September 28th - 29th, 2020: 7 o'clock Pamcakes

Oh my goodness, I have an ulcer on my gums right now and it hurts SO bad. I've gotten them a number of times but actually didn't know what they were called until I had one that was bugging me and it would KILL when I put my tight retainers over it, so I mentioned it to my orthodontist and that's what he called it. Basically, it's just really tender and if anything rubs against it like food or my toothbrush it really hurts. I'm not sure what even causes them, but I wish I knew in case there was something I could do to avoid getting them. I also have lots of splits on my fingers right now that are quite painful and are now covered in bandaids and it's making it harder to type. Yet here I am. DEDICATION is what that is. I'm falling apart, but I'm still here ready to be dramatic. 😜😂

We're into another week and so I don't have as much to say about yesterday and today, but there are a few highlights. Yesterday I forgot that it was the first day of school for 3rd-6th grade, which meant MORE cars in the carpool lane. Had I remembered, I would have left earlier, but I didn't and unfortunately Maeve was dragging because she was "sooooo tired" (which I had to hear her say all morning and that was even more annoying considering she was up until 9:40pm the night before because she just couldn't fall asleep!) so we left late as it was. SO, she was tardy, but normally she's not so I'm not sweating it. We were back on track today. 🙏

Which brings me to the reason that she just couldn't fall asleep on Sunday night. I was texting with my sister that day and we decided that we're going to her house this weekend for General Conference and to hang out. The kids certainly need their cousin time and as per usual, Maeve is beyond excited. She is obsessed with Rach's house and every last member of the Fiet family. Sooo, she was too excited to sleep on Sunday night just thinking about getting to go there again this weekend. She has been talking about it nonstop since. 😂🤦

Anywho, I pushed through a lot of tidying up and laundry yesterday until we picked up Maeve from school. Oh and my ministering sister also dropped by in the morning and brought me a big can of pumpkin puree, BLESS her heart! She reached out to me the day before and when she asked if I needed anything I joked with her about how I needed the grocery stores to restock their pumpkin. Well, apparently she had some to share, and brought it by along with a bag of M&Ms with a cute message about preparing for Conference. SO nice of her! It was fun to chat for a bit too. 🙌

The highlight of the day after Maeve got home was her and Rowan playing doctor together. They always take turns being the patient and when Rowan was working on Maeve, he put the thermometer up to her bare bum 🤦 and when he went to read it, after contemplating the results for a minute he said "7 o'clock! It's good!" 😂😂😂 He's obviously been practicing telling time a lot! The lowlight of the day was certainly during the boys' bath when Rowan flung a whole cup of water on me and SOAKED me and soon after Nolan toppled over backwards and nearly drowned. Yeah, that was fun. Never a dull moment over here, that's for dang sure. BUT, I did make homemade rolls and a new soup recipe for dinner all while flying solo with the kids while Adam went roofing, so he did call me Supermom when he got home and that was a nice pick me up! 💪

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, Nolan woke up last night around 10:30pm, which is abnormal, but man he sure did put on a little show for us! I got this video 👇 and it is hysterical. We were laughing so hard!! That facial expression could not be CUTER and his little voice too. I could just eat him! 

Oh oh and we also got a new bench for our front porch and it arrived yesterday. Adam put it together and it looks so cute out there!! It will be so nice to have permanent cute seating out there when the kids play out front. 🙌

Today was pretty low key. During Rowan's preschool lesson today, we were talking about the color green and read Green Eggs and Ham. He loved the book, and I was SO hoping that since he is convinced in the end to try the green eggs and ham and actually liked them, that Rowan would be more on board to also try the green eggs that we made together for one of the activities. But nope, he remained stubborn and only ate the ham, the little stinker. He cracks me up during preschool because so often when I ask him questions, he loves to shout "Saturday!" as the answer and I'm pretty sure it's his go to answer when he doesn't know what the real answer is (e.g. "What month is it?" "Saturday!").😂 Silly boy. 

He also made me laugh today during lunch, when I looked over and saw that he had pulled his bagel off his plate and just had it on the table in front of his plate. I asked him why he wasn't using his plate and he said "Oh, I'm sorry - I forgot!" like he genuinely didn't even realize he had set it there instead of on the plate. 😂 It was so cute how he said it too. Love that little voice. 

Also, in other news, Maeve was excited to fill me in on every last detail about school today. I found out that when it's rainy and they can't have recess outside, they play with blocks and watch a show instead... and I'm not gonna lie, I think that's SUPER lame. 🙄😩 She also gets to watch a show while she eats lunch. Why the screen time!? I mean, I guess I remember watching The Magic School Bus in elementary school sometimes, but I don't think it was very often. She also educated me on what a rekenrek is and I swear I've never heard that term in my life. Leave it to my 5 year old to teach me something new. 😏 Also, out of nowhere she started referring to pancakes today as pamcakes. I literally have no idea why...??? She wouldn't tell me why she was pronouncing it wrong either, but my only guess is that she thinks it's funny. 🤷‍♀️ Last but not least, she gets to dress up as her favorite book character on October 30th and I asked her who her favorite character is. I was totally expecting her to say Fancy Nancy, but then she threw me way off guard when she said Dolly Parton from the Coat of Many Colors book. 😂🤔 She's definitely obsessed with the song, but we've only read the book a few times. I guess she used to read it to herself a lot, but that was a while ago! So random and out of nowhere. Gotta love kids when they totally surprise you with what they say! 

I think that's about all I got worth mentioning for today. So nice to be caught up again!! 🙌 I kinda can't believe I've stuck with this for over 3 months now. Look at me! 🤗

And now for pics from yesterday and today:

That face! I didn't tell her to make it. 😂 She's looking so much older these days to me! 

😂 Excited little cutie 

Found them like this and I had to laugh at the resourcefulness. 👌 This was holding out outdoor bench before we opened it up and got it assembled. 

Got a picture of this silly face too! Nailed it. Totally kills me! 😂😍

With his green eggs and ham, and don't worry I ate all those green eggs. 😏

She was tickling him and he was busting up! 😍😍

This picture is over the top cute. Love these cuties! 😍😍😍

Peace and blessings. ✌️

September 26th - 27th, 2020: Bonfires & Lazy Sundays

I realized after I finished writing the post from yesterday that I forgot to include that on Thursday of last week I went to the dentist and FINALLY got my permanent crown put on my front tooth. I will admit that I was hoping when I did this more cosmetic work that it would be a night and day transformation and I'd be so happy that my teeth finally looked perfect. But unfortunately because they were trying to match it to my other teeth, it kinda made me hyper aware that my other teeth have so much translucency and it was basically impossible for them to match it perfectly. It's good enough that from a distance no one will know anything is off, so I do think I'm in better shape than I was before, BUT I was able to see how great the permanent crown looked and kinda wished all my teeth looked that great. So now I see why the dentist had also recommended putting crowns on all 6 front teeth that are visible when I smile. Considering that option would have cost $5,000 though, it seemed excessive and definitely too much money to be throwing at my teeth at 31 years old. Maybe later on down the road! 🤷‍♀️ I wish I had taken a solid close up before picture of my teeth to be able to compare what that tooth used to look like to what it looks like now! Sometime when I do my hair and a full face of make up I will have to take a selfie - I actually played around with taking one some other days this week, but wasn't satisfied with the state of my hair and face... 😂

I also just realized I forgot to write about this lovely story from Friday. We had gotten back from picking up Maeve and I went upstairs to put Nolan in bed. Little did I know, Zoey had pooped upstairs and I stepped in it with shoes on without realizing it, and trailed a bunch of it around the room. 😱😱 I was taking some pictures of Nolan and all the sudden it hit me that it smelled like poop and I thought it was Nolan. But then I walked away and happened to look down and see some poop next to my shoe and that's when my eyes moved around the room and saw the rest of it..... ugh. So Gross! 🤢 In my state of disbelief, I called for Adam and he came to clean it up while I cleaned my shoes up. So nasty. Stinking dog!!! She has figured out how to get through the gate when we don't latch it and I don't know how to drill into Rowan's head to latch the gate behind him, because he STILL never does. She gets upstairs constantly these days and just like any other dog, LOVES to poop and pee in areas that are normally off limits. It is driving me crazy!!!! This incident certainly put me over the edge, but I honestly don't know how to solve the problem with kids around that just don't think enough. 😫😫😫

Anywho, time to talk about the weekend! I actually originally had plans on Saturday after Adam got home from roofing to go look at home decor by myself at Target, TJ Maxx, Ross, etc. since I hadn't hit up those places yet. It's a lot easier to do that kind of stuff without the kids. But then it hit me that so many Saturdays recently have been used for projects and errands and such that it had been a while since we'd just had some fun as a family together! I started to feel like we all just needed to do something fun, so I ended up shifting my mindset to think about what we could do that would be fun instead. I was having a hard time coming up with something that sounded super fun and that we could all agree on and it kinda started to put me in a bad mood. I was looking up Fall community events going on in Murfreesboro and the list was way shorter due to Covid19. That put a bad taste in my mouth cause the effects of this virus have been felt for so much longer than I think anyone ever anticipated! I just wish things could go completely back to normal, not just sorta back to normal. We ended up settling on going to the playground to let the kids get out some energy and we also threw around the idea of going camping that night. Unfortunately, we did our research and found out that there were no campsites close enough to us that could just be driven right up to, instead they required a mile walk to get there from where you'd park. Considering our children would have started complaining after a tenth of a mile, that was a no go. So instead we decided to buy a firepit since Adam found a decent one that would only cost $40. Then we'd be able to set ourselves up to have a bonfire at home on our back patio and make some s'mores! 🙌

Adam actually dropped us off at the playground so he could run to Comcast and deal with some internet junk. Usually, the kids are bummed when we say it's time to leave, but ironically this time around with no car at our disposal like 10 minutes in Rowan was over it. 🤦 So for a while, he insisted on just sitting on the bench with me. We brought Zoey with us and hooked her up and anytime we bring her anywhere the kids are always flocking to her asking to pet her and hold her. Two kids in particular that were siblings were pretty glued to her and the 5 year old boy just kept talking and talking to me. He was talking about his dog and what else he'd done that day among other stuff. It was so funny and kinda cute that he just really wanted to chat with me. Adam showed back up and soon after, an ice cream truck drove by. We'd never been in a good position to get ice cream from an ice cream truck any other time we'd been somewhere where one had come around, so we took the opportunity and the kids were excited. That is, until Maeve realized they didn't just have cups of soft serve ice cream (apparently she'd envisioned that in her head) so she wasn't as excited about the options. 🤦 She almost decided to get nothing, which was shocking, but last minute changed her mind and then really enjoyed her sour popsicle. So it all worked out! I got one of these 👇, which I hadn't had in years, and it honestly wasn't as good as I remember. Apparently my tastes have evolved as an adult. 😂

https://wellsmanagedcontent.blob.core.windows.net/content/foodservice/product/large/12d577d5-efbc-4960-954b-92db1407c2be/chocolate-eclair-bar.v1.jpg

We stopped at Taco Bell for dinner after leaving the park and then Adam took the kids into Walmart to grab the firepit and stuff for s'mores while I nursed Nolan in the car. We got home, put Nolan to bed, and got everything set up. The kids got to stay up an hour after their normal bed time, but it was worth it to have our own little fire together. It was a hit and eventually they started acting really silly, probably because it was past their bedtime and that's when all the crazy comes out. Before we knew it, they were doing these super crazy dance moves and Adam and I were laughing so hard we almost peed our pants. We took a video and I'm so glad I got it captured. It will be a good one to watch years down the road! 😂😂 I'm proud to call them my children. 

Sunday (yesterday) was such a lazy day. I'm really starting to miss the structure of going to actual church. I don't have it in me to doll myself up as much for our home church and because we're at home and have the flexibility of doing it whenever, we've never been disciplined enough to set a strict time and sometimes we do it later in the day than we should. Yesterday was one of those days and it made me realize we need to just start knocking it out first thing in the morning from now on. I think it will set the day up better and help us not feel so lazy the rest of the day. Sooo yeah, all I really have to show for yesterday other than a quick sacrament meeting is making pancakes, sanding and painting one of the mason jars for our DIY project that's going in our half bath off the living room (FINALLY got some chalk paint!), and Adam tended to his plants outside a bit. We also talked about what plants we should try moving forward that aren't so finicky and will look better year round. Bless Adam's heart, he loves to garden, which I think is great and a fun hobby for him, but gardening is so involved and some plants are more high maintenance to thrive well and somehow all the ones he's tried out so far have ended up more that way. Soooo, I haven't been as pleased with how they look. Which is kinda hard to say to the person who's doing all the work in such a way that they won't take it personally. But we're finally to a place where we can talk a little more openly without me making him feel bad. 🙏

The only other funny thing to mention about yesterday is that I made roasted veggies and potatoes and Maeve was eating away, while Rowan wandered off because he "didn't like it" (but really didn't even try it). I was applauding Maeve for what a great eater she is and said that Rowan on the other hand is gonna turn into a giant pretzel pretty soon. Maeve busted up laughing and said, "I'm imagining Rowan as a giant pretzel and it laughs me!" What she meant to say was "it makes me laugh" but just said it wrong - it gave me a good laugh though!! 😂

And speaking of pretzels, Rowan took the whole bag of pretzels and was trying to walk out of the kitchen with them when he could tell I was looking at him like he was committing an offense. Then he said with a little smirk on his face "I'm just bringing these upstairs for Daddy in case he goes low (blood sugar)" --- but then I got this picture 👇, so you do the math on who those pretzels were really for. 😏Little stinker knows just what to say! 

In the interest of time, and since Nolan is crying right now, I'm gonna wrap this up for now and include today in tomorrow's post. 

Here's some other pictures:

Was nursing him and his death grip on my finger was killing me 😍

Popsicles from the ice cream truck 😋

Nolan enjoyed licking some juice off the stick  

Cheesin 😁

Adam thought up this idea to roast the marshmallows by hanging the shorter sticks we had off of the gadget that pulls the firepit cover off and it seemed genius until those 2 marshmallows fell off after this pic was taken... 🤦

His new thing is throwing his arms up whenever he sees anyone make eye contact with him 😂😍 - it's too cute! 

Peace and blessings. ✌️

September 23rd to 27th, 2020: Home Decor for dayssss

I am sitting here wondering how in the world it is almost October!?! How have 2 months gone by since we were in the thick of going the pool everyday...!? Before we know it, it will be Christmastime and my baby will be turning 1! 😱😭 I just can't even handle it. He's TOO much right now, and needs to stay my baby forever. On Wednesday night this week (which is basically where we left off) he was an overtired mess and not only refused his afternoon nap, but then fought super hard going to bed that night too. I was more than thrilled to leave the chaos of getting the other two ready for bed to help soothe him, and I actually broke down in tears with him snuggled into my arms at still as can be because it's been so long since I've gotten any snuggles from him. All the sudden, I couldn't help but think about how it feels like a dream that I ever had a baby Maeve in my arms like that 5 years ago. I don't even remember what it was like snuggling her - though I'm sure it felt very similar - but it's impossible to bottle that feeling up and just pretend you're snuggling a sweet baby and feel that feeling without actually snuggling one. I'm about to start bawling right now just thinking about it! 🙈🤣 I'm going to be a total basketcase when I'm done having my own babies and will have no more babies to snuggle. I just want to remember that feeling of Nolan nestled against me for the rest of my life!!! I have actually joked with friends that I would have a million babies if I could just give them each away once they aren't a baby anymore 😂 (in a way that sounds terrible, I don't mean it like I wouldn't care about them at that point, but it's more that I wouldn't have the mental capacity nor the money to raise that many children) - really I just need a forever baby!!!!! Maybe in heaven I will be with all my children in baby form...🤔 We're supposed to be in our most perfect state in heaven and babies are certainly perfect in my opinion. We shall see! Anyway, sadly enough in the emotional state that I was in, when I went in to lay with Maeve after that, all I could think about is how she is in no way, shape, or form like a baby anymore and I started crying again. 🙈😅 I said something about how all my babies are growing up too fast and before I know it they'll be leaving me for college. That was apparently the wrong thing to say to a little girl who is very in touch with her emotions! It turned into her choking back tears because she will miss us so much when she leaves for college. 😂😂 Oh man, I assured her that she would not be leaving us ANYTIME soon and that helped, but then she got a pouty lip again a few minutes later and said to me "I just hope I can bring a book of pictures of my parents when I leave for college..." 🥰😍 Aaaaand that's when my heart melted into a puddle on the floor. That sweet girl!! I assured her she'd have a nice collection of pictures of our family to take with her when that time comes. 

Now that that long tangent is over with, I have a few other funny odds and ends to share about Wednesday and I'm going to share them in list form: 

~Rowan is getting more and more comfortable messing around with Nolan everyday and that just means things are getting more and more dangerous around here. 😳 Their shenanigans are out of control. My biggest task of motherhood right now is making sure death by brute force or suffocation doesn't occur. 😂😱 To paint a picture, here's a list of things, with the exception of one of them, that happened on Wednesday alone:

• Rowan sticking his foot out towards Nolan's face so that he will lick his toes 
• Nolan reaching up and squeezing Rowan's bum while in the bath 😂😂
• Rowan squeezing Nolan's head as hard as he possibly can (cause ya know, that's how he shows affection) 
• Rowan covering Nolan's mouth because he was crying for "too long" (probably 3 minutes) and he didn't want to hear it anymore 
• Rowan jumping over Nolan and then throwing an adult sized blanket over him to cover his entire helpless little body 🙈

~On Wednesday morning when Maeve and I were hashing it out trying to figure out what she was going to wear to school, Rowan sits up in bed and says, "You're not supposed to talk out loud, you're waking me up!" When we continued to talk anyway, he got out of bed and came over saying "Okay... Oooookay" as if playing the middle man or referee to smooth things out between us (😂) and said "you're still talking out loud keeping me awake!!" The poor little boy was forgetting that he really needed to be awake anyway. Those early school mornings have a way of showing up too quickly! 

~This didn't happen on Wednesday, but I forgot to mention in the previous post that during bathtime with the boys, Rowan was pointing out all the letters of the alphabet with our foam bath letters and saying their sounds with so much excitement even though he was wrong almost every single time about both the letter name and the sound (e.g. while holding up a G, saying "this is a P, which says sssss" 😂). But hey at least, he is interested in learning them and talking about them! Preschool has been helping because he does recognize the letters A & R now that we have covered those. 🙌

~I asked Rowan to throw me one of his balls so we could put it away and after he threw it he said, "Mommy, it's like a football team! I throw to you and you catch it!" - he had watched some football over the weekend with Adam 😊

~After vacuuming during the day, apparently I missed a few crumbs cause Rowan pulled out his little vacuum and said "I need to vacuum cause I see some crumbles" 😂😂

~Rowan loves when Nolan tries to climb on him and he will say, "Mom, look at Nolan! Look at Nolan now!"... I think I heard the phrase "look at Nolan" like 5 times in a row on Wednesday while they were playing together 😂 

~I forgot to mention this in a previous post, but sometime last week Rowan got out the straightener from Maeve's pretend salon kit and walking outside of the house straightening his hair and then stopped to "straighten" the flowers on the plants as he walked past them! 😂😂

So this doesn't turn into a complete novel, I am only going to touch on the highlights of Thursday-Sunday (today). 

Thursday:

We got a new storage bench to sit near our entry way and it showed up in the mail during the day. I had fun putting a bunch of the kids games and puzzles into it that were previously upstairs. It will be sooo nice to have them downstairs since that's where we play with them! 

I also finally had the kids try on their new clothes I got for them the weekend before, and Maeve was seriously killlllling me! She is getting SO picky and said comments like "these are too tight in the ankles" and my personal favorite "these leggings aren't soft enough" (don't worry, they were completely soft 🤦). I so miss the days where she had no opinion whatsoever on what she wore and I could just dress her in the cutest outfits every single day. 😭 I need another baby girl!

I went to Walmart for some odds and ends and ended up getting lucky and finding a new rug for our entry way that had all the colors of our living room in it and the shades seemed pretty spot on. I was excited to get it home and sure enough the teal is perfect. The blues are a little off, but I think it's close enough and I need to get over my dreams of everything always matching sooo perfectly. I am so fixated on that and trying to loosen up a little bit haha. I got the stamp of approval from my mom and sister so feeling pretty good about it! I also got a brown sharpie to cover up some dings on our kitchen table and end tables in the living room and immediately got to work when I got home. The dings were driving me nuts and it made a world of difference!! 🙌🙌

Wednesday and Thursday were way day on Wayfair.com so I also spent a good chunk of time browsing home decor both of those days to try and take advantage of the sales. Which is actually why I didn't write any blog posts those days because I used all my time in the evening to search through everything! When all was said and done, we did end up pulling the trigger on a piece of wall art for our living room. I'm not sure if we will love it in person, and we were debating on what to do because it wasn't clear if it will be returnable or not. But we decided in the end (like right before midnight on Thursday night 😂) that if worse comes to worst, we can just sell it on Facebook Marketplace or something. But fingers crossed that it looks great in the living room and that the colors are right!! 🤞🤞

Friday:

I braved taking the boys to Home Goods to try and get some new rubber gloves to use while washing dishes (they didn't have them, but maybe it's for the best since I have gone through 2 pairs of those already - I ended up ordering a different pair off Amazon and maybe I will like them even better! We shall see 🤞), and ended up also browsing the whole store for decor. I ended up snatching 3 matching little fake plants that to line up in the center of my kitchen table as a new centerpiece. They look super cute, but I think I might also find a skinny little tray to set them in which will also add another element and also make them easier to move off the table when I ever need to. While we were in the store, Rowan was pretty great most of the time until he started huffing and puffing saying "why is it taking so looooong?" - only his favorite phrase of all time to use in the carpool lane at Maeve's school - and completely fell apart when I told him we were finished and he thought we'd be walking out of the store immediately, but really I meant that we could go check out. Luckily I reigned him in before he caused too much of a scene. 😅 

I went to the grocery store after we made dinner hoping to get pumpkin to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and there was no pumpkin to be found! I hadn't been able to get any at Walmart the night before and figured it was just a fluke, but apparently everyone and their brother is wanting to bake pumpkin treats right now. Who would have thought only a few days into Fall they'd be completely out of it?! I was so depressed, but luckily Adam came to the rescue when he told me we could get crumbl cookies instead. And luckily enough, one of their flavors was pumpkin chocolate chip so it ended up being a win win! Adam wanted something savory too, so when I went to get the cookies I also picked up the new pretzel bun burgers we had seen at Wendy's earlier in the month that looked so good (we had had kind of an early dinner so a second dinner seemed necessary 😂) and they did not disappoint!! So good! I also killed some time at Target because I had to wait on one of the cookie flavors to be ready at Crumbl, but it was awesome because I found so many great curtain options for our bedroom and the kids bedroom while I was there. I didn't have time to make a decision, but was excited knowing we'd have some good options to try out!

Alright, it's getting late, so I better stop here!! 

Now for some pictures:

He kept striking this lose and was cracking me up... 😂

From the night that he was still awake after 8pm even after skipping his nap. We eventually gave up and brought him back downstairs for a while. I love seeing him in Adam's lap cause he looks so small! 😍

We got allll the way ready to head out the door to run some errands and while I was nursing Nolan before leaving Rowan conked out like this next to me. 😂 It ended up giving me more time to browse wayfair! 

Crawling all over his sleeping brother 😍

Shows the new rug and storage bench 

👇 And here we have the sequence of crib pictures of Nolan because I can't help myself!! He always looks soooo cute standing there. It's over the top! I could eat that perfect little face off. 😍😍😍

He loves to crawl around holding onto this dog bone toy of Zoey's and it cracks me up because it looks like a little hand weight for him. 😂 

And speaking of the devil, Zoey's favorite spot in the house! 😍 Gotta love how she's always so curled up. 

Until next time! Peace and blessings. ✌️

September 19th - 22nd, 2020: Just... life

I realized I forgot to mention in my last post when talking about Friday the 18th that we went on an evening walk and the kids rode scooters/bikes. Friday is the first day it started to cool down here and it was SUCH a nice walk. The crisp air felt amazing and it made me excited for the Fall!! Just in time considering today as I write this is the first official day of Fall. 🙌

Anyway, as for the rest of the weekend...

Saturday:

Adam went roofing so the morning was low key and after he got back I was able to get out and go to Once Upon a Child/Kid to Kid. These kids are growing like weeds and we're approaching cooler weather again. Time to get a bunch of new clothes! Unfortunately I didn't have the greatest luck - Maeve and Nolan got a handful of things, but I only managed to get one pair of pants for Rowan. 🙄 I'll have to hit up Walmart clearance and go back to Once Upon a Child again. I spent most of my time at Kid to Kid because a few minutes after I got to Once Upon a Child before I found anything I wanted, a kid in the next aisle over threw up and it pretty much grossed me out so I left. 🤢 Who knows what kinda germs were brewing in there, but I didn't want to be around them. A little bit of a bummer, but what can you do. The rest of the day was just typical stuff. I did end up finishing The Fault in our Stars on that night so that was fun. Such a great movie! 

Sunday: 

Honestly I don't remember hardly anything about Sunday at this point and it was only 2 days ago... 🤦 It must not have been that exciting of a day! Of course we had our own little church and I do remember I got the chance to read for pleasure for a bit. I'm currently reading Dear Edward, but I'm not too far in yet. Other than that, after dinner for the last chunk of the evening before the kids needed to go to bed, we went to the park and Maeve and Rowan had the time of their lives running around the playground together getting some energy out. I could watch Rowan run around a playground all day long -- when he gets excited, it's not a typical run, it's like running with galloping mixed in. 😂 He just can't help himself but bounce around. It is too cute! 

Yesterday and today have been pretty low key. Maeve's new thing to complain about every morning is having to wear her mask all day at school. I realize now that's especially hates ever having to stop at the store after school because she is SO ready to be done with her mask and can't stomach putting it right back on. To be honest, I don't blame her for hating it - 7 hours is a long time to be in a mask! I myself don't even know what that's life, but I'd probably hate it too. Poor girl. She keeps asking when she won't have to wear one anymore... I so wish I could just make this all go away and make her little life more normal again! I do think it helps that she entered the school world with everything being different, so that she has nothing to compare it to, but I do know she will love it SO much more when all these extra regulations can go away. Poor girl doesn't even know what her teacher's/friends' faces even really look like. It's kind of depressing when you really think about it! 😥

Anyway, the only noteworthy thing I was going to mention from yesterday is that poor Nolan got stuck underneath our play high chair in the playroom while I was getting ready in my bathroom. I heard him crying, but it didn't sound like life or death so I hurried to finish before going to get him, but then I felt bad when I found him like that. I don't even know how long he was stuck... 😳🥺 Now I feel like I need to always check anytime I hear him crying cause it might not just be that those cranky-get-me-out-of-the locked-in-playroom tears.  

We were all pretty excited today knowing it was the first day of Fall. Maeve even said as she was getting out of the car this morning, "Have a great first day of Fall!" 🥰 That girl is too cute for her own good! Rowan has been especially into reading books lately and it's been cute that he will specifically ask me to read him books throughout the day. It might have something to do with the fact that I went out of my way to pick out books about monster trucks and trains from the library last week. That boy sure is obsessed with monster trucks and excavators right now! It cracks me up that he even uses the term excavator. I don't even use it, but then he will correct me when I don't. 😂😂

After school, Maeve randomly wrote me a little note and for the words she doesn't know how to write she just draws squiggles, but then tells me what they "say" 😂 - today it was all about me being the best mommy and a sweet mommy that she loves and she thanked me for bringing her to school every morning. Leave it Maeve to make you feel good about yourself! She has her moments and certainly knows how to get snippy, but she's really got so much love in her little heart and I just love that about her. 🥰

Adam went roofing tonight and I realized tonight that having 3 little kids is no joke! The 2 hours before bedtime are just sooo busy. Especially when one kid is in school and there's some school work to do each night and a lunch to be made, all while cleaning up from dinner, helping them get their nightly treat, nursing the babe, getting Maeve in the shower, Rowan ready for bed too etc. etc. - it is just impossible for me to do it all on my own and not fall behind on time. It makes me so much more thankful for the times that I have Adam's help!! It is no easy task reining in these hooligans in a timely manner. So needless to say, the evening tonight was a bit chaotic - it certainly didn't help that Rowan was throwing books at my head while I was trying to change the diaper of a baby desperately trying to get away from me... 🤯🤯 Rowan has made leaps and bounds on the throwing/hitting front, but for some reason today he was in a throwing mood and I about lost it by the end of the day! I think he really just thinks it's fun to throw stuff. Blah! 

Aaaaanyway, that's all I got and now I'm officially caught up. Hollaaaa! Here's some pics and videos from the last few days: 

Can you tell that her hands are black as after creating a masterpiece with chalk? 😂 She also had some on her face and it was cracking me up. And of course she chose to make crazy faces while I took a pic. She's not boring at all! 

Maeve's masterpiece that Rowan's pee trickled onto. 😂😭🙄 You can't make this stuff up! 

Color mixing for preschool yesterday! 

For some reason, Rowan was changing in total gibberish and it was cracking me up so I recorded it... I have no idea what was going on inside his head! 👇

These three videos 👇👇👇 are Maeve saying the Pledge of Allegiance and then her and Rowan singing the Months of the Year and Days of the week songs. She is so animated it kills me! The ending of each video is just too good. Like I said above, she's certainly not boring! 

Peace and blessings. ✌️

September 11th - 18th: Home projects, deep cleaning, and a visit from Gram and Gramps!

It's been a minute! I missed a few nights simply because we were so busy getting ready for my parents to come visit and then of course once they were here I wasn't taking the time to write either. They said bye to us late Thursday night and I typically don't write on weekends, so there you have it! 

Friday the 11th was a HUGE momentous day for us because Adam got the verbal from Publix at work for the 1 million dollar deal!! 😲😲🥳 We feel seriously so blessed that he landed this considering we will be able to get out of all our debt and free up a good chunk of money each month to spend in other ways that are a little more fun! 🙌 Such a game changer. Being the sweet husband that Adam is, before I even noticed them, he got a pretty arrangement of roses and other flowers put together in a vase on our kitchen table after he got home from work. I asked him why he got them for me considering I felt like it was more of a celebration of his accomplishment and not mine, but he said it was big news and reason to celebrate for our whole family. 🥰 That man! He's a keeper. 

On Thursday night, I found out that my friend Jessica from our ward (we serve in the Young Women's Presidency together) could help me with stencils for my paper scroll and the sign we're making for outside our front door!! I was quite excited to hear this because I had no idea how to tackle it myself. She told me about a cool store where I could find colored vinyl, so I went over there on Friday before dinner to check it out and see if I could find the colors I wanted. Unfortunately they didn't have exactly what I had in mind, so we decided to go the paint route. 

We built up enough rewards to get a free box of Crumbl cookies, so after getting the kids in bed we enjoyed those. Oh and also, I went to change Nolan's clothes at one point on Friday and saw that his diaper was on backwards from a previous diaper change done by Adam.... 🤔 Not sure how that happened since he's never done that before, but it gave me a good laugh! 😂

Saturday morning Adam discovered that we had a caterpillar infestation coming from our neighbor's back patio - they've got a legit FOREST of weeds back there and it is one of the craziest things I have ever seen. I didn't even know weeds could grow as tall as trees but that is how they look. Anyway, considering Adam has some basil plants, tomato plants, and other flowers growing on our back patio he was quite distraught about this. They were trying to eat and destroy a bunch of the basil and he couldn't kill them fast enough. Rowan also peed his pants, so he had taken him up to the bath while I was busy making pancakes. In the middle of all of this, Adam's blood sugar started to plummet and he was being pulled so many directions he didn't start eating fast enough. He asked me where the syrup was in the fridge and then he asked me where the juice was (the syrup can get buried but the juice is always in plain sight) - I should have known something was really up when he asked about the juice. Instead, I answered him in a "in the fridge duh" kinda way and then before I knew it he was carrying the juice back to the table, stopped in his tracks, and started to speak incoherently. He was trying to tell me he couldn't think straight and couldn't even get the words out, but instead was stuttering on syllables. 😱 Definitely brought me on high alert!!! It was crazy and a little nerve wracking for me. At least we managed to make it almost 8 years together before having something like that happen! Here's to hoping it doesn't happen again. 🤞 

Otherwise, Saturday was a busy day of errands and projects. Adam worked on fixing his tool shelving and then painted the mirror in the kids room navy blue. It was white before and their walls are white, but even though it was "white" it was not the same true white that the walls are and it was really bugging me. It looks awesome now that it pops off of their wall and looks good with their bedding and decor. Meanwhile, I took the kids to Home Depot to get the paint colors for the sign on our front porch and also stopped at Walmart to get a few things, including some candy and sparkly for Adam as my congratulations to him for his big Publix deal! I also got a small set of organizational drawers for our cabinet that has a bunch of art supplies for the kids inside of it and man is it night and day from how to looked/functioned before!! 🙌 So nice now. After doing that, I went to At Home to look at decor for the house - so nice to be able to start tackling that again now that we will have some extra cash. I scored some cute wall decor to make our dining area complete as well as the CUTEST set of floral wall prints for the kids bathroom. I am obsessed! They are so fun and colorful and I just love groupings. Definitely my favorite wall in the house to look at now. 😍😍 I also got some really fun yellow decorative vases for the dresser in the kids room and they look so super cute with the mirror. Now I just need letters/pictures of the kids above their beds and their room will be looking awesome! On my way home from shopping, I was ordering some Chinese food while driving (considering I wasn't going to get home until 7pm and everyone still needed dinner) and accidentally missed the exit I needed to take and it cost me FIFTEEN minutes. Sooooo annoying, especially since I was already getting home so late and with the food. 🤦‍♀️ I made that mistake once a long time ago so as soon as I realized what I had done I knew there was no quick fix. Blah! 

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday until 1:20pm when my parents showed up we literally devoted almost all of our time to cleaning, reorganizing, painting, etc. to get the house looking as awesome as we could before my parents showed up. Yet SOMEHOW after working so hard for so long, my parents ended up pulling in a little sooner than I expected and we did NOT have everything finished. 😱😱 I got my mom's text and nearly dropped dead and started running around like a wild woman trying to do as much as I could. Rowan was so confused and started exclaiming "What Mommy!? What is it?? Why are we hurrying so much!? Are we going somewhere??" 😂 Moral of the story is don't get too distracted with trying to finish one too many home projects, putting up new decor, reorganizing closets, and wiping down the baseboards that you run out of time to do surface level stuff like dishes and vacuuming. 🤦‍♀️🙈 So bad! I have never been a good judge of time and for some reason always think I can get done more than I end up being able to. Maybe now is when I will finally admit to myself moving forward that I need to chew off less than what I first think I should chew off. ANYWAY, despite my embarrassment, my parents still love me and we enjoyed our time together. 

They were with us until Thursday night and Maeve was just SOOO excited for them to be with us. We kept it pretty low key, but managed to eat out Tuesday night at a cute local restaurant in downtown Murfreesboro and that was delish. Maeve skipped school on Wednesday and the kids were just elated to be able to check out the hotel Gram and Gramps were staying at... gotta love kids! 😂 Doesn't take much to please them. We did a Walmart run, ate at Culver's for lunch, and hung out at home the rest of the day. On Thursday, Maeve was SO sad to miss out on the fun and go to school so it was a bit of a rough tearful morning, but the boys and I went with my mom to Hobby Lobby, the library, and Walmart again. Somehow every time we are together we end up with multiple Walmart runs and it's kinda the family joke. There are always things we forget to get. 🤣 We ordered some pizza for dinner from a local place we hadn't tried yet and it was pretty dang good! It was so fun to be able to play games with my parents after the kids were in bed all three nights. We had some great rounds of Cover your Assets and Codenames and a whole lot of laughter. Maeve just loves to bake with Gram so of course they also made some brownies and rice crispy treats. So all in all, lots of good food and lots of fun to be had!! Poor Maeve was so sad to say goodbye to Gram and Gramps before she went to bed Thursday night. She even said to them through tears, "It's just really tricky saying goodbye to someone you love so much" - bless her sweet little heart. 😭💔

We were all pretty depressed to go back to our normal routine on Friday. Maeve bawled all morning before school and in fact I also couldn't bring myself to be as productive as I normally am. I ended up lounging around with the boys most of the day, playing with them, and counting down the hours until Maeve and Adam got home. I am pretty sure that we will be watching Zombies 2 every single Friday after Maeve gets home from school for many months to come... she is that obsessed! Even Rowan is always singing the songs now too. 😂 After the kids went to bed, we watched the Fault in our Stars because it had been a long time since I'd watched it and sometimes when you're feeling a little depressed you want to watch a somewhat depressing movie... at least that's how I am, call me crazy! Unfortunately even though I was loving it (I just love Augustus in that movie), I fell asleep 30 minutes in, but no shocker there. 

I know I'm still a few days behind, but I'm gonna stop here. But before I do, here's a few other funny moments to share from last week: 

~Adam found our tube of Acyclovir (treats cold sores) on the ground in the living room (who knows how it got there) and said "Why is the cervadil down here?" 😂🤔 That's the drug I used to open my cervix when I was in labor with Maeve. Who knows how that even popped into his head again, but it was pretty funny!! 

~Rowan used the term "car foot" in place of "barefoot" 😂 - maybe because it meant his feet would feel the floor of the car being barefoot?! Too funny! He must have misheard me and also started referring to mopping as "mapping" 😂

~While watching Zombies 2, I gave Maeve and Rowan candy and when Rowan finished his he started sneaking some of Maeve's. I said, "Hey stop, that's Maeve's candy dude!" and he said "Yeah, but I was hungry!" 😂🤦‍♀️

Aaaand now for the pictures of the week...

She couldn't have possibly worn more pink 😂😍 - she must wear her favorite color on her favorite day (Friday) - obviously! 

Let the forced wrestling begin! 😂🙈

Don't worry, Nolan is always happy about everything so he was rolling with it 🤣😍

Love these boys 🥰

Rowan made a fruit loop necklace since we're learning about colors this unit and he did not want to be photographed 😂

Playing hopscotch! Bring me back to high school. For some reason, I even played it in high school... 😂🤔

Nolan had a serious blowout in the exersaucer on Saturday and was all smiles to have the opportunity to smear his poop all over his feed and the bottom of it 🙈🤢

Sooo gross. If only I could have just thrown it away! 😂

Those hands and that tongue! 😍 

Someone thinks they're getting so big! 

😍😍😍

Found Rowan sleeping like this on Saturday night after starting in his bed... 😂

He was sooo sleepy after refusing a nap and all snuggles with Gram 

Enjoying some custard, cause he's just that privileged of a baby! 

Venturing down the table food road now that he's 9 months old and he's taking it like a champ! 

How he feels about black beans! 🙌 Rowan wouldn't go for them at all from the start so this is a big victory. Hoping it means he will be a better eater like Maeve is! 

And so it begins.... 🤦‍♀️

The joys of eczema! It is soooo terrible right now and spreading to two of my other fingers so here we are. It is helping give me major relief to lather on the healing ointment and keep them covered like this! 🙏🙏

When Mommy takes away the toilet brush... 😂 It's hard a hard life! 

Peace and blessings. ✌️