october moments

October--a month of sunny days, happy kids, and fall goodness. It was a good month! 

 Snuggles with Great Grandma on her 80th birthday

 Showing our Rockies pride for the postseason...too bad Rock-tober only lasted for one day.

 This is Tessa in October--smiley, mouth open, hands ready to grab anything that comes her way

 And of course Rhett wanted his picture taken too. But a good reminder of our daily toast and smoothie breakfasts. 

 Andre took his cufflinks to his first craft show. He made some great connections and has lots more selling days coming up

 Coldest soccer game ever. Fog + icey rain + grumpy baby. Not the best morning.

 Adventuring to new parks.

 Tessa turned 16

 First time in the swing! She was ambivalent about it.

 We found our new go-to pumpkin patch. Pretty close to home, not crowded, free, and a hay maze. That's all we've ever wanted. Rhett loved the old tractor. 

 Pulling our prized pumpkins

 Cutest pumpkin kids around

 Post-church snuggles

 Rhett declared Tessa the "queen of the pumpkins"

 Gorgeous fall sunrises

 Rhett has been working on his second grade dinosaur book. He cracks the code on his own and then I read him the answer. I had to take a picture to document how great he was doing on his own.

 Little baby in a big snowsuit

 A cold night at Elitches with friends--the boys loved the Halloween decorations.

 A fun night riding alll the rides

missouri road trip

Finally getting around to blogging about our trip to Missouri a few weeks ago.

We had been planning this trip for a year, ever since Rhett and I got to visit my parents on their mission last Thanksgiving and Andre didn't get to come. We were a little nervous about the 9-hour drive, but the kids did awesome and it really wasn't bad. (Now we're brainstorming all the other road trips we can take).

We had the best time visiting missionary Nana and Poppy. We weren't even 30 minutes down the road on our way back when Rhett said "I miss Nana and Poppy when I'm not at their house", and he's talked about this trip about every day since we've been home. Definitely a win!

 Union Station! Rhett still talks about this place from the last time we went. The Halloween trains were extra fun and festive. 

 Fritz's, of course. Nothing like juicy hamburgers delivered by train!

 We visited the College Basketball Experience, which is one of the few things in town my parents hadn't done. Definitely recommend! We were basically the only people there and had free reign of the place--Rhett loved the giant basketball in the kids area. 

 Poppy and Rhett as ESPN announcers

 Our favorite game--hit the targets as the light up and the clock counts down. The best was when Rhett, Andre, and I teamed up and did it together. 

 Tessa Kaiser, card shark (note the Uno cards in the bumbo)

 A very windy visit to Adam-ondi-Ahman. Beautiful and so peaceful.

 The country store in Far West with Brother Joseph

 Far West Temple site

 We had to pick up a few groceries and Rhett insisted on helping, so here he is, lugging the basket all by himself. 

 A few visits to the Independence visitors center, of course. Sharon and Toby are the VIPs of that place.

 Just the cutest senior missionaries at Liberty Jail.

A park with giant animals to play on and cute kids? Great day!

And somehow I didn't get any pictures of the amazing BBQ we ate, but trust us that it was a highlight. Thanks for a great trip, Missionary Mom and Dad! 

little moments: september

it is legitimately the middle of October and the site I use to make collages just started charging to save pictures (you're dead to me picmonkey), but better than late than never, right? My posterity will thank me. September!

 These two. All the heart eye emojis. This was the beginning of the few weeks where Rhett wanted a picture on the chair with Tessa almost every day. 

 Soccer started. He's obsessed and it is so much fun to watch. 

 We went to the kite + plane festival and Rhett got to fly a model plane. He was in heaven and the teenage boy who made the plane was so nice to him. 

 Miss Sass is done with the mother's lounge photo session. But those shoes! and the (way too big) headband!

 Broncos pride for the first game of the season

 The cutest face I've ever seen. 

 I think this was the day Rhett declared that he and Tessa are best friends. And note the gingerbread and candy cane socks--guess who picked those out. 

 Tessa's first playground experience. Life is so much more exciting out of the stroller. 

 Some early morning Star Wars reading, of course. 

 Finally used our Butterly Pavillion passes. 

 So many games of "Mom, what word does this make?"

 We figured out that if I jog with the stroller and Rhett rides super fast, we go about the same speed, which made for some fun exercising adventures. 

good things lately.

The weather is changing and it's been rainy and cold this week and I mostly love it. Mainly because I can finally wear my favorite sweats and hoodies at night and also because Tessa wore baby tights to church for the first time on Sunday and it was adorable. Other good things I want to remember:

• We scored two Tessa-sized zuchinis from our neighbor and have been slowly working through them. I've made zuchini parmesan a few times, at least three double batches of muffins (our freezer is stocked), bread for the home teachers, and zuchinni pizza. And there's still half a zuchini left! I think I may have met my match.
• Watching my kids become friends is one of the best feelings I've had as a mom. I didn't expect it to happen until they got older, but Rhett and Tessa are becoming best buddies. She loves watching him and gets the biggest smile when he is around. Rhett smothers Tessa with kisses and loves to play with her. "She's just so adorable"--Rhett, about five times a day.
• We're almost done with No-Spend September. This is the second year we've done it and it is so so good. No extras, just spending on essentials for the entire month. A few things came up (like a broken sprinkler valve and as wasp attack), but our bank account has enjoyed the much-needed rest about all the house projects, furniture, etc. But what I'm really excited about it re-evaluating our finances and being more strategic in our saving/investing. So adult! Definitely still on the lookout for good personal finance tips, so sent them this way!
• We're getting really excited for Halloween around here. It's Rhett's favorite holiday, and I want it to be extra special for him this year. It's also the first year he is going to help make his costume, and I'm super excited for us to work on it together. (But please, send patience when it actually happens. Preschoolers + spray paint + hot glue could be a trying combination).
• I'm officially a soccer mom and I don't hate it. I volunteered to be the "team mom" aka treat organizer and put way too much thought into putting together healthy snacks for the first game. It is seriously hilarious to watch--we spent half of the first game laughing and the other half yelling at the kids to kick it towards the other goal. But Rhett was so so happy. The parents made a tunnel for the kids from both teams to run through after the game, and their little smiles were so worth it.
• I'm getting back in my workout groove and it feels good. I've switched to night workouts after the kids are in bed, except for weekends and a few mornings where I just started working out with friends from church. Cranky babies and preschoolers aren't anything some endorphins can't fix!
• Tessa is the sweetest baby. We put her in the bumbo for the first time this week and I think she loves the new perspective. She'll just hang out there and watch everything for the longest time. And smile--she is so smiley. 

I could go on and on about exciting work projects, furniture shopping, holiday plans, the great shows we're watching, Andre's new side hustle, and so much more. But that's for another time. 

The two faces of Tessa--she's either super smiley or super serious

book chat 6.0

It's back! The book reviews that no one asked for--I just have a lot of thoughts. (And I've done this 6 times??) A nursing baby means I have plenty of time to read on my trusty Overdrive app. I've been branching out and finally tackling books that have been on my "To Read" list for literally years. Some recent reads:

The Orphan Keeper
The Rent Collector is my go-to book recommendation because literally everyone loves it, there's nothing bad in it, and most people haven't read it. I was all over it when I realized Camron Wright wrote another book. The story (a young boy in India gets kidnapped and ends up in an orphanage and tries to find him past and family as an adult) is pretty amazing, but I was definitely left with some questions at the end. It gave me the feels, though, and was a quick read, so I would definitely recommend it. And now I just want to watch Lion because I feel like the plots are similar?

Austenland
I've been hearing about people's love for this book forever, so I gave it a shot. A few chapters in I remembered I don't like period dramas, and this is definitely a period drama. It has some modern, sarcastic humor and a ridiculous plot, so I soldiered on. I'm not a Jane Austen fan, so a lot of the references went over my head. But the movie trailer looks just like I pictured, so that's my next order of business.

Still Alice
This book seriously affected me. I thought the characters were great and the story was a fascinating look into Alzhemiers. I made the mistake of watching the movie trailer half-way through the book and saw Alec Baldwin as Alice's husband, which changed him for me in the book. Also I thought I was getting Alzhemier's as I was reading when I couldn't find my keys, until I realized it was just mom brain. Not the thing.

A Man Called Ove
Full disclosure: I didn't actually finish this book. I really wanted to get into it, but I couldn't, so I got 2/3 of the way done before I had to return it. But I liked Ove as a character (like old Ron Swanson meets my grandpa but super cynical) and enjoyed the dark humor. I'll put it back on my list and finish it someday.

The Five Love Languages for Children
This came as a recommendation in Relief Society, and I mostly just skimmed it. It led to some major mom guilt because he says why every love language is important and if you're not doing everything to foster each one in small children, they could be super messed up when they get older. Woof. But there were some good ideas--apparently kids don't have a leading love language until they're 5 years old, so I'll revisit it in a few years.

I've (kind of) broken out of my usual YA and self help reads! (I say that and my next two books in line are Spark Joy and a re-read of The Selection--ha). But send your recommendations my way!