It's Begining to look a lot like Christmas!

 December is by far my favorite time of the year!  I just love the holidays and all of the family traditions that come with it! Every year we all go out as a huge extended family to a local Christmas tree farm in search of our perfect tree. It is usually freezing... sometimes wet but I love it! This year we timed it just right and barely missed the rain... unfortunately the ground was sopping wet which made for a difficult time navigating through the tree farm... pretty much after only 5 minutes of being there Joshua took a plunge in a huge mud puddle...Not fun for him! After much searching we found our tree! I think it is our best one yet! After the cutting down and strapping the tree to our car we headed to Micah's parents house for a huge family breakfast. It was again... just perfect! Noah and Joshie are so excited for this holiday season... It should be interesting that is for sure... our little Daniel is scheduled to be born in just a week! I can't wait to meet my little boy!

 This actually may be the puddle that Joshua went swimming a few short moments after I took this! Poor guy

 He is all ready to cut down the tree!

Daddy with his boys... makes my heart melt! I love these three so much!

Fall Fun

 I just can't believe how quickly time has slipped away... I have been meaning to get these pictures edited and off my camera but every time I am going to be near a computer I seem to forget my camera at home, or one of the boys is just having a really hard afternoon... or I am just exhausted and on and on it goes! I am deep into my nesting mode as little Danny will be here in just 5 weeks.. I have been working crazily trying to get our room ready ( yes I said our room... he will be sharing with us for a while) refinishing a dresser I just picked up off craigslist... I am hoping it will be big enough for our clothes as well as our little baby's clothes... wishful thinking I am sure! I have been working on our Christmas cards... I couldn't find any that I liked this year so... as if i didn't have enough on my plate these last few weeks before the holidays I decided to make our own! Oh and they will be CUTE! I am also trying to get most of our Christmas shopping finished before Daniel arrives.. so far I have a few things... and many more to go! Oh well.. life will go on.

In early October we went to a local pumpkin patch with Noah's preschool class... It was a great time and Micah was even able to be there with us! It was great weather and my boys had a blast! At the end of October we were invited to Micah's aunt's 60th birthday party... it was a costume party since her birthday is so close to Halloween... let me just say that Noah and Joshie loved the fact that we were dressed up with them! Noah went as Woody, Joshua was buzz Micah was Napoleon Dynamite and i was a pregnant Kitty... it all it was a wonderful time! Surprise, I even remembered to get a few pictures! Enjoy

 Landon and Noah have been inseparable lately...

 Noah trying out the zip line swing... he is such a chicken

 Joshie however LOVED it! so cute!

 Trying to get him to stop and actually look at me is hilarious! He looks like he is in pain!

 Joshie and his pumpkin!

 ahhhhhhh! This is one of those little cut out things that you put your faces in for pictures, Joshua was of course in the pig hole.. and had to make his pig sound... this is what his face looks like when he oinks.... LOVE IT!

 Here is Noah and Micah's dad both dressed up as Woody for the costume party.

 All of the cousins that live nearby... i think it is virtually impossible to get a picture with them all looking!

I desperately tried to get a family picture but Noah was in one of his moods... he hid behind me and refused to get in the picture!

A Busy Few Weeks

 Why does it seem like we have been busier than ever these past few weeks??  Maybe it is because I have been battling a terrible cold for... wait for it... going on 3 weeks now... and it probably has something to do with the fact that we have a two year old that thinks sleeping in general is way overrated. Lets just say I am exhausted... Oh yeah I also happen to be 30 weeks pregnant... I suppose that doesn't help things much.  Of course... in my laziness I really haven't been taking any pictures of our adventures... I did manage to quickly run outside to get these pictures of Micah and Noah flying the boys newest outside toy... this airplane is so cool! It is a teeter totter and an airplane toy in one... for now Joshie is content to sit in the sit behind Noah and just enjoy the ride... I am sure that will change very soon:) It is just about the cutest thing to see the two of them on the teeter totter.... Joshie laughs the whole time! It seems like it is one of the few moments during the day that they are actually getting along. A wonderful family from our church wasn't using the airplane anymore so they thought it would be used at our house, we are thankful! My boys LOVE it! Of course the day after Micah brought it home the rains started... so far that hasn't stopped Noah from going on a flying adventure. This particular adventure I had to capture because Noah said as he was flying " We are flying to California to see Uncle Bren!" Over and over again... made me cry... My mom was over that day and I think she got teary eyed too. So sweet! We miss my brother and Angela...

 As I mentioned a few months ago we had some major water damage in our only bathroom.... A leak in the plumbing in our shower destroyed half of the wall the plumbing was in, our vanity, and of course all of the flooring had to be gotten rid of... for the past few months we have been walking on sub floor and let me say until a few weeks ago it didn't bother me so much... but once the " nesting" stage of my pregnancy hit I was going crazy! everything felt dirty and unfinished in our home... with good reason... we do happen to have a few unfinished projects... Aaaaah the life of a DIY-er. Well this weekend we were finally able to have a very talented member of our family come out and fix our bathroom! What a blessing! He does amazing work and I am just thankful beyond words:) Isn't my tile just gorgeous?! We plan to extend the bead board around the whole room since our new vanity ( not really new... and we made it! Pictures to follow) is more free standing and not built in like the old one. You can see the wall that was damaged in the water mess... it will be perfectly hidden under bead board... although with Dales handy work we wouldn't need to hide it. I am so excited to finally have this room finished! All it needs now is some pretty aqua-ish paint and new towels... and maybe some cute pinterest-y artwork. I just can't wait! We have been staying at my in laws house for the past few days due to the whole no toilet thing.. I really can't wait to be home... In fact I'm getting ready to pack up now!

Happy Birthday Noah!

I just cant believe that my Noah is 5 years old.... how on earth does time go by so quickly?!  It seems like yesterday I was snuggling my little, or not so little 10 pound baby boy. Every day is an adventure with this boy... he is constantly making us laugh at something he says or does... he loves to copy daddy...  I am so blessed to be his Mommy. I can't imagine the day when my boys are all grown, and heading of to college... how hard that must be to watch your babies go out into the world. I pray every day that we are raising boys that will grow to love the lord with everything they have, and would have a desire to serve him with their lives. One of my favorite memories with Noah is the first time I heard him singing along to the radio in the car... It brought tears to my eyes as I heard him singing " How great is our God" it was such a reminder of the great responsibility we have as parents.  I just love my little boys to pieces!

This year Noah insisted on having me make a cake instead of cupcakes... let me say... i would much rather make cupcakes... they are WAY easier to decorate and in general look much cuter than a big cake... but it was his special day...

Joshie enjoyed his cake too...

We had a little party at our house the weekend after his birthday... thankfully the weather was lovely... otherwise we would have been crammed into our tiny little house...

Noah and some of his friends with our Maggie... she sure is getting to be an old lady

Matthew having a turn at the pinata

Our friends Gino and Jenn... they just had the most precious little baby girl this week... so excited for them!

What a handsome boy...

Noah wanted a batman party so i made these little batman masks for all of the kids... here he is modeling one after everyone left. The jammies were a gift from his aunt and uncle... he was just so excited to wear them.

He loved this angry birds hat!

Here he is opening his presents with Daddy...

 

We love you Noah!

First Day of School

Oh my goodness... can you say slacker........ We are just getting ready to start our 4th week of school and I am just now getting to the pictures from my boys first day! This year Noah is in our church's Pre- K program and my baby Joshua is on the toddler class. Noah, of course loves school.. he has many of the same friends in his class as he did last year. I just love that he goes to school with so many kids from our church family, and I love the sense of community within our preschool, It is such fun getting to know other moms that I never would have met otherwise. I was a little nervous about Joshua starting toddler time this year, he just seems so young to be in school.. plus he is going to be on the young side of his class... I am use to Noah being one of the oldest in his class, and doing great, I wasn't sure how Joshua would do being so young.... thankfully he is doing great! It is amazing how having an older brother has made him so much more vocal, he speaks so much better than Noah ever did at this age! I am so excited about what this school year has in store for us!

Here are the boys on Noah's first  day of school... Joshie couldn't be left out so we put his back pack on too.

Joshua's first day! Look at my baby... so grown up. I love that he looks like such a tough guy!

summer fun

One of the few times I actually took my camera out this summer... Grandma and Papa set up the slip and slide for the kiddos. It was so fun just to watch them play... and I will admit I was a bit jealous.

Caleb...

Landon

and Noah...

 

 

This summer Micah was involved with our church softball team... I brought my camera along the day of the tournament and snapped a few pictures. It was a beautiful day.. and fortunately our team lost early so we were able to head home before it got too miserabley hot out.

Joshua loves to watch his Daddy play

We actually got Emalynn to smile... what a cutie!

Busted! Caught him stealing my coffee

One of the few moments I stole with this sweet little girl.

Surprise... its.....

 Well I am now well into my 2nd trimester of my 3rd pregnancy and as usual I had a 20 week ultrasound. We were so excited to finally see  pictures of our new little one... and of course to find out if we were going to be having a boy or a girl. Well we are delighted to be welcoming our third baby boy into our family! A dear friend of mine sent me a text after we announced that it was indeed another boy... she said " welcome to the mommy of 3 boys club" I can honestly say that I am so excited to be a mommy of 3 boys!  So here is our first picture of our little Daniel Micah Stevens... he should be arriving right around Christmas Eve. I can't wait to meet him.

 

I posted earlier about how I got totally spoiled at a trip to our outlet mall last weekend... well here it is,

 A coach diaper bag!!!!!!! Isn't it just beautiful?! I'm almost afraid to use it! I especially love the little button Coach logo. I am very spoiled for sure!



A Day at the Beach

This last weekend we had a surprise visit from my Dad, Step mom and brothers. It was only for a few days but it was so nice to see them for a bit before the craziness of school starts! We spent our time over at the outlet mall in our area... and boy did I get spoiled! I will share that a bit later! Then we headed out to a local beach to enjoy the sun. The boys love their time with Grandpa Joe and Grandma Darcy... I am so thankful that we are surrounded by family... 3 sets of grandparents and aunts, uncles and cousins galore! What a gift family is!

My Dad and Noah, doing his favorite thing... throwing rocks of course...

Joshie refuses to look at the camera...

Now Joshua is doing his favorite thing... more throwing rocks...

My Dad and Darcy

Me and my love... LOVE that beard!

Me and Darcy... cant remember the last time I had a picture taken with her!

Me and my Dad.