November!

It might seem like I am trying to win some sort of award for being the worst blogger ever these days! It says October 14th was my last post! I guess life with 3 kiddos 4 and under is keeping me a little busier than I think sometimes!

We really had a great end of October and Halloween! We have had the chance to get together with friends quite a bit which is awesome! Leaving all of our good friends in Springfield was one of the hardest things we have ever done and we are thankful that we will have those friendships forever! But, we are thankful that we are starting to build our little "family" of friends here. The Lou is really starting to feel like home!

Last week on Friday Nick took the day off work so that we could have a little family day and it was beyond great for all of us. We took the kiddos to a pumpkin patch in St. Peters which was just perfect for our little family! They had a maze, petting zoo, corn boxes, tricycle tractors, a metal barrel train, tractor tire swings, big slides, and more. And since we went on a Friday it wasn't too busy so we were able to really have fun! Then we went to lunch at Red Robin which was just the icing on the cake! We rarely take our kids to resteraunts so I had no idea if they would be good or if it would take lots of creativity and work to keep them happy and sitting their seats! But, they were great and it was so much fun!

Halloween was super fun this year too! Max is at the perfect age for getting really into holidays so it was fun to relive the excitement. Nick's mom is very taltented at sewing and had made Max a great dino outfit for dress-up awhile back. He told me he wanted to wear it for Halloween so I asked her if she wouldn't mind making dino costumes for the other kiddos. She made Soph a beautiful pink dino costume that Sophie loved and she found a really cute triceratops costume for Jack so we were totally set! But, when it was time to put costumes on Soph flat out refused to put her costume on and insisted on wearing Max's monkey costume from a few years ago! Geesh! I felt terrible she didn't wear it! Gotta love 2 year olds though! They had a blast trick-or-treating though! My parents, grandma, and future brother-in-law all came over and we had a really fun time! We ended up having lots of trick-or-treaters stop by this year! I almost ran out of candy! We just had 4 last year so I didn't expect so many! I guess next year I will be prepared!

And now that Halloween is over I guess Thanksgiving is just around the corner! Thanksgiving should be interesting/really good this year! It is just our little family for Thanksgiving (and maybe Grandma June if we can convince her to come over). My parents are going to Gulf Shores and they invited us to go too but with a baby we knew there was no way a long car ride was a good idea! And my sister and her fiance are going to Kansas City so it will be just us! I asked Nick if he wanted to go somewhere but he thought it would be fun to do our own little family thing and I think I agree! I definitily want to make sure our kids know that our little family is enough and I want to make the day really special for them! It is so easy to "go all out" for others but I want to make sure that I give my best to my husband and kids!

And then Christmas will be here before we know it! I am trying to get started on Christmas shopping soon. I don't really shop early because I never know what people will want by the time Christmas rolls around and I am trying to keep gifts simple and special. Last year my friend Natalie gave me the idea of giving each child 3 Christmas presents each year (like the 3 gifts from the Wisemen for baby Jesus) and it was awesome last year. They were able to focus and play with each of their presents and it really helped me to not go overboard (which is my tendency!).

I love Christmas and am really going to try to enjoy it even more this year! Last year Max was really into learning about the birth of Jesus and I think this year it will be even more fun! I love starting little traditions and just having lots of good family time around the holidays! After reading "Boundaries" I have gotten more confident in saying "no" so I think I will be able to really make the best decisions for our family this year. Or at least that is my big prayer for the holiday season this year! I want time to really focus on what the season is about and not focus on business and consumerism which tends to happen!

Anyhoo...
Today I think we are going to spend the day at home. I have a lot of housework to catch up on and the kids could probably use a day at home playing with their toys!

Have a blessed Tuesday! (These photos are totally out of order and I didn't want to spend any more time trying to fix it than I already have! So, they are from Halloween and the pumpkin patch!)