Getting Real

So this past week has been a doozy!  Most of the time I post about the fun/good/happy sunshine things that happen in our lives, but I feel like I should occasionally give a glimpse into some real life happenings  :)  Now, not every week is as ridiculous as this last week (thank goodness!), but life in our house is never boring.

Last week started off with Dave sticking a lego stud piece up his nose.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think Dave (who is almost 5 by the way) would do something like this!  He was so nonchalant when telling me what he had done, I didn't even believe him at first.  After I realized he was serious, I immediately called Josh's mom who started heading our way.  I couldn't see the piece so I figured he had snorted it all the way up his sinuses and I was imagining a visit to the ER with a pricey bill! Thankfully, he started sneezing and after a while I could see it in his nose.  The amount of snot he produced in this whole ordeal was quite incredible.  So thankful he finally sneezed it out without a lot of intervention!  

















So of course Ike had to top Dave's lego excitement.  One morning while he was waiting for me to come get him out of his crib, he decided to disrobe and take off his diaper.  This wouldn't have been a big deal except he had already pooped and decided to smear this poop all over the place.  In his crib, on the wall, all over himself, you get the picture.  It was one of the nastiest things I have seen in my time as a mom!  We had a quick morning bath followed by some laundry to get him back in order for the day.  Not a nice way to wake up, let me tell you!





The very same day, Ike was playing outside when he started telling me, "mommy snake, mommy snake!".  I was thinking there was no way he was actually holding a snake and figured it was a piece of rubber or something in his hand.  I guess he took it inside because Dave and his friend came running outside and said, "mom, why does Ike have a snake?".  I told them it wasn't really a snake and then Dave said the following, "then why is it bleeding?".  Now, I am not afraid of snakes or even really creeped out by them but those words were the last thing I wanted to hear!

I ran inside to Dave's room and found a torn-in-half, wriggling, bloody snake on his floor.  No parenting books prepare you for such a sight!  It also happened to be the tiniest snake I have ever seen, so at least I wasn't intimidated by it.  After securing the dying snake in a baggie (so I could show Josh later), I had Ike show me where it came from because I figured it was from a nest of baby snakes.  I never found the nest, so I am hoping it was just a rogue one that found its way to our driveway.  And when asked why he tore the snake in half, all Ike would say was, "cuz" (his version of because).  Fantastic.

Now we are all sick with pink eye/ear infections/sore throats.  Everyone is cranky and have watched entirely too much TV and Josh worked an extra duty day yesterday to set him up to go on vacation next week.  So you see, it really has been just a crazy week.  We are almost over all of our illnesses, so I think we are on the home stretch and can resume our regular, just kind of crazy, lives.  After a week like we just had, I am even more thankful for our upcoming trip to Puerto Rico--this time next week we will be in Florida awaiting our flight to the island!!  Cannot wait  :)

Fall Visit to Evansville

Last weekend was Josh's duty weekend, so the kids and I went on our first solo trip to Evansville.  I was a little nervous driving all that way by myself, but the kids did a pretty good job and it went quickly both times.  I do wish that either kid would sleep in the car...can't win them all.  :)

We didn't do a whole lot while we were in town, mostly just visited.  Friday morning we went over to grandpa's house to play with all his cool big boy toys.

Cruising around in the Polaris.

Ike is a huge fan of his motorcycle.










Then we went to dad and Kyra's for the afternoon.  It was ridiculously beautiful out, so dad and I took the kids to a park right by their house.

Ike insisted on watching this combine plow the entire field instead of playing!








Saturday morning my mom busted out a blind bag for Dave to open (if you didn't know already, these are Dave's most favorite things right now).





He got skater girl, who he said had cool hair.











Then we headed to Goebel's pumpkin patch with dad, Kyra, and Tony.  This place was pretty cool and had lots of stuff for the kids to do.  We even got to ride on a tractor and pick our own pumpkins.

Ike was mesmerized by the gigantic pumpkins.

Just relaxing on some pumpkins.  Looks comfy...

Tony and Dave doing a weird pose on the hay ride.

In the pumpkin patch.  There were so many to choose from!













The kids carved pumpkins with my mom before I even woke up on Saturday morning (and I didn't even sleep in that late!).  I didn't get any pictures of them actually carving the pumpkins, but here is an after picture.

Ike's was normal and Dave's was a skeleton with flames.

Pretty creepy looking when it is all lit up!











We had a nice visit, but were definitely missing Josh and were glad to be home on Sunday!  I am much more confident now that I can make the trek to Evansville by myself without too much trouble.

Camping!

Last weekend we went down to the New Albany area to "camp" with Josh's family.  We stayed in cabins, so we weren't exactly roughing it, but the kids enjoyed it and we got to sleep in real beds.  :)

One morning we went to Deere Farms, which is in Lanesville.  It was really cute and the kids had a blast.  They had hay rides, pig races, corn mazes, a huge slide, pony rides, etc.  The weather wasn't great, but we just all bundled up (notice the blankets!).

Family picture.

Ike loved playing in the corn.

Uncle Josh was making Zac laugh by throwing corn at him.  Poor kid.
















Ready for the hay ride out to see the pig races.













Ike was not ready for this picture I guess!













Kids with grandma.














Caleb all bundled up.















After Deere Farms, Josh and I took the boys to a street fair in downtown New Albany where we sampled some delicious food including crepes and tiny donuts.  Mmmm.  On the way back to the camp, we stopped at a Case dealership so Ike could check out some awesome tractors and lawn mowers.  Probably his favorite part of the whole weekend!

"Lawn mower, I ride it?!"









When we got back to the cabins, everybody was napping except Sophie, so we took her with us to a park in the campgrounds.







Ike playing in this cool tunnel structure at the park.

Dave at the top of a climbing thing.













Soph on her way to the top.










The cabins we stayed in were totally apart from the rest of the campgrounds, so the kids were able to play on the road in front of them that went in a big loop.  We brought scooters and some ride-on toys and they played for hours out there!





Ike convinced Zac to push him around.

Sophie cheesing out.












S'mores...delicious and not at all messy  :)









Such a fun trip!  We do need to get the kids to sleep in a little longer!  They were all up at 5:30 the first morning (thankfully they were in grandma and grandpa's cabin, haha).  I am sure one day we will be complaining that they want to sleep all day, but I sure can't imagine that right now!

Ike is TWO!

My baby is 2!  I cannot believe it, this happened way too fast.  He is growing into such a fun, crazy, energetic kid and I love it.  His vocabulary expands every day, and he is pretty much to the point where you can have a reasonable conversation with him.  Although he usually only wants to talk about golf carts or lawn mowers. :)  Here's a video of him chatting.  I really treasure the mornings that I have with Ike when Dave is at preschool.  We have all kinds of fun together, and it is great to have some one-on-one time with him.

We had two "parties" for Ike-one on his birthday, and one on Sunday so great-grandparents Mary and Dave could come celebrate too!

He really enjoyed blowing out the candles!

















His last monthly sign!

His cake.  Supposed to be a lawn mower (mowing the last bit of grass).  Ike kept calling it a combine.  Close enough.

Ike with his pal Greggy.

Ike and Gamma.

Love this picture of grandpa Dave and Ike!









Now for Ike updates.  We  missed his doctor's appointment because I was sick, so I don't know his stats yet.  He very much enjoys playing and wrestling (especially with Dave) and loves to play with anything with wheels.  His best buds are Lewis and Bennett.  His favorite TV show is Bubble Guppies, but he still will only watch about 5 minutes of an episode before running off to do something.  He loves balloons, but really only to pop them.  He screams at the top of his lungs when he doesn't get his way.  Love that feature  :)  Anytime someone leaves our house he insists on giving them "huggies".  This can really prolong someone's departure since it often takes multiple hugs!

Ike loves to help cook.  Josh and Ike have been getting into making eggs lately and it's super adorable.  He enjoys painting and coloring and has produced many masterpieces for us already.  And he loves to sing/play guitar.  Here is a video of the boys singing a church song.  Ike really gets into it!

Ike playing with bath paints.

The boys and their goggles.

Ike with the big pumpkins.









He begs to go to the pumpkin patch daily (we go about once a week).  If you have a phone out or your computer on, he runs over and asks (screams at you, whatever) to put on videos of tractors or lawn mowers.  Have I mentioned that he gets into everything?  I just had to stop him from draining all the water out of the water cooler just now.  Ike is definitely not boring!  He certainly makes our lives more interesting and it has been such a joy watching him grow up so far.  I can't wait to see what the next years hold for us!

Fall Fun

We have been having so much fun doing all the fall activities in our area.  Love that we live close to all of these cool places!  The past two weeks we have been to the pumpkin patch, on a hike to Asherwood Nature Preserve, and to the local apple orchard!

Working backwards, we went to McClure's apple orchard on Monday.  They have a barn where you can pet farm animals and they do U-Pick apples on the weekends.





The boys posing with the giant pumpkin.

Ike and Bennett playing with the bunnies.

Ike's "smile" is getting really questionable! He does say cheese when I get the camera out though.

Dave and Ike failed at this sign.  No amount of yelling got their attention enough to look at me.

Lewis and Bennett seem to get the idea!









Last Thursday, we went with some people on campus to Asherwood to do a hike.  The hike was paved (which is very nice with kids) and we were able to see some cool birds in the aviary.






Dave with the owl.














Pretty sure Dave is slowly shoving Ike's head in this picture.

The kids all did a fantastic job on the hike.  We were on the lookout for snails and they were super pumped whenever we found one!  

At the top of a slide...Ike was not so sure about going down.








Finally, last Tuesday we went to Campbell's pumpkin patch, which is about 5 minutes from our house.  Extremely convenient  :)






The kids checking out the burros.

Dave borrowed my camera to take this shot of the eyes.

Eme and Ike sitting on the hay wagon.