Happy Thanksgiving!

Selah Bear is almost 9 months! She loves her bread...she is usually double-fisting to get it in as fast as possible.

'Tis the season for babies growing up too fast. *tear*

Ari and Evangeline have been super sweet to each other lately. I will overhear Ari tell her that he loves her and she will go give him hugs randomly. Nothing makes my heart happier than to hear their sweet voices talking to each other in love.

We enjoy the cousins over every week. It's only a matter of time before they start to get silly.

Group photos always get interesting...but hey, at least it didn't take 20 pics to get them to look in the same direction!

'Tis the season for extra family time.

This is as lively as I look when watching 5 children. Ari must have overheard me talking one day because he will randomly tell me "Mom, you don't look old." Haha. Thanks buddy.

Evangeline has got the hang of this mommy thing. Need I say more?

Fall has been here for a while...but our trees like to hang on to their leaves for a long time.

Thanks to some storms that came through we had enough leaves blow off to get a pile going. The kids were THRILLED, even if it was freezing out.

Weee!!

'Tis the season for leaf jumping.

And yes...we are those people with the tree up already. The kids were delighted!

'Tis the season for cozy fires, hot chocolate, and giving thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving!

the everyday or not

Ok so going to a birthday party at a trampoline place is not our everyday, it was a first! But Ari had a blast going with daddy while us girls stayed home.

It was better for me to stay home because I would have been gasping at every little jump he made. Things like this makes my hair turn gray and stresses me out for fear my baby will get hurt. The hardest part about being a momma is learning how to let go and not be a control freak about everything. I need to let go more and let them explore and have fun.

So glad daddy brought him home in one piece. :)

Kids do the silliest things. I'm not sure why she fastened this blanket as a makeshift scarf but it brought many laughs.

There are days when they bicker over every little thing. Then there are days when they are BFF's and I don't hear a word out of them for hours because they are absorbed in their own make-believe worlds together. I love to hear their voices from the other room call to one another to come play. It's music to my ears.

And in an attempt to get a picture of sibling love I get this: one giving bunny ears and one doing a "scary" face.

I suppose this isn't the everyday either. I would have even MORE gray hairs. But let's just say I wasn't in charge then :)

Once again, nobody was broken and the kids have FUN.

Ari looks forward to any opportunity to take care of Selah. He is always ready to hold her, asking to pick her up, feed her, make her laugh, whatever. He just LOVES her. Don't get me wrong, he loves Evangeline too. Just in different ways. 

His idea for a selfie, not mine.

Ari came downstairs from tucking Evangeline in to her bed for a nap (trust me when I say he offers!) exclaiming "Mom! I know what I want to be when I grow up! I don't want to be a cowboy anymore, I want to be a babysitter!!" Oh this boy melts my heart. Then he said, "So then I could stay and watch them while you go out!" It's not everyday that your 5 year old boy would offer to do that AND be completely serious about it. I love him to pieces.

hello November

It seems as a new month approaches I can hardly believe how fast the last one just went. October was a blur to me. It was crazy busy for our family and once November hit we took a vacation from life.

This little one is 2 1/2. She has the wildest hair post-sleeping and I'm constantly putting it up to get it out of her face. Her hair is surprisingly long in the back (when wet) but the top seems to grow much slower. It is so fine that I can get away with brushing it with my fingers for fear that a comb will pull out any hair that we've worked so hard to grow.

The princess skirts, headbands, jewelry, shoes, purses, nail polish, babies, etc. continue to be her love language. She's an early riser and is ready to hit the ground running. As soon as she's awake she is asking to go bye-bye, wants her clothes on for the day, and immediately wants breakfast. She has the same prayer for every occasion: "Dear Jesus, thank you for this day. Help me to obey. Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for my sins. Aaaaa-men." She is our cuddler and would be content if I held her 80% of the day.

While daddy was off studying his brains out to pass a certification, we stayed busy at home and managed to go to a dairy farm that had lots of fun fall things to do.

The kids led us through their first corn maze. Ari collected corn to bring home for our squirrel. We love spending time with cousin Devin. He is great with the kiddos.

The hayride was fun, but extremely cold!

Their first time playing in the corn crib. What fun!

We are slowly entering the technology age and were able to Skype a few times. *enter Shocked/Excited face here!* That made things much easier for the kids. 

We were so happy when daddy came home. It was a relief to finally have this off our plate.

In lieu of having many big things accomplished over the past several months...we took a vacation from life the first weekend of November. My idea of vacation is eating at my favorite breakfast place, followed by a trip to the zoo. We didn't do any work all weekend long and just enjoyed being together. The next few months will prove to be busy again with all the things that come with the holiday season, but we are anticipating this type of busy with excitement!

8 months

Selah has proven to be the over-achiever of our bunch. She has just broken in two teeth this week, which is a record for our kids. The other two didn't get any teeth until they were over 12 months!

She has also proven her ability to sit in a high chair very well. 

As I've said before, Ari really pays special attention to her needs. He thought she needed a headband and her picture taken. Thank you Ari. As you can see, she was thrilled with that.

She let's us know she is all done playing by putting her arms up in the air. I think she was all done with the headband too.

She doesn't belly laugh that often, but she does give us the funniest faces when she finds something funny.

Her nose will scrunch up and she will breath in and out heavily through her wide mouth smile.

She has also exceeded her siblings in her mobility at this age. We actually have one motivated to get around by herself! It doesn't include crawling yet...but she manages to make it from one end of the room to the other just by rolling.

She also manages to scoot backwards, and has found herself stuck in various places that she can't get out of. 

One thing lacking though is her ability to sleep through the nights. She used to sleep extremely well...and then I broke her somehow. Some day it will all straighten out, but for now we enjoy the extra snuggles in the middle of the night.