Real Life

Isn't it so weird how we purposely put off our happiness? 

We tell ourselves that we wont be happy until....

Until we are in grad school

Until we move somewhere else

Until graduation

Until we have another baby

Until we get the perfect job

And have more money and less debt

Until we buy a house

Until we lose 20 pounds

Just to name a few of my stupid 'untils'....

I was on pinterest the other day looking at couches and I was so grumpy looking at these gorgeous grey, clawfoot couches as I sat on my ugly, worn out sofa and all the sudden I was like, 'what am I doing?!  Its a couch!  Is my life really going to be affected this much from a couch!?' 

And even with the things that actually are important, like jobs and kids... why would I not allow myself to be happy now just because I don't have them all yet.

Its great to set goals and look to the future, but man is it a slippery slope.

There will always be things I don't have.  Always. 

So why waste my time being sad about it.

So I have been trying really hard to just be happy and grateful.

So much easier said than done, right?!

But I'm going to love my life the way it is right now while I'm working toward the future. 

I'm going to live it up here in Overton ;)

I'm going to embrace the excitement that comes with not having a clue where we are going to be come Summer and what Brad's job is going to be and what we will be doing.

I am going to look at our ever-growing amount of student loans as an opportunity to learn to be better equipped to handle finances and be frugal.

I am going to cherish my boys

And my husband

Because really, that's the only stuff that matters

My marriage and my family, the gospel and knowing that I am growing as a person

The rest is just gravy

So screw you beautiful pinterest couches!!  I just had the most wonderful sunday nap on my ugly, old couch today. 

So cheers to living in the present.  Cheers to my real life.  Its beautiful and crazy and far from over. 

Veteran's Day

I was a little bit sad when I woke up Veteran's Day morning.  Brad had to work, so I was bummed out that he didn't get to spend the day with us and then Kalvin woke up coughing and crying and all sorts of sick.  I laid in bed with him for about 30 minutes and then I heard Emily and Travis upstairs.  Clark had spent the night over at their house with Kate.  (he is officially too young for sleepovers.  He ended up sleeping in bed with Emily, cause he was scared).  Kalvin and I made our way upstairs to find Travis making Belgian waffles. If anything can put me in a good mood, its waffles.

After breakfast everyone bundled up and we walked down to Main street for the Veteran's Day parade.

There was a whole lot of waiting around.  Always way too early ;)

But the kids were pretty happy to be running around the street and playing

Then it finally started!!

They did a really good job this year, I thought.  It was way longer than last year.  Lots more participants. 

We got to see Addie dance

And the kids got insane amounts of candy thrown at them

At one point Kalvin was eating 3 lollipops at the same time

I texted Brad a pc of the giant dump truck, cause that's his favorite part of the parade every year.

After the parade we went back home and Grandpa started a little fire out back and everyone roasted hot dogs and sat outside and visited with neighbors and family.

That was about as exciting as it got.  The rest of the day was spent taking care of my little sick baby. 
 

Morning

{ Monday Morning }

{ Tuesday Morning }

{ Wednesday Morning }

{ Thursday Morning }

{ Friday Morning }

{ Saturday Morning }

{ Sunday Morning }

As impossible as it is to pull myself out of the most comfortable bed in the world, each and every morning, its always so worth it.  Once the sleepiness begins to wear off, the blessedness of the new day starts to resonate and I have come to really love that feeling.  There is just something so peaceful about the morning.  Its quiet and its new.  I love the thought of a whole days worth of hours ahead that I've yet to use up.  Hours with no mistakes in them and all up to me how to use and stretch them. 

Halloween

Our Halloween started out with Clark going to his Preschool Halloween party.  He brought a little fruit platter Grandma put together for him and said that he had an awesome time and that they played some sort of fishing game.  That's all I could get out of him.  That and also that his teacher made everyone try each type of food, even though he only wanted the strawberries and fruit snacks.

We watched Halloween cartoons and I made the kids a Halloween themed lunch that they thought was weird and just asked for regular peanutbutter sandwiches, not pumpkin shaped peanutbutter sandwiches.  Little turkeys! 

We prepped for the evenings festivities

Finally evening arrived and people got out of school and got home from work and the party began

For Grandpa's birthday Brad and I took his favorite chair that he got from either his Dad or his Grandpa (I cant remember) and stripped it and refinished it, because it had some dings and paint spilled on it and stuff.  It was a fun project and I always like doing gifts that are more sentimental.  He seemed happy with it!

Then was time to break out the costumes

And the swords

And the candy

After attempting to take some pictures, we were out hiking up and down the street

We only hit a few houses

Mostly just family

We got back home just as Scott and Emily were arriving

So we had to spend a little bit playing with Brielle...

Before we headed up to visit the Stratton's

The boys came home with lots of candy, lots of energy and just as happy as can be.  We let them stay up and play with the baby and sneak candy for a little while, but as all wonderful holidays must come to an end sometime, we herded them downstairs and tucked them in..... and hid the candy, hoping by morning they would forget they had any.  (Grandma reminded them before too long ;) )