Sneak Peek at the Ballerina.

This week was parent observation week at dance.  I have been eagerly awaiting this day since Kadence started dancing.  It was so fun to finally be able to watch her dance with her class.  There is something just absolutely adorable about a bunch of 3-4 year olds in their dance outfits.  They did ballet first and then put their tap shoes on to practice for their "sugar plum" dance for the December holiday recital.

Practicing ballet.  I love that she's using the wrong foot!

Pretty girl!

Time for tap!  I think Kadence enjoys tap the most.

There's lots of love in dance class...

It was so much fun to watch the little dance girl!  I was pleasantly surprised that she wasn't shy at all. Can't wait for their holiday recital!!

Packing Up!

The day has finally come and we are packing up to move into our new home!  How exciting to end our 3 1/2 year rental phase.  We were fortunate enough to rent some really nice places, but it's just not the same when it's not yours.  I have been busy packing the past few days.  I feel like we just did this; because we did.  It is not an easy task to pack while entertaining a 3 and 4 year old and a 10 month old.   Somehow, I managed to pack up most of our house in 2 days and we were ready to move as scheduled.  We close on our home at 4 pm on Friday October 14th!  We are very excited to get this show on the road after a long month of anticipation.  It will be extremely settling to finally have a home to call our own, add some color to our lives, and stay put for awhile.  We are headed for family move number 5 in five years and hoping to not keep those numbers up for the years to come!

Tired.

For some reason, this is how I feel after the last week.  We have had a very busy few weeks with Ryan working some weekends, traveling, and trying to get things together for our house closing and move.  I feel like there are always a ton of things I should be doing and am reminded of this when I sit down for even 5 minutes.  It is very unsettling.  I can not wait to move into our house and finally start to feel "settled."  I know for sure that I have definitely had enough of the state of "temporary" to last me a long while.

I was running on the treadmill downstairs with Landon and Kadence keeping me company.  Kenzie was napping upstairs and Ryan was watching football.  All of the sudden I looked over to see Landon all snuggled in on the floor amongst some toys.  I thought he was just taking a little rest and then realized that he had actually gone to sleep.  He rarely naps anymore so it was very unusual to see him fast asleep on the floor.  Especially since I can count the number of times he has fallen asleep outside of his bed or the car on one hand.  So, I let him sleep and hollered for Ryan to come down with the camera.  He looks so peaceful, with the loud pounding of the treadmill and fan, the tv (up loud enough so I can hear it over the treadmill), his loud sister, and the bright lights shining in his face.  I guess he was tired!

Just some misc. pictures I snapped this weekend.

 What a soft, warm pillow Emma makes.

Pretty blue eyes.  She is looking very grown up lately.  She played "Littlest" Mermaid all weekend and talked on her phone.

Emma wants in, Kenzie wants out.  Ironic.

We finally had a little rain today.  We had the door open and Kenzie spent a lot of time at the screen watching.  She was mesmerized. I was glad that she was taking a break from: climbing the stairs (around my barricade), playing in the plant, tasting Emma's dog food and water, pulling on the blinds, climbing on her sister, messing up her brother's toys, eating paper, eating shoes, finding my phone and drooling all over it, pushing the buttons on the vcr, emptying out my kitchen drawers, sneaking into the bathroom to play in the toilet, standing on the kids rocking chair rocking back and fourth, throwing toys over the gate down the steps, and screaming at the top of her lungs for no apparent reason.  <3

Is that a peacock? A mohawk?

 

 

 

 

Baby hair is a funny thing.  It changes so much during the first year of a child's life.  First, it grows in utero serving no purpose whatsoever except causing some heartburn for mama.  Kenzie was born with a head of crazy, kinky, dark brown hair.  After a couple months, it started to fall out and just thin due partially to the growing size of her head.  Then, she had the lovely circular bald spot in the back middle of her head from sleeping on her back (although this still remains a mystery to me as she didn't sleep much and was always being held-or squatted around the house).  Then her hair started growing which turned into a baby rat tail in the back below the bald spot.  The more hair Kenzie gets, the lighter in color it looks.  Although, the funny thing is it looks red in a lot of pictures and certain light but not usually on a regular basis.  I remember thinking the same thing about Kadence's hair, it seemed like when it was turning from the dark color she was born with to the lighter blonde color, it often had a red tint to it.  Well, not only is Kenzie sporting a distinguished widow's peak, she also has some crazy hair that does nothing but stand straight up on the top of her head-much like her big brother's hair.  I just laugh when I look at her light wispy hair and wonder what it will look like in even just a few months.  Love her so much!  She's perfect to me no matter what "ugly" hair stage she is going through.  Might I add she looks exactly like her dad when she smiles...love it!

A Beautiful Fall Weekend.

The kids and I were lucky to have my mom and dad here for the weekend while Ryan went to the football game.  It was a gorgeous fall weekend and we had a great visit.  The kids enjoyed their snuggle time and I enjoyed the company.

This picture cracks me up.  My dad was taking a snooze and Landon put his 3D glasses on him.  He was pretty proud!

Sunday we headed to the Buffalo River Pumpkin Patch on my parents' way out of town. It was sunny and 80 degrees so we had a very enjoyable time.  The kids have asked to go back several times already.

 

My little lady is very busy exploring her world.  She doesn't quite care to look at my camera as you can tell in all of the pictures!

Kenzie was afraid of these adorable baby goats.  She started screaming immediately!

 

Kadence and Landon feeding the baby goats some corn.

Kadence feeding the cute little pigs.  Landon was too afraid to feed them.

Kadence absolutely loved all of the animals.  She was definitely in love with these miniature horses.  She would have taken one home for sure.

Kadence really wanted to bring all of the pumpkins home.  Where in the world would she get her love for pumpkins and all things "fall?"

I have some pictures of Landon at this age at the very same pumpkin patch.  Very fun.  Love Kenzie's wispy blonde hair glowing!

There was a train right next to us at this point of our day.  Kadence is frightened by the noise of the trains and it was so close.  Thank goodness for the distraction of this pretty pink painted pumpkin on "Pumpkin Alley" or we may have had a meltdown.  Poor thing.

 

 

Look at this speedy girl running through the hay maze!

The horse drawn wagon ride was a definite highlight.  The kids loved it!

 

 

Love these little people of mine who keep my life so busy and chaotic!  Thanks for a great visit Mom and Dad!

*On a side note I am beginning to wonder if it is actually Fargo we moved to.  It has been so warm the past week we actually have had to use our air conditioning.  The next 5 days are forecasted low to mid 80's!  Awesome.