Autumn awesome

well...it's no secret that this time of year is my fave.

maybe its because it goes by so quickly.

you have to really enjoy every drop....and i do.

we've had a mix of warm  and rain and sunshine and cool this fall, which has left me scrambling when it comes to dressing the wee ones.

but amidst my digging through bins for sweatshirts and rainboots and....where did i put the sandals? we have managed to enjoy the wild mood swings that make up a minnesota fall.

at the very top of my reasons that autumn has been awesome:

babycakes learned how to go down the big girl slide at the park all by her own self

it starts with a face-splitting grin at the top and crazy clapping at the bottom

she can't get enough of it and neither can i

watching daddy ref volleyball games is a highlight of fall for the kiddos.

for me?  not so much.

the nights when he's gone are long and if/when we get to go watch, it is a jumble of skittles and popcorn and chasing all over the gym.

reminder:  it won't last for long ;)

enjoy it.

bare legs in light up sneakers crunching fallen leaves?

i'm a fan.

cold winds that bite at the bus stop waiting for sister to come home?

they result in snuggles, so i'm for it.

scooping up piles of leaves with a rake twice your size while wearing a coat that makes you feel like a "yumbojack"??

do i even have to answer that?

yes, please....i'll take several helpings.

and, quite possibly, the cherry on top of fall:

pumpkin patches

painting pumpkins

roasting pumpkin seeds

and pretty much anything that is punkin-related.  :)

it started out fun with exploring and choosing

\

and ended sweetly in our warm house with painting and glitter, but sandwiched in between those two happy places were frozen tears and skee-daddling out of the blustery morn' in a big ol' rush.

you can never have too much of a good thing, right?

autumn awesome ;)

Lately...

oh my lanta....it has been a glorious fall

and we've just been hangin' around, soaking up the goodness of autumn in minnesota

we've had a few days chilly enough to bust out coats and hats

and some sunshine-y soccer games with a wind that bites

most of our time has been spent out on the driveway

noticing the turning leaves and snuggling into cozy sweatshirts

and then there's been this:

which quite explains why it's been almost a month since i've written anything on this blog

most nights the kids are in bed by 8 and i'm right behind them.

sharing the news of number four has been....interesting

the response has been one of shock

like, what in the wide world are you people thinking?

you are thinking, right?

or maybe having three children 5 and under has made you go totally bonkers

and oh, the sympathetic looks from everyone who is truly burdened for us that we just haven't been "lucky enough" to get a boy

whatever.  we're rocking the girl train.

and another sweet ray of sister sunshine would suit us just fine.

it seems like few people have been truly excited

(or maybe pregnancy hormones are making me overly sensitive)

but it seems like most people look at us like we're crazy.

and maybe we are....

but we figure that you can spend your life on a lot worse things than children :)

sometimes we get the sad smile that says 

"i'm so sorry that you'll be raising all these kids and just barely getting by."

we're not worried.

really....the more responsibility He gives us, the more i trust Him

i mean...the Lord fed 5 thousand hungry bellies with 2 loaves of bread, people

he can provide for 4 kids on one and a half teacher salaries.

i'm sure of it.

then there are the friends and family who would like to know if this means that they need to get us "another" baby gift

actually, just being happy for us would be the best thing you could do.

and that wouldn't cost you one penny ;)

and let's not forget all the people who want to know if it was an accident.

um....no

but then again i don't really believe in "accidental babies"

the truth is this:

we like kids...

and we're especially fond of our own

in fact, with each addition, our family has only gotten better

louder? yes

 but less selfish, too

and more of a team

we may not go on the most magnificent vacations

we may not have the best-dressed kids

we may have to be creative about how to get them all where they need to be on days

but we will have each other.

i'm not saying that giving our kids experiences isn't important.

it is.

i'm not saying that blessing their socks off at Christmas and birthdays and back to school doesn't have its merit.

it does.

but giving them siblings is an EQUALLY amazing gift.

when we are gone, they will still have each other.

and that will matter heaps and heaps.

i won't lie

while i'm mostly thrilled, there's a little part of me that feels like i'm at the top of a roller coaster

it's a little scary there

but no different from when the first one came

and the second

and the third.

this is going to change everything....and for that i'll admit that i'm a little nervous.

but thank the Good Lord that He has BIG, awesome plans for our lives that stretch us and challenge us and move us waaaaay out on the branch where our trust in Him goes deep.

our mess is about to get a little bigger

and our home is about to get a little smaller

and we're about to get a little more creative with our finances and our time and our space

but there's something beautiful about coming to place where the selfishness melts away and you learn to just give your life away to someone else.

there's something amazing about letting go of the worry and the what ifs and the checkbook balance and watching God do big things

On hope...

here goes....

we're nudging our oldest out of the nest on a prayer and hope

hope...

that all the hugs and "i love you"s and time outs and sleepless nights and potty training and shoe tying and tickle torture and "please look at him when he's talking to you" and 10 million buckles on car seats and stories and meals and vacations and snuggles and "if i have to come in here one more time"s and trips to the library and painting toenails and "vegetables are your friends" and "don't even think about it"s and prayers and chores and name writing and lap sitting and discipline and dancing and consequences and art projects and "you can do it"s and smiles and secret winks...

will all add up to enough

enough of a foundation to step bravely into the wild unknown and meet it with confidence

enough of the easy love and the tough love to treat others kindly

enough belief in herself and her Maker to rest in His peace when the challenges come

enough grace and generosity and wisdom to put a positive mark on the places she's going

enough oomph to not be lame, but enough sense to not be stupid

enough drops of joy to fill her bucket to overflowing

i'm not worried.

i'm not nervous.

i'm really, really jazzed.

she's gonna' rock it.

but there is that one little corner of my mind that i suppose will always be there...

each time she ventures on a new path.

that part that wonders if we've measured it out right...

...if we've dispensed just enough mercy and the perfect amount of grace

have our expectations been too high?  too low?

have we been too hard?

or worse?!  too easy?

did we laugh when we should have disciplined?

we should have had more dance parties....definitely....more dancing makes for better people, right?

except there's that bedtime thing....and, well, the responsibility piece.

ugh.

it IS a puzzle, isn't it?

i guess at the end of the day, all we can do is hope.

hope that our mistakes, many as they may have been, are sinking in the ocean of love we've poured out

but i guess it's not really so much about us and our job as parents

it's mostly about her

God planted her, we've diligently watered and pruned

now it is her turn to take the stage....and bloom.

on hope we're sending our very heart on a big yellow bus tomorrow.

on hope, trusting her to be the person we've prayed she would be.

on hope...letting go of control...watching her make beautiful mistakes and do amazing things.

MN Landscape Arboretum

here's a place where happy lives

it has been on our summer bucket list for a few years now and it never dissapoints

a whole flock of geese welcomed us on our trip to the MN Landscape Arboretum this year

we could have left after the first 15 minutes of just chasing these dumb birds around.

our kids were in heaven.

but we ventured into the peaceful gardens and i started dreaming about what an amazingly fun job this would be

the girls were hoping to find the zillions of tadpoles that we happened upon last year, but we were too late in the season

so, they settled for rock hopping, which was a fun consolation prize

the exploring never ends here

after a few hours of climbing and exploring we headed to their favorite part, the play house

j and i struck up a conversation with some other parents there and i didn't get one picture :(

but as the sun set we hopped in the car for the 3 mile tree tour, which is always the cherry on top for me

with that, i'll mark the end of my summer posts

it was such a sweet time with our girls.

i know i've said it before, but life with these little chickadees just keeps getting better.

on a tad more sour note:  the alarm is set.

5:00 am

and it's not that i'm sad about going back to work

we need the routine and i've got a weird excitement about this year.

anywhoo...the only tiny problem is that we failed to prepare our kids for the 6:30 am wake up call they will be getting in just a few short hours.

more responsible people would have eased them into this the past couple of weeks.

every summer we have good intentions....we really do.

but then we just can't let go of these summer nights and ooops - the kids slept in until 8:35 today!

and just like every other summer, we're going to have to rip the band aid off tomorrow.

ugh...prayers would be appreciated.

with that, i'm off to get some last minute work done...because we all know that seating charts don't make themselves.  :)

July extras

whoopsies!  july extras got away from me so here are the pics that didn't find a home in july OR august...

are these shoes not the most adorable things you've seen!

new flooring in the basement!

welcomed angel to the household

phew!  fun times....now for a lil' rest before the crazy of school hits us.  :)