Santa!

Santa came to the hospital! Love this Santa! His eye's turn you into a child again and make you want to sit on his lap and tell him everything you want for Christmas. He makes you really believe! :)

 NO tears this year! Brody had so much he wanted to tell Santa but couldn't get his voice above a whisper ;) Aubs clung to daddy's leg until we said, "Smile" and she shot this beauty at us and Parks just started this jolly, red man down.

Brody even got to hold Santa's cane!! I've never seen this smile on my boy before. He was busting at the seams with excitement and nervousness! 

These smiles are a big step up from last year ;)

 Wow, I'm a little behind! Not sure how a whole month has gone by! It goes by faster and faster! Well if you go back with me to Halloween, here are my little critters. A dinosaur, pumpkin and Spider Man :)We have a costume bucket and so they picked out their costume for the night. We really never knew until the last minute what they were going to be because they kept putting on different costumes :) Doesn't Parks just looked thrilled :)

 Our church does a fun carnival that we went to. Lots of games, TONS of candy, tears to be had when we left because of the fun! It was even better this year due to daddy being able to walk around with us the WHOLE time. We didn't have to share him one bit due to him not being a Pastor at the church anymore! LOVE having daddy with us :)

 Love this family ;)

 Now just some cute pics :) We gave the kiddos an old camera of ours to take their own pictures with. Life behind their eyes is ADORABLE! We've done many photo shoots with their Planes and babies :) We've even seen some pics pop up of every day life. Me feeding Parker (delete that one!) and me going to the bathroom (OH MY!!! no words for that!). We've been talking and teaching about what we take pictures of now ;)

 Mike and I got away for our anniversary trip! Two nights away to Branson, Missouri! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE time away just us! We really didn't do anything exciting but whats the greatest is having NO schedule and getting to talk to my husband uninterrupted! :)

 This little man is almost 10 months old! How can that be!? He is the cutest little crawler we've ever seen, has no interest in standing up, is SO independent lately! He flat out refuses to be fed by a spoon, he wants to do it all on his own. Parks Man continues to be one laid back boy and just goes with the flow of our crazy lives. He loves the attention he gets from Aubs and Brod and truly puts up with anything they do to him ;) Praise Jesus for how big he is (just over 20 lbs!) because if he was smaller, he would be crushed ;)

 We have packed up fall and have gladly welcomed the Christmas Season! Each year just gets better and better with seeing it through the kid's eye's! Mainly Brody right now, but he is SO excited about Jesus birthday and Santa coming! He's been asking some crazy cool questions about Jesus and Santa. We are not downplaying Jesus at all, He is why we have Christmas. But, we are including Santa also. I love Santa and the mystery and excitement behind him. Lots of my childhood memories include the shear excitement of Santa. Anyways, enough said. We do both, and I'm proud that we do both!

And I guess this is how we watch movies around here ;)

My Auntie Jodie came to visit. What fun we have when she is here. Somehow she makes each of us (seriously) all feel spoiled!!

 We hadn't been to the zoo sense Brody was the only child! So it was long overdue! Spent a beautiful afternoon at the Tulsa Zoo.

 How crazy is that bear?! He about made us pee our pants or give us heart attacks (you choose who almost did what?!) This was definitely up close and personal!

 Then over Fall Break we went camping with about 5 other families! So much fun!

 The weather was perfect, the huge group campsite we had was awesome and everyone had a blast!

 We didn't see much of Brody all weekend. He was either too busy riding his bike around the campsite with his buddies or playing in the back of this truck. He re-surfaced during meal times.

 Parker even had a little buddy for the weekend! He really doesn't have too many of these, so it was so sweet to watch them "play" ;)

 Brought our leftover 4th of July fun ;)

 Nothing better then a chilly, family, campfire snuggle!! :)

 Not even 5 minutes out of the park heading home and B asks, "Can I please go to sleep?" Oh sweet kiddos, they were WIPED!!!

Pumpkin Spice is in the air!

We did things a bit backward this year. We bought the pumpkin first (the deal at Aldi was too good to pass up, $2.67!) We cut it open and were so super excited for the kids to dig in. Well, below Aubrie's face says everything she and Brody were thinking ;)

 Don't let Brody fool you, he has a spoon that he is digging with!

 Once we gave him the chore of pulling out the seeds, he warmed up a bit to the "goo".

 This next picture is one of my favs! Cute kids right? Well, Aubs girl DID NOT want to take it AT ALL! I really wanted the adorable picture. She truly was throwing a fit when I found these words spilling out of my mouth (kinda like I had no control), "I will give you candy if you smile!!" She turned off her screaming, plastered this "cute" face for just long enough for this smile! Oh my girl!

 And now is real life! :) Ha!

 We then headed to the pumpkin patch! We've never been to this one before and it was SO fun! Hay bales to walk on!

 A corn pit to jump around in!

 A sweet Parker to snuggle :)

 A huge slide to fly down!

 A real pumpkin patch. We actually picked pumpkins off the vine! Because we already had gotten our big pumpkins at Aldi's, we all picked out a small tiny one to represent out pumpkin family :)

 Love my sweet family!

Auntie Meghan even got to come! I love fall!

Some random pics to enjoy :)

 Just some random pictures I found on my phone. Mike and the kids went down to Oklahoma City. Did you see what I typed? MIKE AND THE KIDS. I was working and so couldn't go, I'm so glad he braved the drive and did it! I was a bit nervous about being home by my absolute self but it was SO fun! The house was SO quiet, I ate a big brownie sundae and didn't have to share :)

Anyways, Grandma K was in town and so they all had fun with the cousins and Grandma!

 Mike does such a great job at sending me pictures while I'm at work. Aren't my boys just the cutest!?

 Brody had his very first field trip! They went down the street to the fire station! He still talks about it :)

 His 3 year old preschool class! It's been so fun listening to him talk about his new friends and seeing how much he's learned. Even though he's only been in school 2 months, we've seen a HUGE change in him. His confidence has gone through through the roof for one thing. He is really beginning to look adults in the eye's and say little things like "hello". Kinda cool!

 With Brody at school and Parker napping, it's given Aubrie and I some super sweet time together. Just us! We painted a masterpiece the other day.

 My girl was breastfeeding Baby Lilly before bed. She is such our little momma :)

 

Loving the swings!! Can't get over how big Parks is! He can really swing! :)

Camping Fun!

We FINALLY got brave and went camping! I don't think I say this enough, I LOVE camping with my family! I love getting away from the hustle and bustle and stepping into the "backwoods" ;) I love not feeling like I have to match my clothes or even change my clothes for that matter. I love not caring if my daughters hair is combed or not (so what if she sported marshmallow in her hair for 3 days!).  I love being able to roast hot dogs ALL the time and I just LOVE the quietness, the simplicity and simply enjoying my family all to myself :)

 We went to Bennet Springs State Park in Missouri. It was a short 4 hour car trip that the kids did well on. Brody was beside himself with excitement to be able to help daddy set up camp :)

 Had to have S'Mores every night! :) My clean boy hated how sticky his fingers got, my messy girl was a disaster after every bite ;)

 This park was a trout hatchery. These pools of water contained thousands of little tiny trout growing to be released. It was apart of our morning routine to come down here, walk the lines and throw fish food in. The kids couldn't get enough of these fish!

 Parks Man is such a trooper! He did great and I think we can officially say that he likes camping!

Thankfully he hadn't started crawling yet, but he still figured out how to roll off his blanket to get leaves in his mouth ;)

 I've learned to simplify life when we camp. So, we get cereal for breakfast! Mike did the grocery shopping (!!!!) and let B pick out the cereal. We NEVER have sugary cereal in our home, but for this occasion they got generic Lucky Charms :)

 We also spent time just sitting and watching the fly fisherman. The kids were glued!

 Afternoons consisted of a short hike and ice cream BEFORE dinner! Yep, we are the cool parents for sure! The lodge had soft serve ice cream we couldn't pass up ;)

 Mr. Independent insisted on doing ALL of his own cooking!

 Such a happy camper!

Brody and Aubrie shared a bed. They had SO much fun doing it! It was fun to get up in the night to see their position. This was a 4am picture that was taken!

Auntie Meghan even joined us half way through! It was kinda really nice to have some extra hands! 

We had a blast! So glad we get to do this as a family!