September Recap

The year just keeps on passing me by, and I feel sometimes like there's no time to even find the brakes, much less step on them. Life with these boys is challenging each and every day at some point. If there's anything I've learned about having three kids, it's that nothing is ever going to stay the same, and everything is probably going to change at some point every day. That's tough for this girl who likes to have some time to mellow in the current state of things.

I've always been an uncomplicated kinda girl, so the rate of change lately has been a little overwhelming, honestly. I feel like we just get something figured out, and then it's all in a tailspin all over again. I'm thankful for the few days in between where I feel like I have a grasp on things for a short while to at least give me a little traction to keep on going. But truth be told, life is just a chaotic, crazy mess right now. It's a beautiful mess, but a mess nonetheless.

The kids are growing at such a rapid pace that no sooner than I pull out the tote of clothes I just bought a month prior, I have to order more almost immediately. It's crazy! And their energy level is just unheard of much of the time. Praise the Lord for online shopping!

September was a pretty great month overall. We had our fair share of gorgeous weather (even if those little no seeum bugs drove me batty!) and fun family time peppered in with some overwhelming moments. We had a nice lazy start to the month with a (MUCH-needed) completely unplanned Labor Day weekend, followed by Cashel starting back to preschool and AWANA. We checked out the Jackson Kite Fly and Reinbows Kids' Rodeo again. I had a week long training course for MVC Application Development, which was challenging for me, although it allowed me to have lunch with my good friend Rachel while in Sioux Falls the first day.

Of course, King Turkey Day and also visited Ocheda Orchard the same day. We rounded out the month celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary with a nice, relaxing day in Worthington together. And at the very end of the month, I joined Cashel on his very first field trip!

I did my best to recap these events with their own posts, so you'll have to check those all out to get a better synopsis, but I thought I'd share a few of my very favorite pictures from this month as an overview :)

Looking Ahead...

It's really hard to believe the holidays are getting so close! October promises to be another full month, but with more fun activities, and not strenuous obligations. I'll be on my own a lot with the boys, what with harvest being in full swing, so we'll undoubtedly be visiting a lot of parks and hopefully finding some fun crafts and activities to do together. And we will, of course, be taking lots of tractor and combine rides with Daddy and Grandpa :)

I'm hoping to make a trip with the boys down to visit my Mama and sister down in Iowa at the farm, and we'll be celebrating Mark's Dad's birthday.

At the VERY end of the month we'll be celebrating my 35th birthday with a pumpkin carving party as a family, and then we'll be enjoying some fun time at a local Fall Festival at the hardware store in town and doing trick or treating both in Worthington and Windom. October promises to be a FUN month!!

November is a clean slate. Mark will start the month busy with harvest and hunting, and then we'll wrap it all up with a long Thanksgiving weekend that is currently unplanned. I'll save any further looks ahead for future posts, although right now we're just trying to take it a day (or sometimes an hour) at a time ;)

Lately in Windom (September)

This whole concept worked for all of about a week. The kid refuses to stay on the blanket, and would MUCH rather stuff grass and leaves in his mouth. I guess that's the trouble with a kiddo who wouldn't take a binky :(

A little coffee in my owl mug and my new Matilda Jane shirt, and all is well :)

One of my co-workers brought these in "for the boys" at work. Umm...I think I did save them a handful maybe? When I was a kid, my Grandpa Roger used to bring us pails of them, and I think I ate them all. Soooo many canker sores.

The one and only picture of "Anty", Cashel's friend from "Taco" Park. Moments later, he escaped, to be lost forever.

A little story time with this kiddo :)

The boys LOVE this swing at "Lake" Park. It wears Daddy out after a while. I was really worried that Kendrick would fall off, and I guess one day when I wasn't there, he did :( But he's no worse for wear.

This was the last month Ryan was tiny enough to wear my kTan Breeze wrap :( I'm still struggling with how fast he is growing up. And definitely ready for him to be big enough to use the Tula.

On the days where I don't feel tapped out, this arrangement is bliss: On the days where I DO feel tapped out, I want to escape haha

I needed to capture this moment where my floors were *mostly* clean, and things didn't look like a disaster. I promise, this isn't the norm.

These two are kinda besties these days. It's not that Kendrick is really left out, he just doesn't seem as interested in Ryan most of the time. And, as Cashel says, "threenager" Kendrick is kinda a jerk sometimes.

"Going to the Park" while in Worthington pretty much never means playing on the equipment these days.

A terrible attempt at a "groupie" with Great Grandma Vi :)

This big kid started back to preschool! He's a whole head taller than he was this time last year, and is LOVING school once again!

Cashel went through a phase where every little bump or bruise required a band aid. I didn't realize he had taken matters into his own hands until we arrived at the kite festival. The bump was magically healed once we removed the band aid later.

Notable in this picture is that the jacket he is wearing Cashel was wearing LESS THAN A YEAR AGO!

At some point during this walk out to check out the kites, I lost my nice lens cap for my nice lens, and the replacement is just not the same thing. It makes me sad :(

This is pretty much every picture we attempt with these three.

My kids would be the ones who are TERRIFIED of doing a stick horse race...

...but then have ZERO qualms about riding an actual horse.


Notable in this picture: I was terrified he was going to squish the poor little chick haha He does NOT realize his own strength. But thankfully, the chick was just fine in the end.

K giving baby brother a wagon ride :)

Not even a little bit Photoshopped. Less than a half mile from our house.

Watching this one sleep is one of my favorite hobbies. I don't get to enjoy it much anymore, but I just melt :)

I got to have lunch with this one while I was in Sioux Falls for some training. Oh how I miss her!

I took a week long course of MVC Application Development training, and this was my head much of the time. It's going to take a while to absorb everything I learned.

18 month jammies...WHA?!?!?!

Cashel wanted to take his baby brother in the sharing bag for preschool haha Looks like he fits!

I get asked the question a fair amount, "Are they really that dirty all the time?" Honestly, they aren't. But this also didn't make my eyeballs pop out, so let's just say it isn't abnormal.

This kid and his goofy smile lately ;)

I love me some pumpkins!!

Turkey Race time!! Paycheck won!!

Kendrick is a funny kid. He talks about the Easter Bunny and Paycheck the Turkey a LOT, and always wants to see pictures of them. But get him even in the general vicinity of them, and he is TERRIFIED. He was on my shoulders to watch the turkey race, and all of a sudden he started frantically about knocking me over, and I couldn't figure out why. Then this guy came running by, so yeah.

One of my favorite memories of this kid will be him dancing to "the marches" at KTD :)

Always wanting to hold his baby brother :)

Growth spurt, anyone?

I had a sweet little helper with laundry this particular day ;)

The struggle is real. I'm proud to say that I chose the tea over the Twix this particular day, but that was a very difficult decision.

We got caught in a total downpour on the way in to the office - it took me hours to dry off!

Beautiful flowers the day before our 10 year anniversary :)

We had a nice date day together to celebrate our 10 year anniversary! I surprised Mark with a 30 minute video of our years together so far, and we watched it at the church we got married in after a yummy breakfast at Perkins.

Love these guys :)

If there is a kiddo who will become a coffee drinker with his Mama, Kendrick will be the one. He likes to drink what's left at the bottom of my cup on Saturday and Sunday mornings :)

I am super sad when my coffee is gone in the mornings. I used to just make another cup, but I'm a creamer junkie, and I am trying to cut back from using 240 of my calories in the mornings from coffee creamer.

I took a couple hours of vacation to go with Cashel on his first field trip at the end of September. It was so awesome to spend this time with him, and I was GIDDY to discover the place we went to, which is full of beautiful wetlands and paved trails, which is AWESOME for me to take the kiddos all by myself while Daddy is in the field helping with harvest.

He has the wingspan of a Barn Owl - the biggest in his class at 44 inches!