our weekend...

oops...2 weekend posts in a row! this week was REALLY low-key...obviously. i've mentioned that thursdays still feel like the start of the weekend to me, even after a year now of lane working on fridays. after a really long, rough parenting day on wednesday, lane surprised me by taking the morning off on thursday to give me a "guilt free morning in bed." he had already planned it and talked to his bosses. it just happened to fall on the most perfect "morning-after-rough-day" morning!! i stayed in bed until 9:30, y'all. he even set his clock to run to the store to get items for a big breakfast! he's attentive and i'm thankful. 

it's amazing what a little R&R do for a body and soul. well, that and having daddy home! my children were angels that morning and we had so much fun hanging out with lane before he went to work at lunchtime! lachlan was also playing with us that morning. he and knox were non-hitting buddies that day. that's always a good day :) knox is super into vocab books right now. he's talking so much these days and will willingly try any word. i LOVE this stage of communication!

that evening, we picked nana up to go help us cheer on canon at his soccer game! he even had his best game of the season. he chased the ball and made more contact with it in that 30 minutes than he had in all 5 of his previous games! 10 months of being housemates made these two sweet, sweet buddies :)

after the kiddos went to bed, i headed over to torrie's house for our monthly girls' night. i always look forward to these and they are so refreshing for this tired mama! these ladies are amazing and i feel so blessed to do life with them. and we always stay up too late and eat way too much food, but it's ALWAYS worth it!

friday morning, the boys and i ran a few errands. they're such good shoppers! while we were at kohl's, they were trailing behind me, holding hands and just chatting. it was pretty sweet!

the boys were SUPER excited for lunchtime to finally arrive because their cousins were passing through town! we only saw them once this summer and, frankly, that's too long for these little friends! ella requested that they all say "gingerbread" in this pic :)

knox couldn't get enough of miss hadley! she's the sweetest, most petite thing. seeing these 2 together made knox seem SO big. they will be big time buddies as they get older! they're 15 months apart, the biggest cousin age gap, but it won't matter.

lane worked on my cabinet door faces for my bathroom that afternoon. almost ready for the big bathroom reveal! of course, he had 3 willing helpers. they LOVE projects. after the boys went to bed, lane and i sat outside just enjoying the beautiful evening. it was such a sweet night!

saturday was the most perfect fall day...cool, rainy, and no plans! that morning, the big boys went with lane to the donut shop to pick out their donuts. that was a big hit. i ran to walmart and had a surprise run-in with cailee in the cracker aisle. we see each other several times a week, but usually have little boys under toe. we had such wonderful, encouraging conversation in an unlikely place. that afternoon, i went to get the mail and came back up the driveway to these monkeys in the window!

 

and of course, the perfect fall day calls for chili and cornbread. according to instagram, it sounds like a lot of you had the same idea!

sunday morning was our church's "great day of service" where 2500 people go out into our community to simultaneously be the hands and feet of jesus. our previous church did this and it is some of our favorite memories from our time there. we are so grateful that our new church values this as well! while the tasks varied, our family, along with our precious friends, the eidson's, and sarah's mom, went to a nursing home in town. although the residents kept thanking us for visiting and were clearly thrilled to be interacting with us and the boys, we were the ones who were truly blessed (as i knew we would be). i was so proud of the boys and their interactions with the sweet people! Their charm even got them a few snacks from several residents! ledger sang "ABC's" and "jesus loves me" for these fig newtons. we are so thankful for the conversations that we had with our boys about what we were doing and why. it was a beautiful morning!

 the nursing home had several beautiful birds that the kids loved looking at! 

 knox would squeal every time a bird would fly at him!

after we left the nursing home, we drove an hour south to a fun pumpkin patch. going to the pumpkin patch is my very favorite fall activity! i was excited to make new memories at a new place (turns out this new place is awesome!). the drive there was absolutely gorgeous. it was also super hilly so we introduced the boys to "roller coasters"!

we went with our friends, austin and sarah & cailee and drew. it was such a fun afternoon! i have a whole slew of pumpkin patch pictures for my next post...imagine that!

the past few days have just been really, really good days for my soul. i'm finally learning how to relax and enjoy every day, however they come. i'm constantly thanking god for these sweet blessings that i have, even on our rough days (and man, do we have some rough days! this past wednesday is one that i'd like to not ever repeat). life is so unpredictable that i don't want to blink and miss any of it. i'm so grateful for lane and how well he loves us. he's simply the best. ok...i'll stop this sentimental paragraph now :)

yesterday was also my mamie's birthday! she's my most faithful blog reader so a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her. we love you, mamie, and can't wait to hug you!