I've Got Sunshine On A Cloudy (Rainy) Day....

What do you do when you live in Oregon and have family pictures scheduled on a monsoon-raining Saturday?

You grab the umbrellas the photographer brought with her and roll with it!

Oh this family of mine.... 

Without getting too mushy, can I just say they are my world? 

It's challenging, raising kids... raising two boys even more so in some ways (I'd like both of my kids to keep both their eyeballs into adulthood, thank you very much, so stop flailing that sword in your brother's face!!!) but there is so much happiness there too. 

We are not perfect. We annoy each other. Hurt each others' feelings sometimes. Yell sometimes. Break promises sometimes. Cry sometimes. Want to strangle one another sometimes. 

Not perfect, but that's ok.

We are all growing and learning and changing... and we must be doing something right because Austin tells me a lot "Mommy, I just love you, and I like you too." 

We have a lot of love, and a lot of like... and that is what will get us through anything. 

*All photos by the lovely Myah at Glo Photography*

More Life Lately

Are you ready for another installment of "What We've Been Up to Lately- as told in too many pictures"? 

No? 

Well, too bad, because here we go!!

 October was a really rainy month, so that meant a lot of indoor playing, which meant a lot of fort buildings. Owen learned how to not stand up when under the coffee table (ouch) and Henry learned he is perfectly cut out to be a gargoyle. 

 Austin's artwork always cracks me up. He chooses brown and black often for colors... once he colored a whole page in with pencil lead (because he wanted it silver, that's why!) and is very linear in his thinking. His little brown house of us cracked me up in particular because of the backward "S". It raises our coolness factor quite a bit to be "The Glynnz" 

(and no, that little thing in the middle is NOT a baby. It is Henry, according to Mr. Artist himself)

 We went out for pizza to celebrate my Mom's and Grandma's birthdays and Austin was eyeing the black horse on the Merry-Go-Round so he was pumped when it was his turn and he got the black horse!! Owen was just glad he got to sit by brudder. My Mom and I were just glad we didn't get motion sickness. 

#RoundAndRoundAndRound

 Sometimes, you just want to crawl under all the couch cushions and disappear for awhile, right? Expect when you are two and four, it becomes less about relaxing and more about being silly. 

 In September when Owen had his well-child check up, they offered to give Austin a flu shot. Well, he damn near crawled up the wall screaming "no no no no nonononononono!!!!!!!!!!!!!" about it, so I didn't push it and thought we'd try again later. I signed him up for one of our pediatrician's flu clinics in the evening and told Neal it was his turn to take him and convince him to get a shot. Of course he did SO WELL for Daddy (that stinker) took the shot pretty well, and was excited about his sticker afterwards! Neal is now the Official Parent On Duty When Shots Are Involved parent. Congrats to him on this promotion. 

 One perk of our new house is that we live 5 minutes away from what will be the boy's elementary school, and they have an awesome playground. Part of it is covered too, so even rainy days don't stop us! And neither does playing in pajamas. Austin can do the monkey bars all on his own now (kid's got skills!) and I even let them spin me dizzy in exchange for 10 mins of quiet back at home. Guess who lost that trade? 

 Sigh. Mornings. 

I bought some local raw honey to start eating to see if that would help with what is turning out to be chronic sinus pain. Austin is also really suffering from some kind of allergy that makes his eyes itch a lot, so I got him to start drinking "honey juice." (honey and warm water and lemon)

He loves it!!! But, little brother had to try some too and was less than impressed. He's ready to just switch to coffee, I think. 

 Presenting... my genius Mom invention. Apple-On-A-Cob. Fun for all ages! Expect the age of 35. Because Mom has to actually peel the dang apple, which is not easy.

I love kids. They think chores and cleaning are super fun games! I was cleaning the house one night and the boys wanted to help so bad... so I gave them paper towels and glass cleaner and now our windows are wonderfully streaky and the floors are saturated with drips of glass cleaner

#Perfect

So funny how kids flip back and forth... remember when Austin wanted nothing to do with me? Now I'm totes the favorite. I'm getting lots of snuggles with my sweet lanky, almost-too-big-for-my-lap firstborn and I just love it. 

November 2, 2016... a day that will live forever in our hearts as the BEST DAY IN NEAL'S LIFE, LIKE EVER!!!!!!!!

The Cubs won the World Series! For the first time since 1908. There was a lot of yelling going on in our house, and champagne popping, and screaming, and yelling, and crying and screaming and... well, screaming. Way to go Cubbies!!!

So I had to redeem myself as a wife because the night the Cubs won, I was totally the wet blanket in the room... "um... can you go outside to scream? Ok, um, haha... yes, fun.. cool... uh... Austin needs to go to bed. Yeah, Austin needs to go to bed, like now. Um  yeah, they won! Whoo hoo... um... Austin, you need to get to bed." So I felt bad for not just living in the moment. 

So I surprised Neal with a "dinner from Wrigley Field".... Chicago dogs, fries, and Wheegmans Old Fashioned (a specific cocktail they serve in the club levels at the ballpark)

I won some wifey points back. 

So that's life lately in our house!! 

Spooks and Tricks and Treats!

It felt like we celebrated Halloween all October long. 

Austin really knows what Halloween is now, and is REALLY in to it. He wanted to watch Halloween shows and movies, we checked out a ton of Halloween books from the library, we talked about it endlessly... 

Whew. 

#GladItsOver

Austin really wanted to be a Storm Trooper this year, because he's recently gotten really into Star Wars. The store didn't have his size though, and I refused to buy one online for $40. For a costume? No. 

So he decided Darth Vadar was cooler. 

Owen picked out a Ninja Turtle, even though he doesn't really "get" what that is yet. Anything brother says is cool, is cool though. 

My Mom and Grandma's birthdays are in late October so it always works out well for us to go down and see them for their birthdays and work in going to the pumpkin patch we love down there, Lone Pine Farms. 

Sadly though, the owners are divorcing and selling the farm, so it wasn't as cute this year as it's been before and I don't know if it will even exist next year. 

The weather was great though, and the boys had fun. 

Austin dressed like he was going to the Arctic and loved his coat and gloves so much it took all day to convince him to take them off because he was sweating buckets. 

The Cow Train ride never disappoints and it was hilarious to watch because Owen kept slipping further and further down until he was almost on the floor of the little car by the time they were done. 

A few days before The Big Day we (meaning Neal and I, while the kids messed around and kind sorta watched us) carved pumpkins. 

Austin wanted Batman on his pumpkin. We are equal-opportunity superhero fans 'round here. Owen picked out the "mich" (witch) which Mommy did a pretty good job with, if I say so myself. Ha. 

The Friday before Halloween the boys' daycare did their annual Trick-or-Treat at my office! Crazy to think that it's the last year Austin will participate. He'll be on to bigger things next Halloween. 

They got "loss and loss of candy" and Austin's class performed their little pumpkin song for everyone. 

Then, finally is was The Big Day!!! Poppa and Pete came over like they did last year, and had dinner with us and stayed and answered our door while we hit the neighborhood!

Our neighborhood is like out of a movie, seriously. The houses were all decorated, the adults were all dressed up answering the door, the parents were dressed up walking around with the kids, groups of kids were running around the sidewalks and streets, cars drove by and merrily honked at everyone.... it was really awesome. 

Austin knew that on that ONE DAY he could "eat all da candy I want!!!" and decided that all he wanted was just 3 pieces. Very responsible of you, kiddo. 

So back home he had some candy, they got Halloween cards from Gramma to open, and we had some last Trick-or-Treaters. 

Pretty awesome Halloween this year!!