Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Fall In Iowa

Fall in Iowa can only mean one thing.... FOOTBALL!!

We've been busy with Friday night high school football, flag football, Iowa Hawkeye football, youth 5th & 6th grade football and our beloved Packer football!

We love fall and we love being busy with all these activities!

We took the boys tailgating on a beautiful Saturday!
It gets us out of the house and around people!
The back of the minivan kept the kids busy;)

We also like to ditch the kids and go out with just the adults to cheer on the Hawkeyes!
{By ditching the kids I mean taking them to Gma and Gpa Heitman's for a sleepover!}
Always a good time with this one!

And most games we spend with family at my mom and dad's house!

On home Raider games we have people over... some head up to the game... some stay and have a few drinks!
Here's Amy lugging around my chunk of a baby... watch your back!

Pierce has a flag football game every Saturday morning.
Cash has flag football camp every Saturday morning.
Here's Pierce and Rayce... same shirts... different teams!

My parents got a basketball hoop and it's been a hit for everyone... even the grown boys!


Over Labor Day weekend we took the boys to a Kernels game.
The weather was beautiful and the boys had a lot of fun!
Cash actually got 2 foul balls... he was nice and shared one with Pierce... who was wondering around not paying attention like Cash!  Pierce is lucky he has a nice brother!

Jeep rides at Grandma's!

Golf cart rides at the Spratt Ranch

My parents adopted a golden retriever, Molly!
She's actually from my in-laws.
Molly and their German shepherd did not get along so they needed to find her a new home!
They were beyond thrilled when my parents offered to take her!

Last Friday I got out of the house and went to The Barn in Wellman with my friend Haley.
There were so many things I wanted to bring home.. but I held myself back to a couple items!

What do you do when your 8 year old wild child says he's bored?!
Put him to work!
{And yes, that's Cash in the recliner... picking his nose!}

This sweet, sweet boy LOVES his mama!
It's hard to put him down but we are working on it!

So peaceful...

Kroy is getting more and more active... he loves his exersaucer!

We had a big change... Kroy is now sleeping in his room.
It's so nice to get our bedroom back and he's doing amazing... sleeping 9pm to 7am!

Here is Kroy with his newest (distant) cousin Slate!
Kroy is 12 weeks older:)

Pierce made the Press-Citizen!
He was trying on fire gear... surprise surprise!


Life has been so crazy lately... that's the reason for the delay in a new post... it took me 4 days just to finish this post!!
I feel like we are go go go until 8:30pm (at the earliest) every night with the older boys and then I'm dealing with bath, bottle and bed for the baby.

It's football, tumbling, church, and don't even get me started on 2nd grade homework... it's probably not a big deal to those students who sit and actually do it (and get it!) but when your son throws a fit every.single.night because he has to do homework it gets to be too much!  I'm seriously already dreading the homework as he gets older... Someone please tell me I'm not alone!

We spend so much time focusing on Pierce and where he's at with school and homework that Cash often gets put on the back burner.  It's not like we mean to or want to, it just happens. And it makes me sad!  We need a change... and soon!


I've said it before and I'll say it again... life is not all peaches and cream here!

I struggle as a mom and wife every single day...

BUT... you push through to do whatever you have to for your kids....
... and thank God I have a supportive husband who does just as much school work with them as me!
{Single parents have my upmost respect I could NOT do this alone!}
I also thank God I have a great group of friends who know exactly what I'm going through... I don't go a week without seeing them... it's my therapy:)

On that note... go out and make it a good week!

Friday, September 2, 2016

Insta-Friday

This has been the longest, craziest week and I'm glad it's Friday!

This week was full of Travis coaching youth football 3 nights, Pierce having flag football practice, a fire meeting for the Ass Chief, 2 spray tan parties, a coach's BBQ here (that I didn't know about til the day before!), the kids' first early out (seriously, they JUST started school!)... oh and lets throw a sick 5 year old in there...poor Cash had a fever this week:(

We don't have any plans for the Labor Day weekend and I'm not sad about it!
There's going to be a whole lot of nothing going on!

Here's our lives lately...

Pierce has been BEGGING to mow!
My friend Haley had this Lawn Boy and wanted to get rid of it.
Travis ordered some parts and got it running again!
This is Pierce's heaven!


Last Saturday night Travis and I went out with Wardenburgs and Westfalls.
We ate at the local Mexican restaurant then were headed to a fellow fireman's party.
On the way to the party the guys got called to a fire:(
It was an exciting ride to the fire station!
The guys all took off for the fire and we women hung around and did what any fireman's wife would do... took selfies:)
Unfortunately we never made it to the party and I feel bad about that!
So, Eldon and Julie, if you're reading this just know we were on our way...but plans changed:(
Happy 30th wedding anniversary!


On Sunday we had a quiet morning at home!
Love my boys!!

Sunday night my sister had Kahne's birthday party at the North Liberty pool.
She's a brave woman for inviting this many kids boys!!
The boys had fun but we didn't get home til almost 10pm.
That made for a rough Monday morning...
...luckily they went to school... bahahahaha!!


Teaching them the game of football again.
I should really be listening;)

Cash gets lots of smiles out of Kroy:)

And this seems to be the only place he'll nap...
I'm working on it, I swear!

One of my friends posted this on her Instagram and I LOVE it!
This is so spot on with how I hope my parenting goes/is going!
How many correct words they read per minute is not high on my parenting list...
...being nice is!
All I ask of my kids is to be nice!
Every day when they walk out the door to go to school I tell them "do something nice for someone today!"  Pierce gets excited to come home and tell me he held the door open for so and so... one day he told a girl in his class he liked her shirt!  This brings me more joy then any school work ever will!
BE THE NICE KID!!

****************************************

My best friend in the whole wide world had an awful summer.
She lost her dad.

Her dad was her world and now her world has been rocked.

I'm sad that she's hurting.
I'm sad that she has to go through this so young.
I'm sad that her kids have to go through this so young.
I'm sad that she'll never see or talk to her dad again.

There's not a manual for "what can I do for my best friend who lost her dad?"...
...I wish there was!

I just made sure she knew I was here.
I texted her a lot... often times without a response... but as long as she knew I was here that's all that mattered.

I had no idea what to do as far as a memorial.
I finally had an idea but drug my feet because, like Stacy, I am still in shock.
I don't want it to be real.

Two months later I delivered this to her...
I bought the Iowa rock and then had Troy Collingwood out of Marengo engrave it.
{I would highly recommend him!}

She was very thankful and I think she loved it.


Dave was a HUGE Iowa fan and went to every football game...home and away!
This weekend is the first game of the first season Dave will not physically be with them.
It's going to be rough for all of them.

I pray for peace and strength for Stacy, her mom and her two brothers.
Your dad was a great, great man and he will never be forgotten!