Little Punkin

Thanks for the shirt, Beth!

Fall has Fallen

Autumn Glory has turned into Autumn Cleanup. Yesterday E and the boys (and me part of the time after having coffee and a scone with a friend) spent most of the afternoon cleaning up leaves. It's a big job at our house. Afterwards we carved pumpkins. (Don't we seem like the most picture perfect fall-ish family?) TW's pumpkin was so hard E had to get out the power tools to cut through it...here are a few pictures of the activities and the results. You would think we smiled all day to look at these...surely there was no whining in between the pictures. :) And, my baby is 2 months old today!...sigh...

Riding the trailer to the field was the best part.

Leaf blowers tickle!

Snot, snot, and more snot!

TW's tractor driving debut--maybe this was the best part...

Success!

Happy two month birthday, Baby!

First Bottle

I haven't posted too many close-ups of A lately, so I thought I'd let you see her chubby cheeks and blue eyes and how her 6-week rash is progressing (better--yeah!). I know each of these doesn't look too different from the others, except to her mama, but the more the merrier! She also had her first bottle since leaving the hospital--it wasn't her first choice, but she did drink it! It's just a little bit of freedom...I can now go out for more than an hour and a half totally childless if I want!

Farewell, Dear Friends!

I'm blue today. Today our dear friends, Chris and Else are on their way to Florida. Of course they have a good excuse to move--their kids and sunshine--but that doesn't make me feel any better! We're excited for them to do something new, but are going to miss them terribly. For four years they've been our friends, biking and hiking companions, encouragers, spur-of-the-moment babysitters, and bonus grandparents to the kids. What are we going to do without them??? (and who will the boys ask all their nature questions and "Mama doesn't know, we'll just ask Chris" questions???) So today, it's "Ode to Chris and Else." Farewell, dear friends. We love you and are already missing you!

TJ is 7!!

TJ turned 7 Saturday. How time flies. Giving birth to him in England seems like ages ago, but I still can't believe he's 7...1/3 of the way to 21--yikes! He started the day with the traditional Hittle birthday breakfast: waffles with strawberries and plenty of whipped cream, and then took a ride on his new bike and ended the day with a bowling party with some of his favorite friends. Between activities he used every free moment to build with his new LEGOS. He practiced Wii bowling the day before in preparation, but I don't think it helped--poor guy ended up with the lowest score of all the kids. :) He had a great time, though, and grinned most of the night. Happy Birthday, my sweet boy! I love you so much!

Birthday breakfast!

Thanks Aunt Casey and Uncle Jess!

Along the bike trail.

TJ's face most of the night!

The pretty girls!

Cousins are the best!

Eric's brother and his family visited last week and we all had a good time together. The kids took about 1 second to get reaquainted and start running around together. TJ got to play hooky one day to spend time with his good buddy and cousin, Z, and J and TW LOVED B. She in turn mothered them and loved on the baby! They never knew playing house could be such fun...(though J insisted he was Superman!, not the baby of the pretend family). J is still singing "I wike to move it, move it!" Fun was had by all! Here are a few pictures from their time here and our hike together.

Where's the train?

J with his hat on the "happy" way--front ways is the "mad" way.

FROG!