Saving the Best for Last!

Now that I'm finally up to date with my pictures. I took this last night after bath time.

They are just the cutest things ever!

Halloween

During Trick or Treating we just passed out candy to our friends.

Below are a couple of pictures that were just fun.

Ella is the little girl standing behind Maddie. This is in front of our door and she lives up those steps. Not so good picture taking on my part, Maddie standing right in front of her costume.

But the pumpkins are the cutest! They belong to Justin and Lisa Der. Justin is a first year Seminary student as well. Their boys are all under 3 and the sweetest little things!

Fall Break in Cleveland

During Spence's fall break last weekend we went home to Cleveland. The girls got to do a whole bunch of fall festivities. They made and decorated pumpkin cookies with Mammie. We went on a hay ride with Uncle Rob and Aunt Angela. The girls got to do a little hay maze and throw hay at each other. Then we made gingerbread haunted house with Aunt Angela. The girls loved the frosting! And last, they carved pumpkins with Popo.

Our Friends!

In the middle of October we had some of our bestest friends come visit us up here: George and Bryn and Kevin and Emilee. Friday, Kevin, Emilee, Caroline, Baby Helen and Aunt Emi, who lives in St. Louis, came over and played while we waited for Spence to get out of class.

When Spence was done we went to the Magic House for the kids to play.

Curious George was there, too! Maddie went thru a little phase of watching Curious George on PBS. It was really interesting to watch it with her to see how the writers write the stories. George is usually trying to figure something out like how the apple cider machine makes cider out of the apples or how to make a hat that's as perfect for him as is "The Man with the Yellow Hat". But they narrate it so well, stating and explaining each step he takes to get to the conclusion. Maddie was just mesmerized by it.

Well, anyway, back to the childrens' museum

The water table . . . and Baby Helen trying to figure out how there are so many of her.

All of us trying out a new hair do.

Spence and Kevin playing. (They are such good Daddy's!)

This is Katie singing her favorite song "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" for Aunt Emi.

It was the Magic House's 30 birthday so the girls got to decorate and eat cupcakes along with decorating a birthday hat.

On Saturday we met up with Geoge, Bryn, Elizabeth and Hattie in St. Charles for the "Life Is Good" festival. Kevin and Emilee met up with us a little later.

The girls with Lewis and Clark outside of the festival.

The girls got to do lots of fun stuff . . .

. . . picking up balls so they could be dumped on their heads (it's amazing what excites them), face painting, bouncing, parachuting, we got to eat festival food, ball tosses, etc.

Maddie's photograhy of me and Katie. A family photo by some girl who didn't know to tell us when. My four year old did a better job! :)

We ended our weekend with a birthday party for Elizabeth who turned 4. I forgot my camera so I have not pictures! But the girls all had such a good time. Bryn cooked us all dinner, decorated pumpkins with them, they got to color with markers on big sheets of paper, eat birthday cake, and watch Cinderella.

We had a great weekend with our friends and were so glad they could come up to visit us!

Baby's Birthday

On one of our free Saturdays in October we took a trip to Target for two things. We ended coming home with cake, plates and cups for Baby's birthday. Spence baked and decorated a cake for Baby with the girls and then we sang "Happy Birthday" to her and had cake. The girls had a blast and Baby enjoyed her cake . . . .

We just never can figure out how this baby eats the food put in front of her!

Up Close and Personal

At the end of September Grammy and Grandaddy came for a visit so we took a quick trip to the Zoo. It was quick because it started to rain. But . . . we had fun anyway and got to see lots of animals. The penguin house was all I took pictures of. It was really neat. We really got to see the penguins up close. I was shocked at how not afraid of people they were.