Our Halloween 2010

We're not HUGE Halloween celebrators....

We really enjoy our church's Harvest Festival on Saturday night.... always a great time with church members and meeting new members from the community;)

We (or maybe it's just me! LOL!!) enjoy carving pumpkins!! Scooping all the seeds out, baking the seeds and then carving pictures and faces into our pumpkins (this year the 1st night we'll display them is actually on the 31st... I usually like it done a little earlier... ).



But we're not big on dressing up.... in fact, this year only 50% of us dressed up:) LOL!!

Anna wore a snow White dress from Little Dress Up shop


Brian wore a shirt he picked up off a clearance rack for $1!

And Nate was the cutest little Skeleton:)



That was all Friday and Saturday.... SUnday was a whole new day!!

We spent the morning at church, enjoying our church family and participating in our various classes/studies;) Except we had a surprise visit from the leader of the VBS crew that came down for VBS... so nice to see them!

Then we had a quick lunch and everyone napped (hmmm, everyone but Nate and I, he's in an awful nap schedule... grrrr... waiting for him to go to 2 predicable naps a day!)

During the late afternoon, we had a "stick incident" outside which resulted in Lydia getting hurt! After an EMT friend came over we decided to drive to our peditrician's after-hours clinic!

After an hour appt, Brian and Lydia emerged smiling (with candy!!). She didn't need stitches (although, not sure if they could have even done stitches how close to her eye the injury was)! In fact, the cuts had already started healing... our bodies are amazing!

And the best news was that they checked her eye for scratched on her cornea and didn't have any! She is just a VERY lucky girl and is very fortunate to have people praying daily for her! We were soo thankful!

Got pics on the way home!


Trying to be "happy".


We rounded out the evening sitting on the side of the road...

no, it wasn't us!! Thank goodness!

But we passed a car stopped in the middle of our lane. After passing them, Brian turned around to help.... it was a young mom traveling with a 2 month old. And her car was totally broken down and she was at least a couple of hours from home!!

We spent a good amount of time there... Brian checking her car and us waiting for some local friends to pick her up.


I hate to even mention this....

but my kids did complain about having to sit in the car and wait. And while we were hungry, it was LATE so we were all tired and having to use the potty (LOL!!) It was a great opportunity to remind them about the Good Samaritan- who was ready to help and go beyond the initial help to be sure the one needing help was ok!!

And I was soo glad Brian decided to turn back when it would have been soo much easier to drive by and care for his own family!! he kept saying that he would have wanted someone to show us the same kindness, if I was ever stranded on the side of the road!

So we've had some FULL days this weekend!! Ready for a QUIET week to recover and for Lydia to heal!!

Baby Details

I've mentioned that when Erica visited with her awesome dream camera, it inspired me to pull out Andrea's Rebel to take some pics (while my computer wasn't working). And now I'm finally getting to share them:)

One fun "session" was to stick Nate on a blanket during a warm afternoon and "snap" away!!! Nate LOVED the attention:) And I LOVE the photos that came out of it....

soo much baby cuteness caught!!

Erica is very artistic!! She is an amazing violinist, but I've noticed that she's got an eye for artistic details that comes out in her home decor, wardrobe and now in her photography:)

I'm just loving the DETAILS that she captured of Nate...





And I also love the "creative auto" setting on her camera!! Just awesome;)

Just Feed Me Already....

For weeks now Nate has been reaching for food.... sticking his hands in our food, grabbing our plates and the WORST... making eating noises while watching us eat.

There is no doubt in my mind that at almost 6 months and sitting up alone (some tipping over) that he has been ready to eat for some time. Why hold him off???

While researching and talking to our allergist and pediatrician, the 6th month mark is the magic age for introducing foods to help delaying food allergies... over and over and over I've heard it and read it.

We have found that delaying the introduction to the problem foods in our older kids HAS made their sensitivity to it lessen, we think! (Lydia seems to be alot less sensitive to milk/egg products than Chris and Anna!)

Or maybe it's just a different kid, with a body that reacts to foods differently.

Welcome to the Uncertain World of Food Allergies!! Where we may know A Whole Lot more than we Used to Know, but it's still NOT Enough to answer the simple questions like "will my child grow out of her milk/peanut allergy?"

or for us right now "Is it ok to start feeding Nate a week or two early (since he's about to grab the food off our plates and help himself)??

This week we had a funny situation that helped us with an answer....

Remember we had our sweet friends visiting with us - the parents and their crew of 5! They have learned that major events like meals and snacks should be done together to tame the choas:) LOL!!!

So that's what we did!! Here's our 2 crews at a neighbor's house enjoying a quick snack together!!
Nate was awake and ready to join in the fun:) He loved the twins (and the dirt)!!!

And then as I was snapping pics.....

I saw the "hand off"!!!

And what did my little boy do with the apple slice?????

He stuck the corner in his mouth and started to gum it.... of course! He's been watching us for weeks AND he does that to everything he can pick up right now... LOL!!!

(just so no one freaks out... I was totally watching him and if he got any pieces off.... while handing a baby an apple slice isn't the smartest thing in the world, I was watching him, checking his progress with each toothless chomp and I had eaten some the apple myself so I knew it was a very sturdy textured apple!!)

I went to show Brian and Nate was gumming away ( totally MY bite mark in the apple)!

Up the nose!

And you gottta love his expression here;)

So this week, I just went ahead and started feeding him more foods that aren't on the most common allergy lists!!

He was ready.

You can find some other picture posts at Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom and Go Graham Go!!!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Around the dinner table (our 1st meal without the Coopers) we were having a silly conversation about exchanging kids with their family. They had jokingly said that they would take Lydia - they had asked their daughter!!

So we asked our kids who we'd like to take in exchange for Lydia. Anna spoke up first and I really, really thought she was going to say their sweet daughter, Orli.

But instead Anna said, "I think we should take Elliot. I like him. While he was at our house all I could do was stare at him. I think he's like my boyfriend!"

WHAT!!! LOL.... good thing they had already left!! I think her Daddy would have kept her in the bedroom. So funny and cute:)

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I had Anna trying on all the pants from her drawer.... the whole warm clothes sort! Anyway, she tried on some jeans and then stood in front of the mirror.



She gave a funny face.

Then said," I don't really like these jeans. I don't think they look right with my new missing tooth!!!"

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While playing "Bible school" Anna gave Chris the directions to tell the class about
David and Goliath.

Christopher confidently started the story,"Joseph's dad gave him a coat of many colors..."

LOL!! Since I was in the room, I did stop him and help him start again with David. Although it would have been great to see how he connected the coat of many colors to fighting Goliath:)

Two of My Favorite Guys

Even My Mom Noticed....

With my computer out of commission and lots of company in the house, the blog has been neglected!! But it has been next to impossible to work on the computer with all the busy-ness happening around the house.

Finally on Tuesday night, Brian (my genius husband) got my computer sorta working.... so maybe you'll start to hear from us again!! But this "break" was soo long that even my mom, who works for weeks at a time with no blog access noticed.... LOL!!

Unfortunately when the computer went down so did my interest in taking pictures, but with my sweet friend Erica who visited whipped our her new awesome DSLR, it inspired me to pull out the camera again too:) So I hope to share some pics of our AWESOME almost-full week with our sweet seminary friends soon:)

Here was our parting kid-group shot:)


Man, we're going to miss them!!!

Some Bugs

We have been dealing with a couple of bugs ...

All of us have the sniffles, coughs, etc!! Yuck! But the good thing is that all of us have it together, so maybe we'll all be over it more quickly... LOL!! Even little Nate has it :( He's been doing ok... no fevers, etc! Just a little more fussy and wanting to be held and nursed more frequently.

The other BUG that's hit has attacked my computer.... grrr! Anyway, I'm not sure what it is! Everything works fine except the Internet... the one thing I use the most:)

So I've been using the pockets of hands-free time trying to get it working and now trying to backup my photos so I don't loosing anything if my computer totally crashes. Gotta save all those precious treasures and memories!!

I finally got some "decent" all 4 kid pictures that I wanted to share. And some pics of Nate trying to sit alone... he's soo close! But he looks WAY too GROWN!! Where did my newborn baby boy go???

But it's actually happened at "kind of" a good time!! We have two sets of company coming back-to-back at the end of this week and into next week!! We are super excited to have our friends and family visiting!! So there is plenty to do in preparation for all our guests:)

And get this... one set is a family of 7 staying with us.... we'll have a great time... looking forward to visiting with these precious friends from seminary! And taking part on our church's fall revival meals and services!

Faces and Flying Lessons

Still lovin' some tummy time!

And learning to "fly"!

And check out these faces;)

And I HAD to ask the KING of crazy faces to join in;)

Playtime with a Big Sister

Having a great big sister to play with when Momma is busy....

And big Sister snuggles:)

*Just thought I'd add that I'm always trying to go manual on the camera... so sorry for some of the blurriness... just thought they were too precious NOT to share;)

You can find some other picture posts at Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom and Go Graham Go!!

Tiny Talk Tuesday - Little Sister

I thought I'd share some quotes by my 3rd born!!!

The one that adores her siblings and helps me with housework (for fun!!)!

She's very much a girlie girl with spunk!! She's just as daring as her brother and just a tough. Just last month she had at least one bloody injury each week... lips, elbows, knees!

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Lydia had to hand over the van's DVD remote as we waited in the car for Brian to run an errand.

In a huff, Lydia commented,"On my next birthday, I"m going to get the remote because I will be bigger."

Chris responded,"Lydia, you'll only be 4. But I will be 5 and Anna will be 7 on her birthday. So you'll still be the littlest."

Lydia responded with determination,"One day... I'm going to be the biggest!"
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The kids were figuring out how old they were going to be when Nate would be 3 years old. Chris and Anna figured out how old they would be and then it was time to see how old Lydia would be. Chris showed her 6 fingers and

she was in awe, "I'll be 6!!! Like Anna??"

Rolling into Treasures

I mentioned that Nate was rolling last week.... which is soo fun... and he likes it when he rolls into something "good"... a baby "treasure"!

What is this??

Oh, man... it's what they all like to have. Look at all the buttons!

Mom found me!!

OH, I just want one good slobber fest on it! It just looks soo good!!

The funniest thing is that Anna actually ruined at least one of our TV remotes and we went months without a remote. So when Lydia and Chris were small, remotes were completely put out of reach of little slobbery babes!! But Nate has older siblings who tend to leave things laying around;)