September…Ahhh, sweet September. What a great month. Not only is this unruly heat (hopefully) coming to an end, it’s Olivia’s birthday, and Baby Spencer’s due date, but it is also the start of my favorite season. Fall. Apple orchards, comfy sweaters, pumpkin carving, pumpkin-pie, hay rides, cute boots, and the smell of warm apple-cider…I could go on and on!
But, before we head into this new time of year, I thought I should update you all on our summer fun. I haven’t been very good about keeping things updated, but life has definitely gotten away from me. With working, two kiddos, being pregnant, and finally giving into Pinterest (Yes, I took the plunge and checked it out, thought I’d better do it now before I had no “me time” left…quite addicting)!
As the school year was coming to and end we enrolled Olivia in something called Hippotherapy. This is actually therapy with the help of a horse. Olivia has been in Occupational Therapy for almost 5 years, since her stroke. She has made great progress, but I know things get a bit mundane for her sometimes. This is practicing different left handed tasks on a horse with a therapist walking beside her; Olivia has always been a big fan of horses, so we thought this would be not only a great experience, but good motivation for her as well. That it was, unfortunately the course is only 8 weeks.
At the beginning of the summer we had our town festival and then a few weeks later the county fair came to town. The kids love to go see the horses and ride whatever handful of toddler twisters come to the county fair!
We also had a mini vacation to Minneapolis (Olivia had another round of Botox in June). This time we stayed in a cool hotel that used to be a train station (Tom loved this!). We went to the zoo as well.
This August my parents took us to the state fair. Luckily, we had a reprieve from the heat waves and enjoyed a nice day at the fair. It had been quite awhile since I’d been there and it was nice to share the experience with my kiddos.
August also brought on the annual AHA Heart walk.
Mid-August brought my baby girl’s 1st day of kindergarten! It’s so hard for me to believe Olivia is in school now. Not that time has gone so fast the past 5 ½ years, but because of all the milestones and statistics she has overcome. At one point we weren’t sure we would ever see Olivia go to kindergarten, so this normal milestone was extra special for us! We decided to send Olivia to private school about 20 minutes from where we live. It’s a great school and on the first day we all attended church together. Very refreshing!
Since I seem to have a knack for having fall babies, we decided to have the kids’ birthday parties this past weekend at Chuck E Cheese. Olivia had wanted to do the ticket blaster since she attended another party last year and finally got her turn! The kids and grown-ups had a great time!
We’ve gotten a lot done around the house in preparation for the baby. Steve re-did Olivia’s room for Thomas in Thomas The Train and turned our toy room into a trendy horse room for Olivia. Now, we are just putting the finishing touches on the baby’s room. I have gestational diabetes and have been on insulin for the past 6 weeks. It’s been tough giving myself shots 4 times a day and checking my blood sugar 7 times a day, but a mother does what she’s got to do! Anyhow, they are going to induce me a few days early because of this, so my planned due date is September 16th. I was really wanting to have this one on my own since our other two kiddos were induced (Liv for medical reasons and Tom because he was late), but the baby’s safety is the most important thing. Plus….I’m ready!
So, my next update will probably include cute little baby toes and Halloween Costumes! I hope you all have great start to fall. Thanks for checking in on us!
Until then, here are a few pics of my beautiful kiddos!
God Bless,
Kendra
Olivia & her heart friend Ellie at Go Red
Hoping you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We enjoyed the company of family and had much to be thankful for.
Olivia is head over heels for little Isaac. As you can see, he adores her too!
My 3 goofy babies!
It’s hard to believe, but Isaac is just about 3 months old. He is all smiles here lately and I am loving every minute of it. Unfortunately, I am returning to work tomorrow. But, I was blessed to be able to spend the last 12 weeks at home. I went ahead and took Isaac’s pics a week early since I knew things were about to get busy-er!
It’s hard to believe Christmas is in less than two weeks. We definitely have the winter wonderland after this week! It’s been snowing a lot here in Iowa and the temperatures have even been single digits and below zero! Baby, it’s cold outside!
I hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I’ll leave you with a few cute holiday pics.
God Bless
PS Sorry for the couple of pics turned sideways, it looks fine of my computer, but is posting this way on Cp's server.
Meeting big brother for the first time
Meeting big sis!
1 week
Olivia officially turned 6 and Thomas 3. Both kids are growing up fast. Olivia is quite the mother hen to Isaac. Tom is warming up to him, we’ll say that! Olivia also got glasses. She has an astigmatism. This seems to be helping her with school work.
I took their official pics about a month ago too. Here’s my big kids!
We also had a quick session with all 3 kiddos (I am just full of pics, aren’t I?)
Let me tell you…1 kid=EASY, 2= harder, 3=almost impossible! You’re lucky if you can get them to sit still, forget a smile! Ha ha.
This fall we were able to hit up a few pumpkin farms and also an apple orchard in Minnesota. The kids loved the hay rides and picking their very own apples and pumpkins!
Instead of a sandbox there was a corn box at this farm!
Oh, and we can’t forget Halloween! Here’s my Thomas the train and cowgirl!
And my candycorn/pumpkin baby.
We’ve kept busy with homework (Yes, there IS homework in kindergarten) and projects. Last night Olivia had a speech at school on a book character. She was the 3rd little pig. We had been practicing everyday for the last two weeks. She did great!
Tonight the kids wanted to watch a movie. It worked out great because I was actually working on a Pinterest project mom sent me. Check out our own drive-in movie. Oh, how I loved the real thing as a kid!
Well……That’s all folks! Hope you have a great Thanksgiving. God Bless!