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!

The Twins at 8 Months

8 months? Are you kidding me?! How is it possible my babies will be a year old in 4 short months. 

The day they turned 7 months old

Having twins brings us a lot of attention, especially when I go somewhere with Kinsey too. The most common questions I get are:

"Are they twins?!" -- No, I just take two babies the same size and age everywhere I go.

"How do you tell them apart?" -- They look completely different. To those who know them, anyway. Do they really look that similar to everyone? Which brings me back to question 1...why are you asking if they are twins if you can't tell them apart?

"Are they two boys or a boy and a girl?" (when not wearing headbands) -- PEOPLE! Since when does wearing the color blue or green make you a boy? Do girls never wear those colors? And just because their carseats are blue and red does not mean they are boys. It's been a pet peeve of mine whenever I forget to put headbands on them. Can't wait for that hair to grow in!

Okay, rant over. 

They shared a bath for the first time this month! Shayla thought it was pretty awesome. Scarlett...not so much. She should've been in heaven the way she was sprawled all over Shayla. It definitely makes bath time quicker, but is more of a challenge taking them out by myself. But with most things these days...I am quite the multi-tasker, or in this case a juggler.   

Everyone requires mommy time when they are tired. Usually the saddest or loudest gets my attention first. 

We've gotten in a pretty good routine. Bedtime at 7 and wake up time at 7. The babies play on their own before breakfast, then a couple hours later it's time for their morning nap. Unfortunately, Scarlett and Shayla are very different sleepers so after the morning their naps tend to be staggered for the rest of the day. With that and Eric taking our only car to work, we're stuck at home pretty much all the time. 

Pre-breakfast play time. 

SCARLETT

This little bugger has become quite demanding lately. 

Her hair is getting so long I couldn't resist putting it into a ponytail. Yes, there is a ponytail there, you just have to look closely. Haha. 

 She still sits and rocks on all fours. Scarlett army crawls really fast and has maybe gone a step or two in the crawling department. She is getting frustrated not being able to follow everyone around the house with Kinsey walking and Shayla crawling everywhere. The desire is there, I think she just needs to get a little stronger. She's still teeny tiny. But one way to make her happy is to help her stand up. She loves to stand!

Hanging out with cousin Grant. 

One of Scarlett's most exciting developments of the month was hearing her first word: Dada. Okay, so maybe she has only said it on one particular day and maybe she didn't exactly know what she was saying, but I caught it on camera so it totally counts as her first word!

Daddy's girl!

SHAYLA

Shayla's favorite activity is playing with the doorstopper. She loves watching it move! 

 Shayla is progressing so fast physically. She is a speedy little crawler and will sneak up on you fast. She doesn't like her knees touching the hardwood so she goes into this cute pose. 

 She also started sitting up on her own -- after crawling. 

 And as if that wasn't good enough, Shayla decided she wanted to pull herself up onto everything around her. She loves to stand and always looks for something to help her do it. Currently, she practices standing unassisted by letting go of the object and balancing. It only lasts a second or two but she gets right back up and tries again. 

We're still a happy little family of 5. Daddy's been busy working on the house this month, but they love when he comes home for lunches. 

And of course I'm their numero uno!

But sometimes Kinsey sneaks in as their favorite. Kinsey can make her sisters laugh like no one else. 

Kinsey has a very tight bond with Shayla right now. Those two are like two peas in a pod (unless Kinsey is having a diva moment). 

 Sisters are the best and I'm so glad these three will have each other for eternity. I don't even mind if I don't have a boy anymore. They are just too darn cute.