Monday Morning Musings

I just love weekends like this one.  It was a nice mix of work and play.  I really got quite a lot of work done this weekend and I also was able to stop and enjoy time with our family doing fun holiday things.

And in merely 5 days, I will be on holiday break.  Hallelujah.  Although I know my fifthsters will be wild & crazy this week, we sadly have a lot of work to do before break…so hopefully everyone will cooperate and we can enjoy the next five days.  :)

Saturday night, our family enjoyed a little smorgasbord of frozen pizza, rolls, chips & salsa, and chicken to go along with our first Christmas movie of the season.

This was Kaitlyn's first experience with The National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  Kevin & I cracked up more just listening to Kaitlyn's belly laughs.  It was so hilarious.  Kevin shot this picture of our night.  I just love how peaceful it looks

Peaceful not for long with a ridiculous dog around…

Once we got Riley under control, we enjoyed a little carmel apple cider.  It's our home version of the Starbucks classic.  If you haven't tried it, go now.  You'll thank me.  Promise.

After Kaitlyn went to sleep, Kevin and I sat up on our respective devices listening to Christmas music.  He shot this picture of our beautiful tree.  I love the quote above our door about Home (it says "Home…where laughter is shared & memories begin") and the Crucifix on the other side of the door.  I just stare at it every single day.  It's so peaceful.

And to top of this weekend, I spent two hours wrapping gifts.  I still have a few left before I'm done - but I am doing MUCH better than usual for still having 10 days before Christmas.  I'm pretty proud of myself.  :)

I think that's it for this Monday Morning.  That was quite a photo dump - sorry bout that.  :)

Happy Monday -

Monday {Afternoon} Musings

Well, I had this written and thought I clicked publish, but turns out I didn't.  So now it's more like Monday AFTERNOON Musings.  Oops.

This weekend was SO insanely busy I feel like I didn't even have a break.  I really don't like weekends like that because it makes my week feel really long.  However, I'm thankful that this weekend was full of things I love and memories that will last forever.

As I posted about on Friday, my dance team went to State this weekend.  Here they are before loading the cars.

And at our dinner stop...Olive Garden.  YUM.  They look skinny and perfect - every single one of them - but I'm telling y'all, these ladies can EAT.  :)

We were thankful that we didn't have to get up in the middle of the night (AKA 4:00 AM for the past 3 years) to compete.  They were able to "sleep in" (7:30) and have a nice, relaxing breakfast.  Here they are before leaving the hotel, ready for Pom.

 The girls performed AMAZINGLY.  I have never seen them dance so well.  I was so proud of them.  They ended up placing 4th in their Pom category and 3rd in their Jazz category.

Saturday, our family went down to an adorable little Christmas in the Village where there was yummy treats, fires, live music, shop fronts, and shopping.  We always love celebrating Christmas with these little traditions.  It was FREEZING this year, but we enjoyed it anyway.

And on Sunday, I had my very first baby shower.  I sat through most of it in complete disbelief that this is really happening to me.  As I opened gift after gift, I fought back tears at how blessed I feel.

Under the punch bowl - adorable!

The hostesses with the mostestes - and my two favorite women on the planet.  I love them so much.

Yep, that's alot of gifts for Baby Girl.  The big white thing?  Her crib mattress.  :)  I have to write this so I don't forget, the big pink bag on the far left of this picture says "Tickled Pink" - but Maicey kept telling people it said "TiNkled Pink" - that kid cracks me up!  :)

This is one of our very talented dancers, who doubles as a very talented baker/cake decorator.  She MADE this beautiful cake - it was SO adorable...themed after the Very Hungry Caterpiller.

Shout out to this beauty for stepping in as part pack mule and helping me haul all of the goods home and up the steps in the ridiculous Iowa weather Mother Nature blessed us with yesterday.  I don't know what I would've done without her!

Here we are.  Just a few new items for Kamdyn.

How adorable are these?!

I couldn't hold back tears when I opened this.  How absolutely, positively perfect is this?!  I cannot wait to put her picture in there.  And it's the perfect colors of her nursery.

And here's the same corner I posted about here - it's taking over the room.  Please Christmas, be over with soon so I can begin finding real places for all these new adorable things.

We only have 2 more weeks of school before break, so I'm going to vow to enjoy time with my students and try to spend time each day living in the moment and not wishing away time.  {It's ironic I'm writing that sentence directly after I wrote the caption to the picture directly above...oops.  I said TRY}

Happy Week, Friends!

Monday Morning Musings

This weekend was so perfect in every way.  Our Thanksgiving was wonderful.  We really tried to keep things low key - which was awesome.  To be honest, all 9 of us in my family aren't together in the same room very often - so we soaked it all up.

Friday we went to Dubuque to spend some time with Kevin's family - which we are all in the same house approximately once or twice per year, so that's always a fun time to catch up and spend some time together.

Saturday, my mom, Kim, Maicey and I enjoyed the new Disney movie Frozen.  If you haven't seen it - GO!  It is absolutely adorable.  I will own it once it comes out on DVD.  It's so cute!

This girl spent quite a bit of time during the movie on my lap because there were a few scary parts.  But, overall, she loved this movie!  By the way, I'm not sure she could be much cuter.  Seriously.

After the movie, Kevin and I had a very rare weekend day together without work or Kaitlyn.  While we missed Kaitlyn being here this weekend, it was really nice to spend time relaxing just the two of us.  We didn't really do anything exciting - just hung out.  We did some shopping, some Christmas decorating, some wrapping, and LOTS of cleaning.  There is nothing quite like coming home to a clean, picked up home.  It puts me in my happy place.  :)

On Sunday, after church, we put the finishing touches on our tree.

Pretty darn perfect.  I absolutely love it.

After a day of cleaning, we went out to dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant.  We did quick work on these delicious fajitas.  Holy YUM.

Once we settled our bellies, we got some Starbucks and drove around to look at Christmas lights.  It's one of our most favorite things to do during the month of December - we love to pick out our favorite houses, dream about our future home, and just take it all in.

And this is how I spent the rest of my night last night - PERFECTION.

All in all, it was a perfect long weekend.  Now we go back to school for only THREE weeks until it's Holiday break!  I'm sure it will FLY by.  :)

I hope you all have a wonderful week -

Monday Morning Musings

Yesh, this weekend flew by!  As was to be expected, the holiday craziness has set it and we are going 50 miles per hour.  I am going to work really hard this year to be intentional with the time I spend.  I want to enjoy this season with my family, just the way it is.  Kaitlyn was talking this weekend about "next year Kamdyn will be able to pull ornaments off the tree" or "will we be able to take our annual trip to Chicago, even with a baby?" - these things tugged at my heart because for as much as we have prayed for this baby and as ecstatic as we are for her to finally be here…the reality is that the way we do business as a family will be changing drastically.  Those of you reading who know me in real life know that this doesn't bother me one bit as far as day-to-day life…but holidays - OH BOY.  I am a creature of habit when it comes to holiday traditions.  I think there is nothing more important than those special family traditions around the holidays - and two things are about to happen 1) my traditions are about to be changed {WHERE is Kamdyn going to sit in the seating arrangement at my parent's house on Christmas night?!} and 2) Our family unit {Kevin, Katie, Kaitlyn & Kamdyn} is going to develop our own traditions {these are hard to develop when we only have Kaitlyn every other year for every other holiday}.  The thought of this makes me a LOT excited and a little LOT anxious.  Anyway, here's the point - I want to cherish this year with our family just as it is, because I know it won't be the same ever again - that's not bad, just different.  :)

On Friday night, I enjoyed a blissful night of scrapbooking.  I just love this time with my friends working on Kamdyn's scrapbook.  :)

Festival of Trees was the perfect kick off to our holidays :)  The studio always performs the weekend before Thanksgiving and it always, always, always puts me in the holiday spirit.  Speaking of holiday traditions, we have a few photo traditions before the show, as I looked back at these I got tears in my eyes.  Sometimes I wish I could just stop time.  Stop babies from growing up.  Or even just re-visit these days.  But since I can't - pictures serve as the perfect way to remember.  Freeze time.

The top row of that collage is 2010, the bottom was this weekend.  3 years.  The blink of an eye.  Impossible to believe.

We also decorated our home for the holidays this weekend.

I just love my house at Christmas time.  It puts me in my happy place.

Speaking of my happy place.  My fabulous, talented husband took pictures of Kaitlyn, Sam & Maicey this weekend.  {I'll also put in a disclaimer that I took many of these because Maicey refused to cooperate for Kevin!}  I'll leave you with a few of my favorites.

Have a beautiful week, friends!

Monday Morning Musings

How is it already Monday?  My weekends just seem to fly by!

First of all, I want to thank all of you for the love and support after our gender reveal announcement on Thursday.  As I'm writing this, that post has gotten more than 1500 hits!  Insane.  Kamdyn is a lucky, lucky girl to have so many people praying for her already.  :)

Friday night, my mom and I went shopping.  Ohmygosh - that was the most fun I've had in a very long time.  We ended up buying lots of clothes that are for next fall and were on SUPER sale

And I also got some things that will fit her right away

Not to mention that my sister and mother lost their minds just a little bit…

I also have been asked numerous times for more pictures from our trip to St. Louis.  So…here you go!  :)

I am getting choked up trying to type a caption to these pictures.  I adore this woman more after seeing our miracle than I thought possible.  I can't even put it into words.

That darn thumb.  :)

I am in love with that little face.  Look at that little nose.

This is what she did while they were trying to measure how big she was.  She wouldn't move until Julie coughed, which then scared her.  I'll just also add that there is no reason she needed to be that bunched up - she still is little enough to have plenty of room.

This is probably my favorite picture of her little face.  I could just stare at her all day long.   :)

I am sure she's going to change a lot in the next 22 weeks until her due date - but I just am so thankful for modern medicine that I have these precious photos to serve as a sneak peak of God's work-in-progress inside Julie's belly.  I am trying not to go into crazy mom mode - however I could literally show her off all day long…I just think she's the most adorable thing.

I think that's all for this Monday Morning -
Have a  great week, Friends!