Halloween Costumes

This year we had a few different Halloween costumes! For months Madison wanted to be a princess kitty cat, then it was a fairy, then princess kitty cat, then at the last minute, Sleeping Beauty:) Luckily we had the kitty costumes from my sister Becky and Madison's cute preschool friend had an extra Sleeping Beauty costume on hand. So... for the ward party the girls were fairies, Sleeping Beauty for the preschool party, and they were both warm kitty cats for the cold Halloween night. They loved trick or treating and ate lots of candy all along the way!

Fun Decorations!

Here are some fun pictures of some Halloween decorations we had this year. The bats on the shelf are painted pumpkins and the ones hanging from the ceiling are made from strips of paper. What a fun holiday to decorate for!

More Fall Fun!

The first picture is of us at the pumpkin patch. Every fall I say we need to go to the pumpkin patch and get some fun pictures of the girls with the pumpkins. Last year the hayride took so long it was dark by the time we got to the pumpkins. This year my camera died. So funny, one of these years we will get some cute pumpkin patch pictures:)

We walked around the zoo before Halloween and Madison was overjoyed to see Snowwhite and the big fluffy dog. They love brushing the goats at the petting zoo and had lots of fun watching the polar bears jump into the water. We found out that the polar bears at the Columbus Zoo are the little bears that were born and raised in our Toledo Zoo. Ohhh, we felt such a bond to the bears when we found out. Madison has lots of pictures of her with the same bears in Toledo.

It was also lots of fun to have Jake's parents in town for Halloween! This is the second year they have been able to visit us and we have loved having them for all the fun fall festivities.

Preschool Halloween Party!

This week we had our preschool Halloween party! The kids loved singing songs, playing games, reading storries and eating ice cream! What a cute bunch!

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!