Favorite Photo Frenzy

Since my last post, my days have been filled with fall activities. . baking sugar cookies, apple dumplings and chilli, going to a football game, birthday party, soccer game (Ainsley scored 2 goals and her mama is her biggest fan no matter what!), a movie night in the pool at Family Wellness, dance, etc etc etc. Trey has taken a few steps on his own and when I said, "You took 4 steps Trey!" he said, "steps, steps." He also calls Ainsley "Zazee" or "Zizzy" for Ainsley or sissy. Here's some of my favorite recent photos. . . .

Trey "crawling" on the driveway without hurting his knees. . .Our last minute picnic at the park bc it was a beautiful day. . .RAKING LEAVES and jumping in them?! I remember doing that as a kid, so we may need to find a bigger pile of leaves. . . Grandpa always lets Porter help mash the potatoes at our Sun night dinners, so when I made potatoes this wk Porter MASHED them all on his own!!!! Helping mom with chairs pulled up to the counter. . .gotta love the many expressions. . .When Trey stood, Ainsley said, "Write that down!" My other favorite quote by Ainsley this wk was "Mommy, when we were being such good listeners daddy thought we were someone elses kids!" :) said with a smile :) Porter didn't want me to take the following picture. . .And, ahh, we were all hot and sweaty after playing in the backyard. . .chillin with some ice cream cones. . .again, nice expressions. . .

And so much for my photoshoot before church Sunday. . didn't go as planned with these two SILLIES. . .now I'm laughing at the shot with GooFs head cut off. . .football season is upon us, and Porter has his game face on. . .My favorite quote from Porter this week was "Am I a big brother now?" Yes, Porter you've been a big brother for 14 months now :)

This morning was Donuts with Dad for D week at preschool. . Ainsley introduced her daddy as GooF and the class laughed :) He said she was answering all the questions at circle time. . what comes after 29, etc.

And just so you don't get the wrong impression of our family, our days have also been filled with sleepless nights due to crabby, feverished, rashed, Trey after his MMR shot and also due to teething Trey. Did I mention he threw his first fit at Toys R Us this morning? He was telling me loudly that he didn't want to leave the big cars you can ride on.

Oh, and I can't forget the highlight! When we lived in Ames as newlyweds, we were SO SO SO SO SO BLESSED to be a part of a church with so many other young newly married couples. We have SO MANY MEMORIES with these other couples and what a great way to start out a marriage! Our small group consisted of NO babies. I think if we got together now there would be atleast 10 kids 4 and under!!!! One of the girls from the small group was going to be close by so she drove up here with her two darling little girlies to play! And luckily my children didn't beat hers up too much :) Thanks Renae for being such a great sister in Christ. . isn't it amazing how the girlfriends that we meet along the way that share our faith become friends for life?! Porter said, "Mommy, if she's your friend, she's kinda my friend too," and gave her a big hug right when she arrived :)

Crazy Baby Daze

I could make that the title of every post. . .my crazy baby days all run together, so this may be a jumbled post. . .

Last week Trey had his 1 year appt and the little peanut weighed in at 22 lb (25th%) and 29+in (10-25th%).

We also went shopping for Halloween costumes and Porter lived in his superhero (optimus prime) costume for 2 days straight!!!!After trying on many costumes, Ainsley decided on a pink fairy :) Saturday morning we went to the zoo. . .our favorite was the ducks playing tag! We also enjoyed watching the noisy gibbonsand playing in the sand

Saturday afternoon Ainsley had a soccer game and she scored two goals! I think my favorite part though is that after she does anything she waves at us with a big smile :)Thanks dad for coaching!

Going back to Fri, I had a dentist apt because my front teeth broke. . .again. . for the 4th time. And GooF and I got a little date to Barnes and Noble thanks to Grammy. Sat night we went out to CiCi's pizza with Michelle and family! It was a lot of fun even though Trey spilled a pop all over the floor :) Then we went to their house and played speed scrabble while the kids ran amuck! We're so thankful for their friendship!

Sunday afternoon Ryan's parents stopped over, and Grampa Seth and Porter caught bugs. . .see what's in that hand?

Then we had supper at my parents and the kids also got to pick pumpkins from Grammy and Grampas garden this wknd. . .And a few pics from today. . .I decided to take the kids on a wagon ride. . intending to wear them out before nap. . .am pretty sure I'm the one that got worn out! As I was pulling them I realized I was pulling 90 lb of love + wagon! I have also been trying to find some good deals on decorations for our family room (aka playroom). . decided to go with black and whites

I was so excited when I found the verse "Every good and perfect gift comes from above" I love it with the pic of Trey's infant feet :) As you can see, I love wording on my walls :) And pics of the kids and of course framed kids artwork. . that's the best and cheapest decoration!

Just a glimpse of our crazy baby days/daze

You make me smile!

Porter makes us smile, and often laugh every day! For instance, the other morning he came into our bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed next to daddy with feet hanging over. He said, "You're teaching me how to be a daddy! It's taking a LONG time for me to be a daddy and Ainsley to be a mommy!"

Then yesterday as he held a dolly he said, "I'm pretending to be a mommy. It came out of my tummy next season, and now I've got a perfect baby!" Followed by him saying, "It's so cute. It takes toys from its big brother." :)HA

Porter has been well behaved lately, but there was the time Porter got a spanking and afterward said, "Can you put a really big bandaid on it so God can heal it up?" I could go on and on. . . "Mommy, I love you." "Mommy, was that impressive?" "My dentist has a hooker."

Today he said, "Ainsley's going to have fun at preschool, and not even cry!" Here is Miss A, and when we asked what she did today at preschool she said, "I made a friend!"

We then brought pizza to daddy at the Coo!

Wet Weekend

GO COO!
Friday morning we had our first MOPS meeting of the year, which started off with acting out The MOM song by GoFish. Ainsley got to fill in and hold up the letter M, while I was "the cooker." When I went to pick Ainsley up from MOPPETS, she had made friends with a little girl named Ansely! I just love MOPS. I started going when we lived in NE because I needed to meet other mommies, and now I consider it such a blessing to help out with this awesome ministry!!

Friday evening we had a get together with the other math/computer science professors, families, and students.

We had Saturday all planned out. . .my sister Jenny and her husband were in town to cheer on the Glitterbugs soccer team, when we woke up to rain :( The game was cancelled, but we still went out to the muddy apple orchard. . .Porter's favorite part was shaking the wet tree branches :)

Then, after putting on dry clothes, dropping off our littlest man at my parents, and grabbing some chilli and sloppy joes, we headed to the first home Cougar game of the season! Ainsley and Porter could hardly wait to get there and cheer on "the footballers!" We were set with our pom poms and Barbie megaphone (aka microscope). GooF said we need to bring some more boyish things along next time, since Porter kept shaking his wrong colored pom poms and yelling through the megaphone :)Some of the highlights were our ever so tiny funnel cake, and having Cooper the Cougar throw us a FREE t-shirt! We look forward to many more Cougar games!!!

Sunday morning we taught Sunday School and then were invited to the house of someone from our church family. . .she said our kids were so well mannered and polite, which was a wonderful compliment! We had a football nap, dinner at my parents, and some apple pie making. . mmm!

Off to clean muddy clothes and shoes from our wet weekend. . .

There's no place like home

First, a preschool update: Ainsley said out of the blue this morning, "Maybe I sometimes have tears at preschool because my HOME is SO SPECIAL to me!" I couldn't agree more Ainsley. I have a saying hanging up in our house that says, "Everywhere is good, but home is better."

I am so glad you love our home Ainsley, and you only had a few tears right when I dropped you off today! When we picked you up Porter ran to you again for a big hug and you said it was "Because he's been missing his big sis almost all day!" I love watching you two play these days. . I commonly hear things like, "How about we play monster trucks or dinosaurs for a little while and then baby dolls?"

And just because you're so cute Trey. . .

Plus, our latest mealtime mess by "mobile mess" :) "If mom got up from the table, I'll just feed myself!" mmmm. . yobaby yogurt. . .

Your two favorite words currently are "nana" for banana, and "cookie" Your dad's least favorite and favorite foods! When I say "where's mommy?" You point at me and smile :)

Flies and Cheese

With this beautiful fall weather, we have had frequent visits in our house from the neighborhood flies. Typically my husband and eldest son corner them, catch them with their HANDS (I know, gross, but they're REALLY GOOD at it. . as in better than hitting them with a fly swatter). Then proceed to feed them to the fat spider on our deck. I will admit, the first time I saw my brave husband catch a fly and feed it to a spider, I thought it was pretty neat.
Anyway, I was making mac n cheese the other day for lunch and as the noodles were boiling I noticed something black in the boiling water. Yes, you guessed it, a FLY was in the boiling noodley water! YUCK! What's a mom to do? I immediately got a spoon to fish him out, and then contemplated whether I was going to feed my kids the noodles. . .there was no way I would eat those fly infested, seasoned with bug juice :), noodles with cheese, so down the garbage disposal went the Sponge Bob noodles. Sorry, no pics.

We had a fun morning at a library puppet show. . now, what to make for lunch today?!

Shoveling Packing Peanuts

Shoveling Packing Peanuts?! Yes, that's what I did after our new TV arrived in this huge box full of packing peanuts. I got out the snow shovel to clean them up, but not before we had some fun with them!Also, I have some favortie PICS of the WEEK!!! Gotta love this one. . .just an afternoon playing in the backyard. . .We took care of cousin Bridger one evening this week, and as we walked around the block we wondered if people were going to suggest birth control :) Can you imagine if we'd had one more between Porter and Trey?!

We had family pictures and before we left here's a not so good one I got of the kids. . .not quite what I was going for, but funny anyway,Headed to preschool. . .After we dropped her off, I watched trucks outside with my boys for atleast half an hour. . .on our walk home from the trucks Porter picked me dandelions and said "God is in our hearts." Ainsley has had some tears at preschool. . .but is pretty cute when the first thing she does when she comes out of her classroom is give her brother a hug :)

Playing in the rain. . .

And my littlest man this week. . .