Trunk or Treat 2010

Daniel, Natilie and Justin with their cousins

Me and my princess Delaney

my nieces Julie and Lilly

Miss pirate Natilie

Justin had so much fun playing go fish

and anything that involves sweet food..

The cutest baby chick on the block Wade

Wade and Dadddy

Daniels awesome costume was a hit and won in the costume contest for his age group...hes a tonrado...

PUNKIN 101

Tonight for family home eve we carved our punkins...I say punkins because this is one of Justin's new words that he tries to say but calls pumpkins-punkins, it is so cute! Natilie had a punkin, Daniel had one and Justin and Wade shared a punkin

Wade just loved the flame inside, he LOVES fire...

The finished products. Daniels is the first one, it was supposed to be a skeleton, but his knife broke so he got aggrevated and didnt want to finish it but says he will tomorrow. Natilie did a cat and Justin and Wades is in the middle which was a spooky face

Natilie wanted a silly picture with mom...

Justin LOVED cutting with daddy

We were trying to get daniel to really eat that big glob but he chickened out

Natillie peacin it out..

Wade didn't want to do anything but play with the candle flame and the punkin tools and try an occasional seed here and there..

Justin was hilarious, at first he didnt want to touch any of it and just watch because Justin cannot stand to be messy or have ANYTHING on his hands, it took a little while for him to warm up to the idea but when we started cutting he got into it then..Justin was so fun to watch, he had a smile on his face the whole time and just loved it!

Wade testing some punkin seeds off of the floor

I love the look on Justins face here, he didnt want that goo near his hands....

Our spunky Natilie

This post doesn't inlude a picture (although I wish I had one, because that would make the story even more classic) but it is too funny not to document.

Our Natilie is one energetic, spunky, stubborn, strong minded, opinionated, wants to do things her own way and thinks she is a diva but is also one of the kindest girls you will ever meet. Her attitude reminds me of myself when I was younger (although I have mellowed out a ton since I have gotten older, so hopefully she will too :)
She is loving being at the middle school this year for 5th grade and rides the same bus as her brother which is nice. One day after school they got off the bus and rushed home. They busted in the door and Daniel was laughing and Natilie walked in all dramatic and said "Mom you will never guess what happened on the bus" I asked her what and this is what she told me.

she said "I was sitting with my friend talking on the bus when this 6th grade boy came up to me and asked me out on a date" by this point she was VERY dramatic about it all, with a louder tone in her voice and her hands waving in the air (for a brief moment I got a look into the future of her teenage years which scared the crap out of me and had to get that out of my mind and fast!!!) I asked her what did she say back to the boy and she replied "Mom, what do you think I told him, I looked at him, rollled my eyes and said, no-go date someone your own age for pete's sake!!" by that point I was laughing and crying at the same time, laughing because that is our Natilie and even though the boy was only one year older than her she thought it was a HUGE age gap, she is such a riot and crying because I know that oneday this will be reality to us. And of course her big brother has to chime in and say " and he was an ugly boy" I about died...oh the middle school drama...seriously its 5th grade people, shouldnt we still be coloring and playing with dolls instead of thinking about boys, writing notes, and worried about being the best dressed/most fashionable 5th grader at school (which Natilie already says thats what the other girls say and think about Natilie)
It really scares me to hear some of the stuff that kids talk/think about at their young ages. Natilie told me the other day that some girl in 6th grade likes this one boy who is in 6th grade too and that boy told the 6th grade girl that he wanted to have sex with her. Can you belive this!! The world in which these young kids are raised in terrifies the crap out of me and I hate to see what its going to be like in high school. Natilie told me after this "dont worry mom, that girl is gross and I stay away from her" it definitely makes me realize how CRUCIAL it is to keep teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to our children and praying each day for them! Now if only more parents in the world would think that too!

Ramseyer Farm

I so wish I would have had batteries for the camera on this day, but we didn't so I didn't get any cute pictures, but we sure had a blast. Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year, with the crisp cooler weather, the pretty trees and leaves changing their colors, picking apples, getting pumpkins and my favorite Halloween! We usually go to Walsh Farms every year, but this year we tried a different farm that everyone said is really fun. This place was a ton bigger and had all kinds of activities to do. We saw alot of friends that day from church and our neighbors across the street which made it even more fun! Josh's favorite was the potato launcher, Justin and Wade loved the animals, but even more than that, they LOVED this play set/climber area they had set up next to the barn that had a covered wagon filled with dried corn for a corn box and 2 big slides for the kids coming off of the climber that landed into a big corn pit. The boys LOVED this and did not want to leave the area to do anything else, so most of our time was spent there. Wade was the talk of all of the adults in that area, anyone who knows Wade knows that he is a very smiley, spastic, dare devil child with no fear. When Josh took him to the top of the slide I guess he didn't wait and just literally dove onto the slide and laughed the loudest laugh I have ever heard all the way down the slide. There were LOTS of kids in this area and you could hear Wade over them all, everyone thought it was so cute...that's our Wade :)
Justin on the other hand is a very cautious kid and is very aware of whats going on around him, so he is careful but had some cute giggles going down the slide too. I personally liked going to pick our own pumpkins in the pumpkin patch, Natilie picked her own and it was the biggest one we got. That day my dad took Daniel with him to my nephews football game, so he wasn't with us but we brought him home a pumpkin. It was such a fun day now I can't wait till Halloween!

Delaney

Miss Delaney is growing up way too fast! She is getting so big and so cute every day that passes. I just can't smooch her cheeks enough. Delaney is 4 1/2 months old now, and she coo's, laughs and is getting more interactive. She can roll from her stomach to her back pretty easy and has rolled from her back to her stomach a few times. She still loves to be held and doesn't like to lay down on the floor by herself for very long , we also can't leave her anywhere within Wades reach, in his mind he is still the baby and doesn't recognize that this little girl is an actual human being that he can't walk or crawl all over. He isn't grasping the concept yet and doesn't show any interest in Delaney what so ever, but hopefully someday he will. On the other hand, Justin is very sweet with her, he loves to hold her for a few seconds at a time, give her kisses and hugs, give her the binky, bottle or blankey. Justin is very over protective of Delaney and Wade, although he can't talk much yet, he shows it by his actions, Justin is always making sure I have Wade and Delaney and that we don't leave them anywhere for even a second!

Delaney is starting to wear 12 month clothes now, she is so chubby, Daniel and Natilie smother her in kisses 24/7, and Natilie eats up all the attention that everyone always says that Delaney looks like her big sister.

We have just started Delaney on rice baby cereal and she seems to really like it and sucks it down. She was eating every 2 hours still so we just introduced some cereal about a week ago to see if it would help satisfy her hunger....we aren't seeing a difference yet, but it does help at night some. We also think she is teething already, she is slobbering all over everything and chewing like a mad women on everything. She has had some reflux too, but the cereal seems to be helping with weighing her food down, although she still is a spitter no matter what we do and she is on soy formula because all of my kids have milk allergies the first year of life. Daniel was kissing her one day and said "mom, why does she always smell like potatoes no matter what" We love our baby girl to pieces and can't get enough of her :)

Band

This school year I have 2 band player kids now. This is Daniel's 3rd year playing the clarinet and Natilie had band tryouts and got a sound on the flute the first time she put her mouth on it. The band director said "no doubt about it, she is a flute player" I don't have a picture yet of Natilie but will take one soon and post it. 5th grade band does not do a concert until Jan or Feb since they are just starting out. Daniel already had his first concert of 7th grade on October 12. Here at Copley schools band is a HUGE deal, out of all the schools this is what the Copley school district is known for, and about 95 percent of the band players play an instrument and play a sport at the sametime, so they are well rounded kids. I think both kids have been blessed musically, Natilie has seem to really taken off with her flute and LOVES every minute of it. Daniel is amazing on the clarinet, the band director did seat placing/testing and Daniel got first chair, mind you that this kid has never brought home his clarinet from school last year or this year yet (except over summer) and can still play anything in his band class. Daniel did a fabulous job at his concert along with all the other kids, and boy they need a bigger gym to play in, everyone and their brother comes to these things and the whole place is packed like sardines with people still standing..
Way to go Daniel and Natilie!

slacker

So I have been such a slacker when it comes to posting on the blog, it always just takes forever to load pictures on here for some reason, so its usually faster if I just update facebook (and time is precious since I never have enough of it), but I realized that this blog is taking the place of a scrapbook, so I need to be better whether there is pictures or not, so oneday we can look back on this and remember our crazy busy lives

So here are a few updates....

My first, completely made from scratch, Apple Crumb Pie (I used the fresh apples we had picked from the orchard)
Alot of times it is hard for me to make it to playgroups because we have alot of dr's appointments either for myself or for one kid or another and I always make them for in the morning because I have to be back by a certain time to pick Justin up from preschool or be home for the older kids to get off of the bus. We were able to make the playgroup the one week that was going to Baumans Orchards to pick apples. We go pick apples as a family every year, so I was really excited to get to join playgroup and go. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures because my batteries died in my camera but here are a few. The kids did great, I had to keep Wade in the stroller for most of the time and Delaney on the front of me, but it was so fun to see Justin socially interact with a few of the other kids, this was a huge step for him and I was so proud of him that day :)

Justin LOVES animals of every kind, I cannot wait to take him to the zoo oneday. The apple farm had a little petting zoo area for the kids to see and a little hay bale maze with a slide that Justin and Wade both loved going down over and over.

Wade loved looking at the animals too, he was so curious about them, it was such a fun day and great weather. My friend Beth got a lot of great pictures, I will have to see if she can email me some :)

More family pictures by Laura