Leaf pile...

Brynn loves to "help".  As soon as Kevin brought the rake out of the garage she had her duck boots on and was out the door.  

 This is a new phase for her.  Whenever I tell her no, she gives me this pout.  I can't be mad because it is too cute.

#kidsarehere...

I don't know why but one day I got the idea to document the children's bedrooms.  

I want to remember this moment in our lives.  

I want to remember that the girls picked their own color.

I want to remember the room I put Russell down for his naps in. 

I want to remember all of Caroline's "collections".  

I want to remember where Brynn put her stuffed animals.

Thanksgiving...

Food for the soul

Play...

My life is really hectic these days.  From my babies, to my house, to my husband, to my calling, to life in general my calendar is full ALL THE TIME.  I sometimes can't remember what day it is and sometimes I forget to eat.  

Hectic, I tell ya.

But there are moments during my day where I stop and take a look around (like Ferris Bueller told me to) and I just breath in the moment.  I stop and really look at how much my girls have changed and how big Russell is getting.  Brynn will never be 2 3/4 again.  Caroline will not have numerous holes in her mouth where teeth should be.  Russell will not fall asleep on my chest and breath his baby breaths for too much longer.  
I made the choice long ago that I wanted to stay home with my babies.  I wanted to be here for as much as I could for as long as I could.  It is the hardest job I have ever done (and I taught high school)!  There are some days were I wish I had a job to go to.  There are some moments when I can't wait until all three are in school.  And there are times when I want to keep Caroline home from school and just breath the same air.  There are moments when I honestly can't get enough of Brynn.  There are times when I get weepy thinking about Russell growing up and not being my baby anymore.  
This is the season of my life where I have my babies surrounding me, hanging off of me, filling my days.  Like the seasons, one will slowly dissolve into the other and I won't realize the change until one day I will stop and realize my house is too clean and too quiet.  But at least I will have these moments, these memories that I am creating now to keep me warm on those chilly nights.

My Brynn bug...

Lover of:

shoes

Hungry Caterpillar

puppies of any type

peanut butter rolls

pizza

my camera

her family

Dear Brynn, 

I like you.

Love, Mama

That special place...

I have been wanting to do a photo shoot of Russell in our bedroom since this is where it all went down.  The tricky thing about our master bedroom is where it is located in our house.  The sun only shines bright enough to do these for about 30-45 minutes a day.  I had to act fast but they came out great.  

It is still overwhelming to think that I had my son at home in my own bed.  The day that I came home from the hospital I snuck upstairs by myself and just sat in the space for a minute or two and thought about that night.  This room is now sacred to me.  

 Oh this boy!!

Of course Brynn had to be my personal assistant.  

Cast...

A few weeks ago Caroline was riding her scooter home from school and fell.  She was going too fast on a road that slopes down.   **Now it is important to note that Kevin and I have told her many times to slow down on that road.  Now we have the doctor bills to prove just how much she listens to us.**  When we took her to the doctor to have it X rayed, the X-ray tech gave me that "look" and I knew it was broken.  

 On the day she was to have her cast removed she decided to write a list of questions for the doctor like, "When can I ride my scooter?" "When will I be able to do stuff?"  "Can I hang on stuff?"  "Is my bone still bent?"  She took her clip board, questions and a pen to the appointment and the doctor listened and answered every one of them.

Of course she picked a yellow cast.  She was super brave through the whole ordeal.  I am so proud of her.  

Lil' Mama...

One chilly, autumn Saturday Kevin had to work the day shift (boo) so the chickens and I decided to play in the sunroom.  

The night Russell was born Kevin took him, all wrapped up in the beach towel, into Caroline's room to show the girls their new baby brother.  Caroline has been in love ever since.  

 Russell just adores his older sister.  He lights up when he sees her.  

 Brynn thinks Russell is the best toy in the world.

 Caroline is pretty happy that she has learned and has been allowed to hold Russell while standing up.  This is a pretty big deal.  She is such a great little mama.  

Princess Sophia showed up to teach school.  

Have I mentioned how much I love this sunroom?!

Russell meet Bradford...

Kevin's dad made a special trip to come and meet Russell.  Mom, Dad and Brian could only stay for a few hours but it was great to see them. 

Down on the farm...

I woke up one morning when Russell was about 4 weeks old and realized that I could not sit in my house for one more minute.  It seemed like I had done nothing but sit in my brown recliner and nurse a baby for 4 weeks straight.  I needed a change of scenery.  So we researched some local farms and pumpkin patches and found Hill Ridge Farms near Wake Forest.  We packed up the girls, packed up diapers for the boy, let Caroline skip school and hit the road.  I was determined to run away from home for the day.

Best decision.  We had the best time.  

Ok, so instead of a sand pit for the kids to play in they had a corn pit.  The girls had a ball.  The funniest part is I used to play in corn like this on my grandfather's farm when I was Caroline's age.  I climbed in myself and brought back some good memories.  

While I was nursing Russell Kevin and the girls went down this slide over and over.  They LOVED it.  

They had a hay ride around the farm.  Before we got started the driver snapped this picture.  It is our first family portrait with all our babies.  

Too Too made an appearance on the hay ride.

Jumping on hay bails  

About that Sunroom...

I mentioned that about 50% of the reason why I love this house is because of that sunroom.  We didn't love the dated, dark trim but we love all the possibilities of that room.  We painted the trim a beautiful crisp white but it still sits empty.  Good thing it is.  One mid morning Kevin took Brynn to the gym with him.  I passed by the sunroom and saw all that yummy light and made the executive decision to do an impromptu photo shoot for Russell's 2 month pictures.

This is what I got...

Do you see now why I signed my name to purchase this house?  Delicious, right?

This girl...

I am in love with this girl.  

It seems that since I brought Russell home she has grown up so much.  She talks so much and asks so many questions.  She loves her baby brother so much and tries to "help" in her own special way.  

She LOVES taking pictures.  I set up my camera on a tripod in the sunroom and gave her the remote.  I love that we have frozen this moment in time.  She will never be 2 and 3/4 again.  I love my Brynn Bug with all my heart.  

On the street where you live...

We bought a house.  

That is the most loaded sentence I have ever written.  I could write a post on how we just decided one day to see what we could find in this area.  I could write a whole post on all the houses we toured, compared, and agonized over.  We saw houses across the street from each other.  I think we saw a house in every subdivision in this area.  We knew exactly what we wanted: 4 bedrooms, 2 car garage, nice school district, plenty of space to raise our family, etc.  But there were plenty of houses that fit that description.  What I was looking for was our home, the home we would bring our baby boy to, the home we would decorate our Christmas tree in, the home we would read our girls their bedtime stories.   I knew we would get that feeling, we would know when we found the right one.  Of course we did but it wasn't the house I thought we would ever go for.  

The house we fell in love with was built in 1989 and only had one owner.  It hasn't been updated since the day it was built.  In fact there is a sticker in the microwave that says the manufacturing date is January 1989!  But it was ours. I just knew it.  I imagined our furniture here.  I imagined our babies here.  I imagined all the holidays here.  We saw a house across the street and I kept staring at this one.  I compared all the other houses to this one.  Now don't get me wrong, it needs some work.  We have already changed a few things in our limited time but we have a lifetime of projects to do.  

And I can't wait...


The Before:

So this is the sunroom and about 50% of the reason I bought the house.  I love this room.  I have big plans for it. 

This is the family room.   

This is the front room.  It will be our office.

An eat-in kitchen

The kitchen that Ferris Bueller would be proud of.

After:
(Well, kind of.  We painted the trim and painted some of the rooms but like I said we have a lot of work to do.)

Caroline's Room  She picked out Glad Yellow

Brynn "picked" Dancing Green"

Russell's room is Honest Blue