Free Range on Fairview

Wow time flies! Here are the 18 and 20 week pictures. If you really want a pregnancy to fly by I suggest having a toddler to keep your mind off it and you'll be amazed how fast half of the time will go by. We find out if the little bun is a boy or a girl on January 3rd, in less than two weeks. Then we can officially start talking about names at that point in time. Yippee! Plus my little sister is due any day and I can't wait to meet her new little baby boy.  Can you believe how tall Dylan is getting?

The time is almost here for Christmas cheer. Here are a few pictures of us getting ready for the season. The first two pictures were taken two seconds apart. As you can see he tries so hard to be good, but some days you can do nothing but cry.  Posing in front of the tree, such a challenge Ho ho ho, the boys got to see Santa after we went to the Kittitas community dinner, free spaghetti, face paint and fun times together plus a way to help those in need and see the old man.   Yes Dylan got to stand in line forever to see Santa with one of his best buddies. At this age they are still allowed to be friends with girls.  Shane has been working a lot more lately with the Christmas rush at UPS so here they are getting some special cuddle time together before he leaves.

One of my favorite thing Lincoln does is his silly face. I think you'll enjoy it too. Fancy hair-do from sister Hanging with his brother Excited to be a big bro Enjoying some chocolate Yes that's Lincoln fully clothed in the bath.

December goes by so fast! When you were a kids you just couldn't wait for Christmas. Now I just feel so busy the days are flying by. I was wide awake for hours in the middle of the night the other day so what did I do? Make a list of all the things I need to do before Dylan gets out of school (like make those homemade crayon stocking stuffers I thought would be cute but really they aren't that great and just took an hour) and a list of things I would like to do before Christmas. Even today I'm done with my shopping but I'm still spending time online trying to look up what would be a good gift for Dylan's bus driver. Really is that necessary... no. Yes I want to show Tommy appreciation but no more money is leaving this mama's wallet. Plus I just want to enjoy being with my boys. I made a little Christmas countdown and planned some crafts for vacation and decided instead of getting caught in the hustle and bustle that I just want to make this month memorable. I s

Yup that's my first official belly shot for baby number 3, kid number 4. According to the baby books and  the internet the baby is over 5 inches now which makes sense because this week I started to feel the baby move! Yup little squirt is most active around 6-8 in the evening so far, or when I squish it too much. I'm still early on so I forget sometimes when I am bending over or holding Lincoln over my stomach and the baby retaliates. We will find out in a few more weeks what we are having and couldn't be more excited. If it's a boy we are pretty much set as far as the stuff part of a baby goes. I mean I do need to get a new Boppy and the consumables like diapers, wipes and pacifiers, but otherwise we are good. If this one is a girl then boy I will have trouble not buying headbands and ruffly outfits. At least narrowing down the sex will help us start talking about baby names. The morning sickness has subsided but I've been sick with a cold for almost an entire mont

If you've ever seen a picture of Lincoln you know he has some wild and crazy hair. I love his sweet wispy curls that fly all over the place. It gives him that cherub-ish look that disguises his wild and crazy personality. And unfortunately it was getting out of control. There was a slight mullet growing down the back of his neck. His bangs were constantly in his eyes. We finally decided to take him in for a hair cut. Yes I could have done it myself but I've screwed up many a Dylan haircut so Shane and I took him in together to get a "professional" hair cut. He HATED it. First we started with him on my lap in the chair. The stylist was able to squirt his hair a little and cut one snip before he started getting wiggly and fussy. Then Shane took over and held him in his arms. That's how most of the haircut went. After the ordeal there was maybe a palmful of hair cut off total, not much at all. But somehow my beautiful little boy looks so much more grown up. Then we r

Yes all of the animals pictured are squishy, soft and cuddly... but only one will bite you back. Yes it's Lincoln. He loves his stuffed animals (especially the bear). He also loves to bite his mommy. For some reason I am the primary one he nibbles on. I guess it's a good thing so he doesn't bite his friends, but I still wish it didn't happen at all. We are working on getting it to stop, but for now if you notice a few teeth mark shaped bruises on me just let it slide.

Lincoln is getting quite good a making great messes. Here are several pictures from the last couple of weeks of how much fun he is having around the house.  This was Linc's first try of cranberry what do you call it - jell, the kind you plop out of a can and slice. I still had a can of it on the shelf and since the other two kids aren't too fond of it, Lincoln got quite a serving. He also enjoyed cheerios and milk with his mess. (My fav. part are the ones stuck to his hand)  Ah yes, Lincoln is growing taller too. He can now reach up on the counter and pull things down. Case in point, half a pound of shredded cheddar cheese all over the kitchen floor. Once I grabbed up the top layer that I believe didn't touch the floor I let the boy and the dog finish cleaning.  They got most of it but Lincoln made sure to not let go of his toy screwdriver. Found him digging through the cupboard and trying to put a head of garlic in the toaster. Man this kid likes to be in trouble. No

Have you heard of this term before? Baby bunching I think officially is when you have two (or more) babies less than two years apart. And usually people do this on purpose. When I searched the term two under two this new phenomenon came up. I thought I was pretty much in the know on baby and parenting terms since this is pretty much what my life is centered around, but this was a new term to me. Well why would I be searching this you may ask? We have a little surprise: The "silly face" In case you can't read the writing on Lincoln's shirt it says "Big Bro Lincoln; Arriving Spring 2012" That's right, Lincoln will be a big brother this Spring. Or in other words, we are having another baby! I know I announced it to family, on facebook and at MOPS a few weeks ago but time is sure flying by too fast. Sorry blog readers you are fairly low on the info totem pole this time around. I am already in my second trimester which means that the baby is due right a

MOPS had a mom's day out the other day and we all took the kids to Dusty's Nursery here in Ellensburg for a day of fun. They had a corn maze, hay pyramid to climb on, and plenty of pumpkins to go around. Unfortunately we had a little Eburg wind, but other than that it was a great day. The older kids were in school so these are just pictures of little Lincoln. Lined up with the baby pumpkins! Posing on the left with friend Mikey. Climbing on the giant pile of straw, hope he's not allergic like Daddy! Checking out the view from up high. "Here Mommy, have some." Running ahead of me in the corn maze. Lincoln had a blast in the corn maze. Not too sure about the scarecrow though. Trying to pull a wagon full of pumpkins. Checking out another friendlier scarecrow. Look at those curly locks blowing in the wind.

Lincoln tried out Play-Doh for the first time a while ago. He really liked breaking it up into tiny pieces and trying to put it back in the container. And he didn't try to put it in his mouth too many times. As you can tell by the picture he got tired out from all the creativity pretty quickly so we'll try it again when he has a little more vigor for the squishy stuff. I think this picture is from our drive over to Richland a few weeks ago. We headed over there to visit Shane's grandma and the a bbq at his brothers house. The kids love pictures of themselves and Danielle took this picture of the both of them.  Waiting to get Shane's winter tires on the jeep, Lincoln had fun checking out the giant tires at Les Schwab. There was one big enough he could crawl into but he wasn't a fan of being shoved in there. He loves to climb and explore and get himself stuck, but only on his own accord. He does not like authority trying to tell him what to do (gee I wonder where

I am getting so excited about making freezer meals for the fall and winter. At our October meeting we will be having a Pampered Chef consultant come in and demonstrate how to make several freezer meals. I've also printed out tons of recipes I've fallen in love with over the last few years. I am also looking forward to reading the book The Ultimate Guide to Freezer Friendly Meals by Kate Ahl & Angela Davis. They run this blog that I love frugallivingnw.com and one of the few I count on to get good local deals. Making freezer meals gives me plenty of extra time to clean up messes like this!

I saw this on a website earlier today and I can definitely agree with it. Especially the 19% of drool, snot and general sickness. The other day I thought Lincoln was being sweet and cuddling his head on my shoulder. Come to find out he was trying to wipe a booger onto my shirt. Luckily nose picking hasn't started yet. 

I love seeing the kids play around with each other and goof off. I don't like the wrestling that always leads to someone getting hurt, but hey they are kids and they are going to do it whether I yell at them or not. Here are a couple of pictures from our silly times lately.  Man our family room, which has recently morphed into a room full of plastic toys and a giant tv sure gets a lot of use. Here Lincoln enjoys a nice cold drink of milk while relaxing in front of a cartoon that Dylan is watching. While in the area I took Danielle and her cousin Jordyn to the SuperMall to do some powershopping and let the boys hang out in the super fun play place for kids. There was tons of stuff to climb on and slide down so I figured it would give them a little time to get their wiggles out before the drive home over the mountains.  Dylan on top of "Mt. Rainier" Action shot of Dylan running, Lincoln picking at the carpet Lincoln climbing on a fish Daddy and Lincoln Aslee

No don't worry I'm not going vegetarian, it's just another way the Sadler Family is trying to save money. I made some sort of yummy sandwich a few weeks ago. Grilled tomatoes and eggplant on a day old baguette with fresh basil from our garden topped with a few slices of mozarella cheese. Was it a huge hit with Dylan? Not really. But it ate it all and I loved it. Plus skipping meat a meal or two a week really saves the big bucks in the long run and we are actually eating pretty healthy too. 

I got to be in my first parade at the beginning of the month. MOPS partnered with Bounce Central, a local bounce house place where kids can jump around on inflatable jumpers while their moms hope to enjoy the company of another mom friend, and we got to be on a float in the parade. So exciting. I love the small town of Ellensburg. We got to pass out candy to the people watching, and hopefully we brought some new moms in to our group.  Today was our first meeting of the 2011/2012 year and it went spectacularly! Lincoln was not a fan of staying in child care but he never has been and I will just keep trying until he thinks it's fun. Mommy doesn't like wrangling a fussy buns while she is trying to spend adult time with her friends. Anyway back to the meeting, it was great, did I say that yet? My table had three new moms at it and three who I already know and get along with well. My mentor mom is the same one I had last year and I am just stoked that this year is going to be so awe