Down EVERYWHERE!

While I was warming up dinner last night..   

Shoeboxes

Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes are one of our favorite things to do during the Christmas season.  Every year we fill one shoebox for each of our kids (to send to a child of the same age and gender in another part of the world)...they get to pick out all of the goodies and it is so good for them.  It's good for them to think of others and I love watching them pick out things that they really want (and probably want to keep for themselves some of the time) and send them off happily to a child who has far, far less than they do.  This year we got to fill one more shoebox...how fun!  And this year I finally got with the program and paid for the shipping of our boxes online which means that our boxes will be tracked and that we should be able to see later where in the world our shoeboxes went...I can't wait to find out!

Sweet Gifts

I just had to share these pictures of two baby gifts that we are loving right now!

Thank you Nonnie and Grampy for this wonderful swing!  He's still just a little bit small for it, but with the little pillow behind him it works even now and he really seems to like it!

 

And then there is this adorable outfit from Aunt Mary and Uncle Donald! Oh, he's just too cute!

In Awe of Fall

One of the best parts of being a mom is discovering the world fresh through the eyes of your child.  Like watching the most precious baby ever discovery the bright red and orange leaves on the trees in the front yard...

Shame

After a long night with the babe I "woke" up and here is what happened...

P.S.  Note my mangled wool clog in the background.  

P.P.S.  I could have made a few other signs for her today...

1.  "I chewed through my collar...again."

2.  "I popped holes in two of Eli's inflatable bowling pins that he got for his birthday."

3.  "I punctured the baby bumbo seat with my teeth."

4.  "And after I did all of that and my mom had me put outside I found a water blaster toy in a bucket and proceeded to rip that to shreds too."

5.  "It's been a busy day and I'm exhausted!"

A boy and his dog...

Well, our Sadie girl has been with us for a little over 6 months now.  She has clearly settled in and made herself at home in our family.  But she is still very much a puppy.  A very naughty puppy sometimes.  She's a wee bit excitable, though it is out of her sheer love for all living creatures (and she does calm down a little bit).  She sneaks out of the house on a regular basis (the children help her out with this pretty often).  And often she is good and stays in the yard and even comes back into the house when she is called...unless, of course, somebody or something happens to walk or run or ride or scamper by.  Then forget it.  Usually it means that the person she is running happily after will have to stop what they are doing and wait for me or Joe to come running after.  Good gracious.  And she is a chewer.  Oh my is she a chewer. I have nicknamed her the "Destroyer of Things"!  She loves shoes and all things wooden the most.  But really she'll chew on just about anything...she ate a CD the other day! Yep, she is still a puppy.  Hopefully when things calm down some next semester we'll be able to do a little more training with her.

In the meantime Sadie does have some redeeming qualities.  She is a sweetheart.  She's a cuddler.  And she is fantastic with the children.  They ADORE her.  Seriously adore her...sometimes a little too much (see pictures below).  Eli in particular can be found often hanging on her.  She plays with them and loves on them often.  And a few weeks ago when Eli was sick and watching cartoons on the couch she snuggled right up to him.  Oh, a boy and his dog...it is a sweet thing.  Now if she would just stop chewing everything in sight!:)

Growing

I was looking through pictures today trying to find one in particular (that I never did find) when I ran across this...

Liam is just a few weeks old here.  And I realized, suddenly, how much he is growing.  Say it isn't so!!  Oh, but it is.  My baby (destined to be the baby of the family for years and years to come) is growing.  Oh, he is still very much a baby, but now when he sits in this same swing the top of his head reaches the middle of the that pillow.  And it won't be long before he doesn't fit in the swing at all.  Aaaaahhhh.  I'm trying my best to soak it all in, because as much as I might like, he's only going to keep growing!  Slow down little boy!

3 Months!

Here's this little cutie's 3 month pictures!  If I haven't said it before let me say it now- I am totally and utterly in love with him!  He's got a smile that just lights up his whole face and it melts my heart every single time (even when I'm trying to get him to sleep and he's just grinning at me).  I won't go so far as so say that he's mellow, but he is the most laid back of all our babies.  He's just such a happy little guy (the majority of the time).  Honestly I just can't get enough of him!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

We carved pumpkins and before the kids could even get their costumes on it was raining.  Dreary and rainy. So we took some quick pictures inside (bummer), I tucked my camera away (no raindrops on my camera),  had an easy dinner, and headed off to our church for Trunk or Treat.  It was actually raining so much that they moved it indoors.  Then we hit up a couple of our neighbors that we know well and Liam and I decided that it was a little too rainy for a baby to be outside so we went home while Joe took Lily and Eli around the neighborhood a little bit more.  I heard that they took the rain in stride (I guess it's worth it when there is candy involved) but they didn't stay out too long!  Instead they headed home to partake in some of their candy stash!

The kids actually let me off easy this year.  Despite offers to buy or make many other costumes Lily insisted on being a beaver and using the mask and tail I made for her birthday party...

And Eli was perfectly happy to be a monkey which was a hand me down costume that we already had but never used. Well, he was perfectly happy to be a monkey until the moment we were getting his costume on Halloween night...that's when he decided that he really wanted to be a pirate! Sadly I had to explain to him that that wasn't an option at that point...and thankfully he was okay still being a monkey (it suits him well)!
And Liam...well, he didn't have much say in the matter, but he was pretty happy borrowing the pea pod outfit that my mom made for Eli when he was a baby. And oh my was he one of the sweetest peas ever!:)  

And our pumpkins were nice and simple this year too...   

Lily's

 

Mine

 

Liam's (yes, that's a pacifier in it's mouth)

Eli's

 Sadly I didn't get a picture of Joe's pumpkin...it was a fun, scary face hanging from one of the trees in our front yard (complete with a wire to pull to make it move). I only didn't get a picture because it was raining so hard (and the rest of the pumpkins got moved to the covered part of the front porch). It was a rainy, dreary Halloween but a happy one!