Fall Adventures

We had a wonderful fall full of lots of outdoor adventures.  Here are a few highlights!

Feeding the ducks at the park

Trying to get a picture of Grace on her rocking horse, the start of the "I don't want to smile or have my picture taken" phase (we are still in this phase, grrr.)

The state fair came to town to the park behind our neighborhood in September and we took Grace on bracelet night so she could ride unlimited rides for one price.  She had a BLAST!  We were able to ride the merry go round with her and get her started.  She really enjoyed all the rides and was far braver than I expected.  She also enjoyed the petting zoo, it was her first time seeing animals up close and personal.Her favorite ride was by far this awesome slide where she rode on Daddy's lap as he slid down the slide on a burlap sack.  They did that 8+ times and she could have gone longer if it wasn't already past her bedtime.  She also, being her Daddy's girl, LOVED cotton candy.  She wasn't a fan of how sticky it made her fingers, but she loved the taste.  I fed her most of what she ate to keep her hands clean.  We will absolutely be going back next year.  In case you're wondering, we did bring Timothy, but he mostly just chilled in the stroller.  :)

Hooray for the Merry Go Round!

Ship Captain!

Merry Go Round, again (and again, and again, and again!)

Flying Dinosaur, she wasn't so sure about this at first, but loved it at the end.

David's folks came up to spend a weekend with us at the beginning of October.  It was a beautiful fall weekend and we took the opportunity to head up to North GA and go apple picking.  Grace enjoyed it and caught on fast that the good apples were still in the tree, not the rotting ones on the ground.  :)   Timothy slept on my chest the entire time as he had his shots and was feeling really bad.

Picking Apples with Daddy

Helping Mama put them in the bag

Timothy seems to do everything sooner than Grace.  It's hard for me to pinpoint when her personality started to shine out, but his was around 2 months.  Here are a few shots of him one night after he started to be really expressive.

Sweet Tim - we love all his expressions!

love this one!

We headed back up to North GA at the end of October to go to the pumpkin patch with the Drehers.  Grace had a blast playing with the little "punkins" and trying to pick up the big ones.  It was another beautiful fall day and we had a lot of fun.

Pumpkin patch!  Grace loved the little "punkins"

First official family photo, a little sad since he was 3 months old...

Grace loves her baby brother

Mommy & her babes

Mommy & her sweet Timothy

For Halloween, we took Grace to the safe kids event at the park behind our house where we did a hayride and David took her in her first kid-rated haunted house.  She wasn't terribly excited about it, but did great (much better than I would have I'm sure!)  Then we took her to a party at a church near our house where she got to play games and trunk or treat.  She LOVED it.  For Halloween I just took her to a few friends houses and she enjoyed it.  Timothy stayed in with Daddy and helped hand out candy.

Ready to trick or treat!

Tim stayed home to hand out candy with Daddy

Tyler stopped by, they are such good buddies!

Waiting on the hayride

A few more bonus shots that were just too cute not to include...

Sweet time with Daddy one day after work, love those big smiles!

Grasping and pulling into his mouth for the first time

HUGE smiles!

I Love You

Within the last month Grace has started saying "I Love You". I mean, saying it loud and clear, unprompted and with intention. The first time she said "I Love You Momma" it just melted my heart. This morning she said it and then climbed into my lap to give me a big hug. I am sure blessed to be able to stay home with my little miracles and this new phase (while it brings with it even more discipline challenges) sure is sweet.

I owe lots of pictures and lots of updates, I may never catch up...but I'll try! David just about has our computer back up and running, so hopefully I can work on it soon. Until then, here are some pics of the kids on Christmas day.

Family Time & Easter

Grace's Nana & Grandpa came to visit on the April 14th and Nana stayed with us while Grandpa went on a golf trip the next week. We had a wonderful visit, as always, and even got to take in some of the sites with Nana.  We headed to the World of Coke and had a great time.  Nana got to explore a little more than we did, but we ALL enjoyed the tasting room.  Afterwards, we headed over to Centennial Olympic Park to let Grace play on the playground.  I was completely worn out from all the walking and having braxton hicks contractions, so I rested in the shade while Grace gave Nana a run for her money on the playground.  It was a really fun day.

1st time having soda - Sprite and it was glorious!  :)

Going down the slide and loving it!

We did our Easter celebration a little differently and I loved it. Next year we'll refine it even more to have ALL the non-Jesus related Easter stuff happening on Saturday so Sunday can just be about our Risen Lord.  We also want to plan on doing Easter baskets after nap so the kids aren't hopped up on sugar all day.  :)   Grandpa didn't get home until Saturday night so we did wait this year until Sunday after nap to do Grace's Easter basket and the mini-Easter egg hunt.  She didn't care about even opening the eggs, so we may not fill them and just do candy in their baskets, we'll have to see how it goes as they get older.  Anyway, our friends the Dreher's joined us for dinner Saturday night and it was lovely.  Here are a few pictures from our celebration:

All dressed up for church!

Family photo

With Nana & Grandpa - this was the only decent shot as she was more interested in Nana's bead bracelets than looking at the camera.

At this point, our little princess was PAST being done with the photos, the tears commenced shortly thereafter

Opening the easter basket - she loved the big eyed bunny & duck she from Nana

Bunny ears!

Hunting for Eggs - found one!

Halloween Festivities

Our Halloween festivities started a week before Halloween, so here are some picture of all the fun!  She was generally too distracted for a good picture as we were always around other kids, so there isn't a fantastic picture of her from Halloween.  I may try to dress her up again later and try to get a good one.  :)

I have alot more pictures from our trip to Jacksonville, AL to visit Marleah, Randy & Avi, but here are the Halloween related ones.  All of us, adults included, took a nap Saturday afternoon so we were all up and ready to go to the fall festival at their church that night.  We were thinking that after Avi's birthday party that morning we wouldn't go so I didn't pack Tigger for her to wear.  Thankfully, Avi has a fall birthday too so Grace wore her 1st Halloween costume - this adorable flower!  She went trunk or treating (which she wasn't too sure about - she kept trying to give the people who wanted to give her candy her treat bag, lol) and enjoyed watching all the other kids play games and stuff.  Daddy was thrilled with the free yummy cotton candy they handed out, so all in all we had a great time!  :)

Here she is with Avi - obviously at the end of our time at the carnival...

We had a costume party at our place with our small group the Sunday before Halloween and it was alot of fun too.  Grace had a blast with her friend Joshua who is 11 days her senior (the dinosaur below) and Anya who was the GA Tech Bee.  We tried to get a good picture of the 3 of them, but this was the best we could do...

The common costumes were rednecks and ninjas.  Grace had a blast playing with all the plastic ninja toys.  Someone even left a sword here that she LOVES.  So if you were a ninja at our place and are missing a sword - we have it!  :P

The day before Halloween we went to a free fall carnival near our house.  I was determined to get Grace on a hayride and they had one there.  After an hour wait, we got on the 2nd to last ride of the night and she seemed to enjoy herself, though not as much as me!  She spent the majority of the time on Daddy's shoulders watching all the kids walk around and play the games and stuff.  It was a fun evening.

We opted out of taking her trick or treating this year, but she did enjoy watching the kids come to the door and she helped Daddy pass out candy for a little while.  :)

Happy 4th of July!

Grace looks so cute in her "All American Cutie" outfit today in honor of the 4th...we had to snap a few pictures.