Fall 2016 school pictures

Oh school pictures.  I swear.  They are the best and the worst.

Well, really the worst.  Why?  My kids do not ever get dressed up.  Like seriously.  I want to chalk it up to the fact that they are just "daycare kids", but that would be putting all those other daycare mommas into the stereotype that they don't dress their kids up ever.  And I know that's not true - because I have lots of working mom friends that do.  So I guess it's just me and Jimmy.  Because we really don't care.  And to be honest, I would really rather have my kiddos be comfy.  Especially at school when they are learning and playing all day.

So we likely did this to ourselves - because trying to get them to put on normal clothes and God forbid *PANTS* is maybe the worst thing ever.  Like wrestling greasy pigs.  But the pigs are yelling and screaming in your face acting like they are in pain.  Yes, that kind of describes telling our kids they need to get dressed up.

When picture day fell on Tuesday, November 1....I was even MORE excited because it was the day after a holiday where they were going to be up late and full of sugar.  So fun.  I was guessing their pictures would turn out horrible.  So I shot one of the three of them (after lots of bribing) before I went to work and figured that would be the best we'd get. 

Then of course, I get their proofs and I want to laugh and cry at the same time.  Because they are so hilarious and make me smile.  And cry because WHY DO THEY CHARGE YOU SO MUCH MONEY FOR THEM!?!?  Especially when you have 2 kids!!??  #profithungry 

But, of course, I had to buy.  And Jimmy got angry - but they are so funny and cute.  Here they are!

Who can resist the cheesy/forced smile!?  At least he listens to them, right?

I do like that they have the year - they will want to look back on these someday right?  (or not..)

And Ms Maddie.  This girl will NOT let you touch her hair most days.  Or put in a pony tail or attempt to style.  So this is the best we were going to get.  I love her.

Sassy PANTS!

The hands together and crossed feet.  Kill me of cuteness.

And then two sibling pictures that look pretty much identical.  But I'll take them.

Especially when these two go on and on to us about how they are "best friends".  And I want to eat them because I love them so much and love that they love each other.  Only wishing Mikey was able to participate - but I guess we might have them all there next fall (?).  We will see.  I really like our in-home lady way too much though to move him at one year old....so for now, the couch pictures will do.

October weekend fun and Pumpkin patch 2016 trip

Oh my - October is here and what a first week of October it has been for our family!!

First things first.  Never take 3 kids to the dentist alone.  Ever.

Second, after our adventure on Monday with the big kids and then a quiet (last) afternoon together, Tuesday morning, I went with Jimmy and dropped this little man off at daycare.  He is going to an in-home and the lady watching him is just amazing.  And my new favorite.  She is a little older than my parents and has been watching kiddos for over 40 years now.  I love going to pick him up because she feels like a grandma...she is asking me how my day is, telling me about his day, etc.  His first day he did great (me not so much..but I kept busy...and then the next day I went to work!)

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While Mikey was at daycare, I finished painting the table that is going in the nursing room at my work to put my pump on and my bag underneath - Jimmy put it together for me and it looks amazing!!

And I made 8 freezer meals with some chicken breasts I got on sale (more about those recipes on my fitness blog here).

And then guess what?  Wednesday, October 5 came and I got up, worked out, got ready, packed up my stuff and the kids stuff and went to work for the first time in 11 weeks!

And thank goodness I do not drop off everyday....because I would be a mess.  Again, thank God for Jimmy in my life.  Walking out the door at home versus dropping them off is so much easier.  And it helps that I love my job and my coworkers and there is PLENTY to keep me busy and distracted at work.

So yeah.   Wednesday - Friday we went back to the grind and I quickly remembered how much I am literally TIED to the pump.  Sheesh.  Worth it, but always pumping it feels like!!

On Friday, my sweet grandma that we just visited last month turned NINETY!!!  It also marked three years since we said goodbye to my sweet grandpa (her husband).  While we didn't get to be there to celebrate with her, we did get to Facetime with her since my dad was up there and we sent her a pretty fun photo book with some pictures of the kids and pictures of our visit.  My dad said she loved it and I'm SOOO glad!

Saturday morning, we headed out to our annual pumpkin patch trip with the Matlock family.  It's crazy to think that our first trip in 2012, we only had Jack and Charlie and look at this motley crew now!  We love Schaake's Pumpkin Patch just outside of Lawrence because it's not super crowded (especially if you get there early), it's free, plenty of stuff to do AND we always take our crew to eat on Mass Street after.  Awesome!  I won't detail you the drama in getting there (we were 40 minutes late - sorry Emily!).  From forcing people to get dressed, getting lost, just a typical morning in the Carter house...crazy chaos right?

This girl though.  Completely melts my heart.  Even if she is a little crazy.  Crazy good.

Afterwords, we went to Jefferson's and while I did enjoy a few fried pickles, I didn't eat wings there.  AHHHH!  I know.  It wasn't because I didn't want the fried wings...it was because the blue cheese dressing is really what I love and with avoiding dairy due to breastfeeding- I figured I might as well just eat a salad.  And guess what?  It was delicious!

Kids woke up from naps and it was time to try out the new toy that Jimmy found on Craigslist for Charlie.  Long story short, a boy down the street had this car and Charlie loved it so Jimmy decided to hunt for it for a Christmas present.  You read that right...Christmas.  Yeah.  Well, he found it for like $60 and got it and of course (in true Jimmy fashion), he was so excited and gave it to Charlie early.  SUCH a sucker.  But the good news is - they completely loved it.  Duh, why wouldn't they!?  In the mean time, Mikey and I chilled in the shade.

Love this little man!

Around dinner time, we headed up to our church for the annual fall festival that is always SOOOOOO fun.  This year it was even better!  They had 3 bounce houses, so many fun games, hamburgers and hot dogs, trunk or treat, petting zoo...and ended the night with FIREWORKS.  It's always a hit or miss with fireworks for our crew, but Charlie told us he could handle them this year.  And while Maddie was double fisting her suckers...we all enjoyed the awesome fireworks.  So happy that our neighbors came with us too - they have a little boy that is the same age as Maddie and they had a blast too!

Sunday, I was up and at em to get in my yoga work out - because I was hoping for a little bit of quiet time (you know, deep breathing, relaxation, yoga...).  But these kiddos popped in and wanted to join in my fun.  I swear - they crack me up.

Before church - this little lovie was all over her little brother.  I'm not kidding, she melts my heart when she's this sweet.

Mikey decided to puke all over himself and me at church...so he got naked in the church bathroom.  #babylife

After church we split up.  Jimmy took Charlie to urgent care as he's had a nasty cough for like 2 weeks now (turned out an upper respiratory infection) and then me and Maddie and Mikey went to Aldi.  At least we just needed the basics. After lunch and naps (Maddie took a long nap...while the two boys took cat naps while I folded the bizillion loads of laundry...see pic!) we headed over to Jimmy's parents house for some awesome beef stew and homemade rolls!  And brought the Lightning McQueen car (of course).

(He really is happy!!)

It was a fun weekend.  I'm a little in denial that I have to go back to work FIVE days a week.  Sheesh!  I hope I will make it.  I know I will but I'm exhausted just thinking about it!  Hope you had a great weekend too- cheers to October week #2.

School pictures

We had success with school pictures this spring!!  And guess what?  I purchased the "day care" package...and didn't feel ripped off.  Mainly because I feel like they got a few good pictures of my kiddos AND I was feeling some mom guilt since Maddie didn't get as many professional photo shoots documenting her first year of life as Charlie did (see his 9 month pics here - they are some of my favorite!).

So these represent Maddie's 9 month "professional pictures" because, the are from professionals.

And guess what?  It was a whole lot cheaper AND a whole lot easier because we just got them dressed, sent them to school and crossed our fingers that they would turn out good.

And as you can see below, at least 5 for them did. 

The others - well, yeah, let's just say I'm glad that I only had to pick 5 images to get the digital versions of.  The others were pretty hilarious though.

The somewhat successful sibling picture!!! (this one was gifted to some deserving grandma's for Mother's Day)

Sweet Maddie!  She actually wore a little hair bow AND I'm loving that you can see her curls starting around her ears.  It was super humid yesterday in KC and her hair was curling like crazy!!!

I love this one!  Sweet smile!

And then Charlie - he looks so old in these pictures.

And was in desperate need of a hair cut he got the weekend following them.  If I was on top of everything in life, I would have gotten him that haircut before the pictures, but that's how I've been rolling these days, and I'm fine with it!

So serious with the hair swoop.....

Not the same as a full out photo shoot - but not as stressful or expensive - so I'll take it!!

Guest Blog - DIY teacher gifts

Hi friends!

It's that time of year again for teacher gifts.  You can find me today over at Vanessa's blog talking about a quick and easy project to dress up those gift cards for your kid's teachers.

I love gifting my kid's teachers and really think they deserve every gift because often times their job can be so unappreciated and for sure underpaid.  While it's not much, a small gift card of $10-20 will likely make them feel a little more appreciated.  Personally, I'm thankful that my kids both have caring, loving and dedicated teachers with them all day while I'm at work.  It's so fun to see the activities they do, the friends they are making and the fun they are having - all while learning!!!  So make sure you don't forget them - they have moved up each year on my list for sure!!

Here's a shot of the ornament - check out her blog to get more details!

Preschool Prom

I know - what in the heck, right?  Preschool prom?  I said the same thing.

But oh my goodness - I'm so happy that (a) his school has something like this and (b) that we went.  It was hilarious and amazing and overwhelming all at the same time.   P.S. He's not in "preschool" yet, but they are pretty adamant about calling themselves a school at all ages, so we go with that language, just in case you are confused!  He's not even 2 yet! 

The theme was "disney" and believe it or not - this kid has nothing Disney to wear.  Like not even a simple Mickey shirt or anything.  We are way more into Sesame Street, Elmo and Frozen (which yes I understand is Disney, however, I didn't think a boy Frozen shirt was ok at this point - but I do let him belt it out!).  I wanted to go all out on a costume.  We debated Gaston from Beauty and the Beast because Jimmy has a sweet brown mullet wig.  Throw on a red shirt, black pants, boots and a belt and call it a day.  Yeah - except for the fact that kid wouldn't keep the wig on.  Too bad.

So a stop at Kohl's and finding a 50% off Disney 2T shirt from Planes made our day.  Talk about last minute.  Our last resort was going to be the Disney store at the mall - and for our budget's sake, I was happy we found this!

And he pretty much loved it and told everyone he had airplanes on his shirt and made a VRROOM noise and waved his arms like an airplane. So it all worked out.

When we got there, which the location was at a nearby elementary's school gym, this was the first thing we saw.  So of course, to try to sugar him up to get his dance moves going and booty moving, we gave him a cookie.

However, after we walked to the dance floor and pretty much saw the cutest thing ever...Charlie of course wanted NOTHING to do with dancing.  At all.  I was very sad he didn't want to show off the

 moves he's been showing us all week.

He was quite content in my arms eating a cookie.

Cute, but talk about a let down.  Even his teachers were bummed because he'd been dancing all week in class!!

So instead, we tried to get him used to all the people that were there and headed to the photo booth.  

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw one of the 3 pictures.  Let's just say that Charlie doesn't quite understand the "1, 2, 3 - SMILE" that goes along with photo booths yet.  You would think after 2 weekends in a row he would, but nope.  Evidenced below.

However, it was hilarious and left us a great memory again!

We made our way around the gym...here is a glimpse of the dance floor set up.  Pretty cute!!

There was also a professional photo thing set up.  They had the same thing at the Halloween party, so I am guessing to actually take home a picture was like $5.  Which isn't bad if you can get a cute picture of your kid.  If you notice below, the attempt at that failed - yep, we didn't even get one picture.  Which was fine.  We took professional family pictures that night, so I was hoping he would save his smiles and "poses" for then.

We had been there awhile and figured, he would now be just dying to dance.  So Jimmy started busting moves on the dance floor with Charlie.  And he wouldn't let go and wasn't quite having it.

But I mean - look at all those other cute kids.  They looked like they were having a good time, right?  

So give it a year and he will too?  #thatswhatwetellourselves

 And then the Cha-Cha slide started - and the owner and teachers made their way to the front of the dance floor (the owner was Cruela DaVille and some of the teachers were dalmatians - pretty cute!)

We tried to get him on the floor for at least a little bit...

But as you can see in the picture below - that went well.

But then he found a balloon and life was good.  

The remainder of the time, he chased a balloon.  Then some older kid took it from him and he came back to me like "WTF?" and I told him to suck it up and find a new one, because yes, I'm the meanest mom ever. Then he went to the ones taped on the display and started trying to pull them off - so I went on the hunt for one that wasn't attached.  When I found one.  Life was good.

The last fun thing?  They did the limbo.  Which was pretty stinkin cute. 

It made me excited for next year's prom as I have wishful thinking that Charlie and his friends will be center stage dancing the day away.  And baby girl will be rocking it in the baby carrier.

It was overwhelming because oh my goodness, there were so many kids in one place having so much fun.  And I cannot imagine what these teachers do everyday and am so thankful for them and their patience!!  His friend, Lucy, was there and she was looking cute in her Snow White costume...but I think next year more of his friends will be there and maybe he'll have a date?  Haha, jk.  I'm happy to be his date for as long as he wants.  

But like I told my friend Ali via her Instagram comment, he might have an issue getting a date if he is such a party pooper next year (and years to come!)

Overall - we had a freaking blast and feel so lucky to have found this school and his wonderful teachers!  He has been so happy there and so have we.  While it can be a little pricey (like all daycare, especially when you have 2), we are excited for baby girl to join there in October as well!!