October's Favorite Things

One of my friends has an adorable blog and at the end of every month, she does a favorite things post.  Such a great idea!  Every month I plan on linking up with her, because it's a perfect way to recap a month with some of the details I forget to write about . . . and then I get busy and forget.  Only this month, she's giving away a killer pair of earings, and linking up will increase my chances of winning said earings.  There's nothing like free stuff to motivate me to action.

So, without further ado, here are some of my favorite things from October that I haven't blogged about yet:

1.  Gigi brought Kaden a "big spider" of his own.  His name, chosen by Kaden, is Scary.  I'm not going to lie, he totally freaks me out.  Kaden adores him.  Every time we leave the house, he waves to him and says, "Bye, Scary!  See you later, Scary.  Love you!"

2.  I flew to Washington state and spent a long weekend reuniting with some of my oldest friends (we graduated from high school together ten years ago--but have known each other even longer than that).  The reunion was sparked by the return of Emily from Brazil, where she had been serving as a missionary for the last eighteen months.  A reunion this monumental deserves a blog post of its own, but for now, to make a long story short: we had an amazing time!  I was reminded that time and distance away mean nothing in a true friendship.  We laughed and talked like we'd never been apart.  It was so therapeutic and fabulous.

As if that wasn't perfect enough, I got to stay with my Grandpa while I was there.  It was so fun spending time with him!

3.  My kitchen went from this:

To this:

To this:

To this:

And I could not be happier with the end result.  NOW to paint the second coat on the walls and TO FINISH THE FLOORING!!!  And eventually update the appliances . . . but all in due time.


4.  Some people in our ward own a fabulous NY-style pizza joint (no, seriously, it's fabulous.  If you live in Raleigh, go eat at Sergio's Pizza).  They had an oldie's night with $1 cheese slices, fun music, and balloons for the kids.  As if that wasn't awesome enough, the sweetest little boy restored my complete faith in humanity (which was previously crushed by a class of high school sophomores who stole the money their peers donated to the breast cancer awareness fund out of the jar on my desk while I wasn't looking).  There were a lot of kids at the pizza place, and most of them were waiting in line for a balloon.  Kaden sat down and was watching all of the action, completely fascinated, when this little boy comes up to him, hands him HIS balloon that was tied in the shape of a sword, and says, "Here, would he like this one?"  ARE YOU SERIOUS?  How precious is that?  Kaden's face lit up and he beamed a bright, "Thank you!"  We asked him if he was sure, and he said, "Yes, he can have it."  Somebody has awesome parents.  I don't know who you are, kid, but kudos to your mom and dad.  And kudos to you, too!


5.  Kaden's Halloween costume from last year still fit, and he looked as darling in it as ever.  He loved trick or treating this year.  He did such a great job saying, "Trick or treat!" at every house and remembering to say, "Thank you!"

6.  In a couple of hours, Halloween will officially end, which means tomorrow I start playing Christmas music, my friends.

It's been a good month.

Terrible Hosts

We won't be winning any brownie points after my mom's visit over her fall break. 

She arrived during our kitchen renovation, so most of her trip consisted of us trying to figure out how to prepare meals that didn't involve any dirty dishes (we had no kitchen sink).  In addition, we couldn't use our stove or oven for pretty much the entire time she was here.  Oh, and her "guest room" was still basically being used as a pantry/massive storage space with a tiny spot for her to sleep.  

We had a cute kid present for her to fawn over, so hopefully that counts for something.

Luckily, Kaden and I whisked her off for a couple day escape to Atlantic Beach.  My sister-in-law's awesome mom, AKA our good friend Beth, let us borrow her beach cottage for a night.  The weather the few days before we left was cold and rainy, so I figured we were in for a freeze fest, but luckily the sunshine came out while we were there.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect!  The ocean is one of my favorite places to be.  I've always loved it.  There's something about sand on your toes and the sound of the waves crashing against the shore that makes life feel instantly better.  

Kaden is still a little uncertain about the water at the beach.  It pretty much terrifies him.  Since we were only there for a couple of days, there wasn't time for him to get really friendly with the waves.  Plus, Chad wasn't  there to coax him into the water.  He preferred climbing up the sand dunes and running down, or chasing seagulls.  He was so devastated that they wouldn't let him touch them.

While mom was here we also went to our neighborhood's fall festival.  I didn't get any pictures, but it was a lot of fun!  They had rented a couple of giant bounce houses for the kids and they had a BBQ and fried chicken catered lunch.  There were also cupcakes that tasted like Twinkies.  What's not to love about that?  Kaden LOVED the bounce house.  I was a little nervous about him going in alone at first, so I went with him.  There were a lot of bigger kids in there, so I didn't know if he'd get mauled, but they were so sweet.  They kept asking, "Do you want me to bounce you?" and helping him jump higher.  After about ten minutes of standing there watching him have a blast, I left and let him go crazy on his own.

Mom and I had a girls' day on Saturday afternoon and explored The Vintage Village, which is this amazing place with a series of antique shops.  It is also dangerously close to my house.

Mom's trip ended much too soon, with no time for me to consult Martha Stewart on how to redeem myself as a hostess.

I need to make sure I buy some mints for the pillows the next time we have house guests.   

My Demise.

I'm pretty sure you're going to see my obituary in the paper by the end of next week.  It will read something like this:

Katie Reese,  a stay at home mom, bit the dust early yesterday evening.  Her death, while sudden, wasn't unexpected.  After a long struggle, she succumbed to obliteration from an overabundance of toddler whining.  

Seriously.

The last few days with Kaden have been a constant series of, "No, no, no!  I DO IT!"s and high pitched requests that I have to coax him to rephrase in a normal tone of voice with a please and a thank you.

This mothering a toddler is an exhausting business, I tell you.

Tonight, I had to call in reinforcements just to get the chap pajama-ed, song-ed, and to bed.

Luckily, I have photos like this to remind me just how cute he can be:

The first weekend in October is the General Conference for our church.  I love conference weekend for many reasons.  Probably the best reason is we get to feel spiritually nourished, uplifted, and end the weekend filled with a desire to be better people in general.  The second best reason is definitely that we spend pretty much the entire weekend eating and in our pajamas.

Kaden, enjoying some daytime pajama time:

Kaden, listening to President Monson speak:

Chad had Columbus Day off at the start of the month.  That was also the day the demolition started on our kitchen (YAY!), so we did the activity part of our Family Home Evening in the afternoon and headed to the farmers' market.  Kaden fell in love with the little pumpkins, so we bought a few for our front porch.  They've become some of his favorite toys, and we've carted the things all over the place (to the airport to pick up Grandma, during the day while we run errands, etc).

 We bought some apples while we were there.  I was busy picking out varieties we can't find at the regular grocery store, when Kaden grabbed a gala and took a ginormous bite out of it.  We bought it, of course, and he carted it around the market, munching on his snack for the rest of our visit.

My little munchkin might be a mess, but he's mine.  I am so thankful I get to be a mom, even with all the challenges that come with the job description.  

Arachno-LOVE

My mother-in-law is the queen of holiday decorating.  I kid you not.  Come Christmas time, her house will look like one of those holiday shops you walk through while you're on vacation.  Harvest time is no exception, and when we went to K-town last weekend, the Halloween decorations were already up for Kadester to enjoy.  He became particularly enamored with this little gem:  

Yes, that is a giant, creepy spider.

At first, he was terrified of it.  Nana showed it to him while they were outside, and he wouldn't believe that it was fake.  When Chad finally went over to touch it, Kaden warily hid behind a plant and watched from afar. For the two days we were there he kept saying, "Oh!  Big Spider!" and then we would have to remind him, "Yes, that is a big spider.  But he's just pretend."  When it finally sunk in that the spider was, indeed, not like the ones that his mommy screams bloody murder about, runs from, and attacks with bug spray from 25 feet away, he decided that he was in love with it.

Seriously.

He has shed tears over not being able to be reunited with the big spider.  "Go Gigi's house.  Big Spider!"

He has talked with the Big Spider on the phone.  While conversing with said spider via the cellphone, he has proclaimed his love for it, and commanded that Gigi feed it a lunch of french fries.

I have had to console him at nap time by telling him that the big spider is probably resting at Gigi's house, since it can't be with him in his crib.

  

It is crazy to me that he still remembers it.  

Crazier still is the fact that he remembers it FONDLY.