Pumpkins, Weddings, and Theme Parks

Posted in Family by klmatthews16

Pumpkins, weddings and theme parks…that was basically the gist of our month! We spent the month of October in 3 (kind of 4) different states between a family wedding and vacation…and still managed to fit in all of our favorite fall and Halloween traditions! Like I expected, it was a very busy month…but we made lots of memories!

Here’s how our month went down…

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Between traveling, school, and Ryan’s schedule, we had ONE day of the entire month that we could actually take our annual visit to the Pumpkin Patch…so luckily it worked out! It was hot and crowded, but we had a great visit. We enjoyed picking out pumpkins, taking a hay ride, playing in the corn pit and climbing on the hay playground. We love this farm and will miss it next year…but Indiana knows a thing or two about farms so I have no doubt we’ll find another one to continue our fall traditions next year!

Kinsie Rocking Kindergarten

Kinsie is still doing great in school! She still loves it more than ever and I know she’s learning a lot. Lately, she received a few awards…a responsibility citizen of the month from the school counselor, perfect attendance for the quarter, and Super Falcon for her class! We are so proud of her!

Kinsie’s Writing

I LOVE when Kinsie brings home her writing from school…it melts my heart! I love watching her using her phonics skills to sound out her words. Here are a few of my favorite fall writings this month.

Red Ribbon Week

The week after Fall Break, Kinsie’s school celebrated Red Ribbon Week to promote living drug free. I used to be the Student Council sponsor for my school, and I loved planning the dress up days for Red Ribbon Week, so of course I also enjoyed dressing Kinsie up!

Day 1: “Tell Drugs to Take a Hike!” (top left – dress like you’re going camping)

Day 2: “Make it a GOAL to stay drug free!” (top right – dress in a team jersey)

Day 3: “Don’t let drugs be the villain in the story of your life!” (bottom left – dress like a Disney character)

Day 4: “Bubble Bubble, Witches Brew…we’re drug free…how about you?” (bottom right – dress in Halloween costume)

Wedding Weekend in Indiana

Ryan’s cousin Nicole got married in October, and we were excited that the kids were asked to be the flower girl and one of the ring bearers, along with their baby cousin Griffin. Unfortunately with Kinsie’s school and Ryan’s work, we were only able to visit Indiana for the weekend. We left on Thursday after school and returned home Sunday evening. We were really only there for 2 days, but we made the most of it!

On Friday, my sister took Kinsie to have lunch with her cousins at their school. She loved getting to see them and their school!

The wedding took place in a beautiful barn, and fall (and practically winter) weather decided to show up for the occasion…it was cold! Kinsie loved dressing up like a princess, and Brax decided to make things as difficult as possible while putting on his nice clothes. He goes through waves, where he’ll be super laid back and sweet for a few months, and then an absolutely stubborn terror for a few months (remember when I said he’s a sour patch kid?!) Unfortunately, right now he’s in a sour phase so everything is a battle. We won every battle except him wearing the bow tie and suspenders…so we called it a win. The kids looked great and did their job well, and Griffin was the absolute sweetest, smiling away in his wagon! We loved getting to see all of family at the wedding and the kids loved dancing the night away!

Vacation in Orlando

We were so excited for this vacation, not just for where we were going, but the fact that Ryan got to spend an entire week with us! With the wedding and this vacation somewhat back to back, he had to use all of his days off for those trips, so when we were home, he was working every day. We all definitely needed this week of vacation!

Day 1 and 2: Traveling and Disney Springs

Our trip there was overall non-eventful, which was nice after some of the stressful airport experiences we’ve had in the past! We had to drive the 2 hours to Memphis for our flight, which wasn’t too bad considering how much cheaper it was. My saint of a husband even offered to sit with the kids on the plane and let me sit across the aisle from them. It was lovely!

We got to Orlando around 2pm, so we wanted to use our time wisely! We spent the evening at Disney Springs. The kids love digging for dino fossils at the T-Rex Cafe and looking at giant LEGO statues. We also loved the Marvel store and shopping at the Rainforest Cafe!

On Day 2, the original plan was to go to Universal Studios with the whole family, but there was a huge tropical storm and it poured all morning! Luckily we had a built in “off” day the next day, so we just switched and went the next day. The storm was over by early evening on Saturday, so we all went back to Disney Springs again that night!

Day 3: Universal Studios part 1

The whole crew (us, my sister’s family, my parents, Ryan’s parents, and my aunt Stella and her husband Andre) went to Universal Studios together. They all hadn’t been in a really long time, but Ryan and I went a few years ago so we helped lead the way. I could have spent all day just in Harry Potter world, but I knew not everyone knew and loved the wizarding world like I do, so we just visited there for a little while and made time for other activities too. My sister recently read the HP series though, so I was excited for her to share the magic with me! We enjoyed the castle, some rides, the butter beer, and meeting some characters.

Day 4: Disney’s Hollywood Studios

We worked it out so that my family stayed in a Disney resort one night so we could all take advantage of the “Extra Magic Hours” at Hollywood Studios. I hadn’t been to this park since I was really young, and the kids had never been. They are obsessed with Toy Story right now, we we were really excited to experience the new Toy Story Land! Extra Magic Hours started at 6am, and the park didn’t open to the public until 9am…so we got a LOT in during those 3 hours! It was tough waking up at 5am and getting to the park before the sun even came up, but totally worth it!

I was so proud of Kinsie because she rode her first roller coasters on this trip! She started with the Slinky Dog Dash and absolutely loved it! She even rode it a second time with Uncle Ry Ry since the lines were so short so early in the morning! She also had fun riding with Aunt Tita on the Alien Saucer Spin.

The kids loved meeting Woody, Bo Peep and Jessie!

Toy Story Land was amazing! And it looked a little different from 6am to later in the day…like I said, I’m so glad we were able to take advantage of those extra hours!

We spent a good part of our day in Toy Story Land, but also made time for the new Star Wars land, and meeting lots of other characters! We ended up leaving the park around 8pm…we were all tired after a 14 hour day!

Day 5: Universal Studios part 2

The next day, we came back to Universal Studios, while the rest of my family went to Epcot. Ryan and I love Universal and we knew there was more we would want to do than what we’d be able to do in one day, so we chose to spend another day there. Ryan’s mom came along while his dad had to travel to Tampa for work. We had another great day exploring Hogsmeade, riding the Hogwarts Express, and doing magic with our wand. We didn’t really have time last time to explore the Marvel Superhero Land, so we made sure to spend time there this time. The kids got to meet Captain America and Spiderman and loved it!

Day 6: Disney’s Magic Kingdom

When you make a trip to Orlando, it’s a requirement to spend at least one day at Magic Kingdom…at least for our family! We met back up with my family and everyone for a day at the most magical place on earth. The kids all had so much fun together. They loved the “It’s a small world” ride, the Dumbo ride, the parade, and the fireworks.

Best attempt at a full group selfie on Small World!

Lots of castle pics are a must!

It took way too long to find a spot to watch the fireworks, (I won’t get into too many details, but Ryan just about fought with the Disney employees for not letting us stand anywhere to watch!) but by the time we actually found a spot, Brax was asleep in the stroller! He stayed asleep until we left the park! Kinsie however, enjoyed the fireworks, then finally also passed out while we were waiting (for over an hour) for the ferry boat home.

Our Disney days almost always end in two passed out kids…that’s how you know it was a fun and successful day!

Day 7: Last day at Universal Studios – part 3

Our original plan was to spend 2 days at Disney and 2 days at Universal, but when we bought our tickets, our 2-day ticket to Universal came with a third day free…so we were happy to take advantage!

We had the kids write down the things they definitely wanted to do on their last day there, so we made sure we hit up those things, then added a few fun extras. The kids could have spent the entire day at Dr. Seuss Land. They loved all the rides and characters! We also met Branch and Poppy from Trolls, and King Julien from Madagascar.

There was a fun Curious George splash pad area that the kids loved. I stayed there with them while Ryan caught a few of the rides he wanted to do by hopping in the quick single rider line. We also rode a few rides that they loved the days before again, like Storm Force (similar to the tea cup ride at Disney), the “If I Ran the Zoo” interactive playground, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, and the Dr. Suess sky train. We had a great last day, and even finished in time to go meet our family for dinner since it was our last night together.

It was exhausting, but such a great trip! We were so glad Ryan was able to join us, and that we were able to spend some time with our Indiana family as well.

Fitting in all the Halloween Activities

We got back from our trip with less than a week until Halloween. We have lots of fun Halloween traditions that we do every year, so we had to do work once we were back!

The kids and I baked and decorated Halloween cookies the weekend we returned.

We also painted our smaller pumpkins (Unicorn, dinosaur, Forky)

Ryan worked a few evenings in a row once we got back, so we had to split up our pumpkin carving into 2 separate days. The first round, the kids helped clean out their pumpkins and collect the pumpkin seeds so I could bake them. Then the kids did as much as they could to help carve, but like usual, they get bored easily so Ryan and I finished them up.

The kids pumpkins are on the left… Ariel and King Kong. Ryan and I had to do ours a few days later when the kids were in school, and we did Groot and Dobby.

Halloween Night

Ryan made sure he got Halloween night off so he could come trick-or-treating with us. I made the kids jack-o-lantern pizzas for dinner.

Kinsie wore her costume all day since her Red Ribbon Week day was for her to wear her costume anyway, but Brax is a weirdo and didn’t want to wear his to school. He is extremely particular about what he wears lately, so I worked hard to make sure his costume was as basic as possible. And with Brax being in a “sour” phase of his sour patch kid lifestyle, when it was time to put on his costume, he threw an absolute fit. He was still excited to be Forky, but he just really enjoys being stubborn and didn’t want to do what we asked of him. After a short intense battle, we won, and he was Forky. Once his fit was over, he was as happy as can be and had a great time trick-or-treating!

The whole family… Woody, the alien, Jessie and Forky

Once Brax’s fit was over, we all really had a great night. It was colder than usual, but the kids did great trick-or-treating and had a great time!

October went by in a flash, and now we’re ready to take on November. My birthday is this month, and my family is coming to visit for Thanksgiving, so we have more to look forward to!

Enjoy our 1 Second Everyday for the month of October!

3Apr2017

A Momentous March

Posted in Family by klmatthews16

What a busy and exciting month of March we had! It was colder than we hoped, but that doesn’t seem so bad now that we will be moving to a warmer climate in a couple of months. As always, we were very busy this month with lots of exciting new beginnings.

Reading

Kinsie’s school celebrated literacy month by doing a reading competition. We were given reading tickets, where we had to write down the titles of the books that we read with her. For every ticket we turned in, (10 books), the class would add a piece to their class caterpillar. As you already know, Kinsie LOVES to read…and so do Ryan and I. We already read with her all the time, so now we just had to keep track of what we read. Kinsie got very competitive with it (and I’ll admit, so did we). She wanted to read even more than usual to help her class win. Unfortunately, we didn’t win…the winning class blew everyone else out of the water…but we got 2nd place! I personally kept track of how many reading tickets we turned in, and it was 30. So we read around 300 books this month.

Brax wanted to hear the story too!

Outside fun (when possible)

We didn’t get very fun nice weather this month, so when we did, we had to take advantage. Even if it was still 40 degrees and partly sunny…we would find something to do outside weather it was swinging or taking a walk.

Gymnastics

Kinsie started up a gymnastics class this month. She was in a “Mommy and me” class before she was 2, and she loved it. Once Brax was born, life got a little too crazy and we stopped the class. Now, she still has more energy than she knows what to do with and she is as clumsy as can be, so we figured a class to help burn energy and practice coordination couldn’t hurt. Now she is in the 3-4 year olds class, so we just watch from behind the glass. She is doing pretty well considering she’s been out of the game for a year now. She’s a fast learner and has fun doing it. Brax enjoys watching too!

Soccer

Spring soccer season has officially started! This season we are playing with a different league because we wanted to sign Kinsie up with a few of her cousins. She is on a team with her cousin Emery, and Kerigan. Ryan, my brother-in-law Ryan, and Ryan’s cousin’s husband Scott are the coaches. We’ve had 2 practices so far and they are certainly entertaining! Kinsie has made a lot of progress since the fall, so hopefully she was continue to improve throughout the season. Kinsie is especially pumped that her daddy is the coach and that she gets to play with her cousins!

Match Day

From my previous post, you have seen that on Match Day, we found out we are moving to Little Rock, Arkansas! I am nervous, but VERY excited for this new adventure. Match Day was a neat experience, where all of the 4th year IU med students all gathered together and opened their envelope at the exact same time. The room was full of a lot of joy, hugs, and excitement. The kids weren’t really sure what we going on, but they were excited too!

Cincinnati Zoo

Since I was on spring break for 2 weeks, we decided to take another trip to the Cincinnati Zoo, or as Kinsie calls it, the “hippo zoo.” It was just a 2 hour drive, and the kids had a blast. Brax barely napped all day, but he was a happy little camper. We spent a lot of time with the hippos, Kinsie’s favorite. Brax loved the lions and the train ride most. It was a great day!

My Cousin’s Wedding

My beautiful cousin and one of my best friends, Sarah, got married this month! She married a fish farmer named Joe, and we love him. He took us on a tour of the fish farm last summer, which was a highlight of our summer. The wedding was quaint, simple, beautiful, classic and SO Sarah. They had the reception at the family farm. Sarah is very passionate about agriculture education and supporting her family’s farm. Her dad, (my uncle) passed away in 2009 in a farming accident, and she and her sister Katie have kept his passion for farming and agriculture alive. The wedding was beautiful and we all had a great time. Kinsie especially loved getting some extra cousin time, including her cousins from Philadelphia!

The outtakes of our family photo

Cousin time

We bought a house!

Yes, you saw right. We already bought a house in Maumelle, Arkansas…it is about 20 minutes outside of Little Rock. While I was still on spring break, we went on a 3 day trip to go house hunting. And when I say “we,” I mean pretty much my entire family! We took a 12 passenger van and everyone (except for my sister’s husband and Brax…he can’t really handle long car rides yet) loaded up and drove the 8+ hours to Arkansas. The kids were rockstars and we had a VERY productive trip. We looked at 7 houses and there was no competition as to which one we wanted to be our home. We put an offer on it that day and found out later that evening that they accepted our offer! We LOVE the house, the yard, the 5 minute walk to the park (with a lake…where we can fish), and the community that we will be living in. Best of all – it was Kinsie-approved!

It was a LONG trip but the kids did great!

Exploring the city

Our new house!

Another great month! The next few months will be our last in Indiana. We will be busy packing and soaking up as much time with our family and friends here as we can. Also, our little boy turns ONE in almost a month, so I’m going to excuse myself now to go cry in the corner!

11Sep2016

Our Busy August

Posted in Family by klmatthews16

With the start of the school year, and many activities and new beginnings, we had a busy month of August! So many great things happened this past month that I have been excited to share.

Kinsie started Preschool

Big milestone is our little girl’s life…she officially started preschool! I was a little nervous like I’m sure most moms get before their kids start school. I knew she needed it…she needs constant stimulation and opportunities to learn, both academically and socially. I was nervous because other than church, she had never been in a classroom environment like that before. She can be stubborn and bossy, and I didn’t want her to be the misbehaving child in the class! However, she has done AWESOME! She absolutely loves school. She behaves, stays busy, learns and participates, and even takes naps at school! I have noticed her behavior at home has improved since starting school as well, so this has been a great thing for all of us!

Our Best Friends’ Wedding

Some of our great friends, Nick and Kaitlyn Phipps got married in mid-August. We have all been looking forward to this day a long time, since they are like family to us. My sister was the matron of honor, Briggs was the ring bearer, and Kinsie and Kerigan were the flower girls. Even though it rained the entire day and it was an outdoor wedding, everyone had a blast! The kids did their jobs well, and then they danced the night away! I wish I would have gotten more pictures, but I wasn’t able to since I was holding Brax most of the time. It was a great night!

Kinsie started “big girl” soccer

Kinsie is finally old enough to play soccer for the club that Ryan grew up playing, Westside United. They have practice twice a week, and games on Saturdays. She is one of the youngest ones on her team, but she still does very well for not even being 3 years old yet. She participates and listens to the coaches very well, but sometimes, especially on days she doesn’t go to school (and therefore doesn’t take a nap), she gets pretty tired and just flops on the ground and lays there! She is still learning the concept of trying to take the ball from the other team since we have taught her to share and not take toys from others! Soccer has been good for her since she has so much energy to burn!

September is almost halfway over now, and it is almost the fall season, one of our favorite times of the year. There are so many exciting things coming up, like Kinsie turning 3 and the birth of our new niece of nephew. Stay tuned for updates within the next few months!

24Aug2014

Make her a Mosier

Posted in Family by klmatthews16

On Saturday, August 9, my beautiful sister-in-law, Megan got married! Ryan, Kinsie and I were all lucky enough to be a part of Megan and Tim’s special day. Ryan was a groomsman, I was a bridesmaid and Kinsie was the flower girl. It was an absolutely beautiful ceremony and reception. The week leading up to the wedding was very emotional draining for us losing Diane and saying goodbye to her at her funeral, so we were very grateful that we got to end the week with a celebration. We definitely needed to smile and be reminded of how beautiful life can be.

I loved getting to spend the day with Megan and the rest of the bridesmaids. Megan and I have always been close since Ryan and I have been together so long. Megan has 2 brothers, so I’ve always been able to play the role of a sister for her that she never had. We are ridiculously similar…both in our looks and our personalities. People mistake us for sisters all the time. Megan has such a genuine, kind and gentle heart with a strong love for Jesus. Sometimes we call her “Mother Megan,” after Mother Teresa, because she is so kind and selfless. I’ve always been protective of Megan because I knew she deserved the absolute best and I never wanted anyone to hurt her. When we first met Tim, we knew she couldn’t have found a better match for herself. He is kind and easy-going who also puts his faith first. Megan and Tim compliment each other perfectly and bring out each other’s best qualities. The ceremony represented them and their relationship perfectly…elegant and genuine. Megan was an absolutely stunning bride. Tim is a very lucky man…but I’m sure he already knows that!

Kinsie was the flower girl and she rode down the aisle in a wagon pulled by Briggs (who was the ring bearer) and her cousin Kennedy. I know most moms of flower girls would say this, but Kinsie was the best little flower girl ever! She did an awesome job smiling and waving at the crowd as she rode down the aisle. She got a little noisy during the ceremony but only because she was excited to see her Aunt Megan get married! Briggs and Kennedy deserve some major brownie points also on doing an awesome job pulling the wagon. The combination of those 3 put a smile on everyone’s face at the ceremony!

After all the excitement from the ceremony, my mom drove Kinsie to the reception so Ryan and I could ride with the bridal party. Kinsie passed out as soon as she got in the car, and stayed asleep through dinner at the reception. When she woke up, it was party time! She had a blast dancing with everyone, visiting all the aunts, uncles and cousins, and watching the bubbles during Megan and Tim’s sendoff. She stayed up and partied for the rest of the reception. Even on the drive home, she sang to us for half the drive until she finally passed out. She’s used to going to bed around 8pm, but hey, your aunt Megan only gets married once, so live it up! She ended up staying up past 11pm! She did so well the entire day…she sure knew how to make her mommy and daddy proud!

Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Mosier! I can’t wait to see the beautiful journey God has in store for you in your new life together! We love you!