harvest fest

This past Saturday we took a day trip to Stillwater for Harvest Fest. The fall colors were absolutley amazing. It was a gorgeous day to see giant pumpkins and watch one fall from a huge crane. What else have you got to do on a great fall day? Scott, wiping Kiley's drool. I swear, she is teething already! The girl drools all day long... Jaxon, waiting for the band to play. Took him awhile to realize he was the only one waiting. That's because the band was done and was packing up. Poor guy. He just wanted to hear some music.

Me and Kiley. Hangin' out.

The new world record pumpkin- this thing was over 1600 pounds! Try making that into a pie!

A day at the zoo.

This past Sunday I had some quality alone time with Jaxon. We dropped Kiley off at grandma and grandpa's and Scott stayed home to study for his PMP (which he passed BTW! Yay Scott!). So Jaxon and I headed to the zoo. It was their last weekend of the farm being open and they had Scarecrow alley, which I thought Jaxon would dig, but really all he cared about was finding that darn monorail and getting on 'the train'. We had to do a little pretending before getting to the train though. We pretended we were with Dora on one of her adventures. We told the map to help us find it. The map told us to go through the forest, over the bridge, and past the bears.

And that's just what we did.

We stopped along the way of course when we got distracted by our ultimate goal, and when Swiper the Fox was trying to get our stuff (we didn't let him).

And we did go out to the farm on a tractor ride. I thought Jaxon would love the petting zoo area. Nope. WE had to get right back on the tractor because the tractor did not take us to the train. We had to get to the train!

You can even see it in his eyes here. Mom. Seriously. Where is the train?

We saw some camels. And these cute little Prairie dogs. And we finally made it on the train... the perfect end to the perfect day!

just tired

Well, I am exhausted. I'm not gonna lie, I'm just plain tired. And I look around the house and just want to take a push broom and clean up all the toys, the random socks that fell off Kiley's feet, the towel Jaxon left on the floor from his bath, the heels and pom poms he was playing with (yes, I said heels and pom poms!), and the kernal of corn, fruit snack, and crumbs on the kitchen floor. If I Could just sweep them up into a big vat, snap my fingers and have the clean-fairy or friendly goblin come and put them away for me, I would be ever grateful.

But. I don't think that's going to happen.

And so.

I will let them sit there until Scott comes home from his business trip. And then I will tell him that it all happened that day and I didn't have a chance to clean it up. Because the thought of cleaning anything right now makes me even more tired than I already am. I think when he gets home I will have my own little 'restore the sanity rally'.

Anyhoo, one thing that's been on my list forever to do and I finally got some kick in the pants to do it, is to order prints of all the thousands of pictures I've taken this year. I finished two years of scrapbooks for Jaxon and was so determined to stay on track once Kiley came around.

Not doing so hot.

I haven't started Jaxon's year three album and am leaning towards doing combo albums for the rest of their lives. Who has time to do 18 albums for each of thier kids? Seriously.

So, Snapfish is having a fabulous fall sale and I must order my prints by Thursday! I'm through half the year so far, but it's taking forever.

Because I keep finding pictures like this: and then laughing about 'those days'.

And then Jaxon keeps looking at me funny, like this:

and i just can't concentrate.

And this is just plain cute, so it makes me stop to think how cute it is.

And this one. Well, this one just makes me miss Scott because it reminds me of him. Like father like son. This says it all.

And well, you know how reminscing is... you can't stop and yet you need to so you can go to bed and get your kids ready for daycare, fill the car with gas, stop for coffee (extra shot!), and get yourself to work to do an 8 am presentation. Aye. Wish me luck.

photo shoot, sort of.

Well, Kiley's three month photo shoot was today. I think I need to put photography lessons on my wish list... Actually they may have gone better if I had better light. But alas, the girl is still cute. She only made it for about a half hour and one outfit before she started wailing at that big black camera in her face... oh well. I had fun! Here she is with the same hitler pose Jaxon used when he was younger. One arm up, heil!

Here she is looking a little dazed and confuzed...

Thought I'd see if the pictures look any better with black and white so I opened up my photoshop for the first time in ages today... pretty cute I must say.

And back to confused. And so sleepy after such a long day!

10.8 pounds, 21 1/2 inches

Well, Kiley turned 12 this week. Twelve weeks that is! She had her checkup on Wednesday. We are running about a month behind with her appointments and shots, but I guess that's what happens with the second baby right? So, she had her two month appt when she was three months. Oh well, we didn't learn too much we didn't know already.

Kiley is now weighing in at 10.8 pounds and 21 1/2 inches. Earlier this week I had weighed her on our home scale and she was 11.3 pounds. Now, either she went on a good diet, or our scale is off (which means I don't weigh as much as I think I do!).

She also got her first shots. Scott tells me he was looking forward to that part all day. Now, you have to know Scott to know he didn't mean it maliciously, but in a funny sort of way. His thinking was that someone else gets to make her cry for an actual reason, rather than us listening to her cry for no reason. In a way, I guess it makes some sense. You can see her bandaids above. Three shots. I did not enjoy it... I'm sure she didn't either. Secretly, I think Scott did. Good thing she has a big brother who wanted to make her feel better.

We talked to the doctor about Kiley's colic and what we could do for her. He told us that she doesn't need to be on solids yet and she shouldn't have honey for the first year. It was not the best patient-provider experience, and quite honestly I was considering walking out before she got her immunizations. Especially since the nurse told us, 'we don't see too many babies here. I'll have to check on your questions about immunizations'. Aye. I miss Dr. Paulson telling us 'no baby ever died from crying' and 'don't coddle your kid, set some rules and make em follow them'. Note to expectant moms- go see a pediatrician for your kids, not a family practice doc. (sorry to all my family practice doc friends, er, not sure i have any anyway...)

Anyway, since ms. Kiley is three months old, it's time for her to do a photo shoot! With Jaxon we had professional pictures of him taken nearly every three months. Sorry Kiley. Second babies also miss out on that. BUT, you will be getting your picture taken this weekend with numerous outfit changes and poses by none other than me. You can all look forward to those sometime on Sunday or later next week!

So, for all you moms out there, what else does the second baby miss out on because of lack of time, energy, money, all of the above? I need your insight so I can try to avoid short-changing Kiley. Leave your comments and help me out!

monkey bars and fast rides

it feels like some kind of ride, but really it's just life turning out perfectly... these last months have sure felt like a ride. one that i would like to slowly pull into the station sometime soon, just for a short layover if possible.

we've moved to a new place (thus the kid in a box). brought kiley into this world and watched her battle jungle animals. and now, just this last week, jaxon and kiley started at a new daycare and i went back to work.

tuesday was a tough day. my first day back. i cried all the way to work. i thought about turning around, taking one more day of pto. one more day to cuddle with them, feed and change them, complain and cry about their incessent complaining and crying, and love them with all my heart just a little bit more.

but then i reminded myself how much jaxon thrives on interaction with other kids, how excited he was to be playing with friends again. how he lit up when he got home after his first day, telling us all about how he had lunch at his 'other house' and got to play with 'Carly' the dog, and seemed just a little bit older, a little bit more self-aware. and definately way more tired, so i knew i was gonna get some good sleep out of him that night.

kiley, she could care less. she's too little to really know where she's at right now, though it sounds like they have some jungle animals for her to contend with at the daycare too. i'm glad she's with her big brother too. he is so very protective of her, saving her from goblins and other kids and such.

i've been around long enough, not that long, but long enough to know that life is short. recently i've been reminded of this as friends have had sudden tragic deaths in their families and years have gone by in the blip of an eye for others.

tonight jaxon and i were at the park and i thought i saw myself about fifteen years ago. there were a bunch of girls practicing soccer next to the park and there was one girl who reminded me of myself when i was 15 or so. just hangin out, trying to look like she knew what she was doing. wanting the ball, but not really. and i thought, that was me, yesterday. only it was fifteen years ago. okay, 17 years ago. and then i thought, ohmigoshthatsgoingtobejaxonandkileytomorrow! and so we went home and ate ice cream together. and enjoyed the simple things.

feels like a fast ride, but it's just life, turning out perfectly... except for when i hit my head on that monkeybar at the park...

anyway, here's some pics from our recent trip up north with my family...

these cupcakes were a hit. jaxon was asking for cupcakes with numbers on them for dessert days later.

coincidentally, the donuts were also a hit. jaxon thought we could eat the leftovers for dinner on sunday night. not!

not surprisingly, kiley was also a hit, with my mom. seems there was quite the photo shoot going on while i was napping...

Kiley vs. Jungle Animals

She sometimes thinks that zebra is out to get her. Anyway, I finally have a fast enough internet connection to post videos, so I'll plan to post some more soon! Enjoy!