226

The number of pictures that I just took off my camera.
So I might be just a little behind...
I blame it on this incident.
And the crazy amount of dirty laundry it caused.
Also putting a damper on actually doing laundry at my own house.
The good news, we are picking up our new {to us} washer and dryer tonight!

So to catch up...here is a little bit of what we have been loving lately...

Art Prize

The first few weeks of October Grand Rapids holds Art Prize.  The down town area is full of amazing art pieces.  The sidewalks are pack with people, and the winner wins 250,000 people.  It is really cool!!

Karson now says 'cheese' when he sees the camera.  A far cry from what he used to do when he saw my camera/video camera...run...or stop doing whatever cute thing he was doing at the time.

Karson next to his current, absolute favorite thing {besides dogs, fans, airplanes, and food...} bugs!

Icky icky bugs!

fyi-if you say icky icky bug to him you will hear the belly giggle.

He thinks it is hilarious.

My Mom taught him that!

Look Daddy, its a big huge icky bug!

Leaf Pick Up

We are surrounded by huge trees.

Trees that turn beautiful colors.

 

Trees that drop more leaves than you can imagine into our yard.

Luckily, raking leaves, is one yard work task that I enjoy doing.

Raking leaves with the cutest 1 1/2 year old is even better!!!

a very small leaf pile from a few weeks ago

Going for a wheel barrel ride with daddy.

It lasted all of 2 seconds before he wanted down.

CHEESE

The Tractor

He isn't afraid of the tractor anymore.

In fact, he loves it!!! 

After we showed him a few more times where to push the peddle down at, he had it figured out!  He rides it all over the yard.

Hide & Seek

Karson will hide somewhere, and yell 'Mommy.'  I have found him in lots of different cupboards, and under the bathroom sink, and behind doors.

This time, I found him tucked into my bed.

That hadn't quite been made yet...

He was so proud of him self!

Sprinklers & Water Fun

It was 70 degrees out.

So we aren't quite the horrible parents, it looks like we are.  Karson has hated sprinklers all summer, so when they were on when we went outside to play, I figured he would stay away from them.

I was wrong.

He got soaked.

He ended up in a diaper.

He had an absolute blast!!

Outside Play Time

We have been enjoying a lot of it lately...

The Climber & Slide

Our new neighbors gave us their new climber and slide.

And with that, I am out of time.

Karson and I are headed to hear Baby Brother or Sister's heartbeat.

Series of pictures as he hit the ground going with the slide...

'uh oh'

'owwwwww'

Have to go...happy Wednesday!!

A Train, Books, and a Pumpkin Spiced Latte

Last week, it rained, all week.

 Literally, every singe day, all week!

Which meant no outside time
Which meant a little boy, who was going stir crazy!
Which meant a Mama who was going stir crazy!
One afternoon, he woke up from his nap really early.  I remembered a high school teacher telling us one day that his son loves to play with the train track at Barnes & Noble.  Karson has been on a big book kick lately, and I thought he might like the train.  Plus, there is a Starbucks in our Barnes & Noble.  They can make a decaf Pumpkin Spiced Latte for a pregnant Mama.

 

 My sweet boy loved every second.  You could see his little engineering wheels turning as he tried to figure each and every piece out.

There was the sweetest little boy there, who was also playing.  

(made sure not to get him in a picture...because I would be weirded out if some stranger was taking a picture of my kid)

He was by far the sweetest little boy I have ever met.

Karson would take a train from him, and I would remind my 1 1/2 year old to share.  Even though he has absolutely no idea what sharing is yet.  

The little boy's comment every time: 

"Its ok.  He is just little.  He doesn't know any better.  He may play with the train.  There are many others for me to play with." 

Seriously?!  Kudos to his Mama because she did a fantastic job!!

 engineering brain at work...

He played for the longest time, with that perplexed look on his face. 

 he really wanted to figure out what happened when he twisted it...

He played for a long time, while I enjoyed talking to sweetest boy in the world's Mama, and drank my decaf Pumpkin Spiced Latte.  

When he was done with the train, I sat him down in front of a display of board books.  I was probably the talk of the store.  I let him pick any book he wanted to look through.  I let him take any board (aka: Karson friendly) book off the shelf he wanted to.  I made sure every book got put away where he pulled it from.  We read  a lot of books!  He loved it, and even found a book all on his own about dancing, that plays music.  He brought it to me, pushed the button, and started dancing.

Karson got a new book out of our trip!

The Smedley Food of 2011

We have horrible, HORRIBLE, luck with appliances.  Seriously, horrible! 
At our old house, our fridge started on fire.  Thankfully, DJ was in the kitchen when it started sparking, and he took care of it right away.
Six months later, we got a recall letter for the refrigerator.  Apparently, they were starting on fire.
Ya don't say?!
But guess what?!  We didn't get a refund, because our house didn't actually burn down.  Technicalities and all.

We have had other appliances break, but my Dad has been able to fix them.
So Saturday, DJ and I are out raking the leafs.  He leaves to run some errands.  I put Karson down for a nap, put diapers in the wash, and go back outside to rake leafs.  A little over an hour later, I notice a puddle of water in the garage.  Strange, because we didn't run the water outside.
I walk inside to find my kitchen flooded.
My bathroom/laundry room flooded.
My closets flooded.
Quick, shut off the washer.
Call DJ...'Get home NOW.'
Get out the towels.
Start picking up the massive mess.
DJ gets home.
We run out of towels.
I run to my parents, get more towels.
Run back home to find that there was even more water downstairs.
DJ says about 50 gallons...ya know...no biggie.
Run to the neighbors to get a squeegee.

Luckily, our appliance issues are now funny to us.  So we were laughing, hysterically.  Brand new laminate floor...flooded.  Funny stuff.  So we pick up the disaster, DJ fixes what he thinks is wrong, and I have permission to run the washer again.
Start the washer.
My foot gets wet...
"DJ there is water pouring out of the bottom of the washer!!!!"
Shut the washer off
Still water is pouring.
Mind you...we have zero dry towels...
DJ goes downstairs to turn the water supply off.
Still water is pouring.
Call Dad...
"Please come help us!!"
Dad to the rescue....
My dad can fix anything.
Not this time.
Apparently my new washer that came with the house is so old, there is a whole rusted though the bottom of the tank.  Thus the 50 gallons of water pouring out of the washer while I raked the leafs for an hour.
Great fun.  Today-I brought 5 garbage bags of towels, and a bag of diapers over to my parents to wash...

Thus...
The Smedley Flood of 2011

Apple Picking

Saturday afternoon, after a very crazy morning, we went Apple Picking.

I know Karson like apples.

I did not know how much Karson loves apples!

The second I set him down, he ran to pick one up...

Except he picked one up that someone had already taken a bit off of.

He wasn't too happy when Daddy had to take it away.

 He and Daddy went out to find a new apple to eat.

A crate in the middle of an apple orchard...

Perfect photo opt!

Once he got his apple, he never put it down.

In fact, he rarely ever took it out of his mouth.

Aunt Katie & Uncle Shawn came with us.

We had so much fun, stuffing our bags full of apples.

...while Karson continued to eat his apple.

During our little photo shoot, Munchkin dropped his apple.

It was traumatic.

He was devastated!

That was, until he got a new apple.

While Mommy & Aunt Katie were busy taking pictures, the boys actually did the picking.

We both went home with a half bushel full of apples.

They are so good!

I have a feeling I will be making an apple pie in the near future.

After we picked apples, we got donuts and cider, then went out for dinner.

I laughed harder than I have laughed in a long time.