Pumpkin Patch on a spur of the moment

Last Tuesday when we were finally well again and enjoying one last day of fall break, my mom asked if we'd like to go to the pumpkin patch.  They closed at 5:00 and it was roughly 1:30 when she texted me.  I had just laid Avery down for a nap, so I asked if we could go in thirty minutes.  She said there was no rush and that I could let Avery sleep.  So I had the boys lay down too for their quiet time.  Avery woke up about 45 minutes later, but both boys were then deep asleep!  Within fifteen minutes, I had to wake Michael because his blood sugar got too low, and Noah woke up about twenty to thirty minutes after that.  So I quickly gave the kids a snack and texted my mom that we were all awake and ready to go.

We headed out around 3:45 and it took us exactly 15 minutes to get there.  Now Michael and my mom had been to this exact pumpkin patch last fall during Michael's kindergarten field trip, so she knew right where to go.  It was SO CUTE!  She paid our $10 fee to get inside (Avery was free!) and we had about an hour to pal around before closing time.

We rode the train first (read: covered trailer driven by a massive tractor!) to the pumpkin patch.  I was astounded to see flat white pumpkins, mint green (or aged copper) pumpkins, dark green pumpkins, and of course, the tried and true orange pumpkins.  My mom and Michael picked orange ones.  Noah picked a small orange and dark green one, and I picked a mint green one.  So fun!  Avery liked looking (and trying to carry) all the "balls."

Once we got back to the train station, I grabbed a wagon that they loan out to guests.  Michael, Avery and I carted the pumpkins to the van while Mom and Noah found our next location of fun-- the corn crib!  A small shed was set up with corn kernels and slides, dump trucks, etc.  Avery loved showing us the free snacks. ;)  We had to really work to keep her from eating them!

Next, we went to the huge slide.  Right next to the slide is a tunnel made out of the same pipe material.  This is great for younger kids!  I took Avery down the slide once, and she would've gone a million more times, but I satisfied her by letting her walk through the tunnel instead.

Next we saw the chickens, goats (aka "pup pups" to Avery), and the cow.

Then we headed back to the slide while Michael sneakily crept to the corn cob gun station and fired a gun (with no corn cob in it-- so it was just air, but it made a deafening noise nonetheless and scared the teenager who was supposed to be manning the station but was playing on the swingset instead!). It was hilarious to hear this sound and then whip around to see my own wide-eyed child standing at the helm.  Oh well.  Nothing was hurt, but I did tell him not to touch that again.

Next, we did a water and rubber ducky race.  We then got a quick picture of me and my kiddos in front of a pumpkin display.

By this time, it was 5:02, so we wrapped it up and called it a night.  My kids were dirty, tired, and had shoes and pockets full of corn kernels. :)  I kept finding them in my dryer days later. :)  Everyone got a bath and a story and then bed.  It was a great great day, and I'm so glad we went!!!  I'd definitely go back.

Until next time,
Much love, Reba

The Best Laid Plans

We had all intention of heading to the beach last weekend. On Monday, we told the boys about the trip and they were super excited! We knew it would be a short trip since Aaron doesn't actually get all the real holidays off of work. So although Michael would be off on Monday the 8th and Tuesday the 9th for Columbus day and fall break, Aaron would not be off on Columbus day. His company gives days off for popular holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas-- I mean, they can't risk being called a Scrooge. But instead of Columbus day & Veteran's day, he gets Black Friday & New Year's Eve.  These "holidays" are always nice when they come along, but it's annoying when we realize that he misses out on some actual holidays. Anyway, this meant that we'd be heading to the beach on Friday after he got home from work, and we'd come back home on Sunday afternoon.  Then the kiddos and I would get Monday & Tuesday to relax at home and pull ourselves together for another work/school week. 

On Tuesday of last week, Aaron came home & said that his supervisor was taking off on Friday and Monday for vacation, and Aaron's engineer counterpart was flying out of state over the weekend to take care of client business.  Big deal, you say. Normally, yes. These things would just be trite details. But this also meant that Aaron was put on "on call" duty for the guys out in the shop over the weekend. This duty never falls to Aaron unless these other two guys are both out of town at the same time. So of course that would happen when we already made plans. Such is life, right? But we're nothing if not determined. We were going to fight for this beach trip. We wanted the relaxation. We wanted to celebrate our 9th anniversary (albeit kids in tow). We wanted to be the heroes to our kids and show them that we could still go to the beach. 

Aaron was pretty sure that the guys in the shop were working on projects that would not require an in-person visit from him. He said he'd verify on Thursday & Friday whether they'd actually need him, and he'd decide on Friday at lunch if we could still go. This meant that I'd be waiting til Friday at lunchtime to pack for all five of us. We prepared the boys that Aaron might have to work, but that we'd really try to go to the beach if we could. 

Between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning (specifically at 1:42am, 3:00am, & 5:40am) Noah got sick. Hello, stomach bug. Why shouldn't we have expected you? 

I took Noah to the doctor that morning and got him some nausea meds & ruled out post concussive syndrome (he fell and hit his head on Monday afternoon, and vomitting is a sign of concussion). A concussion was ruled out, and it was just a stomach virus- but a contagious one. Those are disheartening words for any mom to hear. 

I spent the rest of the day making sure Noah was okay. My parents came over that evening to give us an anniversary card, but didn't stay long. 

Sure enough, the next morning, Avery woke up with throw up in her crib. That was the only time she got sick though. Aaron was also sick on Thursday, which meant he was out of work that day. I was nervous for Michael because a stomach illness & Type One Diabetes is a bad combination.  Aaron struggled the whole day, but was able to rally enough to go to work on Friday to see if the shop guys would need him over the weekend, and to see if he thought he could make it through a 5 hour car ride that evening. By lunch, he was feeling much better, so I commenced to packing. 

That evening, we headed out. During the 1sf half of our trip, we pass through 4 cities. The 2nd half of the trip is pretty rural and doesn't offer many suitable locations for bathroom breaks. Once we got to the 4th city, Aaron admitted that his stomach cramps were back and he couldn't make it through the rest of the trip, especially through all the rural areas.  So we turned around. It was about 7:45pm and Michael was the only kiddo awake. We told him what was going on & he was very understanding. I told him that I'd take him & Noah to the movies the next day and we'd have a lot of fun. 

We got home around 11pm. Noah was disappointed that we were in the garage & not at the beach. Sweet boy.  Once I explained what happened, he was fine. He was really tired, so he pretty much went right back to sleep. We got Avery transferred to her crib. She was happy, and I know it was much smoother to put her in her own crib for the night than it would have been to put her in a pack and play at the beach in unfamiliar surroundings. I briefly unpacked and Michael reluctantly went to bed. Aaron & I got ourselves settled down. And then at 1:45am, I got sick. I knew it was only a matter of time until Michael got it. Sure enough, at 6:00am it hit him too.  We spent Saturday lounging around and napping. I was so happy that God gave Aaron the nudge to come back home. I would NOT have wanted to handle a sickness at the beach. Michael got sick at 2:30 the following morning, so we took it easy on Sunday as well. 

On Monday, Aaron headed back to work and the kids and I ventured as far as the most nearby grocery store (4 miles away). Today, I'm anticipating another slow day just to fully recuperate before heading back to school tomorrow. 

The best laid plans don't always work out. But I've learned that's totally okay!

Until next time,

Much love, Reba

October!

Yay!  It's finally October-- my favorite month!

Today I begin my Field Experience.  I went to school super early this morning to meet the teacher I'll be working with.  He had no clue that I was assigned to help him.  To say I'm disappointed in the communication of the university with the school system is an understatement.

Anyway, I introduced myself and what I was assigned to do, and he said I could show back up at 9:30 which is when his first class of the day starts (he had his planning period first thing this morning). 

So since I live nearby the high school, I headed home to enjoy my coffee and pal around here for a little bit before heading back to work.  I'm so excited to see how he runs his class and where I might be able to include myself in future classes.  I imagine today I'll just be taking a lot of notes and making observations.

This week is a full one for us with me doing actual field experiences, and then getting prepared to go to the cottage this weekend. 

Next week on Friday night, I'm hosting an Intro to Essential Oils class for local ladies.  I'm excited to share why we started incorporating essential oils into our routine and how we've seen their effectiveness.  After my in-person class, I plan to host a facebook class so that others who don't live nearby can see what it's all about too!

I also have to make myself sit down and sort through the clothes and baby items that we no longer use so that I can get ready for the upcoming consignment sale!  Drop-off starts October 13th and I haven't entered anything into the system yet.  Why do I do this to myself?!

I hope to write an update later about how my first day of field experience went!

Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba

Life!

Yikes, another month with only one post prior to this one.  Sometimes I get my act together enough to write more than two posts a month.  September was not the month for that.  :/

I was still awaiting a field experience assignment for most of the month, which meant I was taking substitute positions whenever I could so that I could rack up some hours in the classroom to apply towards my field experience requirement.  I've been subbing pretty regularly now, which means no computer use during the day.  When I get home in the evenings, I'm just ready to sit down and relax. 

This time has been important for our family though.  I play little Nintendo games with Michael and Noah, and I'm able to pour  into the lives of them and Avery while I devote time to them rather than running off to the computer. 

I did finally get a field experience placement at the end of last week!  I'm supposed to start tomorrow, but I don't know if the teacher I'm working with actually knows I'll be working with him, so I don't know whether to show up tomorrow or wait to hear from him (I sent him an email on Friday afternoon).

I'm also coaching Upwards cheerleading this fall and I have a team of nine girls from grades kindergarten through third.  This is always one of my favorite parts of fall and I'm excited to be back at it after missing out last fall while taking care of tiny baby Avery. 

Now that I finally have a field experience placement, I finally feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for my Master's Degree.  It's finally feeling real.

This next weekend is fall break and Aaron and I will be taking all three kids with us to the beach cottage.  We celebrate our anniversary this Wednesday (9 years!) but we weren't able to work out childcare so that we could go away somewhere by ourselves.  So a family vacation it is!  :)  We're looking forward to relaxing and hopefully enjoying nice weather!

I'll catch up here on the blog soon.  I promise.

Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba

Beach Weekend

Over Labor Day weekend, one of my best friends and I met up at my family's beach cottage on the Florida panhandle.  My friend had the whole week of Labor Day off, and I'm in a holding pattern while waiting on field experience placement for my Master's program, so I had a chunk of time off as well.

We had debated going to Savannah since neither of us had been, but we nixed that idea when we started researching places to stay and eat.  It's super pricey over there for just a 2-3 day trip.  We chose to save a lot of money by going to the beach cottage instead.

We had spent a week there in 2008 during a college Spring Break trip.  I had brought three friends with me and we spent 7 days relaxing at the beach.  It was so nice!  So my friend had been there before and knew that this was the perfect serene place to get a break from school and work.

There's no television, which is just fine with us.  We both made plans to read and just enjoy not having to think about where to be next.  I loaded up my canvas bag with books from the library, and we both polished off at least one book from my stash while we were there for just about 48 hours.

I left my house around 5:15 on Saturday morning and arrived at the cottage around 11:30 my time.  The beach cottage is actually on Eastern time, which I had to keep reminding myself all weekend.  I stopped at Aaron's favorite seafood market & bought some shrimp and grouper to take back to him.  At the cottage, I immediately froze these items to make for easier transport later on.  My friend arrived around 12:45.  After catching up briefly inside, we went to a local restaurant for lunch and then headed to Apalachicola for some shopping!

It was SO NICE just to wander around the little shops and take our time.  We each bought something at a super cute little store.  She got a canvas tote bag with hot pink flamingos printed on it and little hot pink pom-pom fringe.  I got a tea-towel in a cream color with gold sparkly leaves. The towel says "My Favorite Color is Fall."  My friend got her item at the beginning of our meanderings around town, but we circled back to the shop so I could buy the tea-towel before we headed back to the cottage.  We also got chocolate malts at the Old Fashioned Soda Fountain in Apalachicola.

That evening, we went to the grocery store and bought a frozen pizza, a small container of milk, half a dozen eggs, and a bag of chips.  I had brought muffin mix and a brownie mix from home-- hence why we had to buy milk and eggs.   That night, we made frozen pizza and read and chatted.  The next morning, we made muffins and coffee.

Around 10:00am, we took some beach chairs and our books to the water and read beachside. As we were reading, I noticed a fin in the water.  It was a dolphin! And it was only like a yard from shore!  I literally was about to get up and go into the water to cool off when I saw the fin and jumped back and took a closer look.  Soon, we saw upwards of ten fins.  Not all of them were as close to shore as the first.  Only a couple of them got within a yard or two of shore.  The rest would pop up about 100 yards out. Needless to say, we didn't get in the water just because we weren't sure where the pod was going to pop up next and didn't want to be bumped by a dolphin!  It was so fun to see them, especially that amount of them and that close to shore.

We went inside around 12:30 for leftover pizza lunch and more reading/naps.  That evening, we went to East Point to a restaurant called the Red Pirate.  It was SO GOOD!  I got the shrimp po-boy.  We drove out to St. George Island after dinner just to look around.  On our way back across the bridge, the sky was just amazing!  I was driving, so I couldn't get any pictures, but it was a light gray on one side, and then it slowly faded to light yellow where beams of light from the setting sun shone through the clouds.  Further to the right, the sky darkened to a magnificent blue where it was raining.  It was so cool!  People were actually stopping their cars on the shoulder of the bridge to get pictures.

That night, we chatted and did more reading and baked brownies.

We ate leftover muffins the next morning, divvied up our leftovers and cleaned up and closed up the cottage.

We both left town around noon, and I made it home by 4:30.  It was a great little getaway and refresh time!

Aaron cooked the shrimp on Tuesday & the grouper on Wednesday.  That's always a nice way to enjoy more of the beach trip!

Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba

Michael is 6!

Michael turned 6 years old on August 28th!  I really can't believe I have a six year old!

I decided to skip his well check-up this year.  He goes to the doctor so often for diabetes related appointments, and this whole past year was wrought with ear infection appointments.  I figured since yearly check-ups were recommended until age 5 at which point the pediatrician said to come back every year to two years, I'd take the two year route and give Michael a break.

He's just over 60 pounds and is four feet tall.  He's a big boy.

He wears size 8 clothing and a size 2 shoe in big kid sizing.

He designed his own birthday party.  His invitation has Ice Kirby on it, and his party decorations were Super Mario and Pokemon and Pac-man.  All combined, we dubbed it a Super Smash Brothers Party.  We sent invitations to family, and some of his friends from church and his entire class at school.

Our family friend C came, as well as K from church, and we had one classmate (also a K) come too.  We held his party on Sunday afternoon of this past week.  Aaron & I bought and borrowed some outdoor games (ladder golf, horseshoes, ring toss) for the kids to play with outside.  One grandma got Michael the board game "Guess Who?" so this was also played at the party.  His little friend from school got him a Dinosaur Fossil Kit, and the kids had a great time chipping away the clod of dirt to reveal a dino bone, dino poop, and a dino tooth.

Michael planned his menu, which included chili dogs (because Sonic the Hedgehog likes those), Pac-man cookies (made by Aaron's stepmom), cheese puff balls (to represent fireballs from Mario), and a confetti cake (made to look like Pokemon stadium from Super Smash Brothers).  Each kid took home a little bag filled with Mario trinkets and a small Kirby toy.

On his actual birthday, he was chomping at the bit to go to school because his teacher gives kids a Pixi-Stick on their birthday and he couldn't wait!

For dinner that night, he got to choose what we ate and he chose Marco's veggie pizza.

He told me over and over that it was the best birthday ever!

It's hard to get a picture of him these days because he's so busy, but I just love him to pieces.


Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba

Avery: 12 Months

Avery turned one year old on August 20th!

She had her 12 month check up on August 23rd and weighed 18.5 pounds and was 28 inches tall.  She's in the 25th percentile for height and weight.  My smallest baby.  (Michael was always in the 90th percentile, and Noah was in the 50th percentile).  

I'm so excited every time she hits a new phase or discovers something new about the world!  I have to remind myself that she's experiencing everything for the first time (sometimes it's hard to remember that since my oldest two are years ahead of her). 

Diapers: She is comfortably in Size 3 and we won't be moving up anytime soon.  

Clothing: There's still a few shirts in her drawer that I put on her without thinking that they're 9 month size.  Mostly, she's in 12 month clothing.  She received a super cute overall set for her birthday, and it's size 18 months but I put her in it the other day just because, and it wasn't too super huge. :)  She got a good amount of clothes for her birthday, and a couple things are long sleeve 12-month size that she'll be able to wear this fall, but most of the clothing was 24 month size and I think I might be more excited to dress her in toddler sizes than I was to dress her in baby sizes, and that's saying a lot because I have fully enjoyed dressing a little girl!

Sleeping:  She is still sleeping through the night, which makes me give all the praise hands!  She'll go to sleep around 6:30 (sometimes as early as 5:45), and she'll wake around 9 or 10, but only for a minute and she puts herself back to sleep.  She wakes in the morning anywhere from 6:30-7:15.  

Feeding: She detests baby food now, and prefers to feed herself whatever we're having.  I can't remember if I mentioned it on the blog, but she had an adverse reaction to rice right before she turned 9 months old and her pediatrician told us to refrain from giving anything with rice (rice flour, rice cereal, rice pasta) until she was a year old.  At her appointment, I asked about this and the doctor said to keep refraining until she's 18 months old.  So, we're doing that but it's hard to find things that don't have rice!  On the nights when I cook something for the rest of us that has rice in it, then Avery will get something separate.  She still loves shredded cheese and has recently discovered jello (red, of course) and go-gurt (which I squirt into a bowl).  I'm also working on getting her to use sippy cups for water in between bottle feeds.  She knows how to use the one with the straw, but doesn't like the sippy cups resembling bottle tops.  She takes about five 8-9 ounce bottles of whole milk during the day.  

Mobility:  She is working on running!  She still likes to be held at certain points of the day, but most of the time she's meandering around on her own.  

Habit:  She's taken her diaper off a couple of times in the house, but fortunately it's been right after a diaper change, so nothing is messy.  I quickly put a onesie on her though when this happens!  

We had a little party for her on the Saturday before her birthday.  It was peachy floral themed.  We made her cake from scratch (German Chocolate from the old Betty Crocker cookbook) and it was so good!  She thought so too!

Here's her 1 year old photo shoot. 

Oh, Avery, you bring such joy to everyone around you!  We love you so!

Until Next Time, 

Much love, Reba