November Recap

November has been a strange month in so many regards. We started out with me seriously ready to pull my hair out, and oddly ended the month with me being away from my family for the longest I have been gone from any of them since long before having kids in 2008. In between, we mostly finished getting Kendrick potty trained (wahoo!), I went out on a limb and took the boys to Sioux Falls BY MYSELF to the Zoo for a day, Mark did a little party hunting two weekends in a row, and although he didn't get a deer on his own, the party got their limit this year. We voted in probably the most controversial presidential election in our lifetime, I learned to tame my crazy hair beast, we had our first ever trip to the Emergency Room (with Kendrick), and we all enjoyed FINALLY getting to have some family time together. It was a wild, crazy month. My trip to Juarez for a couple days was the icing on the crazy cake that was November. And really, that's just the very VERY tip of the iceberg as far as crazy goes.

Highlighted events are as follows:

• Sioux Falls Zoo Trip (November 5) (Recap here)
• Kendrick's First Trip to the ER (November 13) (Recap here)
• Friendsgiving (November 19) (Recap here)
• Thanksgiving Weekend in Windom (November 24-27) (Recap here)
• Christmas Decorating and Chinese (November 25) (Recap here)
• Work Trip to Mexico (November 27-30) (Recaps here and here)

Lately in Windom (November 2016)

It has been quite a while since I've done one of these posts, so this might get a little lengthy. I apologize in advance ;)

His smile lights up even the hardest days :)

I really don't know why we don't ask the boys to help with the dishes more often. They LOVE to help.

How, exactly, do you punish a kid for just being too excited and too loving on his brother when his brother doesn't like it? ::sigh::

We've discovered that Qdoba is a perfect spot for the kiddos to eat. They love the food and eat well there!

A much-needed reminder on an extremely difficult day.

This guy is BIG into coloring. He likes to have either Mark or I color with him.

Snacks and snuggles for the win! It was at this point where I was beginning to wonder if I should start taking a pregnancy test. The boys were always climbing on me (which was unusual) and would flip out if they couldn't all sit with me at the same time.

I swear I could sweep the floor 10 times a day and it would still, within minutes, look like I haven't swept in weeks. Such is the life of a Mama of toddlers and preschoolers, I suppose.

So.Much.Yum.

It isn't often I get to go out for walks by myself, but a few times in November I did, and it felt fantastic! We live in such a beautiful part of the country!

I also got a little solo shopping time downtown and found this adorable little outfit.

We took advantage of the last few warmish days right before the cold set in for a family walk or two.

A little dose of reality right here. Between the crazy hair, disaster of a mirror and being on laundry day for jammies, this mama doesn't always look camera ready haha Also, one of the major downfalls of having short hair: A ponytail won't tame this, so it takes me a lot longer to fix it.

9 Months

The first trip to the E.R. for us :( Poor Kendrick busted open his forehead when he tripped and fell and hit his forehead on the church pew. it's healing remarkably well!

This big kid did great getting some cavities filled. Looks like he inherited Daddy's teeth, unfortunately :(

This kid LOVES taking baths :)

He also loves spaghetti...hence the need for a bath :)

Cashel really wanted to make his daycare Mama a blanket for her birthday. He told me he didn't need any fabric, just these supplies :)

First snow of the season!

Friendsgiving meal 2016

I love how Ryan is giving Cashel the side eye here. He's all, "Dude - it's supper time. Just eat your freaking food already!"

Ryan is so his Daddy's mini me!

Ryan's first movie in a theatre: Angry Birds. He did so great!

I love how focused the boys were while decorating the tree.

Kendrick is going to be my little coffee drinker. I told Mark I'm not dead set on having a girl by any means, but as long as at least one of my kids learns to like coffee, that'd be great. Then I will have coffee shop company :)

This necklace is a steady reminder to me that I need to let go of perfection. Cashel made it for me, and seriously - every time I see it I want to take all the balls of and at least put them in the correct order (small to big in the middle back to small at the ends), but knowing it would crush him to see I've changed it, I leave it. It's a sweet reminder of how much he loves me. I wouldn't change it for the world, but the part of me that is a perfectionist has this internal battle every time I put it on haha

If it were acceptable to only eat crab rangoon when we have Chinese, you can bet that's all I'd eat. I could care less for egg rolls, and really most of the rest of the meal, but I could easily sit down and demolish an entire order of crab rangoon.

Cashel swore up and down that he hated the Polar Express and that it was too scary for him. Yet here he was, completely mesmerized after the first 10 seconds of the movie, and he hardly moved the rest of the movie :)

One of the absolute hardest things about being pregnant is not having a desire for coffee. I know I shouldn't hold it up on such a pedestal, but coffee is what I turn to when I wake up exhausted after a rough night. It's what makes me feel warm and cozy on a cold day. It's what starts my day off right. It's what turns my bad morning into a good one. Without it, I feel sorta lost. I miss how I feel with coffee. And as I'm writing this, it's becoming glaringly obvious that I should be replacing coffee with more Jesus.

Kendrick and I had an unexpected shopping day just the two of us. It was so sweet to have such a special time together. After our shopping on the square, we went to the grocery store, where I bought the final pregnancy test. After being completely confused for the prior 2 weeks with a bunch of negative tests, I finally had a positive with the test I bought after this moment with Kendrick.

I took my first ever solo flight since 2008. I had to work in Juarez Mexico for 2 days, so I had to leave the boys behind with Mark for 3 days. It was weird, honestly. I had hoped it would be pleasant and relaxing and what not, but it was just weird. I didn't sleep well, I missed my family.

I am going to advise all of you to never ever in your lives eat squid.

After 2 days working in Mexico, I couldn't sleep because I was so excited to catch my flight the next morning to get home to my boys!