Goodness, we have not stopped lately. Parker’s doctor’s appointment finally happened and it was confirmed that he does have asthma. I have never in my life seen a medication that worked faster than his inhaler. Seriously, like thirty seconds after he used it for the first time, he just stopped coughing. It was incredible. I’m so thankful this medicine is available for my boy!!

She was just sitting there in her brothers’ Spiderman costume, ripping apart the artwork the boys had made that day. So, like the mother of three that I am, I took a picture of her first before I took the paper away and told her, “You are destructive.” She looked at me, shook her head and said, “No, I Eisey.”

This is the only way we stop. I woke up this morning feeling pretty under the weather, and since it was our school flex day, I decided that we would have a movie day so I could just lay down and drink my weight in tea and orange juice. It seemed to work – by the next evening, I was back to feeling okay.

Just a side note, more so I remember these days than anything. We hit school pretty hard four days a week – Monday through Thursdays. Then, on Fridays, if we have finished all our work for the week, we usually are able to do a lot of “non-seat work”, as in, we play games or read or build stuff or do art projects. Nathan’s school last year did this model and I LOVED it, there was so much more freedom. Plus, we occasionally go to shows at the theater like the Nutcracker or different plays and this way, if we end up not getting everything done on those days, we can slide it around without causing too much issue and our Flex Day just becomes another school day. At this point, Nathan has graduated from 1st grade math and will start 2nd grade math in January, he’s finished 1st grade handwriting, he’ll finish his social studies/history probably at the end of January…. I’m running out of stuff for this kid to do, so he’s just moving on to 2nd grade. 😉

My house is ALWAYS loud, but on this particular day, Jon came home and walked in the door and went immediately to being a rodeo bull, so the walls were shaking with how loud it was in here. I felt like I needed to deliver apology notes and plates of cookies to all the neighbors within a mile radius of us. There is definitely a reason why I get up an hour and a half before everyone wakes up and we still have mandatory rest time while Eisley is napping. #onlytimethehouseisquiet

Winter break hit really early this year! We usually just follow Jon’s school schedule so the kids are always off when he’s off, but starting the 16th seemed SO early. Plus, we’ll have to get back to school on the 2nd now, so I kind of wish we’d done school another week so we could take that week after New Year’s off. Oh well. 😉

First day of break and this is what I walked into after eating breakfast. Oh my goodness.

Someone loves herself a good filter. Ha!

On our way to church – they look so adorable and so old.

My sweet girl is going to be TWO in less than a week and I can barely stand it. How is she so old already?? She was just born a few months ago. This dress was about four different girl’s in the Lunch Bunch and I LOVE that my girl gets to wear it now.

The kids start talking about this night sometime in the fall, they love it so much!! When Parker was a baby, we decided that one of our special traditions was going to be taking the kids for dessert at the Melting Pot at Christmas time every year. And every year, we’ve done it!! When we ask the kids what they are most excited about at Christmas time, they always without fail mention being excited for this night. We always hype it up like a super fancy restaurant and they have to be super big kids and act very polite and they LOVE it. It was finally Melting Pot night and we were all so excited!! We always try to get a picture by the beautiful tree in the entrance.

I had to include this one because this is Parker EVERY SINGLE TIME I TAKE A PICTURE. Parker is probably my most introverted child so not a lot of people see this side of him, but he is a goofball. Ha!

In front of the giant tree at Uptown! We always walk over to see the huge tree after the Melting Pot, but it was SO cold this year, that I could only stand it for about ten minutes. 😉

I love our Christmas traditions!!!

Goodness, we love this crazy time of year. Every year, it gets crazier.

The kids start talking about how excited they are for Advent sometime around August. 😉 We love our nightly routine at Christmas time!!

I was in the school room with Nathan, heard a crash and came in to see this. Seriously this girl is shaving years off my life.

I said, “Eisley Laine!” and she looked up at me like this. I feel like her remorse for breaking about eight rules isn’t where it should be.

Nathan’s library reading book was all about pirates, so this is what we get afterward. Ha!

Bless our long-suffering dog. Eisley is always telling me that Kody is her buddy. Not sure Kody feels the same way.

Parker would happily sit here and color forever. I’ve been doing Mom time with each of the boys after they’ve done rest time while Eisley is still asleep and Parker always wants to color during Mom and Parker time. It’s so sweet! Poor guy has been hacking away for forever now – he has an appointment this week to get evaluated for asthma. Hate this for my boy. 🙁

November kind of ended on a crazy note. This is just the season of crazy, though, I think. I used to dread January and February, but now I’m kind of just waiting for the days of snuggling at home and not having a million things on my to-do list before the holidays.

Little Miss woke up with some tummy issues right as we were getting ready to walk out the door for church, so I stayed home with her and we sent the boys. There not too much that can’t be cured with a warm bath, snuggling up under a blanket with your mama and some Cinderella. We had such a good girl time that morning. And she seemed to be back to normal by that night!

It’s Nutcracker Day!! We look forward to this performance every year!

The whole crew. Goodness, guys. This year was CRAZY. Between the parking issues and the theater staff and everything, I spent most of the morning there just very flustered. So frustrating, especially since we look forward to this so much! So fun to see the family, though!

Love her little tiny pigtail. 😉

Happy birthday, Jon!! We are so thankful for you! Poor guy had to work super late on his birthday and then most of the night doing contract negotiations, but it ended with a sold house, so we were excited. 🙂

Gabriel loves his Uncle Jon. 😉

We did a family birthday party for Jon the next night and I looked in the kitchen and saw this. 🙂 Eisley LOVES being in the kitchen and helping out. Bathroom stools are a dangerous thing in the house when she’s around and someone is cooking. Almost every night I start making dinner and I hear “I HULP!” as she’s running for the bathroom stool. Ha!

She was so cute helping Gammy count out Daddy’s candles, though!

And of course, she had to help light them too.

And blow them out. Ha! Happy birthday, Jon!

Thanksgiving this year was a little different than we expected, but still so much fun. We were supposed to have Nonnie, Papa O and Uncle Allen come in town for it, but at the last minute, Jon’s grandmother ended up having surgery. So, they opted to stay in California close to Grandma H, which is exactly where they should be!! We have been praying nonstop for Grandma and it looks like the surgery went extraordinarily well – so thankful!

Since I was already planning on hosting and both of my brothers had plans already, we asked if Cayce, Gammy and Pops wanted to come for Thanksgiving meal. It was so much fun!

Watching the “parade”, if you can call it that these days. Good grief – when did the Thanksgiving Day Parade become basically a bunch of commercials and inappropriate-for-children Broadway snippets? They did love seeing Santa though!

We were so busy cooking and talking and having fun that this is seriously the only picture I got of everyone there. We had the best time!! And it was so much fun doing Thanksgiving in our house. 🙂

After everyone left and Eisley got up from nap, we all spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside until it got dark. These are my favorite days – when there’s really nothing that needs to be done and we can just play.

Parker built a tower as tall as himself that weekend and he was so proud of himself. 😉 We love Thanksgiving weekend!! The older I get, the more I love it. Happy Thanksgiving, friends!!

Come middle of November every year, I always start to get antsy about getting my Christmas decorations up. So, one weekend, I just woke up and declared it The Day.

I had three small people in the house who weren’t too upset by this decision. 😉

She thought she was hilarious.

Our Fisher Price Little People nativity might be one of my most favorite Christmas decorations we have! Love seeing the kids acting out the story.

Christmas time is here!! This is their absolute favorite thing to do every year. 😉

My new morning view and I love it just so much. There’s something so much more magical about the house at Christmas time!!

This fall is flying past – it’s crazy how fast. I am ready for things to slow down.

Eisley basically sat right there the entire day, waiting for Daddy to get home. Someone loves her daddy.

“Mommy, painted nails.” Yes, yes you did. This is the day we learned that dry erase markers do not come off of toddler skin with soap and water.

I said, “Where are you going, Eisley?” and she cheerfully said, “Going to Hobby Lobby! Bye!” I am raising this one right. 😉

Nathan asked if he could play basketball this year and from the first minute of the first practice, we knew he would love it. And he has. He’s really pretty good at it too! He is outside playing basketball every single day every chance he gets. He’s totally a basketball kid.

So, we’ve spent a lot of time like this – entertaining two small kids at games and practices, if Jon is working and can’t get off for practice (which hasn’t been too often, thankfully!). Eisley is smack in the middle of hero worship when it comes to Parker. Anything he does is the coolest thing ever and worthy of repetition. ANYTHING. Which has led to both of them being in trouble many times. 😉

Nathan had a basketball game this morning, Parker was all scheduled to do the Grand Prix at Awana, so we divided and conquered and I got a little date morning with my boy while Jon took Eisley to Nathan’s game. We checked in Parker’s car, got donuts and watched some of the races, did a little bit of shopping for jeans for these kids who won’t stop growing, then ran to catch Nathan’s game and make it back in time for Parker’s race. It was a good, insanely busy day.

Parker and his buddy watching their cars race. This picture cracks me up, even though it’s not the most in-focus. And now you can see why we needed to make a stop for jeans. 😉

And because we hadn’t already crammed enough into one day, we decided to cash in Jon’s birthday dinner at Tucanos that night! We were looking at the calendar and there just wasn’t going to be another good night to do it, so this one won out. Happy very early birthday, Jon! 😉

I love posts like this!! This week, my newest Christmas novella, O Christmas Bree, released!! I cannot wait for you to hear Bree’s story. 🙂 You can order your own copy on Amazon! (Nook and Kobo versions coming soon!)

ALSO, such fun news!! My Christmas novellas are all going to be in PAPERBACK!! Yay! Hear Them Ring – a Christmas novella collection is releasing just in time to stuff those stockings! I will keep you posted on release dates and how you can order a copy for yourself! I will also be offering a Christmas autograph special right here, so stay tuned!

Happy Wednesday, friends!! <3 Much love to you all!

The nights are colder, the days are shorter, must be time for Halloween. 😉

Aunt Cayce’s birthday is right before Halloween, so we celebrated her with a Harry Potter themed day! Love my sister so much.

Carving up their pumpkins from the patch. They kept telling me how gross they were.

Halloween!! The boys had picked out their costumes with Nonnie when she was in town and I think they are all so adorable. And of course Eisley was Minnie!

We met up with Gabriel and Sammy at one of the churches in town for their Fall Festival. They were all SO cute. I didn’t get a picture of Sammy!

My heart. Goodness, this boy.

Back home to warm up and eat some candy.

He’s never allowed to draw on fake facial hair again – he looks WAY too old. It killed me all night.

Such a fun Halloween!!

How is it already pumpkin patch time?? I feel like fall gets here faster every single year. I have a picture from 2016 at the patch framed on my kitchen counter and I could not believe how much the kids had grown in one short year. Time goes too fast.

We’ve been going to this exact same pumpkin patch since Nathan was three months old, so of course, we had to go back this year. Eisley was not into smiling quite yet. 😉

We were looking at these pictures afterward and just laughing. Our days of getting all of us to smile and look at the camera at the same time are over. Ha!

Now we are happy!! Love this of my babies!

He is so old, it’s killing me.

Ditto – I feel like the last few traces of babyhood are gone with this one now. Insert the mom tears.

She just loves life.

Jon got them a little thing of feed and the kids all fed the farm animals. They thought it was hilarious.

Three little pumpkin heads!

Picked her pumpkin out and it was time to go home. 😉

We stopped by Firehouse Subs on our way home for dinner. Parker was too interested in a football game to smile for me. 😉

Someone perked up a bit after dinner. Sweet girl!

Parker asked me to carry his hat, so I put it on and Eisley could not stop laughing. It was so cute!!

All my life, I’ve heard people talking about jet lag and how hard it was and honestly, I probably didn’t have the sympathy that I should have had for them. Because jet lag is awful. And now I know. It was a good ten days before I really felt back to normal.

Nama came back to Albuquerque with us! A few days after we got back was Mom’s birthday and Nama’s is the next day, so we did a little birthday dinner for the two of them.

Sweet little pumpkin. She had a couple of days of being a little big grouchier than normal, but then she was back to my smiling, fiesty girl. She did so well!

Kaitlin came back to Albuquerque too – though for very sad reasons. Her brother passed away right before London, so Kaitlin and Asaf came for the funeral and then stayed for a little while. So thankful that in the midst of the sadness, we still got lots of visiting time, because London was SO jam-packed that I felt like we hardly got to talk. And Asaf is right smack in the middle of the boys, so they had the best time playing together!

“Helping” me make cookies. I always want to be that cool mom on Instagram whose kids help her in the kitchen, but people – I can’t do it. I can stand it for about two minutes and then there’s flour everywhere and extra ingredients are being added and I start hyperventilating. One kid can help me and it’s a really sweet time together and I love it. Three kids start helping and it’s like trying to cook with a bunch of squirrels running loose in the kitchen. 😉

Eisley woke up sick the next day, coughing, super congested and running a fever. Jon called to tell me he was on his way home from work and she took the phone and said, “Hi Daddy. I sick. Need donuts.” So guess what Jon showed up with a few minutes later. 😉

The boys. Sometimes, they make each other (and me in the process) absolutely nuts and then sometimes, they are so genuinely kind and sweet to each other that it just melts my heart. Even with all their squabbles, they truly adore each other and I love seeing the bond between them.

Now that we’re all recovered from jet lag, it’s time to fit all the fall fun into the last week of October. Ha!