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.

Balloons!

The Colorado Balloon Classic was this weekend, and it is one of our favorite ways to kick off fall. We tried to go Saturday morning and it was so windy we turned around and went home. We later heard they ended up cancelling. We were determined to go though, so we got up before church Sunday and tried again. Beautiful weather this time! The kids had so much fun. I started crying because they were so excited. I blame hormones:) Levi literally pointed at every balloon for over an hour and said, "balloon! balloon!." Family shot.
Balloon!

No time to pose for a picture.

I know some of you are desperate for a belly-shot...sorry!

It was super sunny!

Poor Katie was terrified when they started the fan to blow up a balloon right next to us. She rallied pretty quick though.

I love how close we get to be!

Another blinded by sun shot.

Levi looks stunned in most of these shots.

Watching lift off.

Can't wait until next year. We will have a 4 1/2 year old, 2 1/2 year old and a 9 month old! We need a new stroller!

Ballet

Katie has talked excitedly for weeks about her ballet class. We watched videos of ballerinas and practiced dancing. Today was finally the big day!To put in mildly, she was a bit of a stinker about it. She didn't want to go in. Refused to participate. And kept making her crazy silly face at me. She did like the barre excercises and said that next week she wants to go back. She said she will listen to the teacher next time. I think we will probably try one more week and see. I'm guessing she was nervous with the whole process. She sure did look cute though.

We also made some new t-shirt headbands this week. They don't slip and are so easy to make! Katie helped me cut out the circles to make the flower!

The last days of summer...I hope.

This summer has been so hot! The news is reporting that it is the hottest summer on record for Colorado. This adds up to one very tired, swollen, and ready for fall pregnant mama. I love all the things we have done this summer, but my body is definitely ready for some cooler temperatures!

Our garden. I planted about a month later than I should have but we are hoping to get some corn, zuchinni and more than a handful of beans from the garden. Since we haven't had a huge hail-storm we are doing 100 times better than last year with this garden! Levi loved the beans. Katie asked me about 500 times not to make her eat them. I told her each time that I wouldn't. She ended up trying them and loved them.

Sprinkler time. I sat in the wet grass and let the kids go crazy with the hose. We made it to lunchtime that way:) On a side-note. I have a thing against 2 pieces for little girls. It isn't that I think they are horrible. I actually think Katie looks adorable in this one. But! There are so few rites of passage for little girls. They are supposed to grow up so quickly and care so much about their bodies and what they look like. So, for us, bikinis are for in the backyard only until she is older.

Drowning the garden.

Sky-Sox baseball game. The kids were more interested in mooching food off people than the game. We still had fun for a short time though.

Rest.

From the pictures in this post you would think the title should be busy, but that is the opposite of what our hearts are feeling right now. Taylor has had about a month off from school, I have gotten most of my energy back, and we have been able to rest in a much more "normal" routine. I have been working at waking up around 6 so that I can shower, have a quiet-time, and maybe check email before the kids are up. What a difference starting the day that way has made! Taylor and I have really tried to be intentional about getting his clothes ready, lunch packed and spending about 15 minutes picking up the house before bed, which really starts the next day off great for us. I have re-started using my "motivated-mom" planner. Though I rarely get through the check-list of items for the day, it definitely gets me moving in the right direction. It has been so nice to not have Taylor going to classes, working on homework, and meeting for group projects. We will start back in 3 weeks, but we are relishing in each day free! We have also gotten some long awaited projects checked off our lists!

Taylor helped me screw the holes for these hooks and I made a jewelry organizer out of the wine-rack we took out of our buffet. No need for a wine rack when we can stretch a bottle of wine out for 6 months in the fridge:) I made an earring hanger from a frame I already had and some lace that was handmade by either my great or great-great grandmother. I didn't realize the lace would be almost the same shade as the wall!

Taylor put shelves in the basement for more storage! I needed a place to organize the many kids crafts, games and etc. we have. I am still in the process of organizing everything in our crazy basement! Losing two bedrooms to kids bedrooms add up to quite a lot of baby, clothing, office and crafting crap stuffed downstairs!

After several months sitting in the garage the chairs are almost finished! I started spray-painting them not knowing we were pregnant, then got sick and the chairs were put on the back-burner. I really like how they came out. I Scotch-Guarded the fabric twice. Levi walked on it 3 times, in dirty shoes, during the process.

Kids play fort. Taylor made the fort and I strategically draped a sheet over it. We have an extra tent rain-fly that I am planning on fitting to the tent so it isn't quite so girly!

We made this bread this morning. It came out so good! We slathered it up with butter. It would have been great with frosting too! It took a while, but I would totally do it again for a special treat!

A lot of our inspiration came from Pinterest. I tried to link back to the idea somewhere in the post for each one!

We made homemade lemonade this week. We used the Martha Stewart recipe. All it is is lemon juice, sugar and water. Katie loved helping squeeze the lemons. Quite a lot of work for a very small amount of lemonade! It checked off another thing on our summer list though!

Levi literally bit a chunk out of the lemon Katie game him. I got several awesome pucker faces! He wouldn't stop and kept going back for more!

Little ham.

We then used the leftover lemonade to make cantaloupe popsicles the next day. We used this recipe. The lemonade didn't have quite enough sugar. This is probably a good thing considering the past 2 pregnancies I have gained 20 pounds in month 5! Here's hoping this pregnancy bucks that trend!

Katie first fish!

We took Katie fishing and she caught 3 rainbow trout. We were as excited about it, if not more, than she was. When my Mom asked her if we kept any to eat Katie got a shocked look on her face and said, "we don't eat fish!" We decided to save that conversation for another day!

Levi had a great time too. He was an expert at falling in the lake, tangling the lines, eating cheese covered in dirt, and throwing things in the lake.

It was so nice that the lake was close-by. We went for a few hours and when it started to rain we headed home! We will definitely go again. And we checked off fishing and picnic off our summer-list.

The Fair

We went to the county fair last week with some friends. It was dollar day so I only paid $2 for the 3 of us to get in since Levi was free! We will definitely go next year again! Petting the goats. Levi loved it. Katie wanted to know if the goats would eat her.

It was the opposite in the corn pit. Levi hated that it was on his feet. He eventually warmed up to it, but only after I picked all the corn off.

Katie and Megan had a really great time! These are the only two big girls in life-group so they are destined to be bff's:)

After much coaxing she pet the donkey.

Baby cow! The kids were either scared of the animals or walking under their legs!