a few more fall things before we get out the Christmas stuff

Before it's May 2025, I wanted to share a couple of final pictures from our fall this year! We had a couple of rough weekends lately, but overall I've had the best time with the kids and am enjoying their ages so much. If you've been around a 2yo and 4yo for any amount of time, parent or not, you will likely understand what I mean when I say that it's at the same time exhausting and stressful and frustrating and SO MAGICAL. Like, just so wonderful that I sometimes look at them and get sad because they're getting older and I can't stop it.

And I know that getting older isn't a bad thing either. I get excited thinking about all the adventures we will have. But J's soft baby cheeks and R's wonderful imagination will never be the same as they are right now. It's such a struggle of wanting time to slow down and time to speed up and also whyyyyy do I have to go to work every day. It might seem unrelated but really, it's not because who wants to go to work in the fall? Or winter. Or spring. Okay any time! And no, that's not an invitation for you to email me about selling essential oils. I don't want to do sales! I repeat: I don't want to sell things. Anything. This is why I've never made it as a blogger. Well, that and the fact that I don't have white walls to take pictures in front of or a neighbor/best friend who also happens to be a professional photographer to take pictures of my family wherever I go. But I digress.

Where was I? Oh yes, fall. I took R to the zoo a few weekends ago, and it was a semi disaster because it was 8 trillion degrees and everyone in Oklahoma was there. I was by myself and got lost and ended up circling the pond, so we basically drove 30 minutes to the zoo and 30 minutes home to sweat profusely and look at ducks for an hour. I regretted going, but! The bright side is that we got to see Oklahoma's largest pumpkin. The other bright side is that I now know when to not go to the zoo next October. It never before occurred to me until recently that my parents likely gained their wealth of knowledge by making a bunch of questionable decisions and learning from their mistakes. At the rate I'm going, my kids will soon be convinced I'm the smartest person they've ever known.

Baby Bum #3 is still cooking! This picture was taken a few weeks ago. I'll be 27 weeks on Friday, which according to my pregnant book is the start of the third trimester. I have to say, the first 24ish weeks did not seem to go quickly, but the last 3-4 have flown. I blame daylight savings! It's dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home, and it just makes every day feel so very short. Things you don't think about before you have kids and go back to work.

In semi-exciting news, I've been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions recently. My uterus is getting primed! Okay it's weird to think of it like that, but seriously. As much as I want to meet him/her in there, I actually don't quite yet because we are not even close not even close to having anything ready. As in, a name. We have no names narrowed down. We're going to be those people who don't have a name for their baby and end up drawing one out of a hat. Which, interestingly, is I believe how my own name was chosen!

We took the kids trick-or-treating for the second time (last year was our first time to go as a family), and they had an absolute blast. Like, maybe best time ever. J ran around yelling KNOCK KNOCK and shouting THANK YOU at everyone once they gave him candy. He ended up with so much more candy than R because everyone would give him a piece and then see his dimples underneath his scarecrow hat and give him more.

I totally support people if they don't "do" Halloween. I think it's a personal preference/personal conscience decision, so unless you're going to judge someone for participating in Halloween, we can still be friends. Personally my conscience is okay with it! I grew up trick-or-treating and have such fun memories. I am 100% not a fan of creepy ghosts and costumes dripping and blood and skeletons and whatnot, but otherwise I think it's fun!

My brother and SIL drove up from Texas to go to a Thunder basketball game with us. We danced crazy and got on the big screen for approximately 1.7 seconds. They lost in the final minutes, which was a bummer, but the game was good and we had a great time on a double date! My parents came up and watched the kids for us, and it was my mom's birthday, so we had a special birthday lunch and hung out during the afternoon. It was a super fun family weekend that redeemed the last family weekend disaster.

I know there's snow in other parts of the country (and Canada hiiiii), but Oklahoma is trying to keep fall alive and well with a final few days of 70+ degrees this week. Yes, 70 degrees. This is the reason I can't get into the Christmas spirit quite yet. And the reason it's impossible to actually switch out your closet for summer/winter clothes. Oklahoma is perpetually confused, and as a result SO AM I. You basically have to dress for winter in the morning and summer in the afternoon, and it's just silly. PICK A SIDE.

I'm flying to Chicago in a few weeks, and I don't think I'll have this problem. I have complete faith that Chicago in December will put me in the right headspace for all the Christmas things.

That might be all from me until after Thanksgiving, so if I don't hop back on here, I do wish all my American friends a very thankful holiday! And all my Canadian friends a very thankful regular Thursday. Believe it or not, Christmas will be here before we know it! And then January, and then we really do need to nail down a few solid name choices for Baby Bum. ;)