life's to dos.

life's to do list this week has included:

1. Put home up for sale.
2. Give 14 showings within 3 days for said house.
3. Get first offer on house (yay!) with more promised in coming days. 
4. Decide on house to buy. 
5. Spend lots of time at urgent care- the bear has strep throat. 
6. Go to DR- the bear has given mama said germs. 
7. Work. Lots of work.
8. Do all of this solo- Dan is out of town.
9. Start planning for trip to Paris & Geneva next week.
10. Stay semi-sane. TBD on success of #10. 

life lately.

Life lately has been just living life- the good, the better and the sometimes not so great. Thankfully we have moments like these- with a Daddy and his babies on a perfect fall day- to make up for some of the in-betweens that don't feel nearly as peaceful. 

This is the scene every single night before bed time. It's their ritual. A little friendly checkers action followed by some heated tic-tac-toe with the peanut. 

The babies have also been soaking up the fall weather with Amy while we're working. I love getting updates throughout the day to see their smiling faces having fun. 

And speaking of work... fall in the city outside my office is pretty great too. I've also been making a point (thanks to my fit bit which I might be somewhat obsessed with) of getting up and taking brief walks throughout the day to help with my back situation. And I struck gold with finding this stand-up desk to work at in between meetings. It has made a big, big difference so the medical team at my office is working on getting one installed at my actual office space. 

The not so great side of work lately has been the continued changes happening- one of the most inspiring leaders I've ever worked with left the company last week. He was a legend at P&G and I'm so thankful I was able to learn from him, even for a short while. 

And life lately has included a lot of these little faces which I can never get enough of. Well, except when I see too much of them in the middle of the night, but even then they're pretty sweet. 

life lately. the last week of summer 14'

This last week of summer was a good one. Lots of hard work, lots of fun and the added bonus of a three-day weekend. I think Dan probably got tired of me saying, "can you imagine if we had 3 days off every week?" I appreciate the extra days off here and there so much more because I work full time. And we spent that extra time doing some major re-charging today. So needed, so appreciated. 

Some time I'm going to spend one day taking a quick photo once every hour to remeber how much my roles varied through each day in this season of my life. On my commute home, I often reflect at how different life looks when I'm at work and when I'm at home. I love both those worlds and love that they each make the other than much better too.

If you asked Dan what his favorite part of this week was he would for sure answer getting this new tractor. Or bulldozer or backhoe or whatever it's called. It's "his dream" apparently... and he has been attached to it pretty much all weekend.

Dan and his best buddy posing by their first project done with the tractor- a retaining wall on the side of the driveway entrance. They were pretty proud. (PS: Jonah is in there too, hiding behind Dan in the baby backpack)

And we couldn't say farewell to summer without s'mores. S'mores in the mud and rain with friends? Sure, why not. The crazier the better for these monsters.

life lately.

life lately has included...

A successful first day for Jackson at his new preschool. I worked off-site so that I could take my buddy and pick him up on his first day. We even squeezed in a back-to-(pre)school breakfast- so fun. He was nervous at drop-off but all smiles when I picked him up and his teacher said he did amazing. 

A little late- but last Sunday we celebrated Grace's 6th birthday. Jackson LOVES his Grace (almost as much as her birthday cupcakes?). 

One evening this week some girlfriends and I went to a "do it herself" workshop at the Home Depot. It was hilarious and we even picked up a few new skills. What is TPI you may ask? Well, that's just some new power tool lingo I'll break out at some point with Dan- I'm sure he'll be impressed ;). 

Soccer Saturday returned after a bye-week. Jackson blew us away  with how much he continues to come out of his shell and was aggressive and scored his first goal! So proud of my little man. And some of his favorite fans came to watch too which was a big bonus. 

I am continuing to figure out the balance between work and home. We're getting there. Each week it somehow gets a little easier and a little harder at the same time. I know that makes no sense- it's just that with each week I seem to figure some things out while other parts get more challenging. Thankfully, the good still far outweighs the hard. Friday night we went to a dinner party with my work team- I loved meeting their families and loved that they met mine. I want them to know my babies, I want them to know Dan because those people that I work with are so much more than that and I need them to know the most important parts of my life, my family. 

And all of that work-week struggle makes the weekends so, so much sweeter. It makes us that much more intentional with how we spend our time. 

We really are so, so blessed. 

ripping off the band-aid.

2 out of 5 Engels agree that this lady went a little overboard with the cleaning today. Audrey told me (a few times), "oh goodness, all this cleaning is making me tired" and "oh, mommy, I just need to rest" as she would dramatically throw herself onto the couch. And before he went to bed Dan told me that he thinks that "we're all cleaned out for this 'funday sunday'." Don't feel too sorry for them- Jackson LOVES to clean and organize and they were rewarded with their very first slush-puppies. 

I can't help it, I canNOT go to work with an unorganized house. It's still not as perfect as I'd like for it to be, but I'm learning that's just the reality of living with 3 little monsters and 1 husband who maaaay not require the same level of clean as I do. Knowing that my home is in order and that my babies are taken care of are 2 necessaries for me to work full-time. It helps me feel at peace, allowing me to let go of the worries and focus on what I need to do during the work day. 

I have been thinking... that I've just been thinking too much about going back to work. The anticipation is what is killing me- that fuzzy time in between two chapters when every little thing is analyzed... and then analyzed again. I know that at this time tomorrow, when my first day is over, I will feel a lot better. I just need to rip off the band aid already. 

And until then, here's a little bit of life lately from the past few days: 

Lots of play time with the babies. That face in the swing? That's his opinion of swinging most of the time. Not a big fan just yet. 

We've also taken care of lots of last-minute errands and as anyone knows, errands are best capped off with ice cream. 

And last night was date night with Jackson & Audrey to see Disney Junior Live with their cousins. I don't think the peanut has ever sat still that long- she was star struck... and let the record books show that you can indeed eat an entire bag of cotton candy by yourself and not throw up (leave it to Jackson to inhale that much sugar without me realizing it...).

oh, monday... last sweet monday of maternity leave.

This title reflects this week's theme: drown in the sorrows that are the end of my maternity leave. I have a to-do list about a mile long of things I want to get finished this week. Today we took care of a few, including:

1. Taking some toys and supplies to Nanna's house. And by "some" I mean about half of our house. 3 babies come with a lot of gear :) 

2. We made a trip to the pediatrician this afternoon to get a shot for both Jackson and Audrey. Since we do an alternative vaccination schedule (i.e. just one shot at a time), we try to go every few months and so I wanted to get one more visit in before my work schedule got hectic. They were so brave- up until the nurses came in with shots in hand. Then, it took 2 nurses helping me to get Jackson up on the table and held down. He quickly recovered when I reminded him that we were getting shakes after his appointment. Audrey is usually the brave one. This time, not so much. She screamed LOUDLY while they gave her the shot and then was apparently a little bitter because she yelled alllll the way out the building, "that Doctor CUT me, she CUT me so bad, it huuuuuurts." Fun times. 

3. As I write this, Jonah is sleeping in his own room for the very first time! Dan has been installing a barn door on his room (almost finished), he raised the baby bed and installed the video monitor on the wall. I'm hoping we can fully kick our cute little roomate out of his bassinet in our room in the next few days so he's comfortable and set up in his own room before I go back to work.

And a little life lately from the past few days...

Jonah bear does NOT like bath time. At all. As soon as I carry him into the bathroom he starts wailing. I have no idea why this is so adorable, but it is. 

Jackson enjoying a cupcake at our sweet friend Lainey's welcome home/birthday party. 

Daddy, Peanut time. Doing her favorite thing: reading books. I hear countless times every day, "Mommy, I'm going to go get a book for YOU and for ME." :)

It's baby-food-makin' season! I'm hoping the peaches will be ready this weekend at the local orchard... Jonah has no idea what he's been missing out on.

Lots of random baby fun, including a nature scavenger hunt outside. That ended abruptly when we ran into a snake in the middle of one of our trails. That's a liiiiitle too much nature for this mom.

Dan and I started teaching again in the "runner's room" at church. We had taken time off while Jonah was so young, but now he goes to the nursery and we take care of all the 1.5-3 year olds during one of the services. They love Mr. Dan and all the crazy games he comes up with. 

I hear someone waking up from his mini nap... 

life lately. ((phone dump))

I'm working on being less 'connected' (a la getting rid of facebook for awhile)... and leaving my phone off or put away on purpose, but one plus of having it with me is capturing some of our 'every day' moments. The moments that aren't anything special on the surface and the photos themselves are usually blurry and not perfect at all, but that's our life. Our crazy, messy, imperfect beautiful life. Life lately has included...

-LOTS of ice cream runs. I'm pretty sure Jackson & Audrey think "ice cream" is summer's 4th meal of the day. 

-Late night hair cuts by Daddy.

-Lots of grocery trips. There are weeks where I feel like I have lucked out and spend very little time in the grocery store and then other weeks where we seem to make multiple trips. 

-Playing in the water and riding bikes... sweet, sweet summer.

-Jonah Bear is LOVING baby food. So far he has had sweet potatoes and bananas. And tonight I plan to make him a batch of either squash or peas... depending on what's ripe at the farm stand Dan is going to stop at. (Don't you just want to squeeeeeze those cheeks!?)

-Family dinners. A cook-out at our house and then lunch out yesterday for Mamaw's birthday. Gotta love a table-full of babies. 

-Soaking up as MUCH baby time as possible since I go back to work 2 weeks from today (holy anxiety attack).
...when I get home from running Jackson loves to go and do hill runs in the backyard with me. This is my work-out buddy with his hair band on like I wear when I run :). 
...reading books with Jonah Bear. Honestly, how am I going to leave him for the office every day?
...Date night with Audrey. Love my peanut time.

-This child. She is going to give me a lot of gray hairs over the years. For the second time in a few months she busted her lip badly. This time from running in the house which is a big "no no" around here. It's hard to see in these pictures, but trust me, it's preeeetty gross. 

-Late evening runs. I'm thankful for this time of the year when I can go running late and still do it outside with the sun setting past 9:00. This allows me to still have the whole evening with Dan and the babies, have Jonah either in bed or ready for bed and then get out to run. Bonus? It's usually MUCH cooler by then.