Fall 2012

What an incredibly gorgeous fall we had! We enjoyed it so much. I think this is one of the best falls we have had with so many fun outdoor things to do and so much opportunity to play outside. I am really missing it today:(.

In September we went to Papa's work party. Last year they had the party around Christmas but this year they decided to do a fall theme. Rowen rode a horse again and did so great! He was super serious of course but he still talks about it to this day.

Rowen rode the "bull" again this year and loved getting thrown off.

They had a hay bale maze and this super fast slide! The kids had a blast.

Touch A Truck was a great experience. We met up with our good friends, the Sackmanns and the boys had a great time being really silly and running around to explore all the different vehicles.
We will definitely go back next year!

We got one good pumpkin out of our garden this year. Good thing Pax didn't have a clue this year. The pressure is on daddy for next year :). This is Rowen's little pumpkin. He used paint markers to make it into a Jack O Lantern. He worked so hard on it.

I had to include this photo because I couldn't believe how grown up my little boy looked after a hair cut in October... such a handsome boy.

We enjoyed lots of family time this fall. This photo was taken in early October I think. The boys already look so different.

In addition to lots of outdoor play time we had a blast watching Paxton begin to really play with Rowen. Here all the boys are playing cars of course :).

We did not plant any corn in our garden this year but Eric was given a bunch from a friend at work and it was sooooo delicious. Paxton LOVED it!

And of course the biggest highlight of Fall 2012 was probably our trip to Green Bluff with our good friends, the Sackmanns and the Donnellys. The big boys has a blast riding the tractor and the little train. Sliding down the huge blow up slide was a little more crazy this year. I am sure it will only get more wild over the years :).

And the littlest ones enjoyed checking each other out :).

Paxton loved riding in the wagon while we picked apples. He was such a ham while I took these photos.

My two darling boys. 

Life is hectic, chaotic, and exhausting at times, but so very full and joyful because of these two!

We picked out 5 pumpkins. Pax is checking out the dark orange and white pumpkins here.

We carved our pumpkins over a weeks time this year. It is funny how these big projects take lots more time with two kiddos:). The first night we cleaned the pumpkins out and carved one pumpkin. Then a few days later daddy and Rowen carved a second one into a lion face.

Devri and I ran The Monster Dash in Manito Park the weekend before Halloween. It was so fun to run a race with my BFF :) and then see my two little boys cheering me on at the finish line- in costume!! Todd ran the race too, pushing Bennett in the jogging stroller. We were seriously impressed :). After the 5K race Rowen and I ran the kids race together. He did so good- ran the whole way and smiled the whole time too I think! We will definitely do this again!

 Halloween night was a blast! Both boys wore their lion costumes and looked so darn cute! It was a prefect night- warm, really dark, and our neighborhood was overflowing with darling kids in all sorts of costumes.
We met up with the Donnellys (Cooper a race car driver and Quinn a darling lamb) and took off trick or treating. The grandparents stayed at our house to answer the door and take care of Paxton for the second half of trick or treating.

The first snow was so exciting. I think we were outside by 7:30. Rowen loved it but Pax wasn't sure. He couldn't really walk around in all that gear so he was mostly frustrated. The snow wasn't sticking together very well but we made lots of snow angels and threw a few flimsy snowballs. A few days later the boys built a great snowman with Grammy.

And of course we would never miss out on Cooper's birthday in early November! Cooper is now 4. We are so proud of him and love him dearly! Cooper treated his friends and family to a birthday party at Mobius and a delicious chocolate race car cake!

This fall we participated in two art classes through Spokane Parks and Rec. with Cooper and Devri and Bennett and Josie. A Halloween theme class and a Thanksgiving theme class. We had lots of fun getting messy and learned a lot about doing art classes planned and prepared by people without kids or maybe just have forgotten what a 2-4 year old can really do independently. We really did have a great time but both classes involved mom doing most of the work! I have to say though that I am proud of all the work Rowen did do on the projects. He did whatever he could and he did enjoy it!

We have had to find ways to stay busy, active, happy inside this fall. The photo below is a big hit- getting pushed around in the laundry basket. Great workout for mama and a thrilling ride for the boys!! In addition to trying to keep these two boys active we did lots of other fun fall stuff... story time at the library, checking out books each week, doing lots of fall crafts, writing on our "thankful tree" each day of November, baking all sorts of stuff, meeting up with friends for play dates, going to a few indoor play areas, and much more.

Fall 2012 was a success!

First Day of Preschool 2012

 Rowen is enjoying his second year of preschool at Treasure Chest Preschool in Cheney. He loves his teacher more than words could describe and his classmates are all such great kids. We couldn't ask for a better school for Rowen right now. The year started with two mornings a week but then in November his teacher added Fridays from 10-12:30! Rowen was thrilled and so was mommy!!! This boy thrives off of school, learning, staying busy, busy :). And if adding a third day a week wasn't great enough, Rowen gets to take a lunch to school on Fridays (great practice eating in a classroom environment and with his friends) AND sometimes we get to go on field trips on Fridays! So cool.

 These photos were taken on Rowen's first day...

This boy is such a great kid. We are very proud of him.

Henry

My nephew arrived on November 18th at 1:27 a.m.
7 lbs 6 oz and 21 inches long

Welcome Henry Dean Mustard! 

We love you more than you will ever know!

 This is the first photo we got of Henry from TJ. I immediately thought that he looks like TJ and Rowen as a newborn!

Henry was so calm the entire time we were visiting.

 I can't believe it... my little brother is a daddy! He is already an amazing daddy. I had no doubt :).

Proud daddy and his boy.

 

My sister in law went into labor early in the day on Saturday thinking she was just not feeling well but by late evening it was clear that she was truly in labor. TJ sent us a text at about 7 p.m. "confirming" that Erin was in labor and that baby was coming soon. I rode down to Corvallis OR (8+ hour drive) with my parents. We drove through the night through tons of rain! It was an awful drive- I couldn't sleep at all! We got a text from TJ at about 1:45 a.m. saying that Henry had arrived! We couldn't wait to get there and then finally arrived at the hospital at about 3 a.m. along with Erin's family (mom, dad, brother, sister in law and niece). We had to wait about an hour to see the new little family but by about 4:00 we were all taking turns holding Henry and giving mommy and daddy hugs. Henry's mommy did an amazing job! It sounds like a pretty rough labor with no pain meds. TJ was very proud of his wife :).

We got about 3 hours of sleep then were back up for breakfast and to go see Henry again. By about 1 p.m. I was on the road home with Erin's father, brother, sister in law, and niece. My parents are staying all week and Erin's mom is staying into the first week of December. We are so happy that Erin will have her mom there for such a long time to help out.

I got home at about 9:00 p.m. on Sunday and slept hard all night! Yesterday, Rowen couldn't wait to see more photos/videos of Henry that I had taken with my phone and then we were busy all morning making a Happy Birthday card for Henry and then Rowen wrote a darling letter to him. I wish I had taken a photo of it because it is truly precious! Rowen and I went to the post office on our way to his music class to mail the card, letter, and a small gift to Henry. We can't wait to see him at Christmas! We love you Henry.

Very Brief Recap of Summer 2012

I have been terrible about blogging lately! I am lucky if I can find the time to get the boys' milestone/birthday posts up! So here is a VERY brief recap of summer 2012. Many, many things are missing of course but this will at least preserve a few memories from the past summer.


 A fun visit with girlfriends and our 2nd babies. We miss Maddy so much and can't wait to see her and her family in December! These babies are SOOO much bigger now. It will be fun to see them play together soon.

June is full for us... Daddy's birthday and Father's Day back to back pretty much. How fortunate we are to have such a supportive, loving, funny, hard working Daddy! I couldn't do any of this parenthood thing without him. His support and encouraging words get me through the challenging days and the shared looks of amazement over our two boys makes me love him even more. Our dreams are coming true in front of our eyes each day.

Gotta wrestle!

Father's Day 2012

 We did lots of indoor playing on the cooler June days. This was a favorite!

Bike Rides! We did lots of bike riding all summer long. Paxton eventually got used to his helmet but he was never really a big fan :-(.

 

We played on our play set every single day. The boys loved getting dirty of course.

 Rowen played T-Ball on the same team as his good friend, Bennett. They both did so well! 

Lots of play dates and fun in the sun with our good friend Cooper, his little sister Quinn and of course my favorite lady- Devri!

Strawberry picking with Grammy. Just one of the MANY fun things we did with Grammy over the summer. She always makes our summers very special.

Camping was so fun with our two kids this summer. I can only imagine how many wonderful memories we will continue to make with our boys at Lake Roosevelt over the next many years.

 

I regret not posting about our 3 main camping trips this summer. It was all fun AND exhausting. Sleeping with an infant in a pop up tent trailer is certainly an adventure! Both boys played and played in the sand and water which means mama did too (and Daddy and Grammy and Papa)!

Snuggles with Grammy at the campsite.

 Water play time with Papa.

Floating in life jackets with Grammy to cool off.

 Hangin' out with Papa at the campsite.

We also spent a few Saturdays/Sundays at the lake with Nana and Grandpa near where they are building a new home on Lake Roosevelt. We had a few beautiful days spent on "bat beach" near the Lincoln boat launch. Once again, both boys played in the sand and water until everyone was exhausted! A few things I want to remember about our time at the lake with Nana and Grandpa... Pax took a long nap on Grandpa's lap on the beach and Rowen explored the beach with Daddy, threw rocks in the water, collected rocks with Nana, and went fishing off of Grandpa's boat.

 Pax loves to get dirty so the beach is like heaven on earth to him! Sand EVERYWHERE! He would play in the sand all day long if we let him- which mostly we did :)

I love playing with my boys on the beach. It is a full time job keeping Pax away from the rocks though! He thinks he is a miniature rock climber :).

 Daddy and Ro getting some much needed R&R on the soft sand.

Rowen and Cooper took a tumbling class together at the Y. A few times after class we would play in the water play area.

Big boys swimming!

Eric and I celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary in July. We stayed at a nearby resort for one night and had such a good time going out to a nice dinner, getting a couples massage,  watching a movie in our hotel room, and sleeping in late. While we were gone Rowen had a pretty bad fall on the side walk outside of our house. As you can see from the photo below he was pretty scraped up! Poor guy! He was such a trooper though. I am sure this is only the beginning of these types of owies :).

Watched lots of the Summer 2012 Olympics! We learned about many different sports that we had never really payed attention to before all due to our curious RoRo. Thanks to Grammy for playing endless games of "water polo" on her bed with Ro :).  

In mid August we took a family vacation to the Oregon Coast. We were lucky to get to stay in Devri's family beach house in Lincoln City. It is a beautiful home and worked perfectly for us. I only have a few photos unfortunately... I was terrible about taking photos on this trip! The weather was very, very windy so we didn't get to play on the beach very much. Fortunately, we did enjoy the sunshine and the sand our first afternoon there. From that point on we mostly hung out in the hot tub (Rowen LOVED this part, he enjoyed hot tub time multiple times a day with whomever would get in with him- usually Papa), drove to a few beaches looking for some relief from the wind, watched the Olympics together, went to a few nearby parks to play and hike, and of course ate, ate, ate yummy sea food and lots of treats :).

 

Both boys were amazing travelers!

 

Thank goodness for the park in The Dalles! The boys had a fabulous time burning up energy there on our way to Oregon and home. Here the boys are playing peek a boo.

 Yay! We made it! Lets play :).

This may be the most memorable part of this trip. Rowen decided to become a rock jumper at one of the very windy beaches we drove to. He obviously completely trusted his strong Daddy!

Rowen found enjoyment in everything we did. He loves to climb and get dirty!

Due to the wind, Pax had to spend lots of time in the car but as you can see from this photo he didn't seem to mind!

Rowen is always finding treasures on the beach. We saved many of them.

And of course, Pax loved the sticky sand! He had a blast shoveling the sand into his bucket and exploring the beach.

Look at that sweet baby hand and foot!

Sand castle!

Uncle TJ and Aunt Erin came home in late August after spending the entire summer in New York for TJ's internship. We were so happy to see them! We spent a few days with them, playing outside, eating lots of food, and just trying to catch up before they headed back to Corvallis. They are expecting their first baby later this month. We can't wait to meet him/her!

While TJ and Erin were here, Eric, T.J. and my dad finished painting the exterior of the house. Rowen helped out many times as well over the summer! Daddy worked so hard on the house all summer and now it looks so nice.

 Well, I think that about sums up the obvious stuff. I know I am missing many other fun things that we did but that will have to do... I have learned my lesson ;).