Swap Day Highlights

Sunday morning family movie

The happiest baby there ever was.

Swapping clothes.
Out with the maternity.
In with Fall/Winter pre-pregnancy clothes.
Got started on the boys but will have to finish tomorrow...

Multi-tasking at its best.
Nursing and folding laundry.
Now if only the laundry fairy would come and put it away!

LOVE how babies curl up when they are nakey.

Baby Ayden having his snack in Logan's carseat.

Homemade apple crumb pie!

Today's house progress = windows for the dormers!

Dinner at my parents'

Today was a great Sunday.  Hope you had a great one too!!  I took a chance and volunteered to host playgroup tomorrow for the first time since I was pregnant.  Hopefully I can pull myself and my house together in the morning!

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Our Day In Pictures"

And two years ago today: "Veggie Of The Week"

Thank you for stopping by Life With the Ladniers!

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Miss seeing what Ayden is up to everyday?  Follow us on Instagram!

You can find all of the links in the sidebar.

Pajama Day

Fun with friends last night!
Dinner and an indoor play ground.

The kids and I didn't leave the house today. 

We stayed in our PJs, watched movies and I got my fall decorations up. 

I also got a lot of snuggles from this guy!

My sister and her kids came over. She made us lunch and the kids played. She also did our dishes even though I told her not to (which actually was a big help!) and she got lots of Logan snuggles. Ayden took a nice long nap after they left!  

When David got home we had breakfast for dinner and had a nice family evening. 

House progress today:

Door knobs!

Basement french doors.

I am so in love with our door knob choices!  Even though we still have our bathroom window to install (which is on the first floor) it feels really good that we can lock the place up now. 

Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the dreaded season/size clothing swap and for TWO boys at that. 

Who else dreads the clothing swap?!

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "A Conversation With Ayden"

And two years ago today: "Bath Time For Mommy"

Thank you for stopping by Life With the Ladniers!

Please take a second to:

 Subscribe via email, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter so you'll know as soon as a new post is up!

Miss seeing what Ayden is up to everyday?  Follow us on Instagram!

You can find all of the links in the sidebar.

Apple Fun

Hello from our big 1 month old:  

We are still enjoying our orchard bounty!

So far, along with having them for snacks, we have made honey sweetened crock pot apple sauce, prepped the apples for a pie (I had an extra crust in the freezer from when I made my strawberry pie) that I plan to make this weekend, and we have been doing lots of apple themed activities. Here are a few that we have done so far:

Apple Tree Art:

Along with apple tasting

The Little Red House

Orchard photo story book

Ten Apples Up On Top

My favorite activities encompass multiple areas of learning. Use a book to introduce the concept (literacy), incorporate the senses (science), shapes/colors/counting (math), "writing"/drawing (fine motor), etc. It also helps to take a "field trip" of sorts at the beginning or end of whatever little theme unit you are working on.  Apple picking made Ayden very interested in and receptive to all of these activities.  

These have been helping keep Ayden busy during our afternoons.  I love that he is getting more and more into the types of activities that I did with my students at school.  It's a lot of fun to bring all of this stuff back out again!

What are your favorite apple activities to do with your kiddos?

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Closing Up Shop"

And two years ago today: "Brave Boy"

Happy 1 Month, Logan!

WARNING:  LOTS of adorable photos ahead...  I couldn't help myself today.

Little Stud Muffin

Likes:

Everything about Mommy, eating, the Moby, being held, sleep (already sleeping 5 hours), hearing Ayden laugh, sleeping on Daddy at night.

Dislikes: Being awake when he'd rather be sleeping, being touched with cold hands...  That might be it.

He is smiling, can easily move his head from side to side during tummy time and makes lots of eye contact with us.  He has grown so much!  He is already in 0-3 month clothes.  They are a little big but the newborn size is just too tight to wrestle him into.

Already looking up to Big Bro.

Newborn Logan on top, 1 month Logan on bottom.

Ayden on top, Logan on bottom.

Ready for story time this morning.
We are feeling so incredibly blessed with these two and each other.

Logan took a stellar afternoon nap today so I took a chance and gave Ayden a much needed haircut.

Success!

We spent most of the evening outside.

1 month in and adjusting well!  Things can get pretty crazy all of the sudden but for the most part I'd say we are doing better than we had ever expected.

House news: David, his dad, and a friend got two of the four second story windows installed safe and sound!

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Inspiration"

And two years ago today: "I'm Learning!"

Thank you for stopping by Life With the Ladniers!

Please take a second to:

 Subscribe via email, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter so you'll know as soon as a new post is up!

Miss seeing what Ayden is up to everyday?  Follow us on Instagram!

You can find all of the links in the sidebar.

Boys And Girls

I spent the morning getting caught up on some laundry. I have been able to get back to my 1 basket rule but 1 load a day does not cut it these days. I am washing at least 3 and getting 1 put away if I'm lucky. 

It is progress though so I'll take it. It took me a while to find a new groove with a consistent routine after Ayden was born so I'm expecting no less this time around. 

I find that if I keep the house relatively quiet Ayden does a better job of keeping himself occupied. If I turn on a YouTube video, audio book or the like for me to listen to while I work, it typically pulls him away from what he is doing and then he hovers around me. Music is okay sometimes but quiet is really the ticket. Today he spent a while sucking down pouch after pouch of apple sauce that I made from our orchard apples. 

We also got some new "work tools" (as he calls them ) delivered which he LOVES!

Ayden has really gotten into what belongs to girls and what belongs to boys. We don't do a whole lot of gender assignment around here. He is not only allowed but encouraged to play with with dolls, pretend to cook and help me clean. He also plays with plenty of trains, cars, tools, blocks and other "boy" stuff. We figure he'd find his own way and it appears as though he is. It's interesting to step back and let nature take it's course without too much external influence. He most definitely could have heard someone talking about this topic but to my knowledge he has started making such classifications on his own. Now he'll say, "This is boys and this one is girls. I need a boy one" when picking out a snack or whatever. It is all very natural and interesting. 

Nap times lined up so this mama got to get some down time. Now that Logan is giving me 4-5 hour stretches at night I have started setting an alarm during naps again. 15-20 minutes is all I need to feel rejuvenated for the rest of the day. The rest of the time I use to write blog posts and tidy up which is really helping the state of our home and giving David and myself more time at night. 

We had some pretty crazy storms last night and even had to go over to my parents' basement for a little while.  Anyone else have some crazy weather last night? Hope everyone is okay!

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Otherwise Overlooked"

And two years ago today: "Dinner Date"