A day with Deana

I've told you before how much we love Deana Rose. She's plain awesome. 

And always brings the biggest smiles.

These two cuties (of course I'm talking about me and Amy, not the kiddos) enjoyed her recently on one of most beautiful weekends in Kansas City. 

Can you believe it's October and we're still getting almost 90 degree days?

Warmer weather means the hat is still around. Seriously, how can a kid be so obsessed with the same hat? 

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm sort of looking forward to the end of warm days. Just so that tattered, no-longer-a-fedora, worn-out hat can go buh-bye.

But I will miss the hat.

Seeing his face light up at its shear existence. And how he says "hat" and begs to put it on.

The way his little ears fold over while wearing it.

Yeah, I'll miss that.

While feeding the goats, my innocent boy expected them to have the same independence as himself.

He walked right up, placed the bottle down in front of him and just waited.

I could hear him saying, "Here's your ba ba goat, drink up."

 He was under amused with the feeding part, but what can you expect from an independent toddler who has a five second concentration span.

But he did like petting the animals. 

And pulling their ears.

 

This little miss just looked cute on the sidelines while her cousin ran rampant everywhere.

She even practiced posing for Innocent & Precious Babies Magazine.

Soon enough, they'll be causing trouble together.

Then, Brian and I won't be the only parents climbing claustrophobic barn shafts filled with gobs of kids to get to the top of the slide.

But, these smiles are worth it a thousand times over.

These two. The Angel and the Monster.

 Just kidding. Carson's isn't a monster, but Maddie is definitely an angel.

They make a pretty cute pair.

Farm Life.

We don't make it to Great Grandma's farm near enough.

But when we do, we tend to reminisce the trip for weeks after.

I'm not sure there are many places that are more peaceful than the farm.

Close enough to home, yet far enough away from the city.

Last summer, Carson was still a babe, so this year's trip was a bit different.

We put him to work with Dad first thing Saturday morning, where he discovered a new favorite: mower rides.

He just couldn't get enough. He sat on dad's lap and was completely content for two hours.

I'm not sure I've ever seen him sit so still.

He eventually fell asleep, which provided Brian with some quality snuggle time we rarely get.

 My boys in their classy cut-offs

While the boys worked, I stayed inside and crafted a wreath.

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out (can't wait to hang it on our new door!).

 Tutorial here courtesy of my bestie, Heather

We attempted sprinklers, but Big Boy didn't really catch on. 

I'd say we made progress, but there definitely wasn't running through them. Someday:).

We came home with chiggers and not much sleep (thanks to Big Boy's lack thereof), but the farm makes it all worth it!

 Like father, like son.

A Perfect Day

I'm a different person today than I was last year at this time. For obvious reasons of course.

I have a new special someone in my life. A special little boy that Brian and I created together. The boy who brings tears to my eyes just thinking about.

And brings our family together in ways he doesn't even realize.

Together for laughter, experience and traditions. Traditions like going to the pumpkin patch.

He won't remember this day, but it was perfect.

It may have been windy, a rather short trip, and he might have been coming down with a cold. But, I'll never forget his first trip to the pumpkin patch.

You see, Brian and I had never been to the pumpkin patch together before. It was a first for our family.  Just the three of us.

It's the little things in life, and the traditions we create together, that make it all so worth it.

Little Wildcat's First Game

Big Boy had his first experience with Manhappiness this weekend.

For those of you that don't know, Manhappiness aka Manhattan, KANSAS, is the greatest place on earth and home of the greatest college in the nation. Seriously. This is how I feel.

We started the day off by hitting up So Long Saloon, the culprit that bought yours truly and husband together. Yep, the bar where we we fell in love.

It was C's request, to go to the place where his parents first hit it off.

Brian was a bartender and I was the typical party sorority girl swooning over an Aggieville bartender. C'mon, how else was I supposed to get free drinks?

Lucky for him, I agreed to date him and the rest is history.

So Long Saloon has the best bar food you'll ever lay your hands on. Resist Temptation with chicken and onion rings is my go-to menu item. One thing they don't have? Highchairs. And no room for a stroller.

So we improvised, got our food to go, and headed to City Park. Gamedays are different these days.

Tailgating with a baby was also an adventure. Keeping him occupied deemed challenging, but nothing a blanket spread out on asphalt couldn't fix. It was perfect, gave him a place to move around.

We had to keep him from putting rocks in his mouth and crawling off the blanket, but luckily we had reinforcements. Uncle Ryan and Aunt Amy to the rescue!

C couldn't get enough of the purple cups. Can't blame him. The greatest school in the nation deserves to have their color on a solo cup.

Come game time, big boy had his touchdown move perfected. Thanks to daycare, he will throw his hands in the air when you say "touchdown" and put your hands up. Cutest. Thing. Ever. 

We weren't sure how he would do in the game. He hadn't napped since 1:00 pm and was visibly sleep deprived. He also didn't want his solo cup taken away. Brian got him to go down for a whole 5 minutes right before kick off, but was then wide awake for the rest of the first half, which is when we headed home to put the booger to bed.

We were so proud of how awesome he did!

Family Pics

These are much overdue, but definitely too good to leave off the blog.

As I previously mentioned, we had to reschedule three times due to the nasty heat and....sickness. We just can't seem to beat sickness in our home. I blame daycare:).

Despite Carson's extremely runny nose on this hot day, we managed to capture some great shots. We initially wanted to do a sunset shoot, but the heat just wouldn't ease. An early wake up call for my little booger had me worried, but he did awesome.

The best part? Having pictures of all three of us. Together.

Love my boy's crazy hair.

I really wish we could have included Jake in these, but it would have been way too much to handle.

We already had our dear friend Heather there to help Carson laugh, which I highly recommend for any baby shoot. He would have been much too distracted without her.

I can't wait to put some of these on canvases and display in our home.

Pssst...you'll probably be seeing some of these in a new header design.