Anniversary at the Capital

I'm a little behind the times here, but back in October our marriage turned 4 years old! My parents were able to keep the boys overnight while Matt and I took a much-anticipated getaway to Des Moines. 

One of the "traditional" 4th anniversary gifts is fruit...hence, the "I [love] U" watermelon...my first attempt at watermelon carving! :) And, of course, four roses for four years! Matt does so good at bringing home flowers!  

Our first stop in Des Moines was an escape room. We'd heard from others who had done them and Matt thought it sounded right up his alley. It was a fun experience, though we failed to escape the room in time. I guess four years of marriage hasn't made us expert puzzle solvers...though I think we did pretty well considering there were only two of us in a room designed for eight people.

We went out to eat in the evening and then walked back to our hotel. On the way, we passed the Iowa Science Center and decided to stop in for an educational IMAX film on National Parks.

In the morning, we experienced the Des Moines Farmers' Market. Lots of things to see, free samples, and yummy food!

Next, we hiked up several blocks to Iowa's State Capital Building. Neither of us had been there before and we enjoyed our guided tour!

View from the top...

We took the scenic route back to our vehicle and rode bikes along the river for a bit. There are bike "stations" in several places around town where you can rent bikes and then leave it at any other station when you are done. Then we enjoyed a BBQ dinner and left for home. 

It was very nice to have some quality time together, as it doesn't happen very often anymore with two little boys running around! Of course, it was great to be home and reunited with the boys Saturday night!

On to our fifth year of marriage! God has been good to us and we are very blessed to have one another.

Fall Fell (...and here comes the cold.)

I am currently enjoying a moment where I don't quite know what to do with myself. I'm all caught up with the dishes, the house is clean, the baby is sleeping, Matt is gone with Levi, I've got supper and tomorrow's breakfast taken care of...yep. Happens all the time. 

By the time I finish writing, I'm sure the above description of my day will no longer be applicable. Nor do I expect another moment like this to happen again in the next twenty years. But it's worth a shot at trying to catch up with the blog.

For lack of better creativity, I will begin at: The day I left off. Levi started experimenting with a prospective future in auto maintenance. Matt had to share with him that a fire lighter is not necessarily the go-to tool for fixing a minivan.

We met Matt for supper at the new substation in town! (Where else would you picnic with your favorite electrical engineer?) We were a little disappointed to hear that the substation didn't even sell subs, but we brought our own food and had a nice time anyway. 

We squeezed in a few more days of beautiful weather before the cold began to hit.

Rather than ants, it was the cats that kept stealing our food at our last picnic of the season... 

But, of course, there is still fun to be had in the cooler days of fall! We visited a pumpkin patch with my Mom one day, hosted the Schulz family one evening, and attended a couple other wiener roasts throughout the season.

Micah enjoying his first hay rack ride... 

Matt completed his work on the retaining wall for the winter.

As for now, we have begun to quarantine ourselves indoors. 

I was busy working in the kitchen and asked Levi to give Micah some Cheerios...next thing I know, Levi had dumped out the entire box on Micah's tray. Micah sure thought he hit the jackpot! 

And then there are those messes that you wish you could blame on your children, but...nope. The bowl of split pea soup slipped right out of my hands and splattered all over the kitchen. Yay. 

Levi's new favorite article of clothing is his "Cozy Thomas towel" that he got for a baby gift. He would probably be happy to wear it all day if I would let him! 

He wanted to wear Mommy's clothes one day. And Daddy's hat. 

On Halloween, we decided at 6pm to dress up the boys and bring them to Virg and Barb's and Mom & Dad's. Levi had a bear costume downstairs, and Micah was a computer whiz (or something). :) 

"ROOAAR!!"

Horseback riding with Daddy.

Most of the Schulz family was able to make it to a family night at Seth and Brenda's this weekend! Bad photo quality from my phone...but quality family time, nonetheless. :) 

Micah turned 8 months old in October, and 9 months old today! He is still as jolly as ever, and getting busier all the time! He quickly went from crawling to cruising to walking over the past couple months. Daddy is quite proud to have an early walker like himself! :) 

Well, the dryer just buzzed and the baby is waking up. I should probably get up and going again. Have a good weekend! 

A Mama's Choice

My current role in life as a mother of two-under-two has been corralled into a very simple diagram.

But first, I will take you back to the days of college when we were shown a "College Life" diagram. It says something like, "Good Grades; Social Life; Enough Sleep: You can only Choose Two." And it was rather true. I think I chose good grades and a social life. Why I didn't take advantage of full nights' sleep back then is beyond me. 

This new stage of life called "early motherhood" has a similar survival method. Thus, I have created a diagram to present my findings. 

Care for children; Be cheerful; Get things done: I can only choose two.

On the days when I am home alone with the children, I typically need to sacrifice either cheerfulness or productivity. Several factors apply, such as whether I take a nap when the boys are sleeping (be cheerful) or skip my nap (get things done). And don't even suggest that I try to work while the boys are awake. I cannot sit there serenely dicing vegetables for my potato soup while my baby tastes a sample of every item in the trashcan and my toddler comes out with dripping underwear to inform me he went potty in the toy cupboard. I just can't do it.

Maybe someday I'll get it all figured out and be able to do it all. Maybe someday I'll be Supermom. But for now, I'm just a Mom. And that's okay.

As busy as things sometimes get, I am enjoying this stage of life: the boys are still little, things are simple, and our small family gets to be together basically all the time. I know it won't always be this way, nor would I want it to stay like this forever.

But We Have This Moment...today.

So, I have learned not to try accomplishing too much around here. And if I do? Well, now I have a helpful diagram to remind myself of the consequences. ;)

Boys, Berries, and Birthdays

Hi all! It's been a busy couple of months for us...I've started this blog post a few times and then run out of time to finish it before things start getting busy and suddenly everything is all out of date again!

We'll see how it goes this time...

For starters...let's take a look at our growing boys! Micah turned five months...then six months...then seven months old a few weeks ago!

The most frequent thing we hear from every random and non-random person we meet is, "He's such a happy baby!" And that is correct. He is so quick to smile at anyone who will look at him!

18 1/2 pounds and 27 inches long at six months! 

He is getting good at entertaining himself with books, toys, and (...oh no!) crawling and pulling himself up on things to get around!

He also loves table food, though I have been pretty inconsistent about feeding him at meals. Mealtime kind of turns into a circus when I am trying to feed two hungry (and messy!) toddlers at once! You'd think I'd be losing weight since I barely have a chance to feed myself...but somehow that's not really how it works.

He got his first tooth the other day so maybe soon he will be able to actually chew something!

I am happy to report positively on Micah's nights. The first time I started writing this blog post, I was about giving up on the thought of ever having a full night's rest again. Then, last week I changed it to how excited I was about him finally sleeping through the night for a week straight. Now, I am just going to report favorably about his nights because the past couple nights have required me to get up a couple times. Nothing unmanageable though. 

Such a studious baby!

Ready for his first haircut! (6 months)

All fours!!!

Next, we'll move the spotlight over to Levi. This kid is getting to be more fun all the time! He is talking in full sentences now, is almost potty-trained, loves making "tents" with Daddy, helps Mommy around the house, had so much fun during fruit season, plays all kinds of music on the piano, and takes good care of his little brother!

"Mommy, Mess!" 

Duet time! 

He decided to play "Llama Llama" on the piano the other day...I guess any book can be used for playing music. 

Tents at bedtime...

BIG NEWS: LEVI GOT GLASSES IN AUGUST! They told us back in May that his eyes were fine, but when we returned for a follow-up appointment at the beginning of August they changed their minds. The glasses are an effort to correct a lazy eye, but his vision isn't too bad. 

The first day was a little rough, but he's been doing well with them since then! 

The boys enjoyed the nice weather in August! 

 

This is what happens when Mom gets distracted after a crazy day...she accidentally puts the pajamas on the wrong boy! Yes, I really did get that far before realizing I had the wrong boy. 

Apparently Levi thinks Micah's walker is his new hammock or something. 

We spent an evening with the Schulz family at a park in Fairfield a few weeks ago! These baby swings sure are efficient. 

Another day, we finally got up to Muscatine to visit Matt at work for lunch! We got our groceries up there too...Aldi's amazing two-child-seating carts never cease to make me giddy! :)

Reason #428 to love Aldi...!

Playing in the fountains with Daddy! 

August and September kept me busy with fruit harvest from our backyard orchard. Blackberries, then peaches, grapes, and apples. I also did some tomatoes with my mom. 

From apples...

...to sauce! Vienna and Hannah S. came and helped for the day. 

Has anyone else ever made your own bottled water? In case you ever want to make something with water, you can just go down to the canning room and get a jar of water. Super convenient. 

I also put up strawberries and blueberries from Aldi when they were on sale...that is only $24 worth of fruit right there! 

Now I am just dehydrating the rest of the apples in my spare time so things are slowing down a bit in the fruit department. Thankfully I didn't have a garden to worry about this year!

I didn't mention raspberries. But this is pretty much the story of every raspberry picking: Levi stuffs them all in his mouth as fast as he can and they are gone by the time we start heading back to the house. He is obviously his father's son in the raspberry-loving department. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, nor does the raspberry get far from the bush. Excuse me as I amuse myself. 

Then there is the landscaping project, which is making slow progress...but progress is progress!

We brought in the skid loader to help out! 

Many thanks to Jonathan and Zach for their days of help.

Looking good! We are hoping to have this wall done by winter.  

As for our "social"ish lives...

A few fishermen came out to spend one of their last days of summer vacation.

Matt decided to stick Levi in the "Money Hunt" at Town and Country Days. He didn't find any money because he was having too much fun playing with the shredded paper. :) 

Waiting for the parade!

The next weekend we spent a day at Old Threshers in Mt. Pleasant. You know you're desperate when you lock yourself in jail just to get a some rest. 

At the end of August, our new little nephew and cousin was born to Seth and Brenda! Little Abram is so precious!

We went up to Morris, MN for my Aunt Brenda and Jerry's wedding last weekend. It was such a blessing to be with them on their special day! God continues to provide and we pray He will bring many blessings from their marriage. 

We stayed with Eric and Brianna for the weekend and enjoyed our time with them! 

Levi found a giant zucchini in Brianna's garden to bring home. 

Matt found a magnifying glass in the engine compartment of our van. Who knows what we'll pull out next...a treasure chest? 

We had a surprise 50th birthday party for my mom at Pizza Ranch in Morris with a good chunk of her family. The surprise was a success! 

Still dumbfounded by how she could be so "dense" as to not have a clue this was coming... 

Party hats and all...

Next on the 50th birthday agenda was a ladies' luncheon for Mom at our place. Vienna helped me host and we all had a very nice time! I even got out Grandma Knobloch's China for the occasion! 

I failed to get a good picture of everybody...or of the food...but here is the birthday girl! I just noticed she wore the same outfit to both birthday parties. I probably shouldn't have pointed that out. Though it is obviously a great party shirt. :) 

Yesterday was the annual Lanz family gathering in Nauvoo, IL.

Dad told me the children seemed to be "having a ball!" 

A portion of the Ed Lanz family ladies and in-laws.

Micah had fun sharing some giggles with Warren on our walk!  

One last item of excitement was our first real rain in a long time. Two and a half inches one day last week! Matt accused me of filling the rain gauge with water when I sent him this picture. I can't believe he thought I was clever enough to come up with something like that. Nope, this is real rain, folks.

This Daddy LOVES being a Daddy! He has so much fun with his boys that it is hard for him to get anything else done when he is home! :) But it is perfect that way. 

Well...can I finally say we've gotten everything all caught up in the documentation department? 

Until next time...have a blessed autumn season! What a beautiful time of year!