Life

I should so be in bed right now, but I just found this little clip from our family trip to Avila Valley Barn yesterday. Karl was up super late paying for a day spent with us, but I think he would agree it was well worth it (right, babe? wink. wink.)

Here's Soren being afraid of the ponies. Pretty darn cute.



And more of Soren with pumpkins. **I warned you this would happen.**

Daylight Fading

I am wasting too much time trying to come up with titles to my blogs, so - from now on I'm just going to name them a title of a song that best fits my mood at the time of writing it. Ok? Ok.

I know I say this every quarter, but...this quarter has been the hardest yet. Having gone into this year thinking it might actually be one of the easiest, we were hit with a big surprise. Karl has already pulled so many get-home-after-everyone's-asleep nights that we can't even count them, and we're only 3 weeks in. In the midst of a crazy school schedule, I just went through a week from hell and Soren has been acting out waaaaayy more than usual - partly because of his age, partly because of the changes and stress in our lives. We are all fried.

I contemplated not sharing so much of the hardships in our lives on these blogs. I truly feel like a broken record and like I'm complaining. The truth is, this is our life, and if someone is reading this who can relate, or who is going through the same season of life as we are - maybe reading this can help. I am confident that someday the story of our lives is going to look much brighter, and while there are still bright moments in our lives - right now, we're in winter.

I'm not going to go into details about my 'stressful is an understatment' week, but basically, I had several major issues to deal with while Soren and I were both pretty sick and Karl was busy with school. It feels like the dark cloud has lifted a bit and this past week was much better.

Last weekend my mom and I coordinated my cousin's wedding at the Hearst Castle. It had me stressing for weeks beforehand, but it all went off without a hitch and it was absolutely beautiful. Karl was able to be there to help me with Soren while I (literally) ran around the Castle making sure everything went smoothly. My aunt works at the Castle, so we had freedom to many more areas than other people do - which made it all the more fun. Soren loved exploring all of the steps, statues and fountains - it's not everyday that a kid gets to play in a diaper at a castle! My cousin was a gorgeous bride and I was honored to help make her wedding day perfect.

This weekend Soren and I went to Avila Valley Barn with my mom and picked out some pumpkins and gourds for his classroom. He is really into running these days, so he ran around the whole time, pointing to things of interest - namely goats and tractor parts. (Warning: I'm about to say something very cliche'...) It is amazing to see the world through the eyes of your child. It's like a surprise gift that a parent gets - like a second chance to find wonder in the things you take for granted as an adult. I love autumn, and it's just a million times better with Soren around. Showing him all of the different colors, smells and sounds of this season does something good to my heart. If it's this crazy right now, I can't imagine how I'm going to be at Christmas.

In the interest of keeping these posts manageable, I'll stop here. That's a little peak into our lives as of late. We miss all of our friends so much and promise that we will be able to hang out someday...in December...hopefully.