 year old decided to throw one of her famous temper tantrums at quiet time and lost the chance to have a fun night out with dad...bummer.  She had a great time and ran in to all sorts of friends (old and young)

Saturday was full of soccer.  J's game was in the morning so we were able to go so Mickey play his game Saturday afternoon.  Little C is not feeling well so she got to stay home with dad (who also got to watch the Michigan game real time)...isn't she a cutie???

Sunday I kept C home from church since she's got herself a pretty good fever right now.  Russ took the big girls and the Barrett's surprised them and visited St. Lucas.  Apparently the girls were rockin' at choir practice.  We'll see what they do when they are actually supposed to get up in front of everyone and do their thing :) 

In the afternoon we headed up to Grant's Farm to enjoy such an awesome October day.  It's been crazy warm here!!  First thing the girls wanted to do was feed the goats...

Think they enjoyed it?!?!?!?!?!

Luckily the rest of the day we had smiles!!!

Here's to a good night's sleep.  Russ is traveling through Wednesday and we have a busy, busy week ahead.  Let's hope the birthday girl is feeling better soon!



Crack Goes the Clavicle - Or Not...

Last night after dinner I ran up to the store and Russ stayed home with the girls.  Nothing out of the ordinary - they were on a walk when I drove out of the neighborhood.  45 minutes I returned home to find one asleep (like she should have been), one in the tub (like she should have been), and little E crashed out on our bed....huh.?!?!?!  "What happened to her?" I ask.  J lets me know they were doing log rolls down the neighbor's yard when E started crying that her shoulder hurt.  Cried herself to sleep, in fact.  Great.  No biggie.  Already struggling trying to hold down the fort while I recover from my gallbladder surgery.  Sure, we can take on an injured shoulder.

And then she's up half the night crying over a hurt shoulder.  So a quick visit to the Dr. this morning and an order for x-rays looking for a broken clavicle and ..... whew.  All is good.  Just a bad sprain.  She's in a sling as it seems to help with the discomfort but otherwise she should be all good. 

Quite a year I tell ya...it seems like we have had just enough to go wrong to change up some plans, but thankfully nothing bad enough to be of great concern.  Amen.

She's lovin' life today....let's say she gets her grumpy face from her dad :)

Hello Schwab's and Bye Bye Gallbladder...

Two weeks ago Aunt K was a brave, brave mama!!  She packed three little children (4, 3, and 1) and drove all the way up from Atlanta to STL by herself!!  Uncle J was on a medical mission in Africa (cool, I know), two of the three kids had fall break, so Kate decided to brave the 9 hour drive and spend an entire week with us.  Oh My Goodness am I glad she did!  The kids are all so close in age that we have ssssooooo much fun with them.  Of course, the picture taking was limited because, really, who has a hand free when you are chasing 6 kids under the age of 5 around STL???

And while we missed daddy while he was on a business trip, it was kinda nice to know there was no schedule to keep.  No dinners to think about.  It was mom and dad, me and my sis, and all those little cuties.  Our week included park playing, Magic House, Under the Sea lunches, Zoo, Faust Park, the Carousel, the Butterfly House, etc, etc.  And it was super special because their visit just happened to overlap J's VIP night at school (guess who she took) and Ansley got to go to dance class with us.  My least favorite part of the trip....saying good bye on Friday night.  We know they've made their home down South and they love it there, but after a week of having them close...well, it just reminds me how much I love my sister and her beautiful family. 

On a completely different note, this week I got to say "see ya later" to my gallbladder.  Pretty routine surgery on Thursday but just to spice it up a bit Russ left Wednesday for a conference that lasted through Friday.  All went well and we called in the troops to help out.  Grandma L took care of the girls all Friday while Grandpa L hung out with me at the hospital.  Grandma S and Poppy came in late Thursday night to stay with us on Friday until Russ got home.  All in all I would say recovery has been pretty good.  The hardest is my little peanut who just does not understand why her mama isn't snuggling her like usual.  Hopefully I will be back to normal in the next day or two.

One last parting note...ever wonder why SAHM's itch for the day when they can stay in bed all day and let someone else take care of the kids and then when it is imposed on them and you truly just need to rest there are a MILLION things you would rather be doing????  Pumpkin patch, birthday parties, running errands, cleaning windows, anything except lay around!!!