Halloween

Happy Halloween from the flamingo, baseball player, and Cabbage Patch doll!

Leaf Lions

Natalie and Max love to make crafts, but I'm not the craftiest mom on the block. Natalie spends a lot of time writing and drawing, and lately she and Max have been making intricate people and animals out of little snippets of paper, tape, and pipe cleaners. Thankfully they come up with their own creative outlets, so I don't feel like my lack of craftiness is causing too much damage. But! Today! Today I planned a craft project, and they loved it! Behold our leaf lions!

Eight Months

Emma is eight months old today! She is getting to be such a big girl!

Emma has become much harder to keep track of this month. She speed-crawls to the trash can, the shoe rack, or the big kids' room full of tiny Legos whenever she gets the chance. 

She cruises along the furniture and walks behind anything she can push. She is working on standing without hanging on to anything. So far she only stays up for a second or two once she lets go, but she is getting better everyday.

Her hair is getting a lot lighter especially in the back. When she wears certain colors, it even looks like it has a little red in it. 

Her favorite foods are apples, strawberries, pears, tomatoes, broccoli, avocado, peas, cheese, and yogurt. She makes all sorts of noises these days, and today Natalie and I think we heard her say "nah nah" which must mean "Natalie"!

She is pretty shy around most people outside our immediate family. She is a big mama's girl, which completely melts my heart. What a little ray of sunshine!

Kitchen Chairs

Emma's very favorite thing is to push the kitchen chairs all over the kitchen. She always has this look on her face the whole time. She is so proud of herself!

Happy Birthday, Natalie!

I am so proud of the little girl Natalie has grown to be in the past five years. We had a great day celebrating her. Chris picked up donuts, she and Max played with her new Wonder Woman and Batgirl figures, we played many many rounds of her new Guess Who? game, we went on a walk/scooter ride, and we finished the day with cake topped with Reese's! Days don't come much better than that. 

 

Preschool Party

Natalie took birthday treats to preschool today. They are encouraged to bring healthy treats, so we decided on chocolate chip pumpkin muffins and milk. She got to blow out candles and make this beautiful birthday crown too.

Giggles

Natalie's 5th Birthday Party

Avocado

Emma ate an entire avocado tonight! Natalie thought she looked like the Jolly Green Giant.

The Good Life

Some days are really hard.

Then some days we laugh and we color and we sing.

Some days I sit back and watch in amazement at how fast these little ones are growing and how fiercely they love each other.

Some days I miss them so much while they're sleeping that I scroll through the pictures on my phone to see their smiling faces. Today was one of those days. I had to post some of my favorites from the last couple weeks. Nothing noteworthy. Just ordinary life. But what a good life it is.

Pumpkin Patch

We took the kids to the pumpkin patch Sunday afternoon along with what seemed like everyone else in Central Kansas. It was so packed! We waited in a lot of lines, but the kids still had a great time. Chris and I have agreed to try going at a less popular time next year!

Sweet Emma

Emma loves to blow raspberries. She does it conversationally, so we all spend our days blowing raspberries back and forth with her.

She walks behind her push walker pretty well anymore. I love the big smile she gives Max at the end of this video.

Weekend Getaway

We usually go to a K-State football game every fall, but this year we decided to take a fun weekend trip to Manhattan instead. We spent the weekend eating and playing with Mark's and Maria's families, and we all had so much fun.

We spent Saturday afternoon in Wamego at Oztoberfest. The festival wasn't quite what we had expected it to be, but the kids had a great time at the Wizard of Oz museum and playing some kids' games.

As we were finishing up at Oztoberfest, we got word that our friend (and Mark's brother-in-law) Andy's fire station was having an open house. We stopped by for a tour of the trucks. The kids even got to try out the hoses!

We ate supper at Vista Burger in Manhattan where the kids had a blast playing with their cousins. Natalie is only three months younger than Alex. Up until recently they didn't play together much, but their friendship is really growing and is so sweet to watch.

Since we now require more beds, we decided to stay in a hotel. The kids love hotels. They played "jump from bed to bed" right when we got to our room. Hotel breakfasts are also pretty exciting.

After church we went to Maria's house for donuts and then on to the zoo

We took advantage of the beautiful weather and ate lunch outside at one of our favorite Manhattan restaurants, AJ's Pizza.

Our last stop was the park to run off a little energy before the drive home.

We had such a great trip that we left wondering why we don't do it more often!