Fall Fun and My Birthday

Peek a boo!!!   This is my sweet happy girl!  I love watching her grow and learn, just like the boys. What a sweet blessing she is.  She exudes JOY!

Fun in the leaves with Daddy!

I just love watching her experience things for the first time.  It really is like living it over again myself.  Her excitement for life is contagious.

Fall always means hot cocoa at our house!  We got to share it with a very special little buddy this year, Nathaniel!

Connor and Nathaniel are like two peas in a pod. They see each other very rarely, but have such similar sweet personalities and just pick up where they left off!!

More leaf pile fun for LJ!

And the boys had a different idea...of course...but it worked out just fine.  ;)

Katie took on both boys!  She was quite the trooper!

Lindsay Jane playing with Connor's ball.  You should have seen her bouncing and bouncing!  I was helping and HURTING the next day.  I am getting old.  I guess.

In early November, we met to celebrate the November birthdays in our family.  Mom's is the third, and dad and I's are today, the 18th!  It was fun getting out and seeing Pop and Mommom and enjoying the beautiful sunshine on a rather cold November morning.

The kids had a blast at the park!

And snuggled up with Mommom for a book.

Stan helped dad out with his "insinkerator".  Dad had shoulder surgery back in September and has been in a sling with limited ability to really do anything in the kitchen- which has NOT been easy for Mr. Fix it!!  Good thing he has such a handy son-in-law.

LJ got some sweet snuggles from Tahti and Mommom.

Zaiya got some lessons from the Master Cook, Pop.

Middle Children Love.

Lindsay Jane could NOT wait for dinner.  She was starving.  So, I went ahead and fed her.  She insisted that her baby eat too.  Baby Cabbage Patch is in the highchair that my babies used to be in, hence the 1970's flare...

Hilarious.  My dad got the cake this year.  He got my name and his, but forgot, dear wifie...so, Karen improvised by taking some of the icing from the pink balloon.  We just laughed and laughed over this cake.  Fun times for sure.

Singing harmony together...

Scorpio babies...

Lindsay Jane and cake?  Ummmm, all in.  No shirt needed.

Pop's card from LJ.

Pop and Mommom are going to see their favorite entertainer in January!  I think they are pleased with their gift!  Garrison Keillor at the DPAC!

Pre-birthday fun included a trip to visit my BFF from college, Allison.  We hit the shopping hard core on Saturday and just had a blast.  I told her, sometimes, it is just so nice to just be me.  Isn't it awesome to have such special friends who enable you to do that?  We talked, we laughed, we cried, we slept in (you know, until 7:30!), we shopped and we ate meals in peace with good conversation. We had mama rejuvenation!!!

I started off the actual day of my 37th birthday with a 3.5 mile run with my dear friend and neighbor, Sarah.  We are just getting ready to sign up for our first half marathon together.  It was a great start to a training schedule that I am really looking forward to.  I have wanted to do a half for a long time.  Happy midlife crisis, I guess.  Am I midlife? Ouch.  I guess I really could be??

My birthday continued with some sweet playtime with these two cuties...

We put together Connor's electronic model.  I loved working with him on it.  It was so much fun watching his little brain work.

And, if you know me, you know how much I love love watching my kids play with their nativity. We got it out today, my birthday.  A perfect time I think!

Then, "Aunt Kerri" came over and brought our favorite doughnuts!!  What a special and beloved friendship we share.  :) Love this lady!!!

Connor was SO proud.  Mama helped put together his awesome constructs animal he got from Pop and Mommom for his birthday. It always takes mommy a few extra (thousand) brain cells to complete these types of projects, so I was pretty proud myself when the thing actually moved appropriately when we turned it on!!

Then, it was off to lunch with my dear Janise, who had a birthday yesterday!  Such a sweet joy to spend our birthdays together.  We even had the added blessing of having her parents with us today. So so sweet and my adopted dad (Ron) insisted that he treat me to lunch while my adopted mom (Helen) hung with the kids so Janise and I could catch up.  A true sister, indeed.  Love her!

Connor and Lindsay Jane happily joined in the birthday fun, especially since ice cream was involved!!

Love that I got to spend lunch with these little cuties!  Just missed my Landon, but he was, of course, involved in the evening celebrating!  He did ask if he could stay home this morning, since it was my birthday.  :)

This was my sweet husband passing out my requested dinner.  No cooking for this mama today!  I tried to pick something all the kids would like, but, alas...Connor threw the biggest fit he has thrown in a very long time...just in time for mama's birthday.  He didn't nap today which made is worse. Man, can someone remember to send him a memo next year about it being his mama's birthday?  It's just part of it.  Being a mom...birthdays are just like any other day. You still have to parent young children who are oblivious to the fact that it might be nice to give dear old mom a break from the whining for ONE day. :)  They, are of course, young children, children who I love dearly and would chose to have in my life any day over a whine free birthday.  Wine, on the other hand...did come in handy.  ;)

Stan and I ended the night with dancing!  Our favorite.  It was a great ending to my 37th birthday.
What in the world?  Did I just type 37? I still feel like I am in my twenties.  I guess what matters is how I feel.  :)  I feel so very blessed to be a healthy 37, very happily married, with three healthy and very loving children, with a career I love and get to do part time so I can also be with my little ones, with healthy parents who know and love my children and a whole host of extended family and spectacular friends who journey this life with me.

Thank you God, for everything!