So Thankful!

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Thanksgiving. We started the day watching the parade. The kids LOVE watching it, and Grandma and Boppo stopped by to watch with us for awhile which has become a fun Thanksgiving day tradition.

 We headed to Grammy and Bop's in the afternoon. Grammy is always so great about having fun things planned for the kids. We spent the afternoon making our own pilgrim hats. Olivia was quite happy to wear hers.

 Grace, always the crafty girl, loved this and made several hats.

 I have no idea why she looks like such a grumpy pilgrim! Every picture I got of her wearing it looks like this. Maybe I was disturbing her creative process. :)

 Funny boy!

We ALL wore our hats to dinner. (Yes, even the adults...at least for a few minutes!) We had a great time eating way too much food and enjoying being with family.

 On Friday morning we headed to Grandma and Boppo's to get ready for noodle night. Every year, my mom makes homemade noodles for turkey noodle soup. I appreciate so much that the kids still got to help make and eat noodles this year. It was not an easy task making homemade gluten free pasta, but my mom was bound and determined to make it happen!

That night we ate all of those yummy noodles and had a great time catching up with relatives. Sadly, I didn't even bring my camera, so I have no pictures of all those cute cousins having so much fun together.

Pure Joy...

Family Photos

Up until a few days ago, I had exactly two photos of our family of five together. One was on the hospital bed right after Liv's birth and the other from the beach this summer when we were all beyond tired. Neither were destined for a frame. But that has changed now...yahoo!! These were taken by my sister-in-law Kate who is super talented and starting a photography business. These are some of my favorites from our session. (But not my MOST favorites...those I'm saving for our Christmas card!)

Thank you, Kate, for such amazing photos! 

You can check out more of Kate's work at http://www.kategledhillphotography.com/!

Trick or Treat!

I don't love many things about Halloween, but I do love dressing the kids up in costumes! This year, Olivia was a pink octopus. I still remember the night that Jeff and I picked this costume out for Grace five years ago! It remains one of my very favorites of the all the costumes the kids have had. (It's tied for first place with Grace's costume from last year.) I wish I had easier access to our pictures from when Grace was a baby because you would not believe how much Olivia looks like her in this costume!

Grace and Charlie both love the movie Toy Story, so it didn't surprise us when they decided MONTHS ago that they wanted to be Woody and Jessie for Halloween this year. I think they make a pretty cute pair! 

 Me and my fun girls!

Liv and I stayed home to hand out candy, but I hear that the kids RAN from house to house and had a blast collecting candy. Whenever anyone walked by them, Charlie would wave his hands in the air and yell, "We're having a Halloween Party!" They came back totally wired even before getting into their candy. Such a fun and wild night!



Pumpkin Patch

We were blessed with a beautiful sunny afternoon last weekend, so we took advantage of the break in rain to head to the pumpkin patch. This year we headed back to Jubilee Farm. We hadn't been there in a few years and all agreed it is now our favorite place to go for pumpkins. The pumpkin patch is not right at the farm, so when you get there, you get to go on a hayride to get there. Some of the wagons are even pulled by horses!

Olivia watched as the kids went in search of the perfect pumpkin... 

 This face cracks me up. She was picking up a heavy pumpkin.

 My goofy little pumpkins!

 There are not just pumpkins at this patch! The kids had just as much fun picking out some gourds to bring home.

 Olivia with the winning pumpkin. (We only got one since this was actually our third outing for pumpkins.)

 Back at the farm...here you can buy fresh produce, apple cider, and go through a large hay maze.

Such a fun day!

Soccer Superstar

Charlie is taking a sports sampler class at the local community center. He loves, loves, loves it, and asks me almost every morning if it's sports day. The first three weeks of the class were spent learning the basics (VERY basics!) of soccer, and last week was the big game. I have to say watching preschoolers play soccer is one of my very favorite things to do. No one really knows what they're supposed to do, but they all have a great time running around. Charlie seldom had any idea where the ball was, but the smile never left his face as he chased the rest of the kids around the court.

Before the game...reviewing which goal they were trying to get the ball in

So excited to get the game started!

Charlie's turn to play goalie...his very favorite position.

Taking a break mid-game from all of that running around.

I say this all the time, but it is just so amazing to me to watch the energy that Charlie has now. When I compare it to where he was a year ago, I am so thankful for how far he has come and the healthy little boy who has endless energy. Next up, t-ball!

Happy Baby-8 months old

Everywhere we go, people comment on what a happy baby Olivia is. Another mom at Grace's school told me yesterday that seeing Olivia always brightens her day because she is so smiley and sweet. Liv recently learned how to wave and is now quite the social butterfly, waving to anyone and everyone who looks her direction. We are so blessed to have this sweet, sweet girl in our family.

At just over 8 months old, Liv has become extremely active. She can't crawl yet but is definitely mobile. She rolls over, spins, and scoots to get to just about anywhere that she wants to go. The other night she was so pleased with herself for making her way over to the bookshelf and taking the books off one by one. She squealed with delight and laughed with every book she threw on the floor. She is still happy to sit and play with her toys. She loves pulling each toy out of her bin. She even made her way into her toy bin the other day which Grace and Charlie thought was extremely hilarious.