October 23rd - 26th, 2020: Weenie roasts, Pumpkin carving, & Hibachi

I have alllllways loved the Fall. Adam loves it too and it's kind of awesome we got married in the Fall because now there's even more reason to love it. There's nothing like the crisp weather, the leaves changing colors, pumpkin EVERYTHING!, and the fact that you've got Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! It's a whole lot of fun and traditions packed into a short time. And for us, our anniversary is in the mix too - which is tomorrow! That being said, it's been a fun few days around here. 🙌

Friday was pretty low key and even more low key than usual because we had to skip out on our weekly Friday movie with popcorn and candy. Maeve handled herself VERY poorly at Old Navy last week after school one day and she took the lack of respect was taken so far despite my warnings to reign it in that her consequence was no screen time for a MONTH. Call me crazy, and maybe that's harsh, but I'm really hoping it teaches her a lesson about respect because it's going to a saaad month for her without it. We've had lots of talks about respect recently because boy, does she have a lot to learn. There is nothing that gets me more fired up (in a bad way) than when my kids blatantly disregard what I say. 🤬 Hopefully we'll turn a corner soon given the fact that I'm being real serious with the consequences associated with disrespect. So yeah, not too much exciting to mention about Friday otherwise. 

Saturday we had our annual weenie roast at my Aunt Deb's house. My sister and her family drove in for it, so it was all of us plus my Aunt and Uncle and cousin Chuck and his wife Trish and son Cam. The kids were soooo excited to see their cousins again plus Cam and all had a great time fishing and playing together outside. Nolan got lots of love and was the star of the show, but with that sweet nearly constant smile, who could expect less!? We had lots of great conversation and enjoyed hot dogs, brats, and chili as well as smores by the fire. I love going to my Aunt's house out there because you really feel immersed in nature there. It's a quiet area nestled into the trees. It was a great day! 

Sunday was a bit hectic in the morning since Adam had meetings and was also trying to finish up his talk for church that day... 😅 I was flying solo getting the kids ready and had also decided to make some cream cheese stuffed french toast in our air fryer, which maybe was too ambitious given it was my first time making it - I always forget that recipes take longer the first time you're making them. 🤦‍♀️ It was delicious and totally worth it, but by the time I got the kids all ready to go, I had like 20 minutes to get ready myself. Soooo my make up wasn't quite up to par and my hair ended up in a wet braid, but such is life sometimes... 🤷‍♀️ I also find it a little sad that out of anyone, I am always most interested in hearing talks by family members, so of course Adam is at the top of that list -- but when you're in the pew wrestling the children on your own because they're giving said talk, you can't even fully listen. So I can't fully report on his talk, but I'm sure it was great, cause he's great. 😂😅

After church, we carved pumpkins together. Ironically, the kids were BEGGING to do it, and while we were cleaning up and getting set up so we could do it, they would not stop asking if it was time for it yet, but then once we were actually doing it, they turned into wimps and were basically no part of it. Neither of them would touch the guts to save their lives, so Adam basically did all the work for their pumpkins. Sooo they basically decided they hate carving pumpkins, but luckily we've got many more years ahead of us to change their minds about that. 😜 Although truth be told, I was whining myself while removing the guts in mine cause I really do find it quite nasty. I also don't trust myself with a knife and a pumpkin, so Adam ended up doing most of the carving of mine for me, but I did enough before he stepped in to totally botch it, so not to worry -- my flare was still put on it. 😂 The eyes were meant to look cooler, but I screwed them up so I had to leave them both as bare holes... 🙈 Oh well. Adam does great work though (he even pulled out the power tools for Nolan's), so when all was said and done, our pumpkin line up was pretty cute. 

I would have blogged last night, like I normally do at the end of a weekend, but Adam wanted to give me another massage, so course I couldn't turn that offer down - so after the kids were in bed I enjoyed another nice and relaxing massage from the comfort of our living room. 🙌 That massage table might go down in history as the best surprise gift ever, considering he is the one that offered the massage, instead of me asking for it, which is how it normally goes. It's a total game changer! 🤗

Which brings us to today. It's kind of tradition (at least I think we've gone every year... 🤔) for us to do Hibachi for our anniversary. We love it so much that it also gets thrown in sometimes for birthdays, but usually we just go for our anniversary. Since it's tomorrow and I have youth activities tomorrow night, we decided to go out tonight. It was a total disaster with the kids last time we went for Adam's birthday in January, but I prepped Maeve for it enough that she agreed as long as we could step away for the part when the fire goes crazy, she would be fine. And she was! 🙏 Rowan freaked out at the beginning, but calmed down pretty quickly and took enough comfort in Adam's shoulder while he was scared. Nolan on the other hand was mesmerized and thought it was awesome. 😂 The chef was the CUTEST and so fun for the kids. He asked their names and was totally catering the whole show to them, which was so nice of him, especially since they were nervous. Maeve was actually having fun before long! My favorite part was that whenever he threw the butter he would say "butterfly!" 😂😂 - I can't believe they don't all say that! Usually the chefs all do and say pretty much the same time, so it was our first time hearing that one. Adam gave him a really great tip because he was so awesome. I was worried it would end up being a disaster again, but relieved and so pleased that it was so fun this time. 🙌🙏 Maeve was even cracking me up when I took her to the bathroom while we were there and she heard the music playing, said "Oooh, good music" and proceeded to bust out all these crazy dance moves accompanied with crazy facial expressions. She had me laughing more and more with each one. 😂 I just love her and her silly personality! 

Other than that, we also took a trip to Walmart today and Rowan walked next to me for the whole trip and did so great. 🙌🙌 Normally it ends up a struggle when I let him walk, so that was a pleasant surprise. He did fall asleep on the way home from running that errand and picking Maeve up from school, so I transferred him to the couch and he peed on the couch in his sleep, so that was fun... 🙄 Also, Nolan discovered the Wii and pulled that down and threw it on the ground a few times today, which was also fun! 😰 Yaaaay for dangerous babies. Those boys are always keeping things interesting around here - at least I know there's never going to be a dull moment. 😅 Not sure how I will protect our Wii moving forward though... that's a tricky one. We've got a destroyer on our hands and he's not going anywhere...! Heaven help us all. Luckily in addition to their trouble making, the boys made up for it earlier in the day by being so cute with each other - Rowan was basically pouncing on Nolan over and over and he was just cracking up. He'd do his best to crawl away from him every time, but before long Rowan was chasing him and pouncing on him again and he just looooved it every time! 😂😍 Rowan also did some flips over him too and he thought it was all hilarious. Luckily there were no injuries to be had, only some close calls. 😜 Rowan is loving his baby bro more and more everyday and it is pretty cute to watch, but also a little scary considering the love makes him want to act like a wild man with him. 😂😅 They did have a really sweet moment in my bed together on Saturday morning where they were basically laying and hugging each other for more than just a few seconds. It was kind of miraculous, considering Nolan usually will not stay still for more than a few seconds, so it was a pretty legit cuddle session and I really wish I had had my phone right next to me to take a picture! 

The only other thing I will mention is that we had a video call with the sister missionaries over FB after putting the kids to bed tonight and that was fun. They were telling us tonight that since they basically did their missionary training online instead of going to the MTC (Missionary Training Center) due to Covid, their goal is to also start doing some missionary training for us members moving forward to teach us how to be better member missionaries. I really have been wanting to be a better member missionary, so I think that's a really cool idea and we will see how it goes! 

I think that's about it!! Here's some pics: 

Sistas. Love that Nolan is looking up at Rach. 😍 He sure loves his aunt! 

Some of the group! 

😍

My cousin Chuck with Maeve and her beloved bowl of popcorn. She was cracking us up all kicked back and relaxed munching on her popcorn. 🤣

We let Nolan suck on some ice and he was loving it! 

She seriously cracks me up that she will squeeze herself in there to get Zoey's dog food. She will stay like that for 5 minutes straight! 😂😂

I had to beg them to act happy and come take pictures and they sure did deliver. Total fakers! 😂

😂👌

Love these three doggies 😍. All popping their heads up waiting for me to let them in. 😂

From tonight's Hibachi dinner. First time I've let him sit in a high chair! I usually just keep him in his carseat to avoid the germs but I knew he wouldn't last 2 seconds in there tonight. He needed to be free. 😂 He loved it! 

My child that is always willing and ready to take pictures with me. 😍 I can't believe how old she is looking these days. 😭

Maeve took this pic of us so don't mind the baby head. Nolan just wanted to make an appearance.. 🤣8 years and 3 kids later with this man!! 

The chef asked Maeve to spell her name and wrote it with sauce over the rice. Sooo cute of him! She loved it. 

Peace and blessings. ✌️

October 12th-22nd, 2020: Recent happenings

I should have never let myself skip more than one night of writing. It is so easy to say "what's one more night of not writing!?" when you're already behind. And that's obviously what I've been doing and how I've been rationalizing. Satan's over here just trying to distract me from my goals. Not cool, but he's not winning this for good. Time to buckle down and recommit!! 😅

I have taken almost zero notes over the last two weeks so honestly I'm just going to spew a few highlights that I can even remember - it certainly will not be all encompassing, but I mean we're not celebrities over here, so... a few likely boring details will be nothing to cry over. Although, now that I think about it, we might actually be approaching celebrity status and it's seriously wacko - to clarify, like a month ago I noticed that I had 42 subscribers on my YouTube channel. It really only exists because it's the easiest way to upload funny videos of the kids and share them with my family. So ya know, Maeve is 5 now, which means I created it 5 years ago. I had never even checked how many subscribers I had before, but when I saw 42 I was honestly a little surprised there were that many. I have not broadcasted it in any way shape or form. Like a week later, I noticed a notification of a new subscriber so I looked and it had jumped to 100. I noticed that they all seemed like they were random people from other countries. So odd! It was weirding me out, so I mentioned it to my family and settled on the fact that I should probably make it private. At first I couldn't figure out how to do this so some more time passed and when I got around to actually figuring it out I had 500 subscribers.🤯🤯 I got the job done and made everything private, but then I got an email recently that said congrats on 1,000 subscribers!!! WHAT?! 😱 Apparently I didn't do it right, but seriously, where are these people coming from!? How did I manage to stay under the radar for 5 years and then in a matter of one month it's exploding!?!?! It is blowing my mind and I wish I knew why it is really happening. I really don't want to have to delete it and start over, but I might have to at this point. 🙄 SO bizarre! I'm at 1.33K at the moment. Total wackoville and super annoying that I have to spend time even thinking about it and fixing it. Ain't no one got time for that! 

I digress. Here are some highlights since Monday the 12th: 

~Life is approaching normalcy again, because in the last 11 days I've attended my first in person Relief Society activity, in person YW Presidency meeting, in person church, and in person YW activity. It's only been 7 months since attending anything like that in person!! Feels pretty weird to be back at it, in our masked glory. I don't even remember how to talk to people anymore. Send help. It's one thing taking a 7 month break from close friends and another thing taking a break that long from church acquaintances. It's such a weird time in the world, so I'm not even sure what small talk should look like right now. 🤷‍♀️ Lots to navigate! 

~I used to be queen of getting in random (mostly) minor car accidents, but in the last almost 8 years of being married to Adam, only one mishap occurred that wasn't my fault when we were newlyweds. Since then, I've remained in the clear, until last week when I hit a mailbox and knocked one of my side mirrors off. 🙈🙈 Poor Rowan could tell I'd done something bad by my reaction and said "What Mommy!? Was that not supposed to happen?? Is that bad??" and then started crying since I was upset with myself. I kept reassuring him we were fine and all was still well! The most annoying part is that it was the mirror on the passenger side and it was dangling by some wires. I was in a hurry on my way to my YW presidency meeting when it happened and then had to head straight to the school to pick up Maeve. The whole time while driving, anytime I picked up enough speed the wind kept knocking the mirror into the passenger door window. The kids kept saying stuff like "what's happening?! Oh no! Mommy is that bad?! I hate that sound. How can it stop??" I was happy when we made it back home and Adam was able to use some tools to take it off - luckily he found a replacement for it for $70, so I'm feeling grateful that it isn't costing us an arm and a leg. 🙏 

~We went to a pumpkin patch on Saturday. Unfortunately, we weren't able to go to our favorite one that is an hour away because of time constraints, and then the one that we chose instead was too full when we showed up (thank you Covid), so we had to pick yet another one! It was a lot smaller than Cedarwood Farm and just as pricey, but the entrance fee did not include the cost of pumpkins. Sooo, we decided Kroger pumpkins would be cheaper and held off on getting any. The hay rides were also backed up, so we didn't end up making it onto one of those, which was a bummer. The kids had fun though with some inflatables, climbing on tractors, hay mounds, and tire formations, playing in the corn pit, and petting/feeding the animals at the petting zoo. We still had a good time, but I'm bummed we missed a year at Cedarwood!! Next year I need to make a point to pencil it onto the calendar at the beginning of October to make sure we make the proper time for it and time doesn't get away from us!! 

~We got invited anonymously to a Halloween themed scavenger hunt around the town of Murfreesboro with other couples from our ward/stake. I wish I knew who put it together, but we did get a babysitter and got to attend that on Saturday night. We had a few familiar faces on our team and it was a fun time - definitely a nice change of pace from our usual weekend happenings! It's been a long time since we've had a date night like that out on the town (literally) with other adults. I was pretty much no asset to our team, but Adam found a few of the clues so props to him and I think we ended up in 3rd place out of like 6 or 7 teams. It was tricky business!! 

~Adam splurged and surprised me with an early anniversary present.... and let's just say he knows the true way to my heart! He got a bona fide massage table and some new oils to really create a spa experience inside our house for when he gives me massages. He honestly gives the best massages and gives them regularly, so he thought it would be a good investment and make the experience even more comfortable for him and for me. He surprised me by having it all set up and ready with mood lighting, relaxing music, and the diffuser going when I got home from YW activities this Tuesday night. I was shocked to walk in and see it all ready to go, but let me tell you, it was nice and relaxing and I definitely welcomed it!! 🙌 He said it was a lot easier on him to do it since he could more easily use his body weight instead of straining his hands, so now he will probably be even more willing to give me massages on the regular. We will certainly put it to good use and luckily it folds up nice and compactly for storage. 🙌 

~All the fall shows are starting to trickle back on - The Voice and Bachelorette have started up again and in the next month so will A Million Little Things, This is Us, and The Good Doctor. I'm so excited to have my favorite shows on again!! We just finished The Virgin River so it was good timing cause I didn't really have anything else on my list. 

~We just bought an Air Fryer so that we can make homemade fries without using any oil. I actually made some tonight and they definitely turned out crispy!! Next time I will cut them fatter and they should be great! It came with a recipe booklet and there are some fun recipes I'm excited to try - one being stuffed french toast and I actually got the ingredients for it so I can try it on Saturday! 🤗

I think that's it for highlights. Otherwise, over the last 11 days, I've been spending the rest of my time cleaning, doing laundry, and making meals for these humans in my house that always seem to keep coming back for more. 😏 But seriously though, when does the constant cleaning and laundry go away? If I don't stay on top of it, it haunts me. Every time I let it slide at all, I seriously regret it. These are the kinds of problems I face everyday. 😅 Gotta love the life of a stay at home mom. 

Here's just a few random funny moments from the kids that I did write down: 

~Usually it's just Maeve that gets COVERED with bug bites and I swear they never go away! I have to hear "Ouchy! Ouchy!" on a regular basis when they're bothering her and I'm really starting to hate that word because she says it in such a whiny tone 🙄😫, but recently Rowan has gotten a few. They were bugging him and he said "All my bug bites are bumping up!" 😂😂

~We have a book called "Happy Halloween" and Rowan brought it over to me, and pointing to each line of the title said "this book is called "Pum-kin" 😂 - I can't blame him since there is a pumpkin on the cover... 🤷‍♀️

~My hands were wet for some reason or another and Rowan touched them and said "your hands are squeaky cause they're wet!" 😂😂

~The kids are obsessed with pretending to deliver packages to each other and constantly I hear them saying "Ding dong! Package delivery!" 😂 Honestly, the sound of their little voices when they say it is what's best about it haha. 

~Nolan did a full on head dive into the toy basket in our living room. Maeve said "Mommy, look!" and motioned toward it and I see his bum sticking up as he fell over the edge and then was wedged in with the rest of the toys. 😂🙈 His new favorite past time is also throwing balls into the toilet, and on one occasion Maeve didn't flush the toilet and he had taken some wet toilet paper out of the toilet... 🤢 So gross! He's trouble these days!! He also just finally cut his first tooth. It was starting to come in the week that Mic and Jenni were here and I noticed that another one is working on coming in to now. His 2 middle bottom teeth. 

~We always lay with Maeve and Rowan for 1 minute each at bedtime before we tuck them in and Rowan loooooves getting his back AND belly scratched during that time, which is funny to me. Lately, right after we finish the scratching, he requests a little more by saying "can you scratch my belly and back 5 times" which just means counting to 5 on both sides. It takes all of 2 seconds to do and appeases him, so I do it, but it's just funny to me that it happens almost every night without fail. 😂🤷‍♀️ 

~Not related to the kids, but today I was at the grocery store and an older man pointed at Nolan and then said to me "Do you know where I can get one of those?" and it totally threw me off guard that all I could do was laugh and then awkwardly laugh some more. I literally did not know how to respond in a witty way - all I could think about was how it takes getting pregnant he was a dude - haha it was awkward and left me feeling pretty awkward myself! 

Allllright, whew. Glad this post is done and that I am caught up and back in the game again! Here's pictures from the last 11 days: 

He stretched this all the way out and said "look Mom!" 

😂

Baking soda & vinegar reactions during Preschool

Love that he closed himself in 😍

Trouble!! 

And here start all the pictures from the Pumpkin patch - lots of outtakes!! 👇👇

I was trying to get him to hold this so he wouldn't eat the corn, but boyfriend just wants everything in his mouth 😂😂

These two pictures kill me 👆👇

Matching boys and matching girls 👆👇😍

😂🤦

He keeps pulling this arm out of his shirt - this was the 3rd time it happened 😂

😍 I just love his little body on this police car. Maeve loves pushing him on it! 

Notice the oatmeal that he flung onto the chair behind him in these pics 🙄😂 - the facial expressions were cracking me up though! 👆👇

Maeve and Rowan burned through like a million of these sticky notes today against my will. 😫 Such great wall art! 

Maeve's teacher sent me this pic of her at school picking out a pumpkin! Lots of pumpkin fun going on in the classroom right now 😊

Peace and blessings. ✌️