Life Lately

Here are a few October happenings.

Samuel has been asking to go to the "park by Braums" for awhile, so we spent a morning there last week.

When we have an evening at home without plans, after dinner we always walk to a little pond by our house.

We used to always just push the kids in the stroller, but now they all want to walk/push a shopping cart/ride a scooter or bike. So basically our walks are now four times longer

There is some rock landscaping at the entrance to the pond, and the kids call it the jungle. They climb around, explore, and Sunday night they were pretending to be tigers.

The Evetts were in town for an evening last week. We all became friends back before we had kids. Our evenings together are SO different now!

Nathan had a firetruck come to his school last week, so it's been all firefighting all the time at our house lately.

We teach the two year olds at our church two Sundays a month. This is what Matt does while the kids are eating snack. Ha!

Samuel was proud of his boat he built out of magnets. Love his creativity!

No chance of rain, but this girl needed her rain boots

We had a tailgating/team spirit theme at our last MOMS meeting, and we will wear our orange any chance we get!

And we'll also love on sweet Baby Daillee any chance we get too. Shana lives super close to us, so we are seeing her and sweet Dailee as much as we can while she's on maternity leave!

We've been playing and talking about Disney World a lot lately!

A few days ago, I took Samuel and Elisabeth to Chick Fil A to play after we took Nathan to school. Samuel went to Chick Fil A and our other errands that day dressed as Jake the Pirate

 I try to be intentional and do something fun and a little out of the ordinary with them once a week while Nathan is at school. We had a fun morning!

 Friday night, Nathan's school had a Fall carnival. The kids had so much fun playing all the little games.

 Matt and I talked about our school carnival when we were kids and how much fun we remember it being. Then I thought about it and felt thankful that we both share those same memories. I'm guessing most spouses can't talk about the same carnival they attended when they were five years old. Ha!

 Saturday afternoon, I had some helpers in the kitchen to make chocolate chip cookies for a "camp out" at our church.

 Then Samuel woke up from his nap that afternoon running a high fever. Poor guy, it hit him hard and fast. Thankfully, my mom offered to watch him that night, so we could still make it to the camp out. He loved the attention from Grammy and Papa Joe.

 So we "camped out" at our church's property for a few hours and then came home and slept in our own beds.

 At every church activity, I'm always so, so thankful for the friends my kids have made. All three of them have made sweet friendships, and I just love it. I think it's so important for them to have friends at church.

 It was just a little windy, and these three were hardly ever apart the whole night. Elisabeth talks about Ainsley and Kinley ALL the time!

 We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, ate ice cream, played and visited and had a family devotional time. It was a really fun night. I was missing my Samuel though. It's never the same when our whole family isn't together.

Three and a Half

Samuel, you are three and  a half. Here are some things I want to always remember about you at this age!

You want to be a car maker when you grow up

Your favorite colors change everyday. Most recently they are red and green

When you want to tell someone something and they are talking, you put your hand over their mouth and tell them stop talking


Your favorite toys are blocks/legos/magna tiles. Anything that involves building anything and puzzles

You have to have as many stuffed animals as possible in your bed every night

Right now you love Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore

You are outgrowing 3T clothes and moving into 4T and wear a size 10 shoe

You love chocolate milk

You cover your face with your hands when you're sad or embarrassed

You insist on doing everything yourself. If I "help" you with a puzzle, you'll take the whole thing apart and start all over and tell me you want to do it "all by yourself"

You have outgrown naps. Occasionally, you'll fall asleep in the car when we pick up Nathan from school, but you're never ready for a nap during our normal naptime

You are in Cubbies this year, and you love it, especially that you get to play upstairs

You like playing with your brother and are content following his lead, but are also happy to play alone and even to play babies with Elisabeth. You're just an easy going guy. You'll watch whatever is on TV and play whatever anyone else is playing

You like playing super heroes and running around the house in your super cape and gloves


You only like Yoda and Obi Won Kenobi from Star Wars. You don't like any of the scary bad guys

You like school (especially playing on the big playground) but you'd be just as happy to stay home all day

You are the slowest eater and get distracted easily during meals. When you finally give up eating, you insist that we "save" your meal/snack/whatever. You never go back and eat it later, but have a huge meltdown if we throw it out

Here are some of the funny things you've said lately:

"Mommy, you make good bacon"

Me: "You can have candy after lunch"
You: "But I can have candy for lunch. Candy is a good lunch"

"Mommy, did you hear me crying in my bed because I couldn't see, because I close my eyes in my bed?"

"Can you make this chicken not taste sour? Can you make it taste like fruit?"

"I'm not tired. I haven't yawned in a second"

I told Elisabeth not to touch the goose at the zoo and told her we'd go to the petting zoo where she could touch the animals. Your response: "And you can touch the playground too"

You're the coolest 3.5 year old I know!

Daniel Tiger Live!

Daniel Tiger Live made a stop in Tulsa, and we weren't about to miss it! We have some big Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood fans in our house (and one boy who says he's too big for it but insisted he still needed a ticket).

We had been talking about it and looking forward to it for weeks! It was a really fun show, and the kids all loved it.

This boy couldn't wait to see Daniel Tiger and ALL his friends

Elisabeth is a super consistent napper, but I guess the excitement got to her, because she had NO nap the day of the show. She was a little dazed out before it started.

We perked her up though in time for the show to start :)

As soon as the show started, she sat perched on Matt's legs so focused for almost the entire show. I didn't even see her blink. Mesmerized!

Elisabeth said her favorite part of the show was Teacher Harriet and Katarina Kitty Cat.
Samuel said his favorite part was when the wind blew all the garbage on the stage and Daniel, his mom, and Katarina cleaned it up.
Nathan's favorite part was the High Five song

Matt and I loved watching the kids' faces and their reaction to seeing all the characters and parts of the show. It was a great night!



Our Cuties insisted on posing with the star after the play

I'm thankful for these fun memories and activities with my family!