12 in 2017

Trying to continue the tradition of my favorite 12 pictures in the given year. This year was actually a little tough to choose as there were lots of fun pictures, or "moment" pictures, but not as many "oh my goodness, THAT is a picture I have to add to this blog post" as I'd expect. That tells me either 1) I need to step up my picture taking or 2) I'm so involved in the moment itself that I forget to take a picture of it. I'm going to think it's more of the latter. :-)

For a while, whenever Abby did her make-up at Grandma's house, this is what the end result would look like. She's start out with just a line on her cheeks but it would end up full-on war paint.

Beth was so proud that she could get into the drawers all by herself.

Both babies fell asleep at the same time waiting to pick Abby up from school. I just love how sweet and snugly they look.

This is the first start of the trouble that these two would create when they got into things. Jake was super proud of being able to finally climb on the furniture and Beth isn't wanting to be left behind. 

Abby was able to hand-feed the local bunnies carrots on our Canon Beach, OR trip. 

Couch napping is a dangerous activity in our household. As soon as Abby sees Dad asleep the make-up brushes come out!

These two have such a sweet sister relationship. There are definite times that space is needed, but when one is sad or needs a hug the other is always there.

Just a "day in the life of" picture of my family. Sharing a bucket of popcorn while watching the Lion King. It's the simple things that truly make life worth all the fuss.

These two randomly started giving each other hugs. It was such a cute moment! Now, of course, it mostly ends up with sone body slamming the other on the floor, but ya know...sibling love.

Abby has become such a helper lately. She loves surprising me with finishing up my jobs for me. If it's not folding laundry it's emptying the dishwasher or fixing snacks the everyone. Love her helpful heart!

Jake LOVES to vacuum. It doesn't matter if it's the play vacuum at the children's gym or the dust buster at Grandpa's house. You'll soon find him asking to clean up those crumbs.

This big girl has a blast making selfies. Especially silly face ones. :-)

Happy Halloween!

You know all those neat Pinterest ideas regarding homemade Halloween decorations? Well, this year I was totally going to be one of those Moms. I'd been saving milk jugs for weeks to make Ghost Lanterns for the sidewalk, purchased streamers as the last needed item for my door Monster, and pulled down the indoor decorations from the attic. And then my family got sick. And as soon as one got well another came down with something. And Nate found himself insanely busy with overtime at work, teaching two nights a week, prepping for those classes/exams, grading those homeworks/exams, traveling for work, and working more on the edits to the PE book the group he is part of is making. And so the day before Halloween found my house with not a decoration in sight. Frankly, I was too tired and worn out from a month of solo parenting to care. (I need to give props to Nate at this point, though, because even as insanely busy as he was he made sure that whatever spare minutes he had were spent with the kids. This guy is a great Dad!) My sister graciously took Abby with her to carve pumpkins when her family got together to do so, which meant Abby got a carved pumpkin this year. Yeah! But our Halloween was a little more low-key. :-)

Halloween started on Halloween Eve with pumpkin "carving". Nate had flown in from D.C. at lunchtime and by dinner he was basically one too-long blink away from passing out at the table. Since Abby had carved a pumpkin with Auntie Katie earlier, I decided that we didn't need to do full-out pumpkin carving (which the babies wouldn't be into anyways) we could just do pumpkin coloring. After scouring the house for non-washable markers (as I try to throw anything but washable markers in the garbage as soon as they enter my house) I was able to find two blues, a yellow, a green, and a red to color our pumpkins with. It may not have been the messy fun I was looking for, but it was quick fun with minimal cleanup. Right up our alley that night!

Look at her grin! Beth was super excited to be given a marker and free rein to color.

Luckily our garden grew three pumpkins this year. Perfect for each child to have a decent sized one to color on. I love how deeply in concentration everyone is. Especially Beth as she focuses on coloring her leg. :-)

Jake enjoyed coloring as well as taking the marker cap off and putting it back on. Once his little fingers found a bug hole in the pumpkin he was just as happy shoving the marker tip into the hole as well. Nate thinks we have a future engineer on our hands. That'd be pretty cool if he was!

Abby decided to write out the "Five Little Pumpkins" poem she'd learned at school.

Holy Crap! Mom's in a picture! Blink and you'll miss it.

Once Abby was finished with her poem, and Nate and I were tired of taking markers away from babies who were trying to draw on their clothes - remember, people, non-washable markers - the family headed over to where all the leaves from our trees had fallen for some good leaf throwing and kicking time. 

As we put the entire family to bed early that night (except for Mom who got some nice quiet time!) it was with hopes of a great tomorrow. Beth and Jake were on the downhill slope of sickness, Abby hadn't gotten sick by staying up SUPER late the weekend before carving pumpkins, and Nate just needed a good night's sleep to recover from his travels. We were all set up for a great Halloween night!

The next morning I woke up super refreshed and ready to get my Pinterest-Mom on. LOL. For breakfast I served Googly-eyed Monster Pancakes. Abby's school lunch contained a pumpkin-shaped peanut butter and honey sandwich, pumpkin shaped carrot pieces, grapes, yogurt with Halloween sprinkles, Pirate Booty with leftover Googly-eyes, and two Halloween candy pieces. Dinner was Mummy Calzones, Pumpkin shaped carrot pieces with ranch dip, pirate booty, Hot Dog Spiders, and Monster Mouths (Apples with peanut butter and mini marshmallows).

Holy sugar rush, Batman!

I was super proud of my work. Abby took a peek and declared me the "Best Mom Ever"!

Haylee and Abby were my monster mouth making helpers. Katie said I had too much time on my hands. Nate wondered who the woman was that he came home to. LOL. I had a blast working in the kitchen creating all these yummy treats.

After dinner was picked up, it was time to head out for some trick-or-treating. I was able to sneak in another year of coordinating costumes (and will until somebody complains!!!) so this year we had a princess, unicorn, and a dragon.

Abby was over picture taking before it started. She just wants to get some candy already. Jake's dragon headpiece was so big it kept slipping down over his face. Beth was just chill, like usual.

My cutie-patootie unicorn.

 

A better view of Jake in his costume. The hood didn't last more than two houses. :-)

I was a little curious to see how trick-or-treating went. The previous year they were in strollers just along for the ride. This year I brought the stroller since I wasn't sure how long they'd be able to last, but knew that Abby was in for the long-haul. As we left the house Beth took off like a bullet and Grandma Akers had to race ahead to keep up with her. Jake and I were the last of the kid crew as he was having fun just stretching his legs. As the bigger kids went up to the first door (Beth having bypassed it completely and needed to be brought back) I grabbed Jake and raced to the group. Jake saw the bucket of candy placed in front of him. He looked back at me in confusion as to what was going on. Then Abby, Haylee, and Karcyn urged him to take a piece. He gently grabbed a candy and then again looked at me in confusion. I helped him put his candy in his bucket and said let's go to the next house to get more candy. His little eyes lit up as he realized that more candy was in store for him. Suddenly, his little legs couldn't run fast enough to get to that next house!

The kids trick-or-treating their first house.

Abby and Haylee urging Beth and Jake to take a piece of candy. 

As we continued our trick-or-treating journey the kids' personalities came out. Karcyn and Haylee were on a mission to get as much candy as possible by visiting as many houses as possible. Abby was loving being with the big girls and loved getting candy so she was happy. Chase liked getting candy but also was interested in seeing the decorations. Jake faithfully tried to walk up to each and every house we passed once he figured out that going to doors meant getting candy. I'm not sure Beth could have cared less. She was just happy to be out and walking that going up to doors to get candy was almost a deterrent from the fun she was having of exploring yards and rocks. We were out for roughly an hour with Bo, Katie, and Brooke keeping up with Karcyn, Haylee, Abby, and Chase and then Nate, myself, Grandma Akers, and Grandpa Akers trading off Beth and Jake. These two may be small but they are quick and constantly on the go!

Jake and Grandma gathering loot.

After an hour or so Chase got pretty tired. Grandpa Mark and Grandma Cathy had been following us in their car, so eventually Chase got in so he didn't have to walk anymore. Once Jake saw what Chase was up to he decided he wanted in on the car action as well. Grandpa Mark let Jake "drive" the car and little boy heaven had been achieved!

After another few houses Beth told us she was also done with trick-or-treating by the very intricate method of laying down on the sidewalk and closing her eyes. LOL.

This little unicorn had waved the white flag.

Nate and I decided that he would head home with the babies while I stayed with Abby who was somewhere up ahead with Haylee, Karcyn, and Karcyn's Mom Brooke. This was actually really nice as the previous year I'd been with the babies due to nursing needs and the year before I tapped out after a three block walk as I was out of breathe and exhausted from being pregnant with them. So I got to spend some fun time with Abby as we walked, talked, and increased our loot. Then, in a total Abby move, she randomly stopped and declared she was done. Thankfully Mark and Cathy drove up at just that moment or I'd have had a LONG walk back carrying a very tired little, big girl.

Once we got home Abby was all about handing out candy to trick-or-treaters that were still coming up to the house. Once 8pm hit I decided we were closed for business and dumped handfuls of leftover candy into, what I thought would be, the last trick-or-treaters we had. Then a few minutes later Abby came over and saw the empty candy bucket and got really upset about how we didn't have anymore candy for any future trick-or-treaters. Telling her we were done passing out candy didn't persuade her. Instead, she went into her own bucket of candy and pulled out pieces that she thought others might like and refilled up the trick-or-treaters candy bucket. This girl didn't grab the candy she thought was yucky, either. She grabbed a king sized candy bar, Reese's peanut butter cups, M&Ms, and Skittles. She really thought of others when making her selection. I was so proud of her giving heart that I opened our house back up for business for one more group of trick-or-treaters!

Passing our candy. It was great that this year the kids were old enough that we adults to keep sitting on the couch without having to move. :-)

Looking over her hard earned work. She was so sweet she even grabbed a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and handed it to me because she knew they were my favorite and I didn't get any candy while we were out. She makes my heart smile!

Another successful year of trick-or-treating in the books. I'm hoping I can get in another year of themed costumes and another year of easy-peasy lemon-squeasy (as Abby would say) candy gathering.

Country Mercantile Harvest Fun

Our annual Country Mercantile visit just keeps getting better and better. This year Uncle David (my brother) decided to join us to spend some time with all his nieces and nephews as he hasn't been able to see much of them lately due to an odd work schedule. The kids LOVED having Uncle DD come! Thankfully, this year we were on top of things and we planned to go to the Mercantile as soon as it was set up for their Pumpkin Patch instead of waiting until the last minute (which ended up being a good thing as our October has been C.R.A.Z.Y!

First stop is always a photo of Grandma with her Grandkids. Grandma was so excited for her photo that we didn't even make it into the festival grounds before she was demanding "her" picture. All the kids thought that climbing the hay bales were a hoot, though, so they were okay with taking the picture. Especially when Grandma said it would be the only required picture of the day (Katie is definitely raising some anti-camera kids. :-))

Then on to the How Tall This Fall signs to measure our annual growth. Last year Jake propped up to 2 1/4 and this year he's held in place at 2 3/4.

Beth shot up from 2 1/4 to 2 1/2. She may be small, but she is fierce!

Abby last year was just shy of the 4, and this year just past the 4. Gosh, I remember the first year we went and I had to prop her up and basically we just walked around the grounds while Haylee went on the rides. I know it's totally cliche, but my goodness the years are short.

Once everyone was a paid customer and in the festival it was a race to the first carnival ride. This year's winner was the airplanes as every one of the kids could participate. At first I tossed both Beth and Jake into the back of Abby's airplane, but after taking a step back after they were buckled I'd realized that was a pretty dumb thing to do. I could just picture Jake deciding he didn't want to ride on the plane and then standing up while it was moving. So, I quickly split up the little ones handing Beth to Abby and Jake to Haylee (who also had Chase in her airplane). Much better!

Beth surprised me as she almost immediately began signaling All Done when the planes started moving. Normally, she loves going on merry-go-rounds and being on toys so I thought this would be up her alley.

Jake was all boy as soon as he realized there was a joystick available. He had so much fun moving the stick back and forth that I'm not sure he even realized that the plane went up and down as well as in a circle. 

The slide was where I really was surprised at how different Beth and Jake were acting from my expectations. Normally, Beth is my go-getter who has no problem racing far away from me to experience whatever is her heart's desire, while Jake stays close to me and checks in to make sure he can do something before he does it. So when we decided to go up on the big slide I figured Beth would be all grins while Jake would cling and express unhappiness. LOL. Boy did I get that wrong. Beth said "nuhuh" the entire way down while clinging to my arms, while I could hear Jake just laugh and laugh in Grandma's arms. When we got to the end of the slide, Beth got up and immediately ran off saying "all done, no slide". Jake go up and immediately ran back to the stairs saying "slide, slide". So Grandma took Beth over to the other kids and I took Jake and we went on the slide another two or three times before I called it quits to meet up with the rest of the family. I think Jake would have happily spent the entire day just going up and down the big slide if he could.

I'm not sure how well it can be seen but Beth's face is grumpy cat while Jake is all smiles.

When we met up with the rest of the crew I go the shock of the night. Abby. Who has flat refused to ride in roller coasters. Was not only in a roller coaster, grinning and laughing and waving her hands in the air. I should know by now that my kids will do things when they're ready and not before, but sometimes it still surprises me when they flip that switch from "no" to "this is so much fun!".

Having a blast on the dragon roller coaster.

Then we were on to our final "small children will go on it" ride of the night - the carousel. By this time I'd figured out that Jake was my daredevil and Beth my uneasy one. So while I got both of them on their own horses to begin the ride I didn't figure that would last long. And sure enough, the first time that pony went up Beth went into my arms. :-)

Figuring out this pony thing. They had a blast while the ponies were standing still, but once they started moving only Jake continued to have fun.

Abby, on the other hand, tried to do trick while riding her pony.

I just now realized as I was looking at the below picture that we never took the kids up the hay bale tower. Huh. I guess the kids skipped from the animals straight to the hay maze and I just didn't notice. I'll admit that at times it's slightly tough keeping up with two toddlers. :-)

Beth tagging after the boys. I can see this happening a lot in the years to come. Chase and Jake are the only boy cousins on our side of the family and just two-ish years apart. Beth is five years younger than her sister and nine years younger than Haylee. So it's either make the boys play with her or make the bigger girls. I'm sure my spunky one will figure it out!

I thought this was so stinking sweet. Jake kept running behind Chase saying "hand, hand". Finally, Grandma told Chase that Jake wanted to hold his hand. Chase reached back, grabbed Jake's hand, and then led him through the majority of the maze just like this. Cousin love. It's such a wonderful thing to see.

As the little ones were finishing up the hay bale maze, Abby and Haylee decided to take a quick turn on the Frogger. Abby was so cute in that she asked Haylee to go first by herself so she (Abby) could see what the ride was like as she was a little scared of it. After seeing that Haylee did indeed survive, Abby was all for the experience. Her first shriek as the ride dropped was quickly followed by a giggle of delight. I can see this (as well as the dragon roller coaster) being new favorites next year.

To close out the evening we took a family ride (minus Grandma and Uncle David who stayed behind to watch the strollers and all our gear - at least that was David's excuse :-)) on the train that goes around the festival grounds. The one selfie that I saw from Haylee was a blurry mess so I don't have anything to show, but the kids had fun. I think Jake best enjoyed when the conductor tooted the train whistle, Beth liked going through the corn fields, and Abby liked touching the corn stalks as we were in the corn field. As everyone was starting to get a little hangry, the group decided to skip the tractor ride out into the pumpkin patch (1. the pumpkins that we could see weren't looking all that great and 2. with so many kids we were happy to just grab a pumpkin from the stash for sale that was next to the restaurant) and instead go have dinner. Dinner at the Mercantile is always a treat. The food is yummy, but the caramel apples as the show stealer. And with the ice cream that Auntie Katie always gets the kids it's sugar overload of tasty goodness. 

Beth and Jake picking out their pumpkins. We ended with Abby getting a decent sized orange one while I went the cheap route and got two gourd sized pumpkins for the twins. It's what they could carry themselves and it cost me less money. WinWin! 

This year was another fun year of fall fun and I look forward to next year's adventure when Abby will be riding all the rides and Beth and Jake will (hopefully) be more into their sized rides as well.

Abby's First Day of First Grade

Also known as Abby's no longer my little girl who wants me to drop her off every morning but is instead a big kid that would rather I do a quick drop and dash with barely a good-bye wave. Sob.

But on to first grade she did go! We were super fortunate in that her Kindergarten teacher decided to move up to First Grade this year and so took her whole class up with her. Abby had a great experience last year with Mrs. Cox so I know that this year will also be a blast with her. In addition, one of her best friends, who lived her us and was in her Kindergarten class, moved out of our neighborhood but Abby will still get to see her every day in school. It was just all sorts of excitement for school to start this year and I'm hopeful that excitement will see her through the end of the year as well.

Excited about First Grade

Love her goofy toothless grin. :-)

Abby LOVES the fact that she's on the same playground now as her cousin, Haylee. 

Waiting in her line for her teacher. 

Off on her new adventure!