Lately in Windom (June 2017)

This may seem like not such a big deal to anyone else, but to me, it screams "FREEDOM!" It has been exhausting trying to watch the kiddos with Mark not home for softball on Tuesday nights or when he was helping with planting. We finally have a way to keep these kids in one place on one side of our yard so I'm not having to drag Ryan (who is getting really tiring to carry at this stage of pregnancy) from front to back to front to back just to make sure our kids aren't running amok or playing in the street. THANK YOU, HONEY!!!

About the only thing I will miss about being pregnant lol

Mark and I had a weekend with just us and my Mama while the boys went to Grandpa and Grandma's in Worthington.
We took her out for a fun day of shopping that Saturday.

I would have gained significantly more weight this pregnancy if this little cupcake shop existed closer to our house. Oh.My.

It's either being on the go, or being crawled all over in this house. Mama don't dare sit down with a cup full of anything these days.

This little stinker is NOT a fan of having his picture taken these days.

We may need to invest in a selfie stick here in the near future...

This kid is NOT an easy one to get to smile for pictures these days.

Cashel was so proud of his turtle for the turtle races on Riverfest weekend.

This was pretty much the best parade candy I've seen. Yum!!

Pretty much cleaned up and ready for baby! Just need to get the crib set up!

This kid surprised us while on vacation and actually willingly went down this water slide numerous times! He has private lessons this summer because he's so terrified of water usually. We're hoping he'll eventually not be o scared of it!

Hopefully I'll get around to writing up the Lately in Wisconsin Dells post I've been meaning to, but for now,
here's a sweet pic of our family from the trip to hold you over :)

Pretty sure nice, group photos with everyone smiling and looking at the camera are not going to be easily attained at this point.

I love watching babies eat strawberries :) Last year, he was all passed out for the whole picking experience.

Ugh! Someone stole my baby and replaced him with a toddler!!

And don't even get me started on this one! #WhyDoTheyHaveToGetSoBig?

Kendrick is in this phase where he likes to point to everything with his middle finger lol

Also, he's so super pouty about pretty much everything these days.

So the corn is over 4 foot tall down in Iowa by now.

Three years' difference between these two. It's kinda killing me to realize how freakishly tall my child is going to be some day.

I got him to wear it for all of about 2 minutes, and then he was DONE lol

The slide (and new swings) have been a VERY welcome addition to our back yard this year. We've had a few evenings of the boys all playing nicely together in our back yard without us having to chase them from the front yard to the back all the time.

Seriously. Being so very pregnant this summer, it has been wonderful to sit back and not have to worry about them.

It's hard to come to the realization that we're done with one of our baby swings (for now).

If there has been any sort of craving this past month, it'd be these. I have bought them way too much from the vending machine lately.

Not *quite* finished with level 2. He'll have to repeat it this next year, just working on his back float and a few other things.

GUILTY!

We only managed 12lbs this year. Kinda hoping the boys get a little better at picking by next year. I think Kendrick got about 6 berries total, Ryan obviously caused a deficit, and Cashel filled about 1/4 of the biggest pail we brought.

This kid doesn't like to actually brush his teeth, but he LOVES to play with toothbrushes haha

Flowers from my sweet hubby after some rough days.

Ryan was our little VBS games mascot. Whenever big brothers' class was out to play games, they always wanted to involve Ryan ;) It was a really long week for us, but we did have a lot of fun!

A sneak peek at one of my maternity pictures. If I ever can get off my butt to go pick them up from the photographer, I'll be able to share more!

How I feel much of the time this pregnancy. It has been a completely uneventful pregnancy as far as pregnancies go, but when it comes to family and personal life, it just has been a rough time in life to be pregnant right now.

I came across this pic the other day from our honeymoon and it made me smile :) Man has life changed a LOT in the past 10 (almost 11) years. We're in the midst of some ridiculously rough days/weeks/months/years (which some of you know bits and pieces of, a very, very select few know everything, and many of you have no clue), and what has gotten us this far anyways is remembering that the Lord is behind us. He loves us. He wants us to fight every day for each other. And so, we do. We will. Each day is a new battleground, and we are very cognizant of the fact that the Devil has it out for us. He wants us to fail. He wants us to give up. With God's power, we can do this. Through our own power, not a chance, as we're just too weak.

Lately in Wisconsin Dells (June 2017)

I really don't think some restaurants understand what it's like dining with distracted young kids at their restaurants. I can't tell you how many places we've been that think giving a kid a balloon (or balloon animal, or special treat, or whatever it might be) is a good idea...at the beginning of a meal.
Worst.idea.ever. See all that food on their plates? Yeah, they were eating fine before the balloons,
and then the server brought balloons, and they didn't touch another bite, and then were magically STARVING when we got back to the resort. Go figure.

I picked up this portable booster seat before our trip to San Diego, and we didn't end up needing to use it at all, since the place we stayed had a high chair (hallelujah!) It did, however, come in very handy on this trip!

The boys were SOOOOOOOO ready to go swimming at the pool...at 7am...during quiet hours...and the pools didn't open until 8:30am. It was a loooonnnnnnggggggg morning.

This kid LOVED the outdoor slide! I was stunned, as he's pretty afraid of the water most of the time. We even had to do private swim lessons for him this summer on account of him being so scared.

This kid, however, has NO fear whatsoever of the water. He thinks it's hilarious when he falls down under the water, which absolutely terrifies his Mama. He's at that age where he doesn't want to be held,
but he's not advanced enough to not be held, and if you let go of him, he'll just run EVERYWHERE. (Hence, two very skinned knees during the trip)

A little downtime after a busy morning of swimming.

What ends up happening when you didn't plan to bowl: Having to pay $3 for these sexy neon socks lol

First time bowling for these guys. They thought it was alright, but weren't very happy to have to settle for only the 8lb balls - they wanted to use Daddy's 16lb one.

Mark snapped this one, and at first glance, I couldn't figure out who it was. I guess I really DON'T look super pregnant from behind.

My big dudes all checking out how Kendrick did!

Cashel's victory stance after his first spare!

How is it possible that this kid is sitting on his butt and his entire head sticks above the table?

This kid did remarkably well, considering he was too little for any of the rides at Knuckleheads.


The big boys sure had a lot of fun!



I found myself a nice massage chair while the boys were jumping around in one of the places there.
It felt great at first, but OMG when it got to my shoulders and back. I was apparently more sore than I realized!

The boys wouldn't go to bed without watching one of our family movies, so I pulled one up on YouTube :)

We stopped at RiverDawg for lunch on our last day in the Dells, and they gave the kids this sweet frisbee :)

This guy napped a LOT while on vacation. At home, we're between 1-2 naps a day. On vacation, 3 a day was the norm. Also, he looks SO MUCH like his Daddy here!

The little train ride place had this AWESOME play area in the back for the kids. It was a god-send!

We've officially hit meltdown status with Ryan now. Pretty sure this face was the result of us insisting that he walk instead of be carried lol

My goodness is his little belly just adorable here :)

Trying to get pictures of these three together goes about like this most of the time these days lol

This train as quite obviously not made for very pregnant Mamas...

It was a HOT day for a train ride, as evidenced by the beads of sweat on Cashel's nose.

Kendrick is pretty obsessed with this hat right now. It was SO HOT outside, but he insisted that he wear the thing still.

Like father, like son!

What a goofy guy! Gee, I wonder where he gets that from?

He was in DESPERATE need for a nap. Then, after about 2 minutes of closing his eyes, they popped open and was ready to go again lol

I'm not quite sure why it has taken us SO long to resort to life jackets in the pool. I mean, Cashel is certainly darn close to swimming on his own, but this made the pool SO MUCH EASIER! We're resorting to bringing them for all 3 kids to any pool we visit the rest of the summer!

After our train ride, we were so hot that we stopped for some ice cream at McDonald's. I swear, these are like the BIGGEST cones I've ever had from there. Yum!

Oh man how I love this man :) We have had so many rough days lately, but I wouldn't want to do life with anyone else!

Every one of our kids have been obsessed with our Nathan water bottles. Ryan is no exception!

We were thrilled to find out that the Dells had added HuHot to the restaurant list! Our boys LOVE to eat there (especially Cashel).
The lines were LONG, though.

Our views were pretty great!

The place we stayed offered movie night each night. It didn't start until 8pm, so we only did it one night, since 8pm is bedtime for our boys, but we watched a good hour of Moana before calling it a night.

My people :)

This place really is pretty great with little kids in tow!

His golf game could use a *little* work haha :)

Probably the one and only hole that Kendrick "played" before just wandering off all over the little course. Fortunately, Mama wasn't playing (rather, just pushing Ryan around in the stroller), so while Daddy and Cashel finished up, Ryan and I just trailed Kendrick the whole time lol

We were all sweating bullets here, but it really was a gorgeous mini golf course!

We loved this course, but it was a LOT of steps, and it was a pretty hot morning for it. We'll probably be back in a few years when the boys are maybe a little more into it.

On our way home (which was really 30 minutes out of the way), we stopped in Baraboo at Circus World for a couple hours. It.was.so.hot.




Kendrick was on cloud 9 getting to ride on an elephant!

This drinking fountain was hilarious!

My little clown

Apparently, vacation is exhausting ;)