Oh September

It seems like fall now. Our trees are losing their leaves and it is down right chilly in the morning, and it is hard to plan the day of clothes for Rachel.  I'd forgotten that.  Thought you'd like to see some pictures from the last couple days.  Rachel appears to have the same fascination with looking at books and magazines as Gwen does. 

Now this picture is typically Nate, he certainly needs lots of hugs.  He's always been a touchy feel-y kind of kid and this always having to hold Rachel is really hurting his style.  Also he's missing some sleep and that makes him really need more physical contact.  He'll take it where he can get it, so you have to watch out.  But these needs make for a really sweet picture, doesn't it? 

We really enjoy bike riding, so this weekend we made the kids fend for themselves and hooked the car seat in the carrier and went for a little ride to the grocery store. 

Gwen is much better up the hill than Nate so Gwen and I "charged" up the hills and Eric pushed Nate up the hill.  When we got home I ran into the house and got the camera and tripod and set up for our first family outing picture.  Sure, it might not be the best picture, but look here we all are! 

Then we went in side and I got a picture of just the kids.  Look, everyone is looking at the camera!  HI!

 

Thanksgiving

I may or may not have mentioned that Thanksgiving was not our best day, Eric has been fighting some mysterious illness for almost 2 weeks now.  He is on the mend, after I demanded he go to the Doctor.  He is at least able to participate in family time.  And, I think that he is finally able to sleep well, since prescribed a cough syrup!  Thanksgiving seemed to be just another day around here, except, I worked really hard to make a dinner, that basically only I ate, sure the kids had some, but not much, and then I had to do all the dishes! 

We got some cute pictures of the kids though!

After dinner, while I was doing the dishes the kids played and Eric laid on the couch, pretty much his M.O. for the last several weeks, poor guy. 

Nate likes to wear the buckets on his head, he's a funny kind of a kid! 

Hope your turkey day was better than ours! 

Halloween

My Momma came for a visit, she appears to enjoy spending time with the kids for Halloween, might be the childlike wonder, or the free candy after walking around the neighborhood in the "COLD", or it could just be because she likes to visit and this is as good of a time as any! We don't question, we enjoy, you should too, because without her being here, we might not have any pictures, so when you look at the slideshow, thank my Momma! This year was a big year for us, we had Halloween Carnival at Gwen's school, the kids always love that, we had a party at Eric's boss's house, we had a neighborhood party and then we the actual event. Let's just say the kids got plenty of use out of their costumes. Gwen actually wore her costume again today. So, Friday we had the Halloween Carnival, Grandmom had wanted to do something special for the kids for Halloween so she pre-purchased the tickets for them. (Thanks Grandmom!) The kids really love this event. The school is completely transformed and each class is in charge of different activities. Gwen's class was in charge of the ticket booth, which meant I was in charge of the ticket booth, which truly wasn't that hard, but probably would have been easier if Gwen had a bigger class and everyone came! But, whatever it all worked out. We didn't actually bring our camera for that so we have no pictures, which is too bad because Nate and Gwen got on the twirly bird by themselves, this year it was a single seater and the went with 2 bigger girls and had a great time, Nate was just a smiling and a laughing. He kept trying to twirl the thing around. But he really had the most fun on the bouncy maze while Gwen and Eric did the climbing wall. Nate seriously went 15 times in a row. The next night was Eric's boss's Halloween party, costumes mandatory. Mom was kind enough to help plan the costumes and make me a poodle skirt, sadly no one knew what we were...We had a good time, but it was another late night for the kids. Dinner, was served, I have no idea what it was, but it was good! Sunday afternoon our neighborhood had a party, we went to that also. They had a bouncy house, free pony rides, cotton candy, all free, all good fun for the kids. We chose to walk and on the way home Nate fell asleep and didn't wake up until the next day! I tried valiantly to wake him up for dinner, but he just wasn't having it, so we let him sleep. Then Monday was of course Halloween! 48 and rainy, my Mom was thrilled! We invited some friends over since there neighborhood is "lame", the kids wimped out before we hit the whole neighborhood, but we were treating for an hour, and they got plenty of candy, so it is all good! All and all a good weekend for them, now I just have to get more activities in line for Christmas, since Halloween seems packed with activities! So, without further ado, the slideshow!

Halloween2011 - free slideshow

Leaves and trash cans

What did I do with all those leaves, did you ask yourself? I had a lot. The first and second batch of leaves we put in the composter, I've also mowed some of them, this third batch I decided to borrow the neighbor's yard waste trash bin. She has been kind enough to say that we could use it if we needed to, so I dragged it out while Eric was cleaning out the Jeep and started piling in the leaves...I have found snow shovel is really handy for shoveling leaves! Sadly, I only got 1/4 of the leaves in there when Nate came up to me and asked to help me by going into the trash can...he is quite the helpful boy.
Gwen saw all the fun Nate was having and ran in and got more appropriate shoes for the occasion...I didn't think flip flops where the best option.

We would pile the leaves in and they would crush them down...Eric thought they looked like grape crushers!

They loved it when I "closed" them in there!

Sadly today is a bad day for us. The school nurse took Nate's temp and it was 99.6. Eric doesn't think that is so bad, and it isn't but combined with his general fussy attitude a day of vegging inside has been prescribed. He is currently watching Toy Story with Gwen and Eric. Well, I am sure Gwen and Nate are watching, Eric "sleep-watching" with his eyes closed! Eric decided to work a half day today since he has to go in on Thanksgiving, which works out for me. I can now walk around the house without listening to Nate cry and I don't have to carry him anymore! Momma has to get ready for Thanksgiving, after all! His temperature does not seem to be increasing, I guess I should go in there and give him some water, keep him hydrated!

Candied apples

It was kind of rainy looking around here, and I thought we would like to make Caramel Apples. Seemed like a fun thing to do, plus Eric loves them! We didn't get to it last week, so I thought, maybe Sat while Eric was working out in the yard, I thought it would keep the kids out of his hair.

Here is Gwen getting the toppings together.

Sadly Eric was so excited, he wanted to help, so my plan to keep the kids out of his "hair" didn't work. :(

Here is the first apple, it looks good, yes?

Gwen trying her hand at it.

She so wants to do this...Daddy, please!

Sprinkles!

The leftovers, Gwen got to eat them, straight off the spoon, she was in heaven.

Nate, well, he actually didn't get to help but he squealed until he got to sit in the lap and enjoy the leftovers.

I went to do something after I got the kids up from naps, possibly throw away a dirty diaper, and this is the scene I found, actually, this wasn't the exact scene, but I had to get the camera, and Gwen got in on the action! Nate crawled onto the chair, by himself! He is becoming quite the little climber...

It seems I might have a worse problem with Nate trying to get at the sweets. :( But I should mention, that after I moved the apples away from the chairs more towards the center of the table, he crawled up onto the table!!!! I moved them off that then, but if you might notice, we may have overloaded the apples with caramel (or toppings) either way, the apples looked rather sad and we have to work on our technique. Which Eric doesn't mind, since he figures that means more apples for him!