an obsession

When I sit down to do my posts and I look through my pictures, trying to decide what to put up and what not to, I encounter a real issue. I want to post everything! Every picture I take is a memory, a moment. A time when I thought my child was looking cute, doing something sweet, being funny or brave or conquering something new. One of my biggest fears as I watch my children grow and change is that I will forget what they were once like. That my memories of them as little children will fade. And mostly the things I fear forgetting are the every day life things. Because yes, the special moments and big events and holidays are great and all. But what really makes up life is your every day, normal life and routine. The stuff you do and deal with day in and day out. The way you spend your time, who you are with, what you are doing. That is what I want to remember. So when I go to put pictures on the blog (which I really consider my family journal) I feel this need to capture and record everything. Every moment, every look, every smile, so that when I am sad and lonely and all my kids are gone, I can look back and remember that day pushing my kids on the swing, or the way my child used to ask for mac and cheese for breakfast, or whatever the memory may be. So here is how October began....the every day stuff...

 Kellen continues his obsession with drawing rainbows. He is good at them...and he practices them mucho! Notice the K's and the e in the drawing....I am finding him making letters a lot more now. And he is a pro at writing his name. In this picture it was supposed to be him taking care of lots of little kids and babies. So cute!

 Makenna and Kara continue to be good buddies and Love to hang out. They are very good for each other...they are both funny, outgoing and head strong...in a good way.

 I continue to be lucky enough to always have front row seats to an acrobatics show any time I want! She sooooo reminds me of me as a child in this way!

 Kellen started getting Very excited for his birthday party. So excited that we needed to make a chain to count down the days. It helps him to be able to visualize the amount of days, otherwise he obsesses and frets over it and gets himself very anxious and stressed. Silly little boy.

 I enjoy seeing my kids have their own sense of style. This is Kellen's favorite way to sport his crocs- mismatching the colors. Every day is a new combo. He rocks it!

 Love my Aunt Stephanie. She threw me a totally cute and awesome shower for baby Carys. It is always fun to get a bunch of kret women together.

 It feels good to know I have a superhero by my side at all times, just in case. You never know what evil or villains we may encounter on the way to target. 

 Aunt Stephanie and her following. All these little kids adore her!

 Little girls apparently can grow beards.

 And Kellen discovered how to take self portraits on my phone camera.

 The pink panthers continued to have a great season. Makenna's best personal game was when she scored 3 goals in one game. But she also Loves to play defense and likes to be goalie. She does a good job, though she occasionally gets distracted while waiting for the ball to come her way. She is a good defensive player, but I like her to be forward. She is so fast and has so much energy and is scrappy enough to get in the thick of things. She is great at it all!

Zoo Much Fun!

I don't know if the kids and I could ever get sick of going to the zoo. Especially when we get to go with other people. Grammy was babysitting the cousins one Saturday, so we decided to keep all the kids busy with a fun trip to the zoo. It is fun the looks that you get when you are at the zoo with only 2 women and 5 kids ages 6 and under...and one of those women being 8 months prego ;)

 The little boys didn't want to go near the lion, but the big kids sure were cute.

 Grammy and her brood.

 I swear, any time we go through the petting zoo this goat is out doing it's rounds and being the social butterfly of the group.

 Kipper dude....it's always strange to watch the transition of a kid going from being the baby to hanging with and keeping up with the big kids. Such a cutie! He and Conner have a very similar spirit and energy. This is both a cute thing and a dangerous thing....

Grammy loves her wild boys. It must be something about the blonde hair???

Joy School...and more about Con

Whether I like it or not, my baby boy Conner is getting bigger and bigger and is definitely part of the big boys club these days. For whatever reason I have just had a really hard time accepting that Conner is growing up as much as he is. It feels like he is still my little baby. Like I can remember so easily when he was just a tiny little babe, all curled up in my arms and sleeping on my chest. But alas, he is not. He is a long haired, fun loving, wild, mischievous, adorable little man. 

One of my good friends was a genius and suggested doing a "joy school" for the little ones. Definition of Joy School - Mom's get together and rotate having the kids come to their house and host a couple of hours of "preschool" for the kids which includes a lesson, activities, songs, learning, playing, etc. 

So far it has been Conner and 3 others- Carter, Noah and Jocelyn. He really loves "going to school". He enjoys getting his backpack ready, loading it up with a snack, a pull-up, his "nigh night" and usually one of his baby dolls and heading off to school. I am really happy for him to have the chance to socialize and have fun and learn.

Such cute little kiddos having play time and then sitting on the carpet for songs and lessons. It is actually quite amazing what a long attention span these little 2-3 year olds have. I was truly amazed the first time I taught....they did so good sitting in one spot!

Mommy took the boys at the end of September to get their pictures taken. Both of them were soooo well behaved and did so good during their pictures that we went and shared some pretzel bites and a ride on the carousel afterwards. I am so blessed to have such handsome, sweet boys in my life!

I have to mention how cute Conner was during the pictures. He was trying So very hard to smile like the guy asked him to. He would stand still and look right at the camera, and with a very stiff face say "Cheeeeeeese". It was such a stiff, forced looking smile and the photographer was trying so hard to get him to give a real, genuine smile and make him laugh with puppets and stuffed animals, etc. But the more he tried to loosen Conner up, the more stiff and freaked out Conner got (I don't blame him for a minute). I finally got the guy to just be content to take the pictures as he was. Like I said, he was trying So hard to be cooperative. It was cute, pathetic, sweet and funny all at once. 

A few things I want to remember about Conner at 2 years old:

-He is definitely "The Con" and even calls himself "Con Con" which sounds like "Ton Ton"

-He is talking more and more every day and becoming quite the conversationalist

-He gets sad any time someone has a birthday because he thinks it is supposed to be his turn to have a birthday again. He loves to make pretend cakes in his room with his pretend food and throw pretend birthday parties.

-He loves to help feed Bella in the mornings and often times takes the bowl out, sits it on his lap and has her eat that way.

-Very independent little man. Right now everything is "No, ME!!!" which means, "No, don't help me! I want to do it on my own!"

-Pretty good counter: "1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 10!" (or something like that)

-Has very sensitive eyes. Loves/needs to wear sunglasses when we are in the car. If he does not have glasses with him he says "Hot day in my eyes" when the sun shines on his face. It is the cutest thing ever and always makes me laugh!

-Loves his baby dolls. He has his own baby, baby Steve, which he takes good care of and is quite attached too. But he also loves to play with and carry around Kellen's baby Toby. Most of the time Kellen is really impressive with how well he shares Toby.

-Con is going to be an amazing big brother

 Con is doing so good in his big boy bed. It still makes me smile to leave the room and say goodnight to my "boys" in the same room. It is cute to hear the two of them talking and laughing and chatting when they are supposed to be falling asleep. It is even funny to watch the two of them sneak out of the room together....but of course I am not allowed to smile or laugh at this in front of them. Conner is normally either sideways in his bed when I check on him or on the floor. He is on the floor A LOT! I don't know if he does it intentionally or just moves around so much that he rolls out. It is not something either of the other kids had issues with. But he always looks comfy there and never cries or complains. He is getting so big. They all are.

 When Daddy comes home from work he LOVES to help him take off his shoes. I don't know exactly how it started, but Conner is always there, eager and ready to remove his shoes and socks and then even help him put his shoe trees in. Whatever brainwashing or manipulating was done by Daddy here to get his kids to think it was the coolest thing to take off stinky shoes is impressive to me. It's a cute bonding moment to watch.

I don't know why, because it can't be comfortable, but the sunglasses are almost always put on upside down. I guess he just likes to have his own style!