A Day in the Life- Monday

I thought I would write about a typical Monday now that Elisabeth has joined our family. We almost always stay home on Mondays, and today was a typical Monday for us.

5:00am- Elisabeth is ready for an early breakfast. I feed her and we both go right back to sleep.

7:00am- Samuel wakes up. Matt brings him down and puts him in our bed. There's no chance he'll go back to sleep and by 7:30 everyone is awake and playing in our bed.

7:30am- Matt leaves for work, and I feed Elisabeth while the boys watch a TV show

8:00- I fix the boys' breakfast. They have biscuits with peanut butter and jelly and a banana. While they eat, I grab a quick breakfast, put my contacts in/brush teeth, and straighten the house a little.

8:30am- They finish breakfast, watch TV/play downstairs while I do some chores downstairs, start a load of laundry and get dinner in the crock pot. Elisabeth takes a short morning nap in her swing downstairs

9:15- We all head upstairs to play. Elisabeth plays in the swing. I get the boys dressed and they play with puzzles, binoculars, and trains.

9:45- Elisabeth plays in her room and has some tummy time. She is getting so strong and so close to rolling over!

10:00- Elisabeth is ready to eat again. I feed her upstairs while the boys play trains in Nathan's room.

10:30- I let Elisabeth play in her swing while the boys play with their cupcake and cookie toys. We also read books and I try to straighten the playroom a little.

11:30- We come downstairs for lunch.

11:45- While the boys eat, I put Elisabeth down for a nap and fix me something to eat too. Matt ended up not coming home for lunch today, which is unusual for him. Normally he is home at 11:45 for lunch.

12:15- We're finished with lunch. Elisabeth is still napping, so I decide to make our bed since the sheets I washed that morning were clean. I realize that I should have done that while the boys were still eating. I have a lot of extra "help" making the bed.

12:30- The boys get distracted with toys downstairs, so I can finish making the bed in peace. They play and watch Clifford while I clean up from lunch and do a few things on the computer.

1:00- Elisabeth wakes up and eats while the boys play with a new train set they recently got.

1:30- I put Samuel down for his nap, change, and jump on the treadmill. Nathan watches Thomas the Train and plays while I run, and Elisabeth hangs out on the bed next to me. She's a happy girl since she just woke up from a good nap and has a full belly!

2:15- I finish running, check on Nathan who is playing happily and turned the TV off because his show was "getting boring." I put Elisabeth down for a nap and hop in the shower.

2:30- After I've cooled down from running I tackle two full laundry baskets and fold them while I watch TV in the bedroom and Nathan plays by himself in the living room. Three children equals A LOT of laundry!

3:30- Samuel and Elisabeth are both up from their nap. I get Samuel a snack and feed Elisabeth. After she finishes eating, I get a little dinner prep done.

4:15- We all head outside to play and enjoy the beautiful weather. Nathan plays airplane, golf and soccer. Samuel plays in the playhouse and swings.

4:45- The boys stay outside, while Elisabeth and I come in and finish getting dinner ready.

5:15- Matt is home and dinner is ready. We have French dip sandwiches, tator tots, broccoli, and the boys have applesauce.

5:45- Dinner is over. We all get shoes on and head out for a walk to the playground. The playground in the neighborhood next to us recently installed some new equipment, and the boys love the surprise of new toys! They have a great time!

6:30- We make it back home and I feed Elisabeth, while the boys watch "Frozen" for their night, night show.

7:00- I finish feeding Elisabeth, pause the movie, and take the boys upstairs for baths. Matt and Elisabeth come upstairs to give us some company. That girl loves to be around her brothers!

7:30- Nathan decides he wants to eat the rest of his dinner that he refused to eat when the rest of us ate, so he can have dessert. He gobbles up his broccoli and half of his sandwich, and then enjoys ice cream. "Frozen" is on in the background, but the boys only pay attention when a song comes on. We have dance parties during the songs. They play and beg for snacks until bedtime.

8:00- Elisabeth is acting hungry again, so she gets a little snack too.

8:15- We brush teeth and all head upstairs to read books. Nathan and Samuel each choose a book to read, then Nathan practices his Bible verse for Cubbies and prays.

8:30- Both boys are in bed asleep.

8:45- Matt and Elisabeth hang out in the bedroom watching a movie while I do a few things on the computer and straighten the house.

9:15- Elisabeth and I play and have some girl time watching Dancing with the Stars, while Matt falls asleep reading a book.

10:00- I feed Elisabeth and put her to bed.

10:30- Good Night!

Life is certainly far from boring around here!

Weekend Recap

We had a fun and busy weekend. Our Fall weekends always seem to fill up with fun activities! On Thursday night we took the kids to a Halloween carnival that my parents' neighborhood hosts. We go every year, and the kids love it.

Elisabeth dressed up as Minnie mouse for her first Halloween!

Nathan has changed his mind about 20 times on what he wanted to be for Halloween. I told him I don't care as long as we have the costume at home. For the carnival he decided to be a Fire fighter and he wanted Samuel to be a Dalmation. They were so cute! Who knows what he'll decide to dress up as on Halloween though

Samuel seemed a little unsure of the dog costume, until I convinced him to put it on. After that he loved it. I think he likes playing dress up as much as his brother.

Nathan spent a long time playing in the inflatables.

They had fun little carnival games set up too, so the boys could get candy.

Samuel loved the ring toss game, and he loved getting candy too. He points to his pumpkin bucket all the time and says "candy."

The kids and I spent most of the day at home on Friday. Nathan helped me bake a carrot cake for Barry's birthday. I used our food processor to shred the carrots. I also always use it to shred cheese. When I finished Nathan said, "I bet those carrots taste like cheese because they look like cheese." He was a little disappointed I think :).

My parents had some things to do Friday night, so we kept the kids with us. It felt a little weird for everyone. Matt and I are so thankful to get a kid free date night most every weekend. Because we usually have our date night on Friday nights, I've gotten out of the habit of cooking dinner on Fridays, so we took the kids to Whataburger. It was our first time taking all three to a restaurant, and it turned out to be a good experience!

After dinner, Nathan asked to go play on the train at the Dental Depot, so we stopped there and let them play for 20 minutes or so. They had a ball.

Elisabeth napped during her train ride.

She woke up near the end to enjoy some of the fun. I think she heard Nathan say he was driving the train to Disney World and wanted to be in on the action :).

Saturday morning we went to the zoo. It was Elisabeth's first visit. Everyone had a great morning. The weather was just gorgeous. Perfect zoo weather.

Nathan wanted to ride the train with Samuel while Matt and I stayed at the station. Sorry, buddy. We all rode it together.

I needed to feed Elisabeth while we were there, so the boys got to play on the playground for an extra long time. I'm glad we have a zoo membership and get in free, because we spent most of the morning at the playground and on the train, and didn't see too many animals. The boys LOVE that playground, more than the animals, I think :)

We stopped at the petting zoo. Samuel thought it was the best thing in the world to get to brush the sheep.

We also got to ride the carousel.

The kids were worn out after our busy morning, and all fell asleep in the car. Sweet Nathan is the best big brother around :).

After short naps, lunch, and baths, we headed over to my parents' house to watch the OSU game. My parents also had a party that evening for Barry's birthday so we stayed for that too. Nathan and my mom got Barry a new Thomas track for his birthday :).

My little party girl and I at the party!

It was fun to meet and visit with some of my parents' new and old friends.

Sunday was a normal day: church, lunch, naps, playtime. Matt had to work in the church nursery for the evening service, and he was sweet to take ALL the kids and give me a couple of hours at home by myself. That's definitely rare these days!

We are gearing up for another fun and busy week ahead!

Pumpkin Patch 2014

Every October we try to make it to a pumpkin patch. This is our third year to go to Livesay Orchards in Porter. It's always a really fun day that we always look forward to. It was especially fun this year, because Samuel was old enough to enjoy all the fun.

Can you tell he's excited to ride on the tractor?

Once the tractor dropped us off at the pumpkin patch, the boys set off to find the perfect pumpkins.

Samuel tried so hard, but they were all too heavy for him to carry.

My mom got a new sewing/embroidery machine for her birthday and I put her to work making outfits for the kids. They turned out so cute!

I remember last year thinking how fun the pumpkin patch would be this year because both boys would be running around having fun.

Never ever did I dream we'd be taking a baby girl with us too! She made the trip even more fun, and was such a good sport during our attempt to get a picture of all three kids.

We found two perfect pumpkins and headed back on the tractor.

Samuel always wanted to hold someone's hand on the tractor. He reached up and grabbed Matt's hand on the way back.

Once we made it back, we headed across the street to Pumpkin Playland.

Samuel would have spent all day playing in this corn. We had to drag him away.

Nathan said one of his favorite parts of the day was milking a cow.

We always have to get a picture of Nathan playing ring toss. He's getting a better grasp on the object of the game as he gets older ;)

We all had a really great morning and can't wait until next year!

On Sunday night after dinner, we let the boys paint their pumpkins. We aren't brave enough to carve with them just yet.

They had a blast painting them though.

Their masterpieces are displayed on our table for now.