Grandparent's Visit, Ethan's Birthday, New Clothes, School, fun stuff...

So, obviously I am doing horribly at maintaining a blog, and I'm fairly certain I've lost all my readers, but that is okay :). I'm been very busy, so I haven't had the time to update my blog. (scroll down for pictures, some are in the post and some are at the end of the post...).

Right now I'm in the middle of fall semester. I decided to take 15 credits this semester to try and get a big chunk of necessary classes out of the way. It has been very stressful, and I wouldn't recommend trying to take that many credits while being a parent. I am surviving though, as is my family. Ryan has had to help out a lot this semester with housework, and I have greatly appreciated his help. I'm loving the material I'm studying this semester, most of it is on families, parenting, and marriage. I picked a cluster (half a minor) in family studies because it sounded fairly "easy" and because it was available online. I didn't realize how powerful the material would end up being, and I've been wondering lately if this was actually the main purpose of me getting the inspiration to finish my schooling.

My parents surprised me last Thursday by calling to say that they planned on visiting this week. They have never been able to simply come up for a visit (normally they are on the way to somewhere, and they can only  visit for several hours). They arrived Tuesday and just left this morning. It was very, very nice to have them here, and I think I'm going to go into withdrawals now that they are gone. It was nice to have people around the house to talk to, and my parents were so helpful and sweet. On Wednesday Ethan skipped school and my parents took me and the kid's shopping for clothes for the kids. Violet was in heaven in the shoe section of one of the stores, because she loves shoes so much. Then Thursday my mom spent a great part of the day making and canning applesauce from apples they picked in their yard, to put in my pantry. It is the funniest color of green, but it tastes soooo good! My house smelled like apple pie and fall after I put a bunch of different spices into the applesauce. My Dad tinkered around in our semi finished bathroom, and figured out an electrical problem we have been having in our remodeling, so that was appreciated. My home had such a warm "homey" feeling having family around, with my parents tinkering and cooking and cleaning.

New clothes and dress shoes from grandparents.

Ethan playing with his birthday presents from both sets of grandparents. Avengers and batman, you just can't go wrong with those action hero's. 

It was surprisingly relaxing to have my parents here, even though I was worried about how I was going to get homework done while they were visiting. It was nice to be able to work on my homework and not feel bad about the house or kids because I knew that my mom was around to help. The kid's took really well to my parents, even though they have only seen them a handful of times. Violet even went to both my mom and dad willingly, and she thought that my dad growling at her (which use to make Ethan cry) was funny and would laugh.

Monday was Ethan's birthday, and I didn't end up having time to have a birthday party like I wanted with all of his friends, but we still managed to have a fun day with him. I didn't get his pie made until yesterday, but he was so happy to have a pumpkin pie, and he didn't mind that it was a little late.

My parents brought me some peaches, so hopefully I will get to them today. I also hope I can get to the yard work before it freezes hard or snows... we will see. I also finished Violets room, at least as much as I can do in it for right now. I was going to make her cute curtains, but I just don't have the time. So, when I either find some cute ones I like someday, or have time to make some and cute material to use, than she will get some cute curtains. Next step is to finish Ethan's room. Hopefully we can get to that soon, I think he has had pink walls long enough.

The rest of the pictures are just pictures I've taken recently of the kids. 

Violet loves to sit in her chair. I'm not finished refinishing her chair, I made the seat, but now I need to paint the rest of the chair the color I want. A project for another day... probably after Christmas... She will crawl into her chair with her blanket and a book and sit there for a long time "reading". 

It's very cute to listen to her babble while I do my homework. 

I have a photo from when I was a kid where I look identical to 

Violet in this picture, same smile, face and hair.

Violet is obsessed with drawing and "reading". She doesn't play with toys, instead she spends all of her time pretending to draw or actually drawing, or pretending to read. 

Ethan is going to be bumblebee for Halloween. He got his costume on his birthday and was pretty excited.