Eden's 1st Big Girl Haircut!

Eden was very excited about her first big girl haircut. Here is her 'before' picture with her slightly crazy long hair.


And here is Eden during her haircut & her beautiful 'after' picture. Thank you Erica!

Getting ready for Christmas

We've trimmed the tree, played in the snow, taken the Christmas picture in front of the tree & visited Santa. Christmas is almost here! When the kids visited Santa, as always, he asked what they wanted for Christmas. Avery replied "keyboard", Jake answered "race car track" and Eden said "trick or treat!" I guess we need to separate the holidays for her a little bit.

Thanksgiving

My sister, Angela, and her family hosted Thanksgiving this year after both of our families debated leaving to be with in-laws. Obviously, we all ended up staying home, except for my Mom. Ang and I had a fun cooking day the day before & Jim made a delicious turkey in an infrared cooker. Alyssa & Eric had the enormous turkey legs. What you can kind of see in the picture is Alyssa's green cast to her face, because she had already feasted & wanted no part in reuniting with the turkey leg for a picture.
Anyway, the kids all played & got along famously (as always), Brian, Matti & Zack all came & we watched a movie together while recovering from our food comas. It was a great, low key Thanksgiving. Thanks for hosting!

The many faces of Wyatt...

Wyatt's Blessing

Wyatt was blessed at church on November 2nd. He was a very good baby during his blessing. The only problem was his very cute & soft, fuzzy outfit. Wyatt had no problem with it, but Daddy's suit did! When Daddy brought him back too sit down after giving him a beautiful blessing, his suit jacket looked as though he had been snuggling with a white long-haired cat on the hottest day of August! And for anyone that knows Eric, you know that's not a possibility! But, even with the fuzz, isn't Wyatt cute?

Week of firsts

The week before Thanksgiving we had 'firsts' three days in a row. On Wednesday, Avery had her first school injury. She was swinging on a bar, slipped and landed on her left elbow. I immediately took her to get it checked (huge thank you to Erica for watching my kids with a one minute notice). She ended up with a sling until the radiologist could check the x-ray. Friday, we got a call confirming that it was broken. So, Monday morning, we went to the orthopedic specialist to have a splint for about 10 days and then had a candy cane cast put on for 2 more weeks. She's excited to get it off Friday!

On Thursday, the day after breaking her arm, Avery lost her first tooth! She has been dreaming of this day for many months. Even though I can't stand pulling teeth out, we worked together to get it out. The trick that finally worked was me holding on to her tooth and she would pull on my hand to get it out. Eden then decided that she wanted to pull a tooth, too! Avery just lost her second one this past weekend.On Friday, Wyatt laughed for the first time. It took a while to record it, because there is still a very fine line between laughing and crying for him. But, honestly, is there anything sweeter in the whole wide world than your baby's first laugh? (I've been trying to edit the video, because his best laugh is in the first 15 seconds, but I can't do it.)

October summed up

Avery introduced us to "fancy dinners". She picked outfits for her siblings and accessories for Mom & Dad.

Fun hanging out with the cousins! Jake picking raspberries for Aunt Angela and Lily is trying to stay safe while showing Eden how to drive.



Jake and I went to a local farm with his preschool group. This farm is so awesome! We love going on the tractor ride and getting to pick vegetables and pumpkins. We've gone every fall for the last 4 years.



A few more cute pictures... 1) Avery & Eden at the park, 2 &3) Cute baby Wyatt.

Jake & Eden sitting in a fire truck while on another field trip with Jake's preschool.