Pumpkin patch, Lincoln, Halloween and more

October was such a busy month. We visited a couple of pumpkin patches, traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska to visit our dear friends, the McHenrys, and of course Halloween (Natalie's first). Mostly we've had a month of sickness: Elaine, then Natalie, then Phil, then Natalie again, Elaine again... Someday everyone will be healthy again...someday.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from October. Enjoy!

Milestones

Looks like I'm becoming a once-a-month blogger. So I have a lot to talk about - I'll try to condense it though.

In mid-August, Phil's family had a reunion in Estes Park. We had a great time visiting everyone but it sure was cold and rainy. Elaine got rainboots that weekend - Lightning McQueen, naturally.









Right after the reunion, Elaine started preschool. There are about 12 other kids in her class and it is busy! But she has so much fun. She likes to do the weather in circle-time, she loves chapel (once a month), and play time on the playground. Here she is on her first day of school.









Natalie turned 9 months old and time is flying with her. She can pull herself up, wave, take a couple of steps while holding onto a table or me, and she just started to crawl. She is the best baby!









Phil's company picnic was right after Labor Day weekend at a park close to our house. They had sno-cones (a first for the girls), face painting (another first) and a bouncy castle. The picture of Elaine with the unicorn on her arm is just my favorite - she's little tough-girl!












Then came the birthday madness. Since Elaine's birthday was on a Friday, I took birthday snacks to preschool on Thursday. Elaine got to wear a crown and the kids all sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She wanted frosted cookies so I baked...a lot!









Phil was able to take off her entire birthday from work so we took the girls to the zoo. Elaine loved the animals - especially the elephants. The Denver Zoo has been improved so much since the last time I was there (so long now I can't even remember). We rode on the train which was sort of boring and on the carousel (Elaine rode an elephant). She definitely had a good birthday!












The next day was her birthday party with mostly family and her best friend, Drew. She got so many presents but I think the highlights were: a Wiggles accordion, a microphone, a princess dress-up kit, a tool kit, a baby doll (she named Baby Sarah), and her princess bike (we got it used months ago - looks brand new - love it when that happens).

Growing Up

Just as Elaine has grown from my sweet little first-born baby...
to a toddler...
to a preschooler (!)
so too has her room transformed from nursery...
to toddler bed...
and she now has her big girl bed.
Three years (almost) go by fast...enjoy your kids while they are little!

July

I'm getting worse at this...since Becky posted about her adorable one-week old baby, I guess I have no longer have an "I'm busy" excuse. So here's a brief recap of what we did in July.

Matt and Denise were here for the Fourth of July and we had such a great time visiting with them.Elaine started dressing herself. (This is her Minnie Mouse Halloween costume from last year.)
Dogs got fleas (but they're all gone now, thank goodness).

Natalie can say "Mama" - and she says it a lot.Phil built the mack-daddy sandbox - with a little help from Elaine. She really likes tools. And we had to shovel in 3 tons of sand. We love the sandbox and we put the pool next to it so Elaine can run back and forth.

Elaine is potty-trained!! (Very exciting...but no pictures.)

WALL-E

Elaine went to her first movie yesterday. She really liked Wall-E and the whole movie theater experience. About an hour in, she started getting restless but the movie drew her back in quickly. Too bad I couldn't take a picture in the theater - Elaine cuddled up on Daddy's lap watching the movie was very sweet.

And while we were gone, the grandparents babysat Natalie. She obviously had a good time!

It's Been Awhile...

A lot has been going on in the last month so I'm going to try to update all at once.

We had a busy Memorial Day weekend. On Saturday, our friends' daughter, Naomi, graduated from high school. On Sunday, we hosted a BBQ at our house. I made a Key Lime Pie and an Apple-Peach Pie. Both were very yummy!


















On Monday, we went (briefly) to a BBQ out in Strasburg (briefly because there were 5 children and their mother having coughing fits so we left). It was really cold that day so we came home and had a fire in the fireplace and drank hot chocolate with marshmallows.









After Memorial Day weekend, Phil had his birthday (I won't say how old he is now because I'm a nice wife) and we celebrated by leaving the girls with his parents and going to see Indiana Jones.

Natalie turned 6 months old last week. She's almost 27" and probably over 16 lbs. by now. She continues to be in the 80+ percentiles for everything. And she is an EATER! At least one of my children will eat.

Last weekend, we took Elaine to an air show in Broomfield. We all had a really good time. She loved the airplanes.

Elaine also got a bike helmet with ducks on it. Now we have to find the bike...but she can wear this when she rides her trike at Grandma and Grandpa's house.









In adult news....nothing new with me. Still trying to lose weight but it's going really slowly and it's quite frustrating. Phil passed his PE test. Hooray!!! Now he is officially a Professional Engineer.

Ok, there's the last month in a nutshell. I'll try to get my updates done more regularly.

Vacation

We had our first big trip with the girls. My sister got married last Saturday (most beautiful bride) so we flew to Washington, DC. Elaine loved the airplane. I think she was exposed to just about every form of transportation on this trip - airplane, subway, taxi, bus.

Our first day there, we went on a tour of the White House. Two-year olds are really not into history or politics, in case you were wondering. Not that we expected her to understand. We probably set a record for that tour! After that, we had lunch and met Mr. Ralph Regula, Representative from Ohio (Susan used to work for him and they are good friends now).


Then it was off to St. Matthew's Cathedral for the wedding rehearsal. What an amazing church!









Natalie did a little reading in the hotel room. She obviously understood what it said!
Saturday, I got the girls ready first - thought they looked so pretty. Elaine got pearls (Susan got them in China) to wear with her flower girl dress. She loved them - mostly she wanted to chew on them. Oh well.
It was a beautiful wedding.


On Sunday, we went to the Air and Space Museum. Elaine and Daddy had a great time looking at the airplanes and space ships. Phil's cousin, Everett, and his family met us there. We had lunch in the cafeteria at the National Gallery and then went back to our hotel to play in the pool. Elaine fell asleep at 6:30 that night and slept for 13 straight hours! Gotta love the pool!










We had a good time but we were glad to be on our way home.