October was fun! {Part 2}

Our annual tradition to Appleworks lives on! The weather was perfect and there actually were pumpkins this year! (Lots of rain last year left a pumpkin graveyard).

The kids had fun investigating all sorts of pumpkins, especially the rotten ones.

Every year we take a cousin picture on the pumpkins. There are more and more added to the bunch each year!

The animals are always a big hit too.

Except Lincoln preferred them from far away. We tried to get him close but that didn't end so well :)

October was fun! {Part 1}

We decided to go out to breakfast one morning. We normally choose Patachou, but we were pretty hungry and wanted to eat sooner than later :)

It was a big hit all around.

Then off to the zoo we went!

Lincoln gets excited about any and all animals. We've been to the pet store a few times because I get a kick out of his excitement!

We were invited by some friends to Kelsay Farms. Since their church rented it out we were able to go for free! The kids really enjoyed the corn maze.

And you can see the joy of going on a moo train ride.

Lincoln enjoyed these huge pumpkins while the Bigs played on the hay bails. What a fun time!

1.5 years {Lincoln}

I love this age for many reasons. He wants to be doing what everyone else is doing, even if it means being trapped in a toy.

He's saying some words like da-da, cheese, hi, Ari (or A-wah), momma (or MOMMA!!-it's always yelling). It's not a lot of words but he has an understanding of everything we say.

Things like "Put the cereal back in the pantry!". And funny enough he attempted to put the cereal back in the bag. This picture about sums up my life right now :)

This is his "cheese" face :)

He wants to eat all the time. (See spilled cereal picture above).  It's usually a win-win since the kids love feeding the mooch.

Everything is exciting to him. He will point and loudly exclaim "WOOOH!" at a dog, balloon, train, plane, scarecrow, pumpkin, you name it. If he hears music he will break out in dance immediately.

Besides the 5 month old who is living with us (he loves babies!), this is one of his favorite toys. 

He is a lover.

And he is a fighter :) Well, he mostly just wants to be in control so as long as you stay out of the way he is a lover.

He thinks he is SO big. Wants to be Mr. Independent all the time, and if you don't let him then lots of screaming will follow.

Most of his communication is in grunts and pointing. "Uh-uh. Uh-uh" and looks at you like "Come on, I know you understand me" :)

He's still hanging around the 30% in weight, even though at 24 lbs he feels like a big lug. I can't imagine a child in the 90 percentile! And for now he is average on height :)

He still doesn't sleep through the night (at least most nights) but at this point we are so used to it that I'm not sure we would know what to do if he slept all night. 

the fair!

We didn't make it to the fair last year, so this year seemed super special.

It was humid as always so the kids were on the lookout for the misters.

The little farmers area is always fun.

Lincoln was content playing with his basket and watching the kids at each station.

It's amazing how big the kids seemed this year. (They didn't need any help on the tractors!)

Evangeline and Selah kept asking me to take their pictures. Ahhh sweet little girls. :)

My little niece was a big helper.

I don't remember the horse station from before, possibly an addition?

After our lunch at the dairy barn we went to see the animals! We were in a rush at the end so I didn't get many pictures of all the different ones we saw.

where has the time gone

AJ was able to take a trip to Uganda in July. That will have to be a post in and of itself, but while he was gone we survived, and played, and survived some more. Actually it wasn't too bad. Some friends stepped in and brought some food, we had lots of play dates, and just enjoyed our days together before school was to start.

We even snuck in a trip to the zoo!

The dog show was a big hit for the kids, even for Lincoln! He has his own special sound when he sees a dog, so the whole show he was going "Boop boop! Boop Boop!" in a high pitch sound.

And then they talked me in to standing in line so they could pet one :) I obliged since this is as close to owning a pet as we will be for a while. 

I figured no one would believe what happened the first night AJ was gone so I had to take a picture. It was one of those nights where Lincoln kept crying so at 11pm I brought him downstairs so I could finish listening to a sermon. Well out of nowhere this tree frog jumped off our fireplace mantle onto the living room floor--right in front of me!! He had dust all over him like he had been up there for a while! If I wasn't paranoid enough being the only adult in the house for 12 days, then this put me over the edge :)

The kids enjoyed a few movie nights (and so did I).

Our good friends were also moving away while he was gone so we spent lots of time with them.

We miss them already!

The kids were so excited to be able to pick daddy up from the airport, but unfortunately there were several flight delays. He was supposed to get in on his birthday and leave us a few hours to celebrate, but he didn't make it in on time. Talk about a bummer! Thankfully he did make it in the middle of the night so the kids were excited to see him the next morning.