If Spring has spring then Fall must have… flung?

It's a beautiful thing, isn't it? Fall. I mean, really.

For the sake of not being cliche I not going to go into detail about how much I love autumn in the city, or how amazing all the different trees look, or how magical it is to walk through Central Park crunching through the leaves. I won't go on and on about how much I wish it was this time of year all year. Some people love summer, winter, spring… no, no, I am a fall type lady. But I won't get into that. You don't need to know that I have a body that is much better suited for sweaters than bikinis. Tastebuds that are much more keen on pumpkin (sweet and savory) than your standard day to day foods (who am I kidding though- I love some good BBQ, watermelon, fresh spring salads, etc..) And a heart that just soars whenever I get to have a cozy day inside with my kiddies sipping on tea and/or coffee by the candlelight.. Cause we don't have a fireplace. Otherwise it would totally be the fireplace. I'm not going to drown you in overused phrases about how much I love wearing scarves and boots and cardigans. I won't tell you that a hot cup of honey vanilla chamomile tea in the evening is something I look forward to almost every day that the temperatures are below 60. And I will not sing accolades of the wondrous fall time activities like apple picking, pumpkin patch hunting, cider donut eating, corn mazes, etc that just fill my heart with joy. I simply refuse to do that to you.

See what I did there?

Don't get me wrong, though- put a Pumpkin Spice Latte in my face and I will slap it right out of your hands. I have tried, believe me, but I cannot hop on the Pumpkin Spice Latte train.

{Conquered these steps with a friend and our 3 toddlers, 1 babe & 2 strollers... Try getting that experience in any other city! ;) }

We have celebrated 2 birthdays recently! I say recently when in reality its been about a month and a half- but still. It feels recent. Hudson is 2 now and Nic turned 25.. Just amazing, right? Wasn't I finding out I was pregnant with him like.. 2 weeks ago?! Not 2 years?! And Nic?? The somewhat mysterious and hot foreign guitar playing 20 year old I met... Now my husband, father to my children and an executive in NYC? Come on. Haha.. Unreal. We planned some fun things for birthday celebrations but mostly kept it small with our New York family. Hudson had an organized playdate with some of his buddies at Central Park and lots of exciting gifts from us and in the mail. Nic got a weekend full of surprises.. A late-night date night, some presents he was less than expecting, and all of his favorite foods. I am so blessed to be able to bless my boys. I think it is just too fun that we have 2 September boys and 2 July girls. Enough of a pattern for Nic to advocate for us to call it quits with the two kiddos.. Haha. We'll see about that. I can't say I feel all too in control when it comes to how many children we will have, seeing as we didn't exactly "plan" the timing of either of our two children! But who knows. Maybe one day we will get to adopt. That would be just amazing.

{Bedroom full of balloons.. Continued tradition from last year}

{September Birthday Boys out for pizza}

In other news, Hudson has become quite the talker! Ever since right around his birthday his vocab has been growing by leaps and bounds each day. Though he won't prove it to our friends when we put him on the spot. Of course…Haha. It usually goes a little something like this... "Hudson! Who is that? Is that your sister?? What's her name??… *blank stare* Come on.. You know this Hudson.. *blank stare* Hudson? Honey? Wanna sing us your birthday song? Show them how you know the birthday song, baby! *blank stare*… Hey Hudson! Is that a squirrel?? 'You gotta hear how he says squirrel, it's hilarious..'.. Hudson??! Look at that squirrel. Do you see it? What is that?! Can you tell us what that is?? *blank stare*" Whatever, kid. We know you're brilliant.

Can you believe Charlotte is already 3 months old! I know I can't. She tries to sit up on her own, has become very "grabby" and likes to koala just about anything you put within her reach, giggles at her brother, coos and smiles and melts our hearts daily. We have so loved having a sweet daughter to call our own, and can hardly wait to see her personality continue to blossom. It's no lie when people tell you that it goes by too quickly. And how with each kid time it somehow accelerates even more. I don't wanna miss these precious moments!! It's absolutely wonderful, and absolutely devastating all at once.

{Snuggly bunch}

{"Reading" with each other}

We had hoped to have another fun upstate adventure with the Kennedy's this year but it just didn't work out with everyone's busy schedules. Nic traveled HEAPS this month. As soon as he was getting home from one trip he was having to pack another bag to head out somewhere else. This job has definitely been challenging on the "days away from home" front, but there are some perks here and there that help it to feel a little bit less painful. The airline points and hotel points have paid for a few trips of ours already, and the fact that we haven't spent more than probably $50 on clothing for Nic in the past year because of his clothing allowance for work is pretty amazing, not to mention all of the invaluable work experience he is gaining and the pretty incredible people we've become acquainted with. It's been tough but also very rewarding. We feel blessed, to say the least.

 {Love this sweet boy with all my heart}

{Yep, these kids have turned me to mush!! Look at those dimples!!} 

I got "white girl stereotyped" at Central Park a week or so ago. It was pretty funny, and a little bit shocking to say the least. It didn't really even hit me until the lady awkwardly walked away shortly after her comment..  I was talking with a fellow mom playground patron, discussing the age difference between my kiddies and the fact that she wants to wait until her daughter is more like 5-6 before having another babe. No judgment from my end, I said that I thought it was a great amount of time between kids and that it would be awesome for the older sibling to have a bigger part in helping take care of the younger one.. to which she replies, "Well, yeah, I am sure you have a lot of help from your nannies and all but it would just be me at home with the children, so I really do need to wait longer between kids…" Uhhhhh… What?! I laughed at the statement and said, "Oh, well, thats sweet, but it is just me at home- we don't pay for any help. I take care of them on my own.. and my husband helps when he isn't at work, of course!" Annnd for some reason that is beyond me,  the conversation died shortly thereafter. Nic said I had the prime opportunity to use the race card but I didn't take advantage! Maybe I'll just hang out at Central Park more often and wait for another chance…It is bound to happen. People tend to talk out of their asses here. I have had someone ask me if I was my kids nanny. And ask me if they are both from the same dad. And if we got married before or after we had the kids. And if we had planned to have them soooo close together. For some reason it's hard for people out here to wrap their minds around a 24 year old mother of 2, who is married to their father no less. Haha! Oh well. I take it all with a smile and nod. This life may not make sense to some, but I love it. I am blessed. We are blessed! I realize that! I mean, it really is incredible to be able to stay at home to raise our children in a city that requires most families to have a double income. I try my hardest to remember that in the moments that make me wanna kick that friggin remote control truck across the apartment because it somehow ended up under my feet for the 1,000th time today and the loud noise has now waked the baby!!!! Haha. See.. I can laugh now… But in the moment? Yeah. I'm not proud of my behavior.

We've been back and forth trying to make some solid plans for Thanksgiving but have finally settled on staying in the city. I'm actually really looking forward to it. I'd been excited for all the different possibilities we'd been looking at but I think I am most excited with staying here. I mean, really, the city is just so beautiful this time of year. ;)

{See what I mean?}

And it will be fun to see the parade up close and in person again, have a big lunch/dinner with our adopted NYC family, and just relax at home with our little family, having Nic home and not working for almost an entire week? Sounds like heaven to me.

On that note, I've got my little slice of heaven waking from her morning nap. Time to kick it into high gear and stop sitting around. Much love, and God bless, y'all.