Pumpkin Patch Mania

A couple weeks ago Grandma Walker and I took the girls to two nearby pumpkin patches. Since I don't have a car during the week we don't get out of the house much, so I wanted to make sure Kinsey had fun. It was adorable watching her run with a huge smile on her face. 

 She's in a "no smiling" phase right now. So even though it doesn't LOOK like she had fun, I'm pretty sure she did. 

Inside a hay cave

 The first pumpkin patch had two tractors to do races. Not much racing went on, but we pretended. 

Of course the tractors were much more fun once Kinsey saw her sisters on it. She did not want to share. 

 Kinsey enjoyed climbing up the hay mountain. The tractor and mountain was about all this patch had to offer besides $25 pumpkins, so we moved on to another one. 

 Kinsey allowed me to take a few pictures of her with her sisters. 

She tried to squeeze the life out of them. Doesn't it look like Shayla's head is about to explode?

This pumpkin patch had HUGE $3 pumpkins that I snatched up for our photo shoot. It also had baby pumpkins that Kinsey wanted to steal. She walked away happy and dirty. 

The next week we went to another pumpkin patch so Eric could join us. Kinsey is obsessed with animals right now so we went to one that had a few. Her favorite was definitely the "mama and daddy" turkey. That's one of the biggest smiles I could get out of her thanks to those turkeys!

Shayla loves when Daddy has time to play with us!

We went through a couple hay mazes next. Kinsey walked through the kid one and then we entered the tall maze with Kinsey as the leader. She led us RIGHT to the exit! Smart girl. 

All of the kids were having a great time on our family date!

There were a LOT of pumpkins at this patch. We only made it to the main display area though. 

Shay babe. 

 Scarly. 

 Kins picking out a pumpkin. I love watching her pick up heavy items. She's a trooper and powers through. We didn't actually buy the pumpkin, but this is the one she WOULD have chosen. Until she picked a different one immediately after...

 I have the most beautiful girls!!

Kinsey and Eric climbed the hay mountain. She wanted her daddy's full attention for this!

 I stayed with the babies and did a mini photo shoot that got quite a few smiles from people passing by. They are such happy babies! It's infectious. 

 Lastly, we hit up the corn pit. This was by far the favorite for all three girls! Kinsey just played by herself, not to be bothered by my camera. 

 The babies humored me a little more. 

Daddy and his twinners

 This was the only way Kinsey would allow me to take a picture of Eric with all three of his girls. Have I mentioned she's a stinker? Because I say it about ten times a day. 

 HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEENNNNN!!!!

Pumpkin Shoot

I always wanted to have a baby in the Fall so I could take cute pictures of him/her in a pumpkin. Luckily our babies are so small I was still able to get my wish. I set out one afternoon and took tons of pictures of the girls...and then discovered my memory card wasn't in the camera. FAIL. So these are pictures from my SECOND round when the kids were kind of sick of the camera and the pumpkin (hence not many smiles).  

They're still adorable. 

 When all else fails, I can count on Scarlett to smile. She is such a happy baby. 

 I wasn't planning on taking pictures with Kinsey in the pumpkin, but when she saw me take Scarlett and Shayla's clothes off she immediately stripped down to her diaper too. Once I was done photographing the twins and removed them from the pumpkin, I turned back around and found Kinsey inside. How could I refuse her the chance to be a model? 

 

 This is one of the few wagon shots I got before Kinsey started dumping leaves all over Scarlett and Shayla. Little stinker. 

Happy Fall!! 

A Bit of a Fixer Upper

On August 5th Eric and I bought a house! If you know me at all, I've been dreaming of owning a home for a LONG time. It happened sooner than we thought it would, but we aren't complaining. The home was built in 1969 and everything was pretty original to it...so of course, we needed to renovate. Eric and I weren't scared of the renovation process because we watch A LOT of HGTV and we saw potential in our house from the get-go (even when it was filled with a vast amount of furniture). We are doing quite a bit of reno work including new flooring, cabinets, countertops, paint, lighting, windows, baseboards...you name it! To save money we chose to do the demolition ourselves and pay people to put the house back together. 

Signing papers

Once the previous owner's junk was out of the house, we got to work. We started taking off wallpaper. The hallway and living room wallpaper came off so easily! I was thrilled. And then we hit the kitchen wallpaper. Let's just say I didn't finish getting all the wallpaper glue off until yesterday :)

Eric and his dad gutted the kitchen...

which allowed Eric to take down the wall that separated the kitchen from the living room. That was a MUST HAVE for me. Because the home is older, it's very compartmentalized and the rooms are pretty small, so taking down this wall gives SOME open layout to the house. 

It was a lot of work, but Eric was a champ! He got a little help from YouTube but mostly did the whole wall himself. 

Doesn't that look so much better? Then of course we needed to remove the kitchen laminate and replace the drywall and insulation. That floor was a beast. 

Eric and his parents gutted the two bathrooms on the main floor and then we are making minor changes to the basement bathroom (countertops and flooring). 

Main bathroom

We had a lovely wood panel room in the basement living area. I was actually going to keep it thanks to some inspiration from Pinterest, but it was a potential home for termites so...decision made. 

When we were done vacationing during the month of August, we really set to work. Eric invited some friends over for a demo party and they accomplished a lot that night. Thanks guys!! The wood paneling was one of the biggest jobs. 

Once that was out, we reframed the room to the correct depth so we wouldn't freeze in the winter and then put up new insulation. 

Some hideous built-ins were taken out of the laundry room. 

 And while all this demo work was going on for over a month, Eric's mom and I were trying to get bids from as many people as possible. THAT is an exhausting process. To mix things up, I also did a lot of shopping which is still taking up a good portion of my time. But my main contribution is watching the kiddos while everyone else works at the house. 

All the demolition is FINALLY done and we were able to start putting things together. The electrical has taken over a month and is ALMOST finished. There was really weird wiring and about zero lighting in this house, so Eric and a family friend have been at the house most nights working on electrical. Check out these beautiful can lights!! Eric measured, cut the holes, and passed wires through the attic while Von did the electrical work. 

 We aren't tackling the exterior of the house until next year, but I was soooo excited when our new windows were installed! It makes such a difference on the house (even though the rest needs quite a bit of work). 

Once everything is complete, I will do before and after pictures. It might not look like much has changed, but we've put many many hours into this renovation and a lot has happened on the backend. Stay tuned for more!

Our Sealing

A year ago, on October 19, 2013, Eric and I were sealed to this cutie for time and all eternity in the Kansas City Temple. For those who don't know what a sealing is, you can read more about it here. We had to wait a couple months for the adoption to be finalized before sealing Kinsey to us, but it was well worth the wait! 

She hated how long her dress was! She kept tripping over it. 

All five of us were in attendance (Scarlett and Shayla in my tummy) along with many of our closest friends and family members. 

Thank you to all who joined us on such a special day.

 Kinsey was adorable in her white dress and all the temple workers loved her. Grandma Walker took care of her in the temple until the actual sealing ceremony took place. 

 While Eric and I were separated from Kinsey doing paperwork in the temple, I was super emotional. My eyes were watering and I just felt like crying because she was away from me. Once I was able to hold her in my arms again, I was instantly calm. Just her presence in that moment brought me peace and I knew her presence in my life forever would do the same. 

 Kinsey will forever and always be part of our family thanks to the gift of sealing. I'm extremely grateful Eric and I can be sealed to her for eternity. She is an important little member of our family and we are so blessed to be her parents. She's a wonderful daughter and big sister and we couldn't ask for more from our sweetheart. We love her so much!

The LDS Kansas City Temple

A special thanks to our friend, Thane, for being our photographer!