Special Helper Day {bentley}

This week I got to go to school with Bentley for his special helper day. So fun to see what a day is like in school for him, especially since he goes every day now!

We had so much fun doing all different things with pumpkins, worshipping, playing and having snack together. He sure is maturing and growing like crazy and he is a sweet boy to his classmates!

One of my favorite workboard stations was to get seeds out of the pumpkin. Most of the kids in his class weren't so sure, which was surprising because they are all boys! :)

It was a special day with the two of us and I love watching him learn and grow with his friends!

{{fall break 2015}}

The kids had a short week at school last week so we enjoyed a couple days relaxing at home, and then headed up north for some fall camping.

Since we didn't have school we stayed up late watching movies and having popcorn and we slept in and had some relaxing breakfast together!

Evelyn decided she wanted to start climbing the stairs...so theres that!

Mom's not ready. At all.

Harrison took a fall earlier in the week and complained his leg hurt and was favoring it. After a trip to Meijer and lots of tears about how bad his leg hurt, I decided to take him in just to be safe.

They did xrays to make sure nothing was broken, or no infection had settled into any joints.

everything came back clear, and we both got a cool lesson in xrays and joints from the super awesome techs we had at Zeeland Hospital.

We spent Friday afternoon relaxing at home with Miss Willa. :)

Friday early evening we packed up and headed up north to camp at Whiskey Creek.

It has been so long since we had been up north and Brandon had plans to work all weekend. The kids had a riot with Nana and Papa...Evie turned into an instant Nana's girl and even passed out sitting up on her lap!

The boys had a great time with Craven and Cohen // they all missed each other a ton and were so excited to be back together! :)

Our weekend wouldn't be final without some sort of incident. Little Harry decided to see how hot the pellet stove really was, with his right hand. :( He cried for a seriously long time, and it was heartbreaking to not be able to help him! After a good nights sleep and some special cream, life is back to normal...until these blisters pop! :S

We have a pretty quiet week ahead other than school so we are looking forward to getting back into our routine and hoping to see Daddy a bit too! :)

 

{{weekend/rewind}}

Another busy week and weekend is behind us. Daddy has been working 'round the clock...tis the season. Most nights, well pretty much every night, the kids are in bed before he gets home. Thursday night we loaded up after baths and headed to the site to watch them work for a while, and grab some bedtime kisses. It isn't much, but it works, and it keeps us all smiling! :)

Friday I went to my mom group at Church. We painted these canvases...my first time doing something of the sort, and it was so fun! :) You know your husband is exhausted when you show him your masterpiece and he thinks its a pregnancy announcement. That's right, he thought FIVE birds meant I was pregnant. Nope babe, not this time!...we are a family of five now, remember? :)

Bentley stripped down after school and announced "don't I look like dad when he gets home, now, mom?" hahahahaha

We spent Friday night at home, and I let the kids stay up late to see Daddy. They played on their jobsite (the couch) and Evelyn tried to climb the stairs, twice. Im so not ready for that!

Saturday morning we bundled up for post family farms. We have been wanting to go and while it wasn't the warmest day we had fun and picked out the perfect pumpkins for carving!

Evelyn was a trooper too and the cold hardly bothered her!

We came home just in time to snuggle in with daddy for a nap. This precious girl loves her daddy so much, and snuggling with him for a couple hours was just what she needed.

After naps we carved pumpkins and then Daddy and I headed out for date night. It was so nice to have some adult conversation, while awake. Most nights we mumble our days to each other before falling asleep because its been so late.

The babysitter called to tell us Bentley was throwing up, so we finished up our date, ran to Meijer for some things and came home. I was up all night with him...and Harrison and Evelyn were up too (not puking) so brandon didn't get much sleep either. We snuggled up on Sunday for some naps, and cuddle time and Harrison and I snuck to church. Bentley recovered and I woke him up this morning to find him in bed with his bible, a washcloth and his chapstick. Necessities, my love. :) He just melts my heart.

We have a short week of school his week, and nothing on the calendar. We are looking forward to some warmer weather to be outside a bit, and another relaxing weekend where we hope to see some more of Daddy! :)

Special Helper Day {harry)

Harrison had his first special helper day at 3school this week. He was very excited to have me stay with him the whole time, and helping in their classes happens to be one of my favorite days as well!



He interacts and participates in class a lot more than Bentley did at this age, so that was exciting for me to watch. He also loved the crafts and activities!

His favorite part of the special helper day is dressing the weather bear. He sings "whats the weather" song at home all the time, so I knew dressing bear would be a big hit. The sun was out, but Harry saw dark clouds, so he dressed bear for rain. Good thing because about halfway through the morning, the sky opened up and it poured!

 

{{weekend/rewind}}

We had a super busy and rough week. We passed around the stomach flu and then Harrison spent a day with an unexplained fever. We were ready for the weekend!

Friday night B worked late so the kids and I headed downtown for some fresh air and a walk to see all the pumpkin creations. It sure was fun - and impressive!

We hit the peanut store on our way back to the car and picked up some treats for ourselves, and for daddy! We spent Friday night snuggled up on the couch having an adult root beer and some chocolate! Perfection!

Saturday morning we went to see Wesleigh play soccer. The boys had fun watching her and she was glad to see them there! Evie had fun being loved on by Gramma Nellie. :)

We also mowed the lawn for daddy. Evie girl didn't have a very good nap, so she was my rider. She did great!

We spent Saturday night hanging at home and had our first dinner together as a family all week! Sometimes, its the small things. We watched a movie as a family, then put the kids to bed and snuggled up to watch a movie together. Again, just perfect!

We spent Sunday Morning at church and almost all day outside. It was a great day, but I love sundays anyway! :)

We have a kind of busy week with appointments and school stuff. But we are hoping to at least stay healthy!

 

10 months

Beautiful Girl -

Just two short months and you will be one! So hard to believe sometimes, and other times I cant recall what our family was like before your sweetness was added.

You are changing like crazy, still...and showing more personality than ever. I think one word describes you pretty good right now: WILD.

You are loud, zesty, crazy, silly and wild. You love to laugh, at others, yourself...and you love to make us laugh. You are just too cute!

You are fully crawling now, with a little more speed too, and you are pulling yourself up on everything. including the toilets. goodness I forgot how terrible that milestone was. :P

You often pose like below, trying to get yourself to standing with nothing around you to hold on to. You haven't mastered it yet, but you are getting stronger and braver by the day!

Your new favorite toy is the dishwasher. You love to unload it for me, and pat your hands on the door to make noise. Again, I forgot how not-fun this toy is, but Im sure it will soon pass.

 

You were 21 pounds and 30" long at your 9 month well baby check. You are wearing 12-18 month clothes, but can still fit into the fur boots you wore as an infant. Silly! You are sleeping a solid 12 hours at night with two naps during the day. Your naps vary greatly from day to day because of the schedules your brothers maintain with school. Thank goodness youre so flexible! You are also eating almost anything and everything we eat now, including meat and some dairy. You love fruit the most, but don't ever squabble about vegetables.

Besides your crazy brothers, you LOVE the bath. You could splash and giggle for days. It is the cutest thing to watch! You are also figuring out the drama that is girl - and you are putting it to good use. You cry real tears even when we think they are really fake...you love to yell, squeal and whine. So far, most of this works really well for the three guys whose hearts you own in this house - but Mom isn't having it so much. ;) I can't wait to see how you continue to change and grow!

here is a comparison of your brothers and you - all around 10 months. I think your looks favor Bentley, daddy thinks they favor Harry.

Either way, you are just perfectly YOU! and we love YOU!

Avalanche Bay @ Boyne

This past weekend we went up to Boyne Mountain to celebrate Gramma's birthday with the kids, at the water park. It was much anticipated for us all, and sure didn't disappoint, we can't wait to go back already!!!

We had a three bedroom condo, and one bedroom was this cool bunk room castle for the boys. They loved it and they all slept really well for being in the same room together!

The other great thing about a condo was that we could do all our own cooking, and relaxing. Story time with gramma quickly became a favorite for all!

Both boys were SO brave at the water park, trying new things and bigger slides than I would have ever imagined. Bentley was a slide fanatic - didn't stop unless he had too. Harrison tried a few but never asked to go again. ;) He and Sawyer spent most of their time in the splash pad/wading pool.

Bentley even got G&G to try his favorite purple slide. The blue one in the background was his second favorite, it was super fast, and spun you around a few times before shooting you out into the lazy river. I can't lie, my first trip down was a little frightening. But he didn't let me be scared for long because he kept asking to go again! So proud of our big boy!

Our original plans were foiled by daddy having to work, so I left Evie behind as well so that I had more hands for the boys. It was a perfect weekend spending time with just them, and Evie and Daddy sure had a great time relaxing together as well. Had to FT my little peanut I missed her so much!