Apple Picking

Last year we discovered an apple orchard with some friends only to learn that the owners are somehow related to many people we know on staff. (This is a common occurrence in Kansas!)

Today we went back with some other friends. It was chilly and the wind was biting. The four boys stayed in the van most of the time while Tina and I laughed and picked our own apples. It was a blast! There is just something about outings like this that feeds my soul!

Road trippin with four handsome boys.

The apples of my eye. *Excuse the cheesiness.

  Not a happy camper.

He rallied. But not for long.

 Summary of our trip. 

 This was snapped mere moments before I was nearly pelted by that apple. Thanks, son.

 Happy faces! We survived it. It really wasn't that bad, but the boys were total wusses, all huddled in the van. But we were tough mamas and we came home with some delicious apples.

 

A "Grand" Time

World Impact hosts a men's retreat each October and it has become our tradition that my mom comes to hang for the weekend while Ryan is gone. This year my Grandma came too! The boys were spoiled. My freezer was filled. It was a happy time all around.

Great Grandma intentionally dropped quarters between her seats so the boys could find them (all because a few were already there). Unfortunately they were all stuck under the console and they maybe found three.

We wore Great Grandma and Mama D out at Applejack Pumpkin Patch. So much fun!

I think Nate got his head stuck.

 Trike riding.

 

 Sliding

 Feeding the goat with Great Grandma.

 My little bus load.

 Nate and I on the left, Ben on the right!

 Wheeee

 Walking on the hay stacks.

 King of the hay hill.

 Brotherly love.

 Scarecrow

 We have a fascination with making our scary faces right now.

 Milo maze. The boys LOVED it.

 Second to the big slide, this was their favorite - the little train.
(Boys are second barrel from the back.)

 Pumping water.

 Horse swing.

 Can you see us?

 Great Grandma and Mama D. Heaven!

 Selfie with Nate

 These are Carter boy faces! We get these pitiful looks all the time. I can't believe I caught them both with this pic.

They got to pick their own pumpkins from a big patch.

They decorated their pumpkins with stickers and glitter glue. We made the boys wait until the next day and they had them done by 7:30am while I was making breakfast! 

My busted lip. We were watching the boys play and a little boy's cowboy hat flew off in the wind and hit me straight on the chin, busting my top and bottom lip and leaving a red line on my chin. It was startling and it hurt. But, I survived it!

 Great Grandma snuck guitars in the cart at Toys R Us and surprised the boys with them later that evening. They are still playing them first thing each morning.

I am so glad my Grandma got to visit our home. She hasn't been here since Ben was only a few months old. What a treat! My boys are so lucky to have time to know so many of their Great Grandparents. 

Growing Up

Since the boys moved into the same room,

I have wanted to makeover Nate's nursery into a home office/treadmill storage/Ben's rest area room. It took me longer than I hoped, but I think it has mostly come together.

I knew I wanted gray and blue, but I couldn't decide on the right blue. Until Ryan bought this shirt! Then I knew. I made him come with me to the craft store, while wearing the shirt, to pick out my accent paint! What a guy.

 These were the sweet walls in Nate's nursery.

 Bye bye tree and name.

 Priming and edging. Necessary, but not fun.

Here is a video tour (mostly for Candice bc she has been begging).

Eventually, I want to get a chair in this style. Maybe a solid, maybe a print. I don't know. And eventually I should use that treadmill, but for now it just takes up good real estate in that tiny room.

No words...

What can I say...
I found them like this in their "slumber party" reading their Bibles.
I'm blessed beyond measure to be their mama.

Mommy, I just love you!

About three times a day, Nate will randomly walk up to me, hug my legs or crawl up into my lap and say, "Mommy, I just wuv (love) you!"

I melt every single time. Who wouldn't? 

My little Nate has always been cuddly and lovable. He still is! When he first started crawling he would crawl away, but then come back just to touch me and then go off exploring again. He still does that in his more grown-up way. He likes to know where I am and to just check in. He is good for a "tight hug" or a kiss on the cheek anytime I think I need one. 

While he is only two years old, he seems so grown up. He refused to be called a "yittle boy" because he is BIG. He tries to do anything Ben does, but doesn't always have the guts to follow through. At the same time, he frequently plays the baby card and tries to get me to help him with things he knows he can do. 

He gets all the attention when we are out and about. His big blue eyes and dimples make all the waitresses chat a little longer. People frequently stop me in the grocery store to comment on how cute he is. He just ducks his head and flashes those dimples, playing right into it!

He is completely fascinated with "mighty mega monster trucks" right now. He and Ben build impressive monster trucks out of their lego set and race them all over the house - with full sound effects. He knows a lot of dinosaur names and says those big long "saurus" words in his little two year old voice. 

He likes to run everywhere he goes and has the cutest little run. Neither of my boys have a very polished run - they get that from me. No form. No speed. 

We still battle his eczema and some days it is much worse than others. Just today he ate a mini red velvet cupcake and immediately broke out and was itching horribly. That was our first experience with a food coloring break out. He is still eating little to no dairy and we use little to no soap at bathtime. Vegan cheese is totally nasty in my opinion, but he loves it. Ick. He uses a prescription cream almost every night on his wrists, inside of his elbow, inside of his knees and ankles. He cannot wear any shoes without socks which meant no flip flops or sandals again this summer. He is famous for asking, "Is that soy?" when talking about any new food being offered. He has learned cheese and cow's milk "makes my skin itch." I still have hope that he will grow out of it! For now, we just manage it. 

My baby boy isn't so much of a baby anymore, but he brings such great joy to our lives!

Hey, I've got an idea!

I  cannot keep count of how many times in a day Ben says, "Hey, I've got an idea!" It is always with the same excitement and a little twinkle in his eye. He has an idea for anything and everything. It can be an idea of how we can get out of the trouble that he just got himself into. It can be an idea of something we should make together or cook together. Just this week we watched a couple of kids overnight. We have almost nothing girly in our house so Ben went to my craft closet and was trying to find something pink that I could sew together as a bedspread since we had a girl in our home. She didn't end up with a pink blanket, but his kindness didn't go unnoticed.

Ben is super independent and confident when he is in a familiar place and very shy and reserved when in unfamiliar places. He regularly pushes Nate forward and tries to convince Nate or me to answer questions from strangers. But when he is comfortable, he knows what he wants and how to get it without blinking an eye. He is quite sneaky when he wants something he knows is against the rule - like messing with stuff in rest time or getting into my closet.

He is also well versed in the art of lying. We are working very hard to remind him of the importance of telling the truth. Currently, when asked to admit his guilt he will look me right in the eye and ask "will I get in trouble if I say I did it?" I remind him that the punishment is far greater for telling a lie. He usually comes out with the truth and takes the discipline for whatever crime he has committed. Teaching my child to have Godly character is a responsibility I do not take lightly. It is demanding and often hurts my heart, but I pray he will benefit from it as he grows. We also speak much about being kind. Wow. So many encounters in our day to day life seem so unkind now that I have kindness on my mind. How we treat each other, especially if we have wronged them, the person in front of us in the grocery store line, the kid that fell and is sad, etc. In all things, kindness! We are working on it together.

Ben is getting very excited about school. We chose to keep him home one more year and he will start Kindergarten next fall (2014). He loves to learn and soaks up tons of information. He loves to read and is happy to sit still and work patiently on something. I felt like he is getting the social education he needs from our missionary community and our weekly Bible study that has a very structured kid's program. I do my best to encourage his love for learning, but I feel like a piece of his childhood is slipping away. Something about starting school just makes me think he is all grown up. I don't even begin to think about him driving a car or leaving for college. Hopefully, I will have grown up enough by then to digest that!

My compassionate, tenderhearted little boy is growing up!

Shameless

This is a shameless "look how cute my kid is" post!

Most mornings we try to remember to say "our prayer" before Ryan leaves for work. Nate's little mind just soaks it up! I love his little misspoken, two-year-old sounding words!

Here the boys were five months ago saying "our prayer."