Week in Pictures~

Pumpkin Carving!

Cheese, Mom!

Getting the goo out!

Isla was helping too!

Dad is the pumpkin carver!  I think it is messy!

Isla loved scooping the goo.  Eww~

My little Garden Gnome before Trunk or Treat at church! 

It's Batman before Trunk or Treat!

Pretty girl eating breakfast!

On Halloween ready to take the 'hood!

Happy campers!

This was the end of the evening!   They got lots of candy, and Isla was getting tired.  Can you see the droopy eyelids;-)

The weather was beautiful this Halloween, but we were down LOTS of trick or treaters.  I don't get it, and I have over 100 pieces of chocolate left.  That is not good for my hips in the coming days;-)  Everyone had fun, though, and we can put another Halloween under our belt!

Stop and Smell the Roses!

We had an amazing weekend full of friends and relaxation!

The reality is if you look at my kitchen floors, you would cringe at the remnants left from children and dog and husband, but I took this weekend off for a little soul searching.  We are in a weird place right now trying to pave the rest of our lives.  You know, the typical conversations, "More kids or no more kids?"  "Do I really think I can do this for the rest of my life?"  "Honey, I think we should buy a business:-)"  It seems like every other conversation is a fairly important one, and that is just plain stressful:-)

So, in my soul searching, I was determined to write some gratitudes.  My soul needed a smile to start off the week~  Here is the list in no particular order!

1. My hubsly who is still the kindest man I know. (Okay, I guess, this one is in the correct order;-)

2. The color pink!  It just makes me smile. 

3. Chocolate!  I could not exist without said food.  Seriously.  It would be miserable!

4. Rowan Blane and Isla Hope.  They make me smile every.single.day!

5. Naps:-)  I'm a sleeper, and I always have been.  My perfect day would include a 2 hour nap.

6. Friends:-)  This world would be a lonely miserable place without people to share it with.  I sure hope when I'm gone, there will be someone that says, "Gosh, she was a nice person."  There are lots of people who have made mine a happier place, I know!

7.  Coffee!  

8. Dixie Dog.  She's big, she's black, and she sheds all over God's creation, but we love her.  I can't imagine not having her and her loyalty to the kids.  Wherever they are, she is right behind them.  Seriously, look through the pictures and see if you can find her;-)  It is really kind of a fascinating relationship she has with the kids, and she certainly completes our family for the time being;-) 

Tomorrow is Monday!  I love Mondays-for real!!

Week in Pictures~

We had conferences this week, so that means that I got a three-day weekend!  Woohoo!  We have gotten a lot accomplished, and I feel almost rested;-)  Almost:-) 

Rowan vacuumed on Friday!  Love it that he can help me;-)

Notice his pants;-)

The kids love to play the piano together. 

Sassy doing what she does best-EAT!!

On Saturday, we headed to Kansas City to see some friends.  Our husbands all met in college, and the three wives are all teachers by trade.  Well, except one of them has moved up to the world of consulting now, but she still gets our problems.    One couple lives in Kansas City and one in Wichita, so we don't meet up as often as we did prechildren.  We converged on Olathe for the park, pizza, and of course, a K-State win!  It was a fantastic day to say the least~

This is how Isla rolls with football!

Yum! Yum!

I wanted a photo.  There are actually 6 kids 4 and under, but Baby Colton was omitted due to age.  He is only 6 months old,

Take 2!

Take 3!  They were just too adorable, and they played fantastic together!

We went to a beautiful park, and the kids had a ball!

Isla stayed close to Dad.  She was pretty unsure of all of the kids~

Andy was explaining the mechanics of something.  She was amused;-)

Fun!

I'm thinking Sassy is a bit of a priss.  She sat and watched the other kids trounce around.

All by her lonesome!  It was a beautiful day!

Here is the whole crew!  Look at that awesome amount of purple;-)

We made pizzas for supper, and the kids ate amazingly well! 

This was about 10:30 after the K-State win.  Sassy finally gave it up, and she looked so peaceful!

Row too:-)  It was a quiet ride home.

Remember, the whole chin escapade a while back.  Well, we got the school picture in the mail, and here is the  aftermath.  It makes me giggle, and I refused to do retakes.  It is all in the memories;-)

Ouch!

Last week we redid our laundry room.  Here is the before while Rowan was helping me to pull stuff down from the shelf. 

This guy loves to help!

Here is the after now!  I was going for a more gray cabinet unit, so I'm sure we will be repainting it sometime soon;-)

Week In Pictures~

It was a good week at the Darby house!  We had a relaxing weekend at home this past weekend, and we all needed it.  The kids are battling colds thanks to preschool, but they are still in pretty good spirits!

  

Sassy loves to be in the kitchen with me.  Here she was "snacking" while I cooked supper.

Sassy kept crawling into her booster chair without help;-O Can we say freak Mom out!  We took it down for our safety purposes!  Here she is proud in her seat.  Now, if we could just get her to quit falling out of it;-) 

She whisked one night when I made supper.  I love Dixie right behind her!

 The project for the weekend was the laundry room.  I had dreams of matching baskets, but then I never really liked the basket system and those baskets are RI-DICULOUSLY expensive!  So, I had Big Al buy cabinets.  He is such a fantastic husband, that he and Row painted them and hung them on Saturday.  It was kind of a project, but they are way more functionable than the baskets. Score 1 for Mom and the good idea;-)

Here is the before.  Rowan was so excited to help me undo the shelves.

Here's the inbetween.  I'll post an after picture next week.  We still have a smidge of touch up to do!

Sunday was family nap day.  I LOVE nap day;-)  We've almost convinced Rowan that it is a treat to take a nap.  Well, he watched tv while I rested, and I counted my blessings for the quiet.

Parent Teacher Conferences are this week which means, I'll be gone late Wednesday and Thursday.  My mom heart is sad, but then I have Friday off;-)

My all-over heart is struggling right now.  I'm praying for some guidance that I can feel less stressed and enjoy the phase of life we are in.  I need someone to jump up and down in front of me and shout at me what to do, but so far, that hasn't happened yet;-) 

The upside is that Christmas is a mere 76 days away.  That's enough to make any girl's heart happy;-)

Week in Pictures~

Such a trooper!

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks!  

Rowan somehow managed to flip our piano bench, and it landed directly on his chin.  It looked terrible, but he really was a trooper and didn't seem too bothered by it.  Tough guy!

I'm pretty sure this was picture day;-)

 We went to the Pumpkin Patch with Grandpa and Grandma Darby.  It was just me as Alex was at church working on a big fundraiser!  The kids had a blast, and well, I tolerated it.  Having grown up on a farm, I draw little excitement from dust, and dirt paths, and old tractors.  Rowan, however, thought it was one of the best outings.  I tried to stifle my disdain, but I really hate to get dirty;-)  Thankfully I married a city boy, so I don't have this worry very often.  The kids had fun and that is all that matters~

Sassy LOVED the corn pit!

Rowan jumped and jumped~

and jumped~

Sassy still digging in the corn.  We spent most of our time here~

Rowan laid in it.

Do you see his nose?  He was FiLtHy~  That, and the corn pit ate his socks-literally.  We couldn't find them.

  Sassy is growing like crazy.  We had spaghetti this night, and she ate more than Alex and I combined.  It was ridiculous how much she consumed. 

Sly little smile~

 Thursday I picked Sassy up from daycare, and she had gotten into some lipstick.  You can only kind of see her pink belly.  It was covered!  I scrubbed on her clothes, and I was able to save them, but the smile speaks volumes for what she thought of it.

Cheese!

Here, Dad. You push this button~

 We bought diapers this week.  Yippee!  Well, okay, that really isn't that exciting.  But, I took them out of the package and stacked them nicely on Isla's changing table, because that is where they go.  A short while later, I walked back into this.  Sigh. 

She was "cleaning."

So proud!  Mom shakes head in disbelief:-)

The boys were watching tv before bed.  Makes me laugh.  This boy

 loves his daddy!