The flowers before the storm...

We've had another weekend of storms here, so before the bad weather started on Friday afternoon, I grabbed my camera to take some pictures of our beautiful azaleas out front. I had a feeling the wind and rain would make all the blossoms fall off! :-( The great thing about these azaleas, which our friend Jason picked out and helped us plant, is that they bloom TWICE a year! They are so beautiful!

Hannah was napping so she didn't get to participate in our little photo shoot.







This photo shoot is over...


No wait, the kids want the camera! Their babysitter, Carolina, who is also our personal family photographer :-), gave them some lessons the other day on how to properly hold my big camera. So Aaron got my camera and took some...



Not too shabby! (You see Claire is holding her play camera...she was having fun imitating me taking pictures. She would even hold the camera back to "look" at the picture she just took. So cute!)

Claire didn't do quite as well with the real camera...


Aaron took this one:


And I really like it, crows feet, bags, messy eyebrows, and all!

Bathtub Babies

Aaron, almost 7 months:


Claire, 6 months:


Hannah, 7 months:

Baby's First Christmas

I love the wonder in Hannah's eyes as she takes in all the decorations of the Christmas season...the twinkling lights, the extra things set around the house...and especially the shiny ornaments on the tree!

She sits up so well now so I sat her next to the tree and let her explore. Of course I had the camera at the ready.

Wow, that one is shiny...maybe I can get it!


Mmmm...tasty.


Who, me?


This feels great on my gums.


I wonder if the whole thing will fit...


Oh, look, Granny came by for a visit! She is so funny!


My finger is pretty tasty too.


Granny thinks we need the Santa hat for these pictures. As long as I have my bell, I'm happy.


Don't take it away Granny!

Merry Christmas!

We have had at least one, but mostly multiple people in our household sick since before Thanksgiving. It has been so joyous. Or not. Most recently Claire has had a nasty fever virus and ear infection and we had to stay home for several days. I kept wondering when I would get "the" Christmas picture. I had the kids' matching pajamas ready. Then Chris had a sudden trip scheduled for work so I had to do the picture pronto!

So here it is...Claire running a bit of fever and Hannah ready for bed, and it's not exactly in focus...


I took some cute baby Santa shots. All three of my kids wore this little costume!






Then we got the family picture before church (with the auto timer on the camera). I'm very pleased with how well it turned out!


I used all of the pictures to make our Christmas card. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Thanksgiving Prep

The night before Thanksgiving we started some of our meal prep for the next day. Aaron and Claire helped me make cranberry salad, a family tradition receipe, using Grandma's old crank grinder to grind the fresh cranberries. Aaron even said, "Hey, I remember this from last year!"

After they had baths, they came back to the kitchen to help with the pies...pecan and (fresh) pumpkin. Even Hannah pulled a seat up to the counter.






I really don't like this picture...it was the end of a long day filled with doctor's visits, antibiotics, and cold medicine, and I looked terrible. But, since I'm rarely in pictures, I guess I'll treasure this one.


I love Hannah's face in this one. Huh? She looks so much like her dad!


Sweet sisters!




My kids are the best!

Halloween Fun!

We had the best Halloween ever this year!

Chris was hunting so I had the kids by myself most of the day. We started out with a yummy homemade whole-wheat blueberry waffle breakfast. I love doing big breakfast on Saturday!

Then we headed out in search of the perfect pumpkins. I don't know why I had not bought pumpkins already...but I learned my lesson this year. Do not wait until Halloween day to buy one. The first pumpkin stand we went to had smaller pumpkins, good for carving, but NOT big enough to put Hannah in. And that was the priority. I bought two of the smaller pumpkins, and headed to two more stands looking for large pumpkins. All the other stands were OUT of pumpkins! I couldn't believe it. I started to panic--what if I couldn't get the all-important pumpkin picture with Hannah, like I did with the first two children? That would be a travesty!! I already feel guilty enough about not doing stuff for my 3rd child!

I drove through our Old Towne area to see if the farmer's market was there, although I knew it wouldn't be. I just didn't know what else to do. When I drove by Old Towne Gifts, which is owned/run by my friend Stephanie, I saw two large pumpkins, either one perfect for my picture! I worked up my nerve and went inside. I introduced myself to Stephanie's boyfriend, and told him my dilemma. I offered him $20 plus the two smaller pumpkins I had bought earlier in the day in exchange for one of his big pumpkins. Thankfully, he took my offer! He wanted me to bring the picture by later--he said they might like to use it in an ad or something! Wow! I went back to the first pumpkin stand and bought two more carving pumpkins, and we headed home.

We put Hannah down for a nap, and started to work on our pumpkins. Aaron drew how he wanted his face to look (he was specific about having a trapezoid nose), and Claire wanted to copy her pumpkin bucket.


We started gutting the pumpkins. Aaron really liked the pumpkin guts. Claire wouldn't touch them with her hands--only the spoon.


Aaron got to the point where we had to tell him over and over to STOP with the guts already. He kept putting them back into the pumpkins...driving me nuts in the process!




Then we started drawing our designs and cutting...


Mom was there, so we actually got a picture of me!


The finished pumpkins!


When Hannah woke up from her nap, she ate and got happy, and it was time for her to get in her pumpkin! We had to try a couple of times, but I finally got her legs folded comfortably and she sat and looked around. A couple of times she smiled, and I got the best picture ever!


That was so worth the $27 pumpkin!

She tasted it, too.


And the rest of the day will have to be another post! This one is too long already!

Our Griswald Fall Break Vacation

This weekend we set off on a short family-vacation-ala-Griswald. We planned to visit Chris's aunt and uncle for one night, then go to a nearby state park for a night or two of camping. And I'm talking tent camping...we don't have the luxury of a camper! (The idea is for the camping to be CHEAP.)

We set off Saturday afternoon, with our van loaded to the brim. We got to Uncle Benny's with no problem--only one stop for a bathroom/nursing break.

Ironically, Chris's cousins, who live about 12 minutes from our house, were also there to visit their parents. We hadn't seen them in a while so it was good to visit before they left for the evening.

Aunt Judy pulled out some Lincoln Logs and they had a blast!

Here's Claire and Beth building a house for Claire's rubber ducky (one of her newest lovies).




Aaron of course builds a vehicle of some kind...


Hannah with Jen Jen...


And the most fun is knocking it down!


Sunday morning we went to church with Benny and Judy, and Benny delivered a wonderful sermon. The kids were so good in church, even Hannah who was awake the whole time and only babbled a bit right at the end of the service. After a good lunch and naps, we headed to the lake. (Somehow I managed to get away with no pictures of Benny and Judy!! Ugh!)

We picked a good campsite--nice flat spot for the tent, somewhat close to the bathrooms and play ground, and not too close to other campers. As soon as the tent was up, Hannah was ready for a nap. Poor thing didn't sleep well the whole weekend so she was tired. Probably because we kept making her sleep on the floor. Look how cute the back of her head is! Ha!



The kids got their new flashlights and played king and queen of the tree stump while Dad built a fire.










We roasted hot dogs for dinner, then of course had Smores for dessert!


Hannah was such a trooper.


The Bumbo seat is very useful!




I love just sitting around the fire.






Ketchup face.




And that's where I stopped taking pictures. The kids started begging to go to bed before 7:00, but we told them to stay up a little while later. They love going to sleep in the tent! After Hannah was down we sat around the fire telling stories, each with a fire theme. We started with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the firey furnace. Then we started making up stories about cats, ducks, turkeys, squirrels, garbage trucks, street sweepers, etc. It was really a fun time!

The kids went to bed at 8:00, and we turned in at 9:00. It always takes me a while to fall asleep in the tent (because I keep imagining the boogie man outside the tent!), and of course Hannah woke me up a couple of times. I finally got her snuggled in with me around midnight, and around 2 am it started pouring down rain. It was a beautiful sound, the rain pelting the tent, but I was nice and dry inside.

Fast forward to 5:00 am, and after very little sleep, it's STILL raining, and the water is starting to seep through the tent. We got little sprays of water in our face every few minutes, making it impossible to get any more sleep. The kids finally woke up at 6:30 (how on earth they slept that hard through everything going on is a mystery to me!), and we let them walk just outside the tent door to go potty. It was still drizzling, but I checked the radar on my phone and saw we were about to get a clearing before more rain set in. So we folded up sleeping bags and blankets, and packed our bags. We hauled everything to the van as quickly as possible, then took down the tent and stuffed the wet mess into two garbage bags. I was still wearing the clothes I had slept in and we all looked disheveled. We went to the inn at the park to eat breakfast...I was quite sad I didn't get to do pancakes and bacon over the campfire! Then we just headed home. I was so exhausted and ready to get the van unloaded, get cleaned up, and start washing the mountains of laundry we had! A bit sad we didn't get to explore around the campsite or lake that day, but we had still had fun.

We had hoped to make it all the way home without stopping (a 2 hour drive), but 30 minutes from home Hannah was fussing and we realized she had a dirty diaper. We stopped to change her, and I realized it was a BLOWOUT! Poop everywhere! That was fun to change in a gas station parking lot. Or not. Washing her car seat cover just added to my mountain of laundry!

We finally made it home safe, and the kids played and played. Hannah seemed happy to see her bed and took a good nap. Chris got the tent clean and dry, and even cleaned my van out spic-and-span! I was so happy. What a great ending to a crazy vacation!