Photo Session

While waiting for Kreg to come home for lunch today the kids and I had a little photo session. I think we actually took some pretty good pictures today.
My Crazy Girl:

My Silly Boy...with crazy girl in the background. In this pic Makayla was actually saying "cheese." She just started saying it today. She says "eeeeeee."


Me with the crazy girl and silly boy.


And one of the 3 of us together! I can hardly believe they are both smiling, let alone that they both cooperated at the same time. (That never happens.) If you look closely it looks like Makayla has both of her top teeth but actually the one on the left is just sooooo swollen that it actually looks like a tooth. Its almost through people....almost through!

Christmas Highlights

What a wonderful Christmas we have had. Woweee it has been filled with so much fun. And we made it last as long as possible too. It all started Wednesday evening with our little family Christmas here at home. I made homemade cinnamon rolls and we had Christmas breakfast for dinner!
Then we let the kids open their gifts from Kreg and I. Aiden got a John Deere big wooden barn he can drive his tractors in and out of. Makayla got a little people doll house, a new baby doll, and a little bottle so she can feed her baby. Amazingly she knew just what to do with that doll and bottle.

We only had a few presents but we totally destroyed the place by the time we were finished opening.
The before:

The after:

Kreg got me a very cool gift that I was not expecting at all. He got a watch that has GPS in it so I can track my courses when I got running. Its so cool. It will record my distance, pace, heart rate, location, etc...then I can put all the info on a program on the computer and keep track of my different runs. I can actually race against myself and see if I'm beating myself from the last time I ran. I can also set goals for things like pace or distance and it will tell me if I'm under or exceeding my goals. Its the coolest little thing! If it wasn't so snowy and Icy outside I would have already tried it out. There will be more to come on my Garmin Forerunner in a later post I'm sure.
Then Christmas Eve we went down to Indy to spend time with my family. We had dinner at my brother's house and had a birthday cake for Jesus.
Here are Aiden and my nephew Luke blowing out their candles for Jesus:

And here's my parents with their four grandchildren!

Christmas day was spent at my parents house. It was a wonderfully relaxing day. My parents got Aiden and Makayla a kitchen. They both seem to love it. Aiden has been making me lots of pizza's.

Saturday morning then we headed back up north to spend the day with Kreg's family. They were kind enough to wait to have Christmas until we could all be together. We had a great time at the Salsbery's as well, although I have no pictures. Silly me. One of the highlights of my day Saturday was giving my sister-in-law, Jessica, the quilt I made her for Christmas. That's right folks you heard correctly. I made a quilt! I had so much fun doing it too, although next time I think I will allow myself a bit more time than 3 1/2 weeks (between Thanksgiving and Christmas just about every waking hour was spent making this quilt). But thats ok because it was all worth it and this winter I even plan to make another one.

So without further ado here's the quilt:


So for the past several days we've been having great fun playing with our new Christmas toys, as Aiden likes to say it. One of MY "Christmas toys" is an electric pressure cooker. I tried it out for the first time today. I cooked a whole chicken for lunch in 28 mins. Amazing! And tonight I'm taking it a step further. I'm going to try making beef stew in the pressure cooker. I'm really excited about my new kitchen toy. I have heard it will "revolutionize my cooking." :) Bring it on baby!

So there ya go, some of the highlights of our Christmas. Such a blessed week of fun. And there is still more fun to be had as this Saturday is Aiden's 3rd birthday party!! Don't worry I will do my best to take lots of pictures.

I know I know....

I know I know...I haven't updated in a while. Well I have an excuse and its called HARVEST. It STILL isn't finished yet! Hard to believe we started this journey back in September and its December 7th with an inch of snow on the ground and they are still in the fields. Its been the craziest year. My wonderful husband has done the best he can to help me out when he's home. I know he's tired and yet when we do get to see him he lovingly plays and wrestles with the kids without complaint. We had a long month of sicknesses/teething as well and he even did his share of holding and comforting the kids in the middle of the night. We're on the home stretch now but its STILL not over yet. I am very much ready to no longer feel like a single parent Monday-Saturday. And I am very much ready to have weekends again. During harvest there is no weekend off. Oh to have my husband home for a Friday night again or a Saturday morning for pancakes and coffee. Its coming...I know it is.

So with that being said most of my days have been spent running around like a chicken with my head cutoff. I pick up the house...and Aiden and Makayla destroy it. I feed them and clean the kitchen up and do it again and again(2 bites for each of them and 1 bite for me...its a good diet plan I tell ya.). I play tractors and choo choo's while holding a squirmy girl on my lap. And then I play tractors and choo choo's more while Makayla destroys/eats the tractors and choo choo's. I tell Aiden to be gentle with his sister about 50 times a day and try to be consistent disciplining my almost 3 year old. And we run errands, go to church activities, and hang out with friends and family. I'm not complaining, I'm just tired. I'm really really tired and ready to enjoy the Christmas season with Kreg at home with me in the evening again. Don't get me wrong, I love my life and I love my kids. They are literally my world right now. I thank the Lord for them every day. I know I am tremendously blessed. Its just been a long few months with some emotional ups and downs and I am just ready to have my husband home to help me once again. I cherish the thought of being able to tell Aiden "It's almost 5pm daddy will be home soon" instead of having to tell him "No daddy won't be home for dinner again tonight because he's working." Oh its coming! The day is coming! I can almost taste it.

Last week was a nice change of pace because I had my best friend since Kindergarten up to visit on Tuesday with her very adorable son Rigg. And then my mom came up and took my kids down to Indy Wednesday and Thursday. That was lovely! I had two whole days of blissful silence, shopping, and uninterrupted projects here at home. Thanks again mom!
And it is at this point that I also most give a shout out to my wonderful mother-in-law who joyfully takes my children every Monday for at least a few hours while I get a jump start on my week. Without her I'm not sure I would have made it through the last 3 months. Being able to at least grocery shop by myself and get some cleaning done around the house does wonders for the rest of my week.

So I leave you now with a few pics from Cari and Rigg's visit to Kokomo:
(I'm so glad you brought your camera Cari)
I just love this picture of Cari with Makayla...both so beautiful!

Aiden's attempt at giving Makayla a kiss and Cari's attempt at trying to catch it on camera.

My cute boy...

My pretty little girl...

And last but certaily not least Makayla trying to make Rigg eat a bus (Sorry Rigg...)

Thanks for coming up Cari! And thanks for helping me keep my sanity mom!