Happy Saturday!

Stefan pointing and naming all the family members to Olivia from the family calendar.

Hot chocolate and cookie time with Mommy. Stefan said, "Dis Special!" It was so sweet!

Olivia woke up just at the end of it. Next year she'll be able to join us!

Olivia in laundry basket

It was so funny to watch Olivia get in and then try to get back out of the laundry basket! She did get out by herself, so don't feel bad for her. The camera battery died, though, right before she was all the way out. She kept rolling around and we were all giggling:)

Pumpkin Spice Latte, Anyone?

2 c. Milk
2 T. Pumpkin
2 T. Sugar
1/2 t. each of cinnamon and nutmeg (or to taste)
2 T. Vanilla
1/2 c. Strong coffee

Combine milk, pumpkin, and sugar over medium heat and bring to a steam. Remove from heat and add vanilla and spices. Put in blender to froth then add coffee.

Note: You might want to make sure that the lid to the blender is on well before you froth. Ask me how I know.

And then when you do it the second time, you might want to check the lid again. Ask me how I know that, too.

Your kitchen and clothes will thank you.

Did I hear you say blond? Puh-leeeease.

It's delicious, by the way. You should try this. Almost as good as Starbucks.

Stefan Reads to Olivia

To hear Stefan reading to Olivia just about melts my heart. It is so sweet. Of course, as soon as she saw me she yelled to be held, but once I walked away she was back to listening to her big brother. Oh the beautiful blessings of parenting.

Olivia's miserable week

Poor little Olivia has been battling a high fever this week. After several days and no let up we took her into the doctor and found out she has an ear infection. We've been doing lots of cuddling and hugging, but now we have meds and her fever is down. Woohoo! Hopefully that means she'll be back to normal very soon.


Yes, she's crying here--so pathetic, poor thing:(

Daddy taking an early morning shift on Saturday.

Leaves, leaves everywhere

This week in addition to working on letters and counting we focused in on the theme of fall, and more specifically leaves.

What we observed:

We observed that leaves come in all different sizes, shapes, and colors.

What we acknowledged:

That God made the leaves, and He made all things for His own glory. Looking at the beauty of the leaves makes us want to thank God and give Him glory.

Catechism Question #3:
Q: Why did God make you and all things?
A: For His own glory.

What we did:
We played and jumped in the leaves, listening to the crunchy sound they make.

We made a tree using leaves we had gathered on our many walks.


We made colorful leaf rubbings.


We made leaf prints in play dough



What we sang:

(tune: Freres Jacques)

Leaves are falling, Leaves are falling
On the ground, on the ground,
Red and Yellow, Orange and Brown
Leaves are falling on the ground
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.

What We Read: (Thank you, Library. Oh how we love you.)

Mouse's First Fall by Lauren Thompson
Hello, Harvest Moon by Ralph Fletcher
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

Happy Hump Day:)

On our walk

Yesterday was one of those days that you just could not stay inside. It was beautiful!

We found some leaves and Stefan and Mommy had fun throwing leaves at each other.
Stefan ran and jumped and played in the leaves.


Little Sister kept an eye on things and got her fair share of leaves thrown on her as well.

And Stefan rode his bike in a parking lot near our house. And rode. And rode some more.

Olivia is observing the bike riding and looking like she would like to just leap right out of her stroller.
Oh it is hard to not be able to walk and run, isn't it?

New Shoes!

Aren't they cute???

You may leave your children at home...

But you'll always have a trace of them with you!

Yesterday I went out briefly during the kids naptime. I had to smile when I was in the store and looked down at my bag to grab the phone and saw this. I'm not exactly sure why I had a baby spoon with my phone. Who knows.



I wonder if there is any connection with the fact that when I reached in my bag to grab my sunglasses, I found this.

Hmmm. It does leave one to wonder, doesn't it?

Being Vain Maybe?

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall Floor...

And for those of you that hadn't seen her in her cloth diapers (or didn't know that we switched a couple of months ago) there you have it. It really is true.

Just call me frugal. Or green. I'll take either as a compliment:)

In all seriousness, we really do love cloth diapering.

Shopping with Mommy

It's always fun shopping with two little ones. It takes twice as long, it's unpredictable (to say the least!), people are friendlier (that is, if your children are being sweet at the time!), and it is FUN. Especially when there is a cool grocery cart like this one.

Here is my expert grocery cart driver this morning.


And his precious cargo.


In case you're wondering, Olivia rarely sleeps when we are out like this. Today, however, we had just taken an extremely long walk and the fresh air tired her plum out! She fell asleep in the car while we were driving to the grocery store so I left her in her carseat. She ended up sleeping most of time in the store and when she did wake up she was very sweet. All in all a succesful shopping trip: happy children, happy mommy, and the groceries bought!

Um...we do do homework...I promise

We had a rare warm October day so Patience and I worked outside while Stefan played. And Stefan and Patience found a way to ride the tricycle together.


Patience is a very kind and patient (no pun intended!) big cousin.

Oh and it works like this, too!

And yes, we did do her homework. I promise. Here is her ever present smile to prove it.

Drawing

Stefan was given this sketchbook awhile back. I would have never thought to give him an empty sketch book. Coloring book, yes, but a sketch book? Who knew? He absolutely LOVES it. Sometimes he colors wildly with lots of crayons, other times he "writes" with his pen. It's been so much fun seeing him develop in this area.

It's Sleep Sack Season!

I love me a good sleep sack. Oh yes I do. It saves me many trips into the room at night time to cover the kids up with blankets once again. Kids just do NOT keep their blankets on. I have never seen sleep sacks this nice in the US. And I definitely have not seen ones big enough for toddlers. Mimi to the rescue! Stefan is just about to grow out of his this year, but I think we'll make it through the winter (I hope!).

It is getting colder and I pulled these out tonight for the first time. Stefan was excited to sleep in it. He thinks it's like a sleeping bag! Here they are fast asleep---and nice and warm, too!

Cold Fall Day!

Saturday we headed up to Wisconsin to visit with Grandpa and Grandma Hanson. We also stopped by a farmer's market and enjoyed some free fun. This market had a petting zoo, but there were way more animals than most petting zoos have. They also had free train rides and horse and carriage rides. Stefan loved it. It was a bit chilly but it just made it all the more fun!

Do you see how big those pumpkins are? Gigantic! And the squash was dirt cheap. We bought a ton of it. I sense a lot of squash dishes this fall, and maybe a big baby food making day, as well!

Here is Stefan visiting with his great-grandparents (and their dog!). We had a nice visit with them. Grandpa seemed to be extra spry which was nice to see. He loved watching Olivia crawl around.

We also stopped (but no pictures) at an apple orchard very close to their place. One of Brian's Aunts and a cousin were working there so we stopped in to say hi and enjoy some hot apple cider and apple cider donuts! It was a fun day, and we were all exhausted when we got home. But it's a good kind of exhaustion:)

Olivia keeps us smiling!

Getting a share of Daddy's apple. She thought it was a very tasty teether!

Always busy. Always on the go. Always into EVERYTHING.
Atleast this thing is safe;)