The best visitors

Grandpa and Grandma brought the Allen County volleyball team out to play Hesston College last night, so we got to have supper with them at D'Angelo's here in town. We always love when they come to visit. Natalie and Max were much less shy than they usually are around them. As I was getting her ready for bed, Natalie said that she usually doesn't talk much around great-grandma and grandpa, but she had a lot of fun talking to them this time. ❤

Seven Months

Emma is seven months old today!

She crawls, she stands, she has even taken some steps behind the push walker. She is the squirmiest baby I have ever dressed and diapered. She is much more interested in big kid toys than baby toys. One of her new favorite activities is wrestling on the floor with Max. Max is really pretty good with her. He lets her crawl all over him and has just as much fun as she does.

She unofficially weighs around 18 pounds. She loves to eat! She gets so excited when she knows it's lunch or supper time. Her favorite foods are pears, apples, tomatoes, broccoli, watermelon, and toast. Her least favorite food so far is sweet potato.

She blows the sweetest raspberries and makes lots of faces with her tongue. When her teeth first came in she felt them out a lot by biting her bottom lip.

She doesn't get too scared of new people, but she definitely prefers her mama and daddy. She lets me know when she isn't quite ready to be put down or when she wants me to come back in the room. She's my sidekick, and she knows it!

Happy seven months, sweet Emma. You bring us so much joy!

Catching Up

The new elementary school playground opened last week, so the kids were eager to try it out over the weekend. They played on it both Saturday and Sunday. The zip line was Natalie's' favorite attraction by far. 

My parents and sister came out for a visit Saturday afternoon, and Mini Grandpa John made an appearance.

We made it to the park yesterday morning before the day turned rainy. 

And we'll end with a big smile from Little Miss. 

Grandma Beth's Birthday

We had the Hesston O'Hallorans over for lunch today to celebrate Grandma Beth's birthday. We're becoming quite the crew, and these are only the cousins who live in town!

Fire Trucks

Red is the theme for story time this month, and this week they focused on red trucks. At the end of story time we got to go outside to see a very special red truck. Max acted like an old pro because he saw this firetruck and this fireman at preschool last week. 

Emma Crawls

Emma has been very very mobile with her up-down-up-down inchworm crawl for a few weeks, but today she mastered her "real" crawl.

The audio in this video is full of mom cheers and big sister background reading 😄

Emma the Foodie

This little girl loves to eat. She kicks her legs excitedly in her highchair until I put food on her tray. She has tried so many fruits and veggies over the past few weeks, and she has really enjoyed most of them. We are having so much fun watching her explore all the new tastes and textures. She almost always makes a concerned face when she first puts the food in her mouth, but once she is used to the texture she goes back for more and more. She makes an absolute mess! But that just adds to the fun!

So far she has tried steamed carrots, sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli, green pepper, roasted yellow squash, tomato, banana, cooked apples, pears, peaches, watermelon, cantaloupe, avocado, scrambled eggs, and rice rusks. This list is mostly for my use in a few years when she is three and claims to dislike all vegetables and most fruit (like a cute but hard-headed little boy I know).

Here she is trying and loving tomato for the first time tonight:

Tricks

Little Sister is full of tricks these days.

State Fair

We took our annual trip to the State Fair last Saturday with my parents and sister. We made all of our usual stops, which are even more fun now that the kids remember them from year to year.

The Rocks and Trees

This afternoon we walked to the college to play at "the rocks and trees." Natalie's preschool class played here for recess once last year, and she has told us a lot about it. The boulders and trees in this spot are the perfect size for little climbers. Natalie said that when Ms. Larisa told the preschoolers that they were going to play at "the rocks and trees" Natalie initially thought they were going to play at "the Roxanne trees". She thought it must have been a new kind of tree that she had never heard of before 😊

Bikers

Chris got a new bike over the weekend, so biking has been the favorite mode of transportation lately. He took Natalie and Max on a bike ride almost all the way across town Sunday morning. That's a long way for little legs!

Ballet in the Park

Ballet Wichita came to Newton tonight as part of their Ballet in the Park series. They performed The Wizard of Oz, and Natalie and Max were in heaven. We have a slight Wizard of Oz obsession in our house right now. Songs, drawings, Halloween costumes, requested birthday party themes, our current bedtime chapter book - they're all Wizard of Oz, so this was perfect. They have been talking about going to the show all week. The dancers were all standing up by the stage when we got there, and Max asked a million questions about all of the characters and their costumes and where so-and-so was. Once the show started, they danced in their seats and hummed along with the songs. We even got to meet the characters after the show!

Family Pictures 2017

We all jumped in front of the camera for a few family pictures during Emma's six month session, and I love the way they turned out!

Emma's Six Month Pictures

Emma was her usual on-the-go self on the evening that we took her six month pictures. Every time we sat her down she immediately tried to either crawl away or eat her dress. Thankfully Pam had some tricks up her sleeve, and she ended up getting some beautiful pictures!

Click here for Pam's blog post with all of the pictures.

These are my favorites:

 

Labor Day Fun

We had such a fun, relaxed family day today. We had breakfast in Newton this morning and then took a soccer ball to a little park with a mini soccer field. I took the kids to this park once before, but we didn't know about the soccer goals, so we didn't take a ball. Ever since then, they have been asking to go back but with a soccer ball.

The soccer stars:

And the spectator:

Look at those teeth!