Pumkin Carving.

We carved our pumpkins Sunday night because Jeff was headed out of town the next day. I didn't think I'd be able to handle five kids and pumpkin carving alone. As it was, the evening was great because our home teachers came over to visit and ended up lending us a helping hand. I think our pumpkin carving time was cut in half. Anyway, the kids had fun, and the pumpkins turned out cute.

Pumpkins

Fall Fun!

I love the Fall. The weather is cooler, the leaves are changing, and there is an encitement in the air with regards to the upcoming holiday season. (maybe that's because stores are already carrying Christmas stuff. What???) Anyway, it's a fun time, and we've been busy doing the Fall stuff. We went to pick apples at an apple orchard, we played at the pumpkin patch, and we finished off the soccer season. Here are just a couple of pictures of what we've been up to.

Binky Be Gone!

We are proud to say that Parker has officially given up his binky. He'd been living life with only having his binky at bedtime and live was good. We then cut the binkies in half which kind of bugged Parker, but he continued to use them even though we said, "They are broken now, you should throw them away." Well, we finally convinced him to give them to the binky fairy so he could get a toy, and he agreed. At first we were going to have the binky fairy come at night, but we decided that probably wouldn't fly. Then we just decided to have him take his binkies to the store to buy a toy with his binkies. This is what we did, but Parker kept the idea of a binky fairy in his mind and kept telling me he was going to be shy around the binky fairly. Well, Target was where we went, so I think Parker now thinks the binky fairy works there. He picked out his tools, and proudly gave his binkies to the questioning cashier. I tried to hint to her what we were doing, but she didn't get it. It turned out ok, because Parker didn't really catch that we were just buying a toy. Anyway, he is in love with his tool belt, and has done beautifully without a binky. I thought there would be big fits, but there hasn't. The only time he said anything was the first day when he was supposed to take a nap and the said, "I going be sad without my binky." He didn't take a nap that day, but went to bed great because he was so tired. It's nice to have that milestone crossed.

Fancy Nancys

Ashley and Emily had fun dressing up like Fancy Nancy (the children's book character)the other day. I just thought the picture was cute.

Park Fun

Another thing that has kept us busy lately has been playing outside. There are only a few months when it is actually enjoyable to be outside in Kansas and now is one of those months. It's not hot and humid so you can be outside without sweating to death, and we have not started the bitter cold time yet. Parker and Emily love to be outside too, so that helps. Going to the park makes it even better because there are no crickets. We seem to have a lot of them in our yard and Parker hates them. Anyway, Carter is proving to be a park fan as well. Here are some of our latest pictures.

Birthday photos

Busy Times.

These last couple of weeks have been very busy at our house. It mainly had to do with Ashley's and my birthday last week. Thank you everyone who called or left notes on facebook or e-mail. It's nice to feel loved. Anyway, we had a lot of fun having a birthday party for Ashley and her friends Friday evening, and then celebrating as a family on Sunday. Ashley's party was a lot of fun even though it wore me out. It was a pre-tend sleepover at which the little girls came, made their own pizza's for dinner, put on kid make-up, decorated pillow cases and made bead necklaces, ate cake and ice cream (of course) and watched 30 minutes of a movie before their parents came to get them. Jeff, Taylor and Parker were gone on a Father's and Son camp-out, so it was me, Carter and ten giggling little girls. Luckily I'd invited a babysitter friend of our's over to help with Carter and other things. She was great. It turned out to be a success, and the best part was the smile on Ashley's face. I have to say, Emily was having the time or her life. I think she thought it was her party. The only time it got rough was when it was time for bed and she was mad because she hadn't gotten any presents. Poor thing. My birthday was great too because Jeff made me a cake. That's a big deal. I was pretty impressed. All-in-all it was a great weekend. As for this week, my only excuse for not blogging is I was doing visiting teaching. One of these days I'm going to figure out how to get it done before the end of the month. I don't know how the time flies by so fast. I really love to visit all the sisters, it's just that time slips away from me and before I know it we are at the end of the month again. Hopefully they know we love them even if we show up the last week of the month.