Halloween Sneak Peak

We have started our Halloween festivities! On Saturday we attended the Enchanted Forest trick-or-treat. It's been a tradition we've done since Kynzley was little - it's so fun to see all the littles (and some bigs) dressed up and having a fun time!

This year picking a Halloween costume seemed to be a struggle - for Kynzley. This girl changes her mind 1000 times. It's nothing new so I know not to start preparing until the last minute. A couple of her ideas this year were: Iron Man, Bolt, a lizard and a police officer. One night while searching online for the perfect costume she came across a firefighter and dalmatian and was hooked! She likes a good theme like her mama and of course had to have a fire truck to go with their costumes. It all came together and her and Benton look super cute!

The two newest members of the West Salem Fire Department!

Halloween 2016

Benton 2yrs Kynzley 6yrs

2016

Kiddie Update:

Where is the time going?! It seems like Kynzley and Benton are going to be running off to college in no time. They are both growing so fast! 

We recently had Kynzley's conferences at school. She's doing wonderful - academically doing great and socially being a leader and an awesome friend! No surprise to us, she is struggling with being a perfectionist! In Kynzley's world she needs to be perfect, her work needs to be perfect. We have struggled with this since she was tiny. It's always been a major topic at conferences since she was in 3 year old preschool. As parents we are always telling her that you win some, you lose some. Sometimes you need help because you don't always know the answer, showing your work is great - no one will think you aren't smart. We are proud that she takes pride in her work, but we also want her to understand that mistakes are a huge part of life and that is how we learn and grow!

It's been so fun to be able to snuggle up and listen to her read to us. We are finding ourselves getting lost in amazing chapter books. Right now she is reading a fantasy book :)

Mr. Benton seems to be growing at the speed of light. It's been fun and sometimes difficult going through phases with him that we went through with Kynzley because he does them totally different than she did. It's amazing how different siblings can be. We recently became nuk free!!! Not because we wanted Benton to, but because he decided the nuk was icky. With Kynzley we decided it was time and hyped up being a big girl and had the nuk fairy come and deliver big girl gifts. With Benton we noticed the nuk was getting less and less use. One night I went to give him his nuk at bed time and he said NO! nu nu icky and refused to take it. He made me put it on his dresser and that was that. He went to bed and that was the end of the nuk. The next morning he put it in the garbage and we have not heard about a nu nu since! He has also been in a big boy bed for awhile. We always joked that Benton would be in a crib until he graduated because we couldn't trust him. I'm not 100% sure why we said this because he never gave us issues in the crib, but his personality is just spunky! One day I decided to go ahead and give it a try and BOOM the kid proved us wrong. He stayed in bed all night and to this day has not climbed out until we come in the room. 

Sleeping away in his big boy bed with no nu nu!

What better way to celebrate throwing the last nu nu away than with Thomas??!! 

His train obsession is crAAAzzy!

A splash of color and some hootenanny

This past weekend was like most of our weekends - busy! We packed it full of fun and family time! As the kiddos get older we know things like this will get less and less, we are fully enjoying every moment that we can while they are still little and unable to officially tell us no ;-)

On Saturday, Kynzley, myself and our friend Jill tied up our running shoes, sported our white and homemade tie dye gear and hit the pavement for a good cause! We participated in a local color dash to promote mental health, suicide prevention and creating a bully free community! It was so much fun and Kynzley had a blast!! She loves any excuse to dress up funky and sport bright colors.
Side note: While waiting for the race to start, we were enjoying music, bubbles and some free time. Kynzley asked me if we were doing this race for a reason. If when we signed up the money that we gave went to someone or something. As a parent, I took this as a perfect time to use this as an example of something to we always tell our kids - we are nice to everyone! A big part of this event was to remember a high school gentleman that took his life after the effects of bullying. In a way a young child can comprehend I explained what everyone was there for and used it as a teaching tool as to why we are always telling them that we are friends and helpful to everyone.
Kynzley loves (LOVES) to be different and unique! She tends to like to do things that not everyone is doing and look different than her peers around her. I hope this continues the rest of her life - especially adolescent life! I like that she accepts herself being for being loud, colorful and unique and with that accepts the differences in people around her. As a parents, I pray that with her liking to not fit the "norm" she will always stand up for those that also do not fit the "norm". I pray that her uniqueness will help shape her generation that differences make this world great and help put an end to bullying! I hope she is a voice!!

Ready to rock the race!

After she got her hair colored :-)

Hula - hoop queen

Foam party!

And she's ready!

Kynzley, myself and Jill

Color Dash 5K 2016

Go Kynz!!

After! Looking fabulous and colorful!

After the race we met up with the boys and headed to a local festival - an apple hootenanny! It was a great time! We listened to great music, enjoyed the food and beverage vendors and the kiddos enjoyed some s'mores!

Eckers Apple Orchard 

Hootenanny 2016

We kept the fun activities going into Sunday as well! Our local corn maze was allowing dogs on the premise to raise money for the local K9 unit. We had so much fun getting lost in the corn, figuring out the clues and playing in the kids area. Brutus was great sport, but was tired from a morning playing with friends. Every check point in the maze he'd laid down and took a break :) It was a fun family afternoon!!

West Salem Corn Maze 2016

Brutus 4.5 months, Benton 2 and Kynzley 6

Check point!

After the corn maze Benton helped daddy with the yard work. I would like to add, last week I raked the yard and had the leaves in nice piles ready to go to the dump. The kids and the dog decided my hard work was their play - the leaves ended up all over the yard again. 

BRUTUS UPDATE

Mr. Brutus! He's doing great and is getting bigger and BIGGER every day! He's a major mama's boy and a huge lap dog - literally! Every chance he gets he will try to sit on our lap. Brutus is doing great with his no leash training. Every walk we tend to take his leash off farther and farther from home. He follows his commands great and we haven't had any issues with him running off or even being curious with other dogs or people. He tends to sit and wait for the them to pass or ignores them all together and continues on with our walk. He has officially out weighed Benton and Kynzley now!

One of our favorite activities in the afternoon - picking Kynzley up from school! Brutus lays under the trees, watches the kiddos walk past and patiently waits for Kynzley.

Tooling along on a beautiful morning walk

He jumped in my lap and gave me squeezed - mama's boy!

This weekend Brutus has a sleepover with two of his buddies - Carly and Red! It's hard to remember sometimes that Brutus is still a pretty young pup - this is why, he is the same size as an adult dog! 

Fall Is In The Air

Fall is here and with that so are the fun fall activities!! Last weekend we hit the apple orchard. This has been a fun fall tradition since Kynzley was a baby! The weather was great and the apples picked are delicious!

Fergusons, Galesville, WI 

2016

2016

6years old

2016 

2 years old

Getting us lost in the corn

Holicky's 2016

On Sunday, after church and Sunday school, we laced up our hiking shoes and hit a local trail. It was a beautiful day!! 

Brutus turned 4 months old on Sept. 30 and weighed in at 51 pounds! At his last vet check he's looking great and growing on schedule! He's been a great pup and settled in perfectly. For the most part he is pretty laid back, he has his moments of energy like any pup does. Sometimes it's hard to remember that he is still very young because he is so large. 

His monthly weigh in