What a week!

This week flew by... and that was a good thing because my little people were crazy this week! We actually had a lot of fun though, so I'm going to choose to reflect on that a bit and not only remember the tantrums... since we had a LOT of those too.

We got new pjs and clothes in the mail! The weather is so warm and Andrew has been bummed he can't wear any of his new long sleeved shirts yet... except indoors in the A/C!

We had several park days with friends! I chat with friends, the kids are supposed to play... though my kids don't seem to be able to get with the program and end up clinging to me the whole time :) I think they thought I was going to leave them again. At least I got lots of hugs from Catie!

I also did a lot of prep as Curriculum chair to help get things ready for school to start. We had a executive board meeting that went until 11pm one night... so I definitely did not wake up to run at 6:30 enough this week! 

Lots of planning for our neighborhood BBQ has been happening! I am one of the Social Directors... so Andrew and I drove around the neighborhood one afternoon hanging fliers up on poles. He held the nails and took his job very seriously.

I had my first day volunteering at Kinderprep. I get to help out two times a month. I loved it. The kids are really cute. I loved listening to Andrew yell, "Girls, there's a fire in your house!" and then he would gather up all the boys and get the girls out of the play house and the boys would try to extinguish all the "fires." It was so cute to see them all playing together.

Andrew's first work of art on his school art wall. Once he saw it hanging up there he got annoyed and said that wasn't his picture. After I probed a little more we realized that it was his picture (of a volcano), but it was hung upside down... so he didn't recognize it. His teacher quickly changed it and he was so proud to tell me all about it. So funny!

We celebrated our hard work at Kinderprep with a trip to Mrs. Fields.

While Andrew and I worked hard at Kinderprep, Catie napped and my babysitter worked hard to make my YW handouts. No late night Saturday crafting for me this week! I think I am going to enjoy having a helper to do projects for me while Catie sleeps.

We also had some fun with sponges this week... we did a word family game and built towers again... I love having a stash of sponge pieces on hand. They can be used for so many great things... especially atacking sisters!

Friday was gearing up to be my favorite day of the week... Catie slept in until almost 9am (which meant I did too) and I actually made breakfast (and it didn't involve the toaster or the microwave)

But I think the craziness of the week caught up to us and I seriously think we didn't have more than an hour the entire day when someone wasn't crying... seriously. Andrew threw a giganto tantrum at the park and I'm surprised no one called CPS on me... and then again we had 2 or 3 more later in the day... over things like the color of playdough he wanted or a tiny scratch. You could tell school was more exhausting than he let on!

My cute Caters decided to copy her big brother and took the art of tantruming to a whole new level. She is so hard to take seriously because she is so dramatic. She wants to do everything herself ("I do it") and despite all the amazing language bursts and new words that she has learned... she still resorts to throwing herself on the floor screaming instead of talking the majority of the time. I have to laugh because there were way too many moments today when I wanted to cry. It was exhausting!

My favorite thing about Catie right now is that she loves Wonder Pets and will sing along to the theme song. It is precious. She got to watch lots of Wonder Pets this evening when I took a Mommy Time Out before Kevin got home. She is also more stubborn than Andrew. Something I didn't think was possible. Maybe baby #3 will be more mellow like his dad? (crossing my fingers) 

Speaking of Baby #3... we got an adorable package from Shari this week. It was filled with some cute Halloween shirts for the kiddos (which they will show off later) and some sweet sleepers for the new little man. We were so surprised that the little guy got presents and they made me so excited! Thanks Shari!

In between all the craziness, I managed to wake up a few times and go running with my friend Cara in the early morning. That is definitely my favorite time of day. I feel energetic and not like a huge whale. I kinda can't believe I still have so long until the baby comes though... people already approach me far too often acting like I am absolutely ginormous and should be due any day. It is giving me a complex... especially since Kevin has dropped like 20 pounds while I've gained that much and then some... Maybe the baby will come sooner than the doctor expects?

Speaking of Kevin... he was at a YouTube training all week and got to "work" with his buddies on a music video. This picture of him cracks me up... I think one night he didn't get home until after 10pm because he was at a co-worker's house recording on the drums...

So funny! So glad to have him home for the weekend to help me manage the crazy people! 

Smith Girls Trip- NYC {Day 2}

Our second day in Manhattan was insanely hot and muggy. The clouds covered most of the city for the morning, so our run was hot. Jessie and Elise were nice to take turns run/walking with me on our Central Park jog because I was quite a slow poke that day.

When we got close to our hotel it started pouring. Jessie kept us entertained by dancing in the crazy rain.

We thought it would rain all day long... but instead the sun came out and the rest of the afternoon was HOT!

Since I thought it was going to rain all day, I didn't bring my nice camera.. so all I have are Instagram pics to document the day. It is so sad that I got lots of pictures of food... but not of us all together! If I would've gotten pics of me and Cat from this day would show us both sitting on benches. We took turns needing to take breaks from walking. We were so tired! We also went on lots of adventures together to find bathrooms.

For lunch Elise and I met up with Kathren (our best friend from HS and beyond) at Max Brenner. Yum Yum Yum! Good conversation, good food, and AMAZING treats!

Love how large and in charge I look in this photo. Kath is expecting too, though you can barely tell. She's due in February. This is the 2nd time we've been pregnant together, so it will be fun to have another set of little ones that can be buddies! (Here's the pic from when we last hung out as preggos together). We were both about 7 or 8 months along in that picture. Caitlin and Kathren's son Will were born one day apart! Kathren's daughter Caraline and Elise's daughter Maddie are only a few weeks apart too! So fun that we can enjoy this crazy stage of life together!

Elise and Kathy shared the fondue and I got a yummy molten cake. Mmm!

After we said goodbye, we trekked over to Bleeker Street for some shopping. We visited Magnolia, but I was still wayyy too stuffed from lunch to even sample a cupcake. We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and exploring... I mostly just wanted to find stores with A/C so that I could sit down in the cold! We explored the West Village, Chelsea Market, and walked around The Highline... loved all the wind up there and cozy benches for sitting on and chatting! 

When we could walk no more, we popped into this awesome nail salon and all got pedicures and phenomenal leg massages. We were probably there almost two hours and it was seriously the highlight of the day for me.

(Not the most attractive photo of me... but I was too tired to try and sit up straight!)

We ended the night with dinner at Cosi (one of our favorite places) and an early return to the hotel (because by that point it was pouring rain and they were talking about tornadoes and hurricanes on the news). 

Day 3 was filled with traveling. Cat and I flew home together and we were like pregnant celebrities. Everyone wanted to know how far along we were, what we were having, and were so excited to hear that our kids would be cousins.

Several ladies told their husbands all about how my husband was watching my kids so that I could take a girls trip (and how we do it EVERY year)... hoping to pass along not so subtle hints to them... 

The flight home was amazing. I slept and read the whole time. The only downfall was that Virgin America ran out of practically every single good food item while I was sleeping... so all I had was Cadbury bars and Black & White cookies. Usually that would be fine, but not when I'm pregnant and on a 6 hour flight and my last meal was at 8am... and the flight didn't arrive till 3pm (6pm EST). I got home and basically inhaled all of the food in our house before I played with my kids.

I was so excited to see them! They've been putting me through the ringer all week long making me pay for leaving them... anyone up for another girls trip next weekend? I need another break! :)

Kudos to Kevin for keeping the kids alive and having fun all four days that I was gone! He even bought the kiddos a new pet... which I will need to post about later. Great weekend, awesome husband... and HUGE thanks to my mom for putting it all together and inviting us all!

We love you mom!

Smith Girls Trip- NYC {Day 1}

I don't have as many pictures from our girls trip as I could've taken, but I do have some fun ones. 

Last Thursday afternoon Jessie, Cat, and I boarded a plane and headed to Manhattan! We took a taxi to The Intercontinental Hotel in the Upper East Side where we arrived at the exact same time as Elise and my mom. 

Fortunately we had young, energetic Jessie with us (I would've curled up and gone to bed right away), so we headed out on the town to explore and get some treats after we dropped off our bags in our hotel room.

We woke up at 9am the next day and went off to Central Park for about a four mile run. It was insanely muggy and I don't think I have EVER sweat that much in my life, but the location was gorgeous and company was fabulous, so we had a lot of fun!

I love this view of the reservoir

My run recovery breakfast of a black & white cookie helped jump start a day filled with lots of treats!

On our way shopping we stopped at Crumbs for some cupcakes and cookies. Elise and I shared the squiggle cupcake that is like a giant Hostess cupcake. Sooo yummy!

We shopped and shopped until we were ready to drop... and then we headed to The Plaza for afternoon tea. We are all still very sad that no one ended up with the gorgeous coat from Barneys that Elise is holding. I want a version in MY SIZE... but they didn't have Catie, Olivia, or Maddie's size. :( The one Elise is holding Catie would've grown out of before Christmas probably... so sad... though good for our budgets! 

Tea at the Plaza is insanely rich. Each tea comes with sandwiches, a drink, and several levels of desserts. The "chocolate tea" was my favorite... although the Eloise one was a close second. We couldn't decide which one to order, so we ordered all four and tried them all. The chocolate tea came with amazingly rich delicious fondue. 

After tea we attempted to walk off and shop off everything that we had eaten... and then we headed back to the hotel for a break. I sat down expecting to catch up on emails and managed to pass out within a few minutes. The 20-30 minute nap I had at 6pm (3pm PST... my usual naptime :)) was the most amazing nap I feel like I have had in awhile.

After our relaxing, we headed off to find some delicious NY pizza before booking it over to Times Square to find our theatre and watch Newsies!

 The musical was amazing! Cat saved the day halfway through (since I was getting a little sleepy) and surprised us with Newsies collectors cups filled with some caffeine :) It was just enough to get me energized for the rest of the show. No matter how hard I try not to, it is really easy for me to fall asleep in shows when I am pregnant- Wicked, Les Miserables, etc. have all been slept through. It is so sad. Usually I won't go to them any more because it ends up being a waste of money... fortunately I survived and loved every minute of the night!

We ended our first whole day with a walk through Bryant Park at night (gorgeous) and a stop for treats on the way home... where we crashed in bed exhausted!

First Day of Kinderprep

Andrew had his first day of Kinderprep yesterday and loved it. He has school Monday-Thursday from 12:30-3:30pm and is in class with about eleven other kids that are mostly age five. I think he's the youngest in the class, so we'll see how that goes. He turns five in February. There are four boys in his class (including him) and seven girls. Several went to school the same day as him last year and we've been doing playdates all summer, so he already knew many of their names and felt pretty comfortable.

He was so excited when I dropped him off he could barely focus for a picture- too much fun stuff to see!

Catie also thought she was going to school and was thoroughly disappointed (cue massive tantrum throwing herself on the floor) when we had to leave.

Andrew got to sign in all by himself when he got to school. Love my cute little lefty.

He said his favorite part of school was playing with the puppet that I made for him at Kinderprep Orientation last week (that is supposed to look like him). Totally does, right? He loved the "A."

On the drive home he also told me about everyone's different lunch boxes and how he needed a Star Wars one in addition to his Spiderman one.

My kids were crazy yesterday re-adjusting to me being home from my NYC trip so they were highly emotional/tantrumy... so we celebrated the first day of school by ordering take out Papa John's Pizza at the end of the day and watching NetFlix- nothing Pinterest worthy or super original. I was just too darn tired! :)

Cannot believe we now have school almost every day. Fortunately since it is in the afternoons, we can still do fun things together in the mornings.

Hurray!

Catching Up

Gotta catch up on our weekend events before this next weekend hits and I have even more oodles of pictures to share!

Labor Day Weekend was a blast!

Once my house was actually clean (finally), I decided I wanted to throw a Labor Day BBQ... so we had two families over (Aguilars and Heymans) and had so much fun! Andrew was the only boy and he loved it.

Catie decided to make the house a mess right before our guests arrived

The kids got along great and other than Catie, everyone seemed super happy and had fun!

They designed posters for Andrew's "clubhouse" (our empty backyard shed) and there was quite the sticker explosion all over my kitchen. It was so fun to see them all creating. 

I also started off Labor Day with a 7am run with my friend Cara. We ran 5 miles and it felt AMAZING... and then afterwards I felt like I was waddling for the rest of the day.

Andrew did a lot of play dough all weekend long.

We took a family shopping trip to hit up some sales at the mall. These two hooligans were crazy and kept me laughing while Kevin tried on clothes. I only tagged along to look at baby clothes and eat cookies.

Here is the only pic I have of myself lately... proof that I exist and am pregnant... still haven't figured out how to take a side view shot of myself, so all I have is front view. This is one of probably 4 outfits I wear lately.

We also had a great Sunday! We made good food, all took naps (except Andrew who played in the backyard by himself- more play dough), relaxed, and I went on an hour walk by myself. Love when that happens!

I loved Catie in her Sunday outfit, so I snapped a few photos.

The kiddos and I were soooo sad to see Kevin go back to work on Tuesday! Fortunately he's taking Thursday and Friday off to hang with the kiddos while I go on a girls trip! They can't wait!

Never Leaving Home

Yesterday when I told Andrew it was going to be Saturday the next day and we would all be home he said, "So we can stay home all day together and never leave?" (in an excited tone that made me wonder who he is related to).

So stay home we did... almost all day. To be honest, I actually loved it because I got tons of stuff done.

(today's masterpiece for the grocery store that he was creating)

Andrew has been starting off the day with art projects. I'll wake up and he's drawn something new and cool on his easel paper. As soon as I was awake he was asking to go play outside... 

Once Catie was awake, she joined him. The kids (and sometimes Kevin) played outside all morning long. I snuck out occasionally to snap photos and then worked on organizing, cleaning, laundry, some projects, and more cleaning.

Catie liked to come inside to beg for treats.

And band-aids for her doll.

Her daddy can't say no

Such little cuties... Catie obviously needs to lay off the chalk. 

We also met with a contractor about some stuff we may do in the house upstairs and then Catie and I worked on loads of blogging activities while Kevin and Andrew went swimming at the pool.

Andrew helped end the day on a high note by cracking me up with his clothes and then surprising me by hiding in the kitchen (after I thought he was in bed) wearing a newborn baby hospital bunny hat (ones we made as an Easter service project last year). I have not laughed that hard in a LONG time.

After the crazy week that we had, it was so nice to stay home together today... and almost never leave. I love my family!