August 2013 Recap

In a Nutshell...

The month of August was spent getting things ready for our new little one, due at the very end of the month. Mark was busy working to get Cashel's new room put together, the walls up, prepped, textured and painted as well as the closet organizer put together and the doors on. The room looks WONDERFUL! :)

We did manage to make it to the county fair on a few different occasions and managed to get out for a few shorter walks and to the park and such, but honestly, we didn't do too much else during the month. I started getting more and more sore about halfway through the month and ended up beginning to take half days at work when I reached 38 weeks. It was nice to have the time off, but it was sorely needed at that point, and I was physically at a point where I couldn't keep Cashel at home by myself anymore, unfortunately, so I spent a lot of time resting and prepping my body for what was to come.

At the very end of the month, we welcomed our baby boy Kendrick into the family - a perfect ending to the summer :)

Mark's 34th Birthday (August 1)

We had a low-key celebration at home with Mark for his birthday this year, complete with his favorite cake, a few balloons, and us party animals :) He got the air compressor he had been talking about for years along with a hose and attachments as well as some other little things.

Click here for a full recap with pictures!

Cottonwood County Fair (August 15-17)

We had a good time at the Cottonwood County Fair for a few nights. Cashel enjoyed seeing all the animals, and we splurged a couple times on malts and some greasy fair food.

Click here for a full recap with pictures!

Nursery Progress

We didn't have much else to prepare for this little one other than moving some furniture around, but are hoping to have this project complete by the end of September and have our whole family moved downstairs! Here are a couple updated photos (technically from mid-September), although please excuse the mess. We're living in a construction zone right about now.

Welcoming Kendrick Willard! (August 28)

Our precious little Kendrick Willard was born on August 30. We couldn't be more in love with him! I detailed the whole labor and delivery process on my pregnancy blog, and if you're interested in hearing updates about our sweet little boy, you can check out his blog at Kendrick's Crib

Photo by Red Barn Photography

Looking Ahead

We're working on adjusting as a family and working on all getting some good sleep at night (Granted, Kendrick is a dream newborn as far as sleep goes!). We don't really anticipate doing much during the month of September aside from probably introducing our newest family member to friends and family and hopefully at least making it out for dinner for our anniversary on the 23rd. It will be nice having Mark home for a week from the 9th-13th of September as our daycare lady has the time off.

October is likely to be a complete shot in the dark, as we have no idea when harvest will begin, although we're anticipating that with such a late spring, we'll likely have a later harvest as well. Time will tell!

That's about it for now!

Room Addition Project: Cashel's Closet

We're just waiting for the doors and trim to be installed now! It looks great! :)

I can't believe how great it all looks! I'm so excited for this part of the project to be finished and to be able to breathe a sigh of relief once all the plastic comes up and we can actually move this little dude into his new room!

My next project is picking some pretty awesome pictures to print and make a photo collage around his name letters (which I might put up tomorrow if we're still not at the hospital.

Fun at the Cottonwood County Fair (August 15-17)

We were happy to have a free weekend to enjoy the Cottonwood County Fair as a family in mid-August, and the weather couldn't have been better for it (considering just exactly how pregnant I am at this point)!

We tried not to splurge TOO much, but managed to make it down to the fair 3 different times.

Thursday

On Thursday evening, after a yummy supper at home of beef stew, we decided to venture down for our favorite part of the fair: The dairy booth for some malts! We were really indulgent and each got our own (we usually share). I got a raspberry one and Mark got a strawberry one, and after a little while, we switched. YUM! We didn't stick around TOO long afterwards, since it was getting closer to Cashel's bedtime, but we did manage to check out some sheep (which Cashel was really excited about!) and some of the baby animals.

Friday

After a busy day at work, we decided to eat at the fair in the evening. We got to visit more of the bigger animals this time, which Cashel was equally as thrilled with, even if his facial expressions didn't capture it. He constantly had this totally bored look on his face, just taking it all in. His eyes were so wide, and he wanted to walk everywhere, so Mark got to play follow the leader a lot.

Saturday

We didn't stay at the fair too long on Saturday, just long enough for some lunch (we split a large taco salad), a little more animal time (rabbits and poultry this time around) and a chance to try a few couple delicacies (fried Twinkies and fried s'mores).

The fair is certainly a different experience being 9 months pregnant with a busy toddler, but we enjoyed our time nonetheless. Until next year!

GIDDY with anticipation!!

After a few days of contemplation after the terrible demise of my hand blender last week (which I'm attributing to the cinnamon roll insanity of August 2013), a little research, and so many recommendations from friends and family, we decided that it was time to step up in the world of blenders and splurge a smidge on a new blender: A KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart Stand Mixer, to be exact.

This little guy :)

I initially recommended it to Mark as an early birthday gift for me, but this man I married surprised me even more than I think I deserve and said he wanted to just get it for me as a "thank you" for all the hours I spent keeping our house and home together and caring for our little guy while he was so busy in the field and then on vacation this spring. I was floored! I'm so excited to start using it for all my kitchen endeavors: both for the normal things like baking cookies, cakes, pies, etc. but also for the unexpected things I've never used a blender for before, like meatloaf or meatballs (YUM!) and shredding chicken or pork. There are endless possibilities!

Thank you, honey! I can't wait to get it, and am already stalking the UPS tracking website to see when it will arrive :)

10 Randoms

I figured I don't have much to blog about lately, but thought you might all want to be entertained (although, who am I kidding: You probably don't) So I got this idea from another blog I follow and thought I'd follow suit.


1) We had family pictures last night (and maternity ones...and Cashel's 18 month ones) and it was a good (completely exhausting) time. A 9 month pregnant woman should not be jumping, clapping her hands and screaming excitedly. I was very very sore last night.

2) We are down to 4 cinnamon rolls that are not in the freezer at this time. And at this point, no: I'm not sharing haha

3) I can't believe I only have 3 weekends left before we meet this baby. (Or at least we hope it's only 3 more!)

4) My boss is gone this coming week on vacation; The interns and doctor will be gone the week after. I've been given firm instructions NOT to have a baby until I reach 39 weeks 2 days.

5) I'm still super disappointed that nowhere seems to have any good tomatoes this year for salsa and eating :(

6) I made a batch of freezer corn, and it turned out MUCH better than last years' batch, thank goodness. I think I need to make more, since we only have 2 containers of it this year: Not nearly enough to get us through the winter!

7) It really drives me nuts when people name their pets human names. It's one of the reasons we've decided not to keep "Max" on the baby name list. For those of you who have named your dog "Max", thankyouverymuch. It really was my frontrunner, but I just can't do it now.

8) I was reminiscing about Christmases past the other day (Yes, in August. No, that's not abnormal for me. If you know me, you would know.) and really miss the days when things were more simple. When my siblings and I would just sit around for something like 3 weeks, have a blast playing in the snow (because, you know, in those days there was actually SNOW surrounding Christmas), drinking eggnog and hot chocolate, watching lots of Christmas movies on TV, sleeping underneath the tree, trying to open up our gifts and re-tape them so no one would know we opened them (sorry, Mom - it happened), baking cookies, Christmas festivities and programs at church, visiting the winter wonderland just south of our house in Warsaw by a little ways, decorating the tree, our annual Christmas Day trip up to Michigan while reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and just enjoying our time as a family. We didn't have a lot of money, but memories like those trump money every time. I really hope to re-create those kinds of experiences with my kids.

9) I've been mildly obsessed with fish sandwiches lately. Every time I eat one from McDonald's, it reminds me of my Grandpa Roger: That was what he ordered every time we met at McDonald's halfway between Warsaw and Zealand when we were kids to go spend the week with Grandma and Grandpa.

10) My husband is seriously a rock star. He works so hard both at work and home and is so generous with his time and skill set - almost to a fault. People ask him to help with everything under the sun, and he always finds a way to help in one way or another. He also makes some killer spaghetti. He has been so supportive even when I've been completely out of sorts lately. But really...that spaghetti he makes is really yummy. And now I want spaghetti. For lunch. Which is not going to happen. He also makes an incredible popcorn that cannot be rivaled - not even by the movie theater.

Nesting Urges and Cinnamon Rolls

What happens when you have this dying urge to make fresh salsa but the farmers' markets are completely out of tomatoes? You start drooling over other food, like, perhaps, these cinnamon rolls which we deemed "the best thing I've ever eaten before in my entire life" while in Talkeetna, Alaska.

And then, you decide that since you can't make the salsa you've been drooling over, you simply MUST make homemade cinnamon rolls to rival those from Talkeetna. And then you stumble across this insanely yummy sounding recipe for said rolls and immediately decide you're going to make at least 3 batches of them, but who am I kidding: Probably 4.

And then this happens:

I rest my case.

Nesting urges - tomatoes - ability to make salsa sans tomatoes + drool + recipe for cinnamon rolls + ingredients purchased + an afternoon off work + a napping toddler = A REALLY REALLY BAD IDEA.

I have 6 large, heavy packages of cinnamon rolls now nestled in our deep freezer, plus another 2 pans of the suckers upstairs to take to work tomorrow. I'm tired, achy and kinda wondering what the heck just happened today, but I'll be thanking myself when I gain 50lbs while on maternity leave scarfing these bad boys down. I wouldn't want my poor baby to live a deprived life with no Talkeetna-rivaled cinnamon rolls, would I? I'm going to chalk it up to just being a good Mom for now. But I'm also going to say that if I ever come up with such an idiotic idea again, I would really, truly hope you would all interfere and say, "Hey Amy - remember that one time you made like 200 dozen cinnamon rolls and couldn't move for 3 days afterward?"

Happy Birthday to Mark! (August 1)

What's even better than birthday cake? Celebrating a special day with the most special birthday boy I know :) This is the 8th birthday I've spent with my husband, and I have to say that he just gets better with age. I know that birthdays aren't quite what they used to be back when we were carefree and young, but they're certainly more intimate in our own home setting, and that makes them special.

This year, it was really fun just spending the day with Mark and relaxing - which we both have been needing lately with sleepless nights and the eager anticipation of a new little baby by the end of this month.

I had our interns do a doughnut run in the morning, and we had a little "birthday roll" in the morning at work. We then took a half day off work and had a yummy lunch at Bergen Bar & Grill before we came home for a wonderful restful birthday nap haha (Yep, with Mark being 34 and me being 32 and pregnant, we're getting so old that a birthday nap is figured into the celebration lol)

After the nap, I picked up a few little things and then picked up Cashel from daycare, and we started the festivities :) I made some yummy spaghetti and garlic toast for supper, and then we enjoyed Mark's favorite: yellow cake with homemade chocolate icing with some vanilla ice cream for dessert. Mark didn't have very many gifts to open on the actual day since he opened his big one earlier in the week: a new air compressor. But he still had fun opening a couple little things before we settled in for the evening with tubby tub time for Cashel and a short family walk.

I am so incredibly blessed to have Mark as my husband, and am so glad that I get to share my life with this wonderful man. I can't imagine what my life would be like without Mark in it. We would be lost without him, and I am so grateful for the blessing that he is in our lives. He is a wonderful example of what a father should be, and I am so thrilled that our kids will grow up with such a doting and fun father who continually points them towards Christ and encourages them to experience fullness of life and all that it has to offer.

Happy Birthday, honey! We love you so very much :)