something new

Attempting something new! Check out my "tasty food" tab at the top of this blog :)

marrying

I love creating an atmosphere at our dining room table that provides space for good conversations... honest ones, humorous ones, simple ones, deep ones, everyday ones, real ones. As the boys and I ate our turkey sandwiches and munched on Austin's choice of cheese balls and apple slices we some how got to the topic of "marrying". Austin informed me, like he usually does with this topic, that he was going to marry Natalie someday. When I told him that I really liked the qualities Natalie had and I would love for him to marry a gal like her some day, I thought she was maybe a bit too old? (She is 21 today, he is 3 :) He just laughed and said he'd marry Eisley instead. :)
I then asked Jaxon what kind of girl he wanted to marry some day and he was very quick to ask "you don't have to get married do you?" Of course I told him no he didn't HAVE to, but what if he did... what would he like his wife to be like, IF he did marry someday? The answer he gave me in .5 seconds.... "she has to be really good at sports and a killer football player!" I look forward to meeting this killer athlete someday :)

pause moments

One of my favorite things to do is to "pause time" every so often with my family. I know you can't actually pause time, but I can really pause what is going on around us for a short period and provide an atmosphere where we can just connect, be filled with peace and simplicity, and just really be together. I don't do this enough, though if I did it all the time I'm not sure it would have the same effect on us. One of my favorite places to go to do this is our local Reserve center. It is filled with beautiful woods, trails, trickles of water and blue skies on a good day. There are no phones, TV's, computers, or schedules. Just us and God's creation. A perfect spot for boys to just be boys :)  I took advantage of a lovely fall Saturday afternoon a few weeks ago and snuk my boys and a close friend over to the park for a bit. We did nothing but hike, run, walk, crawl, chat, listen, watch, and breathe fresh air. It was just perfect. Life just seems to get busier within our home these days and it is moments like this that help me stay focused on our purpose in this stage of life... pausing moments are a great way to fill myself up with fuel to work hard within all the fast paced moments that are often just as lovely, just not as simple paced.

Fall flying by...

The days are getting shorter and fall seems to be flying by! The colors in our neighborhood have been beautiful this year and this morning we woke up to many of our leaves hitting the ground. Football, pumpkins, nature walks, and chili has made it's way into our lives and holiday music, snow-pants, Christmas goodies, and turkeys will be before us soon. Here's a few snaps of our fall days...

 We pulled out the car seat cover to keep the little man warm...

 Dad and Carson dressed in long sleeves for church... time to put the summer stuff away.

 Hoodies for the boys as they enjoy snack outside a few more times...

 Painting pumpkins...

 Carving pumpkins...

 Okay, this is any time of year :) Our buddy Natalie stopping by.... to check out Dave's sweet new ride. A 93 Camry WAGON! His old car was questionable to make it though the winter... this was our best and cheapest find. The boys love the backwards back-seat.... old school style! :)

Jaxon's art... he recently joined a local Youth Art Team for the fall and seems to really be enjoying it! A very fun first for him!! (and this is from art class at school... I love the creations he brings home to me)

Carson's last few weeks

To capture Carson at this stage I have to write a few things before I forget, because he is changing and growing way too fast! In some ways I am ever so thankful and in other ways I wish he would just slow down!! I can not believe he is already 3 months old. I feel like we just brought him home a lot of days, but I suppose with 3 active little guys the days are going to just start flying by me.

I weighed him at a friend's house and he is roughly 14 pounds. His legs and second chin can prove it.... he has really plumped up this last month. He still eats more often then I would prefer, but I think we are heading towards a wider stretch in between feedings. He has been pretty consistent with nursing every 2-3 hours. Often times the late afternoons and evening feedings are barely 2 hours. Whew, that can get exhausting and makes it hard at times to do anything other then nurse and make dinner for the rest of us. Yet, I love the built in times of day for me to stop and just hold him and coo with him amongst the busyness in my house. At night though he will go down usually between 730-8:30 and when he doesn't have a cold (his current status) will sleep until 4ish and then wake around 730. I am thankful his nights are pretty good most the time. Too bad we don't seem to live in the "most the time" at the moment. For a boy who can sleep like a champ at night usually, he does not do the same during the day. I've never had to teach either of my first two how to nap. Carson.... let's just say we get lots of lessons together!!! He is more of a 30-45 minutes napper, but seems pretty happy and content when not sleeping, so I can't complain I have a crabby baby... just one who doesn't need much sleep during the day. Darn it! Now that he is getting so smiley and interactive it is more fun to hang out with him during his awake time. The first couple months he was just kind of crabby pants with me when not eating or napping. I must have been really boring him :)  It's SO wonderful to have a baby that is content... finally!

I have decided to throw my goals of having any sort of schedule out the window and just stick to an everyday routine. I try to do the same thing in order each day to help Carson find some rhythm to his day and to understand when it is time to sleep and time to be awake and time to eat. I've had to juggle him around taking Jax to school, fixing lunch, picking Jax up from school and any evening activities we may have. I think I said this before, but the poor babe rarely gets to go down when he wants to or often time has to nurse early or late due to other's schedules in the house. I hate waking a sleeping baby, but he usually gets woken up to do a to and from school drop/pick up. Each day though he seems to get better at being flexible...slowly but surely :) My new frame of thinking is "15 minutes at a time". I do not plan much past 15 minutes because nothing seems to go as I planned when I do much past that, ha! I just never know these days. I think I am learning to be flexible more then Carson :)

I can not believe how crazy smiley and talkative he has gotten!! It is so fun! He would sit on my lap or in my arms and just laugh, coo, and squeal back to me for long stretches of time. I love seeing his personality bubble over and I think we have a bit of a little Jaxon on our hands :) He seems to really love faces and being talked to by anybody. For a babe who has shown me he doesn't intend to just "fall into line" here, I sure love him to pieces still and feel so blessed to have a beautiful and healthy baby boy. 3 months is a short time to fall in love so fast, but that is exactly what I have been doing!! :)

PS check out our 3 boys pics in the post below... I can't believe how much they look alike!

3 boys @ 3 months

 Jaxon at 3 months old...

Austin at 3 months old...

Carson at 3 months old...

3 months & counting...

Our baby boy is 3 months today! We had a really fun play date this morning and our good friend, Katie, snapped away at our boy! I love them! Carson is becoming such a happy fun little guy!! It's so beautiful out today though, so I will leave you with these handsome pictures and come back when the sun isn't shining to write a bit on our 3 month old. Happy 3 months, Carson... we sure love you!