Fall Fun

Sylvia had fun helping Daddy rake up the leaves a few weeks ago. Our kids love being outside and Dan and I love that!Eric even enjoyed the leaf pile, although he wasn't sure what to think of Sylvia throwing leaves on him.Eric had a great time in the swing as you can see by his big smileWe're able to get a pretty good family picture which is not and easy task these days.

Family Wedding

We went to the Des Moines area a couple of weeks ago for my cousin Jennifer's wedding. Family from around the Midwest as well as Georgia and Argentina were there. We stayed at the 4H camp in Madrid where the wedding also was. I love spending time with my extended family and I wish we would have had more time to spend together.

Dan, the human basketball hoop. Take a close look at this picture and it will crack you up.
My cousins and I were very close growing up. We always drew names and did a gift exchange when we were kids. In an attempt to keep our families connected, although we don't see each other as often, we have continued to do an exchange with the great grand kids. Here's our attempt at a group picture. I am learning that my daughter does not like group photos.

Eric with the other baby boys, Graham and Raymond. Graham is two months older than Eric and Raymond is a week younger.

Of my Grandma's 14 grandchildren only three of us are girls. Here I am with Jennifer, the bride, and Kristina.My family is following the trend with only 3 of the 9 grandchildren being girls. Here's Sylvia with her girl cousins, Margaret and Katie.
I talked up the wedding to Sylvia so she would be excited about going. She did not do a great job of sitting quietly through the ceremony and I had to rush out a couple of times because she started crying about wanting something. I had to wake her up from a nap to go so she was a little tired. When the ceremony was over she asked, "Is it party time now?" She loved dancing with the girls.
Sylvia was so excited to get to see her cousin, Evan. She followed him around the reception and even got to dance with him.

Sylvia snuggling with Great Nana. I love this picture.

All Boy

This boy likes to move. He's been crawling army style for a couple of months now and just got up on his hands and knees last weekend.


He's also pulling himself and beginning to climb. Shortly after taking these pictures he figured out how to get on top of the chair.


P.S. It's very difficult to change his diaper so sometimes I give up on getting his pants back on. Plus, when I do, he usually crawls right out of them.

P.P.S. Sylvia did none of this :)

Baby Mum Mum

underdog

Trick or Treat

Sylvia was so excited to go trick-or-treating this year. She talked about it all day until it was finally time to go. Our neighborhood has become quite desolate, so we decided to trick-or-treat in Nana and Papa's neighborhood. Grandma and Grandpa stopped over to see our little bear and dragon. Sylvia informed us that she was a mean bear and practiced her growling.

I don't think he could get any more adorable.

This sequence of pictures cracks me up.

Sylvia rang each doorbell and commented on whether she could reach it or not and whether or not it worked. She would then stand with her face plastered to the window while she waited for someone to answer. With a few reminders, she said "trick-or-treat" at each house and with a few more reminders, she also said "thank you."

Boy do I love being a mama to these two!

Dan and I reminisced about last year when she stood right at the door so nobody could open it for her and when they finally got it open she tried to get into their house. She also wouldn't say "trick-or-treat" or growl like a lion last year. We ended up feeding her goldfish crackers along the way to keep her from eating all the candy and to encourage her keep going.

Pumpkin Carving

We carved our pumpkins in stages this year which actually worked out quite nicely for the attention span of an almost 3 year old. Sylvia helped us scoop the "goop" out one night. Her and daddy designed and carved the faces the next two nights. She wanted a smile on one of the faces.




This was our attempt at posing with the pumpkins



The one on the left is Eric with one tooth and a smile. The other is just a silly face.