Christmas Tree

Amelia was watching a Christmas movie and when she turned around, surprise!  There was our Christmas tree.  She couldn't believe her eyes.  She helped Daddy put up all of the ornaments while I decorated the rest of the house.  It went so fast with all three of us helping.

I thought maybe all of the decorations would entice Evelyn to crawl.  Nope.  She loved looking at everything but didn't care about crawling.

Gymnastics and School

Amelia got very brave with gymnastics this fall.  All of a sudden she was walking on the high balance beam by herself, swinging on the bars without assistance, jumping on the big trampoline by herself, even jumping to the bars from a block and doing a beautiful swing after catching the bar.  Her favorite though was jumping into the pit from the high horse.  She would beg to keep jumping and tire herself out every class.  

I was very proud of my big girl and all of the skills she developed.  Although she loved gymnastics we had to take a break at the end of December.  She really could have progressed to the next class but because of her age there wasn't a class available.  We are also so busy during the week that I needed to cut out some things so we could slow down a little bit.

I told her we would do homeschool instead which she has been thrilled about.  In fact she has been begging me to do school with her the instant she wakes up in the morning.  Our library has awesome boxes put together all designed around different themes.  They have books, finger plays, games, and felt board items.  For now we'll work through those and keep working at her letters and numbers.

Fort

It all started with a car seat box that came into our home.  

After that day Amelia has discovered how much fun forts are.  She begs for forts and camping and will make them out of everything including the dining room table and pew bench in the front entry.  She also loves to tuck herself in the nook under the steps in the basement.  I used to always make elaborate forts so I've really enjoyed watching her play the same way.

Good Helper

Papa John brought us some cow pasture dirt for our garden.  

Anytime there is work to be done Amelia loves to be there and help out.  She was covered head to toe in dirt after an hour of helping Papa and Daddy.  

Random October

We decided to get a group shot of our Tuesday friends at the beginning of October.  It's fun to see how much they have all grown and changed.  

Evelyn began falling asleep in the car and one day I found her sleeping with the book in her hand.

Kirsten comes to our house on Wednesday nights for a little bit until Kallie and Kole are done with church.  Amelia was super excited to show off her ball pit.

At some point over the fall I began calling Amelia, Mia.  Through the spring and summer she would always say "that's mys, that's my mia's" and it was so sweet I just kind of picked it up.  We've been working on pronunciation so she now knows to say mine.  She does know that I have a plethora of nicknames for her and responds to all of them.  Mia, Amelia, Amelia Rose, hun, sweetheart, hunny, babe, baby girl, and big girl are just a few.  Evelyn so far is usually called, Evelyn, baby sister, or little hunny.    

We were also very excited to buy a camper.  Of course I was so focused on cleaning and organizing it that I forgot to take pictures before we put it in storage for the winter.  We have many camping trips planned for the summer which Mia is very excited about.  There are bunkbeds in the back and she has decided that Evelyn will sleep on the top while she sleeps on the bottom.  I told her we'd have to think about that.  She was also very upset the day daddy took it to the shop for storage.  She knows that it is down at Papa's shop and has asked to go see it several times.  

Halloween

This year we had an angel and bumblebee for Halloween.  Amelia loved having a fluffy skirt and wings.  Evelyn very much disliked the wings and headband.  

We had our Tuesday friend Halloween party.  The girls had so much fun with pumpkin flashlights, coloring and lots of yummy food and treats.

When we lined the kids up for a picture Harper thought Evelyn's wings looked tasty.

On Halloween day we met aunt Kait and Elise at Grandma Kreykes' apartment.  Amelia loved showing off her costume to everyone and was super excited to get more treats.  Evelyn still wasn't sure why I kept making her wear this annoying costume.  

We were invited to a Saints Day party.   The angel costume was perfect for that but Mia needed something different so Sissy helped me whip up a Mama Mary costume.  We meet our friends Mama Katie, William and all of the daycare kids at School Sisters of Notre Dame to do a parade that afternoon before the party.  All of the Sisters were so excited to see a Mary costume and Amelia chose to be shy and would hardly speak to them.

Pumpkins!

We adore pumpkins around here. So much that both the girls had pumpkin outfits.   

My friend Connie was kind enough to share several pumpkins with us from her garden.  Even though we had all of those we couldn't skip our annual trip to Hay by George.

Each girl got to pick out a small pumpkin and we grabbed some popcorn seed which turned out to be pretty tasty.

Before heading out to Hay by George we stopped for coffees and a smoothie which made Amelia pretty excited.  Then we went to visit one of Lucas' old co-workers who has baby kitties.  Amelia adored the kitties and was chasing them all over the yard.  Evelyn is more cautious and wasn't sure what to think of the kitties.  

Kleinschmidt Kids

After family pictures with the Schaefers Sissy wanted to have pictures of the grandkids.  I had so much fun taking pictures of everyone and trying to get them to have genuine smiles.

Amelia and Evelyn of course had fun with each other.  They ended up have a yelling match to see who was louder.  

Evelyn smiling with her tongue out as usual.  

This pose was hilarious.  I could just see the progression of Evelyn's thoughts.  "ooo Mia is right next to me."

"I'm going to get her!"  Miraculously Amelia didn't retaliate but just said "ahh, Evelyn's getting me!" 

Then Evelyn's headband began bugging her and the photo shoot was over.