Jacobs Happy Pumpkin

When Jacob woke up on Monday morning to discover the pumpkins we'd carved he was squealing with delight. I showed him that we had his pumpkin ready for him to carve, and that Daddy had already cut a "hat" and scraped the inside for him (nice work Dad, thanks!)

Well, once he'd seen that, there was NO WAY he was going to be able to do something as mundane as get dressed, so in his jammies, we carved his pumpkin. He was adamant that he wanted it to be "happy" - so that's just how we made it.

Checking Daddy's work. (Mommy does that a lot too!)

Happy mouth.

Making sure the eyes are nice and round.

It's pretty heavy!

A happy pumpkin, and a happy boy.

Here he is after getting dressed, putting it outside with the others.

Carving Pumpkins

Tonight we carved our pumpkins. We went to The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze on the 20th, and were inspired by the amazing pumpkins there (3,000 hand carved!) As the kids get older we'll probably get more elaborate (although my "one ring" pumpkin from a few years ago was pretty cool), but for now we are still sticking with faces & other simple stuff they like.

Jacob was too tired and went to bed, so we'll let him do his tomorrow.

Liz gave us a great idea to carve Emily's pumpkin to match her two missing teeth, and here they are.

What it looked like lit & outside.

The one Rick carved.

Rebekah's "Nightmare Before Christmas" pumpkin.

She still wants to figure out how to do a small "Jack" on the top. I suggested a small lego guy - but that idea was shot down. It still looks great they way it is, and is an original idea.

On the Move

Jane is has realized there is life outside the bouncer seat. No longer will she be content to lie back and coo at me while I do dishes! She insists on sitting whenever possible.

This was last week (in her cute pj's from Missy.) Last week she was getting up on all 4's -

- this week she's rocking back and forth, and then flopping forward caterpillar style! She has been scooting all over the place with her army crawling for about 2 weeks, but I think it won't be long before she's picking up speed and really crawling. I guess it was inevitable - she wants to keep up with the others. So, at 5 1/2 months old, the gates are at the ready to barricade our house again.

My Favorite Day of the Year!

I wait all year long for this day - "fall back." A whole extra hour magically given to us. Better than birthday gifts and anniversary dinners - sleep.

My children will not know the clocks changed, and their little internal body clocks will wake them up at their normal time - which tomorrow will be 4:30am. Rick and I will do what we usually do on weekends. He will get up with them, and I'll continue sleeping & nursing the baby. When she wakes up, we'll switch and he'll get to go back to bed. He usually goes first, because of the baby, and because once I'm awake - it takes me a good 20-30 minutes to go back to sleep - rendering a 1 hour nap almost not worth it.

So tomorrow, divided between us we'll each have an extra 1/2 hour to rest. And I'll relish it, because come Monday the kids won't have adjusted, and we'll all be up before the chickens.

Another One Bites the Dust

Last week was a really hectic week, so I didn't get to post much. This week is shaping up to be a little calmer - so I'll try and make up for it!

Emily lost her second tooth on Wednesday. She was REALLY happy to get it under her pillow, she thinks this is the best source of revenue anyone ever came up with! I'm a little nervous she's going to start taking a hammer to her mouth ...

I don't think she'll have the gap long - her first spot is already being filled with the new tooth, I'm sure the second isn't far behind it.

Chimpanzees on Crack

I'm not really sure what causes it, but as soon as 5pm hits, our house is a zoo! I'm not all that fond of my kids during the hours of 5 - 8pm, and no matter how well the day has gone to that point, or clean and organized the place is at 4:55 - come bedtime it looks like a tornado moved through here.
They literally RUN through the house, and slam into the walls, chairs, each other ....
You might be wondering why Jacob is only wearing a diaper? He had just gone through his 3rd outfit of the day, and I figured it was close enough to bath time to leave him in just a diaper ....

I was wrong. I won't post the streaker pictures (don't want to get arrested.)
And here's my girl, trying to flip herself out of her Bumbo seat to join in the action with the other 2 monkeys! So, now you see why I'm not all that anxious for Jane to become mobile!

5 Months Old

Our darling baby Jane turned 5 months old on the 16th (Monday.) She continues to be just a sweet, sweet baby and we adore her.
She is teething in the worst way; which means EVERYTHING goes right into her mouth (she perfected her one-handed-grab for just that purpose), and she has that awful teething-drool rash on her chin.

On the up side, Jacob just loves that she can now "blow raspberries" and the two of them often end up in hysterical laughter over it - both inciting the other to laugh even harder. It gives me a glimpse into the future when the two of them will be buddies (& partners in crime.)She mastered rolling about 6 weeks ago, and has become quite bored with it. She now is focusing on honing her skills at sock eating, and combat crawling. Now that she's mobile, I can't keep her on her quilt, and she spends a lot of time scooting along the floor and licking it as she goes! If you thought I was obsessive about clean floors before ...

Actually, what she really wants is to sit up. I have multiple blurred pictures of her tumbling sideways in her efforts.

Happy 5 months old my darling!

Train Cake

Here are some more pictures of the train cake. Jacob ate some yesterday, and had another piece today. After lunch he was pointing at the fridge saying "boose, boose." It took me a minute to figure out he was asking for cake, and wanted a slice of the Caboose. When I got it out he said "E" - he wanted the piece with the window on it. I guess it looked like an E to him!

Confession; I can't take all the credit for the cake. Rick came in to help when I was making it and decorated both the zoo cars. He got really into it, and I think he did a pretty good job!

I don't think you can really see them well, but the candles are letters and spell his name (why we had 4 cars - lucky his name isn't Balthazar!)

The Engine
Coal Car
Giraffe Zoo Car
Elephant Zoo Car
Caboose

Apple Picking

Here are some more pictures of our apple picking day. Probably more than you really needed to see!

We have been eating those yummy apples. Rebekah eats 1-2 apples every day, year-round, so we'll zip through our 25lbs before too long. I'm also going to make lots of apple crisp (my favorite), an apple pie, and (if Jane sleeps well this week,) some caramel apples. As you can see, the kids love this tradition for much more than just the apples. We thought about doing the corn maze this year, but were too wiped out after everything else (it was a lot warmer than we were expecting.) I told Rebekah that next year (when Jane is big enough to leave) I'll take her with a few of her friends and we'll go up on a separate day to do that.

Rebekah helped Jacob reach the apples. He ate all the one's he picked.
The Orchard.
Waiting for the Hayride back to the entrance.
Cute sisters.

Emily LOVES to bounce!
Even hot and tired, I think she's just beautiful!
Rebekah reaching the best apples.
Emily following her example, and heading up a tree.
Jane, wondering "Where have they brought me now?"

Tired and Frustrated

It was Big Jake's birthday today, (well, yesterday, now that it's past midnight) and we went apple picking. I did a post about our day, and added 1/2 our pictures, but can't seem to get the rest to upload (maybe I have Laura's problem.) I'm going to bed, and I'll try again tomorrow...

An hour later .... I decided to try "one more time" & it worked.
See below ...

Birthday Boy

Today was Jacobs 2nd birthday. I can't believe he's already two! I've always thought the 2nd year of a child's life was the reward for surviving the 1st, and now that wonderful year is over! Fortunately, I love terrific two's just as much.
We spent the day apple picking, and then came home for gifts and cake.

We met up with some friends of ours at the Orchard. This is Jacobs friend Christian, it was also his birthday today. Happy 3rd birthday Christian!

Jacob had an apple in his hand most of the day, and ate quite a few. I'm glad, because all he'd eaten in the car on the way there were cookies! Here he is picking out his pumpkin.
One of the best things about apple picking is the yummy doughnuts they have for sale.

Everyone knows the best thing to do after filling your tummy with apples and doughnuts is to jump up and down as high as you can for as long as you can!

Jacob loves (1) Trains, (2) Curious George & (3) Dinosaurs. Rebekah gave him the Curious George movie and we watched it in the car going to the orchard (& back!) He got a train book from Jane, and some new plastic dinosaurs from Emy. Dowdle G'parents gave him a quarry mine shoot for his trains, Otterson G'parents gave him an Imaginext dinosaur (which he loves, but is a little afraid of.) Rick and I gave him the Mountain Overpass set for his trains.

He didn't want to go to bed, so Rick set up a track for him to play with when he wakes up in the morning. So, he had a good day and got lots of new things he loves.

He didn't want to eat any of his cake, so we saved it for him. One of the cutest moments of the day was when Rick started to cut the cake, and he got upset and tried to put it back together!

Second cutest moment of the day - giving Emily one of his new trains (Butch) to sleep with for the night. He's a sweetheart!