fun in the snow

We had our first decent snow of the season. Though not anywhere near the 6-10 inches predicted, there was still plenty to play in. It took me a while to muster up the courage and energy I knew it would take to dress these two munchkins, myself and get out in the cold. I also discovered that while Katie is fully equipped for snow play, poor Levi has a lot of too small winter clothes. We will need to fix that soon! Katie immediately ran in the snow and was super excited.

Levi took some persuading. He did not like the wind, cold or snow sticking to him.

Very worried about all this.

Sliding down the slide.

Eating snow.

Levi went down the slide and got stuck on his back. He just laid there until I rescued him.

Eating an icicle.

They had so much fun and actually ended up playing for enough time that it made the time it took to dress them worth it.

Pumpkin Carving

Katie helped me pick out the pumpkins at Sunflower Market this year. She was super-excited to help with every part of the pumpkin carving process. Especially the cutting part:)

She was brave for one handful and then let Mommy get the rest of the seeds out.

I cut out a bunch of shapes for her and she got to pick out which ones she liked and put them on the pumpkin wherever she wanted. Then, she helped "poke" the pattern into place.

Kurt was Taylor's Dad's best friend and is super-into pumpkin carving. He came down to show us some new tricks. Katie, of course, mooched onto him and he was very patient with all the things she had to show him.

The finished product.

I will get a picture of all the pumpkins we carved actually lit up.

Katie's Snow Angel

Pray for us!

You should really read the post after this, before this one...that being said, we could use some extra prayers sent out way over the next few weeks. This time of pregnancy has typically been rough on me. I am tired and achy and overall have a low tolerance for much of anything. Add in to that Taylor being in school, a feisty 3 year old, a 21 month old in a cast, a barfing dog, a messy house and you have a recipe for one grouchy Becky. I know that God has set this time for me for a reason. I am so thankful for our health, Taylor's job, great family and friends and the ability to get new flooring:) I cannot wait to hold this baby in my arms. Taylor and his great attitude has been such a blessing to me. He comes home most nights to me close to, if not in tears, and the kids going stir-crazy from spending so much more time at home than usual. He always is ready to take the kids for a few minutes, give me a big hug and try to start helping out aroud the house. And this is after a long day at work and a night full of homework ahead of him. He is the rock for our family. So, please pray for endurance for our family. Dedication to getting things done even when we are tired. And that we would realize when we need to take the time to rest. We take Levi to the Dr. tomorrow and are hoping and praying that we will be done with the cast!

Here's what we have been up to:
Levi snuggling on the couch watching Cars for the 6 millionth time. He looks so old in this picture. What happened to my baby? Playing with Grandma.

Gran came over to have breakfast with us. Katie and Levi loved showing her all their toys and pictures on the blog.

Katie pretending to be Rapunzel and helping me flatten the chicken for dinner. She was super-excited about this.

Levi wearing Katie's boots.

2 happy kiddos having breakfast. My kids love cereal! Aren't winter footed jammies the best?

new floors

So, I have had a little bit of crazy nesting going on over here. Taylor's mom accurately pointed out that since I don't have a new baby room to decorate I am just going crazy on the rest of the house:) I have hated/been embarrassed by/detested our white living room carpet since around the time Katie was born. White carpet is horrible with pets and kids! There were several spots that would never come clean, even with multiple professional cleanings. You cannot begin to imagine the joy in my heart as this horrible carpeting came out!

Dan came over to help rip it all out. Thanks Dan!

We put in new laminate flooring. It is, literally, the cheapest kind we could buy. I love it! Passionately and with my whole heart. love. it. It only took the guys 12 hours to put it in:) There are a lot of weird corners in this room we thought was relatively square. Now all we have to do is re-paint the baseboards. Paint the room. Paint the new kids furniture. Move all the new furniture in. Facillitate the switch to sharing rooms. Take out all the baby stuff and get it sorted and organized. And get a bunch of organizing in the house done that really feels like it HAS to be done before the baby comes. Oh, and lets not forget Halloween, a trip to Pagosa, Taylor's trip to California, Thanksgiving, school, homework, finals and we are having a baby in just over 7 weeks! Woohoo! We are nuts.

A trip to Urgent Care

Taylor gave the kids a piggyback ride this morning and when he swung Levi off his back we hear a loud pop. Levi started crying and then would not use his hand. When he tried to pick up cereal he couldn't even make a fist. Off to Urgent Care we went. Thankfully my Dad literally works next door to the Urgent Care place so he took Katie for the morning. After two unsuccesful attempts to get it to pop back in off we went to the Pediatric Orthopedic specialist. He determined that the bone just wasn't staying in place so he put Levi in a cast for 2 weeks. We had several sets of x-rays that Levi was not a fan of. It broke my heart to see him hurting and not be able to help him. He seems much happier in the cast and is now sleeping away the morning. He probably had a sugar crash from all the dum-dums we gave him:)

Color

Fall is here in Colorado, even though it still feels way too hot! We drove up to the mountains on Saturday to see the Aspen and get out of the house for a while. We had been planning on going to The Doughnut Mill, but decided to skip it due to long lines and them always being out of fritters. I don't love their doughnuts anyways. We first stopped at 7-11. No doughnuts. Then we went to Dunkin Doughnuts and they were so good! We will just go there first next year. After a stop at Wal-mart for batteries and potty break we finally made it out. The colors were amazing. We pulled off on a private road and took a ton of family pictures. We propped the Capri-Sun box up on the car and used the multiple picture setting. We took about 150 pictures. I know included way too may here, but they really were good ones. There are a lot of the backside of very pregnant Becky and Taylor and I looking like complete goons trying to make the kids smile. I even included some pictures that show off the ever-expanding belly! Please dismiss anything else you might notice expanding as well:) After the drive, which was super short, we went back to the playground at Divide. The kids had a blast. It was a great place to stop and stretch legs. After one more stop at Wal-mart for Lunchables (I swore I would never buy them, but the kids loved them.) we made it home.