An update on me..and Justin!

I've been doing a lot of fun stuff for me lately, too. I've been making burp rags, I'm almost finished with Caleb's Halloween costume (a Fireman!), I added a button hole and a button to one of Justin's shirt, mended some pants of his...and...


I finshed my shirt! Some of you might recall I was in a sewing class last semester (Feb-May) that my so awesome and kind neighbor taught. Well, I made pajama pants and this skirt during the class, and I was supposed to make the shirt, but it took a bit longer and I worked on it all summer long. I finally finished it! It's not perfect, but I'm proud of it and proud that I knew enough to do it! So, here's the complete outfit!


In addition to all that, I've started a preschool with Caleb twice a week, I've been going to the gym 4 times a week (Yahoo!), and I am now the Wolf Cub Scout Den Leader. HAHA! It's been feen, the two weeks. A huge learning curve, at least for me! I've never done scouts before. But I'm excited to get to know the boys--they're 8 years old-- and learn more about all of it!

As for Justin. He's just busy. He did get to participate in IMOM this last Saturday: "Iowa Mission Of Mercy." It's a group of volunteers, many of them dental students, who travel to various parts of Iowa to perform free dental care. They set up in a gym or some big building, and just do fillings and such that needs to be done. So, Justin go to do anesthesia a lot. He was really excited! He'll get to do his first filling on a real patient this Thursday. He's a bit nervous about that one!

We are doing great!

Brother, Sister and Birthday Parties

One morning I was too tired to get up so I asked Caleb to get Mackenzie some breakfast (a rare occasion, don't get too jealous. Plus, imagine the mess!). But then an even greater gift was hearing them play nicely together. I came down the stairs as quietly as I could and spied them sitting together reading books. I love little moments like these (I think I've mentioned before) when they are friends. I ran upstairs to grab the camera but Caleb heard me and kind of ruined the magic, but I still caught a trace of it. :)



And our little Mackenzie is a nut. She's just crazy! She runs around, grunts, throws royal tantrums if we touch something that she wants, or if we don't, and has an obsession with her binkies. We say she "chain binkies." Working on that one. Here's a little example of how much she love them. Even if she has one in her mouth, if she spies another one, she insists of having it, too. Usually it's just in her hand, but this time she decided she could try put both in her mouth. And she did.

Those beautiful brown eyes get a very mischievous gleam when she knows she's doing something she shouldn't be doing: throwing food on the floor, walking all over library books, throwing things down the stairs, getting her brother into trouble. She's going to be a wild one!

Caleb has been invited to two separate birthday parties the past couple of weeks, which has been a lot of fun! I decided to go cheap with the first one and so for the gift bag we decorated a white lunch bag with stamps and stickers. Caleb had a blast!

 

 

And at the end of one of the birthday parties, we were walking back to the car and there was another of those friend moments. Walking side by side, Caleb guiding Mackenzie softly and patiently...but I was too slow with my camera. Hopefully they stay friends!

 

Pig Tails and Birdies

As usual, I've been busy! And I haven't taken very many pictures to document it. So there ya go.

Two important things about the above picture: Mackenzie's pig tails and the sticker on her left arm. She finally has enough hair to do pig tails! We call her "Boo" from Monsters Inc. When I do her hair like this. We think it's so cute! And the sticker says "Romney." We walked down to the pancake breakfast at our Institute building at one of the first home games, which happens to take us past the football stadium and all the crazy tailgaters and vender food tents. Well, on the way home, we kept passing these people wearing "Romney" stickers and we wanted one! so the next person we saw wearing one, we asked. And they happened to have a whole roll of stickers and generously gave each of us one. So we are Romney supporters!

And this picture is just cute of Mackenzie with Daddy reading a book.

Our local zoo (it's an hour away! lol) has various days free. In September, it was every Friday. So we went one day. It was really lovely. It's not a very big zoo so we can easily get through it all in a couple of hours and still see everything. This was Mackenzie's favorite part: the Parakeet house. They were flying around us and you could buy food, but of course I didn't want to spend that money, so we just watched them fly around and Mackenzie just signed "bird" the whole time and chased them around. I love learning what gets my kids excited!

My two kiddos at the monkey observatory! You can kind of see Mackenzie's chunky legs...but mostly she looks cute in general. Caleb is certainly a caring big brother! I can't believe how big they are!

Here are the Pics!

 When we got back from UT, I was unpacking and cleaning up the house and came across a handful of Mackenzie's bows. She saw them, became insistent that I put them in her hair, and we ended up with this beautiful crown of bows. To think she used to never let me put a ONE in her hair!

 At the county fair. Caleb loved the big tractors! I guess we're living in the right state...

 All of the ones above are from when we went camping for 3 days. The older men camping next to us had these awesome motorcycles and tents that their motorcycles towed. Caleb, of course, loved the motorcycles and the men entertained his dreams by letting him sit on one. 

Then Justin's chimney for cooking with his dutch oven and me and Mackenzie enjoying eating it! And then the kiddos and me with the old-fashioned tent behind us.

 Mackenzie playing in the tunnel at the campsite's playground. I love her eyes here!! and the little half smile! :)

 Caleb's 3rd Birthday Party! Justin and I stayed up the night before decorating that awesome cake. And let me tell ya...if ya wanna do red icing...DON'T! or buy it red or something. We used up a TON of food coloring to get it that red. But, he loved it! As you can see in his face. I cant' believe he's already 3!

At the state fair they had this building of vendors, one had a Clifford character. Caleb was so excited to see him...and once we got in line we had to wait for about 20 mins. And then, when we were next up, Caleb had an urgent potty call...and on his way back he got his finger slammed in the bathroom door. Needless to say, his excitement about seeing Clifford deflated quickly. 

And as a side note, we finally bit the bullet and are paying for kids club at the gym. So, the membership that I get for free (since I volunteer in the kids club), I now finally get to use! It's been the best thing this week, and I've only used it twice! It's just wonderful!! Life is good!

Back to the 'ole Grind

Well, we survived MA. It was actually quite productive, we broke even from selling vintage toys, and we came back with a bunch of miscellaneous items (crafts, kitchen items) and many more to be mailed and even more bookmarked as future gifts. So, it was TON of work. Our 4 hour drive home from the airport took us 12 hours because Justin and I kept stopping to sleep. We were THAT tired! We finally made it home and went to the state fair!
Caleb and Mackenzie had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa, despite being sick when we left them. They not only got used to them but now that Grandma and Grandpa have left, Caleb and Mackenzie are both still asking about them. Kenzie even says "Papa"!

Well, Justin went back to school on Monday. This year is going to be one crazy year. In addition to his crazy schedule of classes, he has research he's trying to finish up, Boards he's studying for, and an extra online class that he's doing. Not to mention US! lol He's gonna work hard, but it's been so nice to have a summer he's having a hard time diving in right now!

As for me, I'm enjoying getting back to routine. We rearranged our furniture a few weeks ago and I'm LOVING it! It's also finally cooling down a bit so we stand being outside. And we have friends. That's always good. :) I'm working on sewing my shirt, making burp rags, and just enjoying my kiddos. I'm still working with the Young Women at church and that takes a lot of time, but it's very fun, too.

Caleb is now 3 years old! We had his party before we left for MA. Justin and I stayed up late working on his cake (pictures later). We had planned to do a water-themed fireman-type party...and woke up to a drizzly day. So we improvised. But Caleb didn't really wanna play any games anyway. So we watched the rocket launcher Justin had made, ate cake, and handed out goody bags. It was fun...just not the fun I'd planned on! Caleb is my little sweet heart. He loves being a "big boy" and loves "having a watch just like you do." He loves his sister but also forgets that she's not a toy and not as big as he is. He loves to sing his ABC's and pushing his bubble lawn mower around.

Mackenzie will be 15 months in 2 days, so I might as well give a bit of an update on her. She jabbers. Mama, Papa, Dada, Gaga (Caleb), "Dach" is dog, as well as any other animal. She loves to dance to music, signs "please," "more," "all done," and "banana." She loves to scream. YAY. we all love that stage, right? She has finally slowed down on teething, so she is SLEEPING at night. woo hoo! I can do a dance just for that! She wants to be just like Caleb and will play with cars and follow him around and then scream at him if he gets too close.

I love moments when my kids play well together. Just this morning they were pushing various toys around the sidewalk square and Mackenzie would veer off the sidewalk, Caleb would straighten her out and beckon for her to continue, and she would follow his lead. I love seeing that she trusts him, despite how much they egg each other on. They are both at a fun age and it's great to see them interact and play willingly with each other!

Well, that's about it! Life is happening and we are all growing and keeping busy!