Apple Picking

One of our favorite things in the fall is apple picking. There is a great farm not to far from us with yummy apples and fun hay rides. The girls love it. Oh how I love fall!

The Gingerbread Man

Run run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man! We have been reading the gingerbread man book so when we needed to make cookies the other day Madison said,"Let's make a gingerbread man! And of course after we baked them one of the gingerbread men jumped out of the oven and ran into Madison's room. We got a net and looked in Madison's room only to find him in her dolls chair. "Silly Gingerbread Man!" Madison said as she giggled, put him in her net and took him back to the kitchen. She ate off his legs so he couldn't run anymore! The gingerbread man escaped one more time but we were able to find him again! What a busy day. It's hard to keep those gingerbread men in line!

Pumpkin Smoothie!

Fall is here and one of my favorite things about fall is pumpkin. I love pumpkin bread, cookies, pie, and one of my recent favorites is pumpkin smoothies. Madison and Emmie have become big fans too but we can't convince Jake of their yummy goodness yet (he isn't a big pumpkin fan). But if you like pumpkin this is a good one. I found a recipe at http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/pumpkin-smoothie/Detail.aspx . I don't follow the recipe exactly but just make it to taste. You put some pumpkin puree (from the can) in the freezer, then soften it up a bit in the microwave (so the blender can handle it better, unless you have a really good blender:) then you add milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, we add vanilla coffee creamer (a very handy ingredient for many recipes) and some brown sugar. So good and it feels somewhat healthy:) Happy Fall!

A week in New England

At the end of last month we took an epic journey to New England to visit some family and explore the area. Aunt Shann and Uncle Larry were tremendous hosts letting us, and our energetic children, crash at their home in Boston for a few days and their summer home on Cape Cod for the rest of the week.

The sites and sounds of the big city were new and exciting for all of us, especially the girls. We spent one entire day at the Boston Children's Museum with Jenny's old roommate Mel and her new baby. It is four floors of excitement for kids of all ages. The exhibits were fun for all the children, I include myself here!


Tuesday morning of our vacation Uncle Larry escorted us to their summer home on Cape Cod. He made showed us techiniques for catching minnows, crabs and clams on the beach in front of the house. After making sure that we were all settled safely in he headed back to Boston for some business. Thanks Larry and Shann for going so far out of your way to make our week unforgetable.


The weather was great and we spent each day exploring different parts of the cape. We loved seeing all the coastal wildlife, lighthouses and sailboats. We took a ferry ride to Martha's Vineyard to gawk at the mansions and eat incredible ice-cream. It was a fantastic finish to our great summer.

Preschool Fun!

Madison has a cute little preschool group that she goes to once a week. A few weeks ago it was at our house and we talked about the letter C. We made cardboard cars and the kids learned the importance of following rules and directions. They all took turns holding up their red, yellow, and green lights to tell the cars when to stop, go, or slow down. It was so fun to watch them run along the road we built on our kitchen floor. They also sang the following car song (tune to BINGO) Look at my bright shinny car I am driving today-o C-A-R (beep! beep!) C-A-R (beep! beep!) C-A-R beep beep, I'm driving it today-o.

Cute Little Cook

Madison loves to help cook! I made her this cute little apron to help control the mess such a good little helper makes! Emerie now likes to pull up a chair to the counter and help Madison. Trouble, trouble, trouble...

Miss Independant!

Little Miss Emerie Belle loves to do many things by herself. Eating is one of them. for the past few months she refuses to let us feed her because she likes to do it. she has gotten a lot better at it now however mealtime can be very messy for all involved!

Pigtails and Muddy Piggies

Emerie gets to sport a new hair do on occasion these days (if I can get her to sit still for a moment). She looks so cute and grown up in her piggy tails. She is such a sweet girl. They other day when Jake was leaving to work she said, "Bye daddy, I love you!" She has said bye daddy before but that was the first time she said I love you, it just melted my heart!

Madison loves water, especially water and mud! She helps us water the plants and it isn't long before everyone is wet and Madison is muddy. There's nothing like sinking your toes in some gooey squishy mud!

Dressing up with friends!

Madison loves to dress up. Whenever we have friends over to play it isn't long before I get to see some very cute imaginations at work. One of Madison's friends, Ethan, was determined to turn Madison's princess dress ups into a prince outfit. He did a very good job and Madison was happy to ride alongside him on her horse. Another day when he came over in his Spiderman outfit and Snowwhite and Spiderman were able to go to the park in style! Such cute friends and so much fun!

Camping Attempt #1

Jake and I love to camp. This summer we tried to convince the girls that they like to camp too. In the end I think we succeeded however a few times I almost changed my mind about liking camping. Camping with kids is a whole new experience. Last year we did it once and it went so well we thought we would have an easy time this year.

So, our first attempt was the weekend after getting back from Utah. I think that is where we went wrong. The girls were still off schedule and it was still really hot and humid. Things were great and we had a lot of fun until it was time to get the girls to sleep. Madison and Emerie kept waking each other up and it wasn't until at least 2:30 that we were able to convince Madison that sleeping was a good idea. And... we felt so refreshed to wake up at 6:30 in the morning to the sounds of chirping birds (especially the one that sounded like a car alarm ;).

We were all very tired that next morning and packed up pretty quickly before the girls (and Jake) had too many meltdowns. The picture of Madison cheesing it is her over tired face. Both girls were laughing and giggling out of control which is a sign of the "calm before the storm". The beyond tired silly "drunk" phase before the crash and meltdown.

Camping Attempt #2

Two weeks later we were brave enough to attempt our camping trip #2. We went camping at the same place so Jake told me I didn't need to print out any directions. I know now to print them off and put them in my back pocket "just in case". So... we got a little lost which wouldn't be so bad if I didn't get car sick. Hocking Hills fits its name. There are lots of hills and curvy roads. It didn't take more than a few missed turns before I was feeling awful. Luckily we had a few bags to hold the gallon that didn't want to stay in my stomach any longer. It was classic, the girls were done with driving, crying, Jake was lost, and I was puking. Finally I said, "Jake, don't drive anymore until you know where you are going!" We finally make it and luckily everything else went really well.

We had a great campfire dinner, got the girls to bed without too much trouble. It helped that I didn't let Jake tell Madison stories of ghosts and bats like last time (even though she requested it again). Then we were able to play some fun games around the campfire with the grownups and stayed up until two in the morning by our choice this time:)
The next morning the girls explored, Emerie loved throwing rocks with the boys, and we were all able to go on a hike to a really cool cave. We saw a really big snake on the hike and Madison loved the hike since she is amazed by bats.

Camping Hiking

Here are the pictures of our hike to the cave. Madison loved the cave since she has been very curious and amazed by bats. We didn't see any bats but there was a really big snake on the trail.