everyday, messy life

We had the opportunity to have our life documented for 48 hours through Wirken Photography's photo journalism workshops. Our photographer, Joel (or Josh as Henry preferred to call him), was with us from early morning until bedtime.

When I got the pictures yesterday, I first saw the clutter in our house. I'd found out that morning he was coming due to a cancellation from another family 

so there was no time to pick up the papers littering our dining room table, the remnants of Henry's forts, and yesterday's dishes in our non-dishwasher kitchen.

I saw the double chin of eight months of pregnancy, the lumpiness of maternity clothes and the dark circles of tiredness. The glass tables smudged with fingerprints, the overflowing baskets of laundry and the random piles of stick and acorn "treasures" 

that make it into the house during moments of weakness.

But the more I looked, the more I saw a life I love, including all those messy details.

The morning moments of hiding under the covers from tigers. 

The cries over oatmeal that wasn't cooling off fast enough.

The hugs at daycare pickup.

The waiting at the slowest elevators in the Midwest for an OB appointment 

where a healthy heartbeat is heard.

The spaceship that flies to the moon with alien noises and Superman as the captain.

The love between two people that started this crazy mess and
steal sweet moments in the middle of chaos.

The fries and milkshakes to celebrate new milestones.

The non-graceful juggling of work, marriage, chores and parenting. Always finding time for play.

The dirty hands and feet.

The exhaustion and quiet moments at the end of the day.

for your dairy needs

We switched to Shatto Milk for our dairy needs a few months ago, which means much tastier milk that also makes me feel good about buying locally (and in glass bottles, eee!). It also means I shop for milk three times a week and have to drop off bottles for deposit every two weeks.

But seriously worth it.

Saturday we got to touch the cows our milk comes from at Family Day on the Farm. We drove forever through Missouri backroads and arrived at a very unassuming farm with a small cluster of cows.

We got to see the milking process up close, pet baby calves, shop in the general store and taste flavored milk. My favorite is definitely limited edition cookies and cream and root beer milk. Oh, and cotton candy. I don't even like cotton candy but in milk form, yum.

 
Today, I stopped by after work to get the new limited edition apple pie milk. Nothing says 'Merica like an iconic dessert in milk form.

Most grocery stores in the KC area offer Shatto products, but to be sure, check out this list.

picture update

First haircut

Four generations at the zoo - Sunset Zoo

First ride on a real train at Day Out with Thomas - Baldwin City, Kan.

Cousin concert time

bye-bye summer

Tomorrow fall begins, and as much as we love pumpkin patches, pumpkin lattes and apple cider, we're still sad to see summer go.

We had lots of fun outside, traveling and enjoying KC. We celebrated a first birthday, endured horrific heat and moved into a new house. We signed up for Google Fiber, found a new cupcake place and began a new season of K-State football.

Life is good.

powell gardens

Henry won't remember any of them fun things we do in his first three years, which makes me kind of sad. Despite that, we're trying to explore Kansas City, often with a kid as an excuse to visit places we always intended to but never did.

A few weeks ago we went to the Powell Gardens Boom and Bloom party and finally saw their Fairies and Forts exhibit followed by fireworks. Alas it was 105 degrees so the lemonade stand was way more enticing than the beautiful grounds and neato forts. Based on his facial expressions though, I am pretty sure Henry felt like we were torturing him.

But like my mother always says, "what do you think babies did when there wasn't any air conditioning?"

cow appreciation day

Free chicken at Chick-fil-a for wearing a cow costume.

I see a new annual tradition in our family's future!

Jealous of Henry's cow diaper? Get your own.

this is me, not complaining

See this?

I am not complaining about it. Nor am I complaining about this part of it:

So mark it down. I might be 233 days pregnant but I am most definitely NOT complaining.

making the best of it

We realized going into last weekend that the number of weekends we have left as just the two of us that are free for fun things is countable on one hand. So we promised to take advantage of it.

Friday we used our last, soon-to-expire Muncharoo at a local Italian deli, Cupini's. Total cost of meal: 76 cents. Then we were off to Best Buy to use our $30 in rewards certificates. Being the super exciting couple that we are, we bought an extension cord for our new washer (front-loaders, hurray!), laundry detergent, washer cleaner, Skittles and Junior Mints. Total cost: 35 cents.

Saturday we went on our favorite morning date of Einstein Bagels, took our elderly neighbor shopping and then did four hours of our own errands. We are now those people who have to go to three grocery stores/farmers markets to get everything we want. Snobs! Highlight; Sample woman at Target saw my pregnant belly and said "oh honey, have as many samples as you want." Luckily for me she was sampling carrots.

The weather was perfect, and we have taken to grilling as much as possible.

I planted flowers and discovered landscaping stones hidden underneath soil and mulch. Being the daughter of a soil scientist, I know this does not make for fertile soil.

That night, we went to King and I at Starlight Theater. The musical was good, kettle corn was even better and the seats were way hard. All that proved to be exhausting, and we slept til 11 a.m. Sunday. And then we were super lazy.

{Mac loves his brother already.}

 We ended the evening with a goodbye to our current church building, which included an ice cream truck. A good ending to a great, family-of-two weekend.

spring? is that you?

Sweet relief! Considering KCMO does not plow. Ever. Especially parking lots. And I had to turn to avoid sliding through two stop lights this morning. And the 65 degrees we keep our apartment at feels a LOT colder when it's negative whatever outside. And my lips are chapped. 

Please, please stay this way.

snow panic

I moved away from Minnesota for reasons like this. The 10-14 inches of snow forecast. The 40 mph winds. The -20 degree temperatures. The dramatic statements like "...making travel extremely dangerous if not impossible."

Before you Minnesotans get all snotty about how you are used to this and it's no big deal, remember that this region had an ice storm a few years ago that knocked out my parent's power for almost two weeks. And it was not warm outside.

The superstar of government agencies, FEMA, inexplicably has also gotten involved and issued warnings. All I know is if I am trapped in my house once this blizzard gets going, I'm not relying on anyone in that department to save me. I've got enough cans of diced tomatoes to at least last us til the end of the week.

this city

Kansas City, you are looking especially extraordinary this weekend.

a burger, a tap dancer and a fetus

Last week, I looked like this everyday.

Then Friday,  I felt much much better. We do this dance at least once every six months. I get super sick, do blood work that shows I am in fact, super sick and my lower region organs are not functioning properly. The blood tests they do are silly (hepatitis, really?) and show nothing. Occasionally they will stick a tube down my throat or in other unmentionable regions and also, find nothing. Then I will feel better and feel like I'd rather just assume this will never happen again and forgo more invasive tubes. One day we will have an answer. Or not.

Since I was feeling better and the most I had eaten in one sitting the entire week was half a cup of rice, I celebrated by eating a half pound hamburger. And my friends, it was FABULOUS. We met some very dear friends of mine from a previous job at The Phoenix jazz club and saw Lonnie McFadden, local singing and tap dancing legend.

Happy days! The rest of my weekend included watching Layne play volleyball where I was forced to cheer for KU, eating chili and playing Scrabble with the fam. The big finale was my favorite friend Edie's baby shower!

She thinks she looks like a big house mostly because the little guy is poking his butt into her ribs and generating a lot of acid. Kind of rude for such an innocent little fetus. I, however, think she has the cutest baby bump ever. Little Herbie is a lucky man.