Miscellaneous

Kole has his drivers license now...so,crazy!  He has been coming over once a week to watch the girls so I can have some me time.  I actually started working on a quilt top! Sophia loves to snuggled Kole and the feeling is mutual I'm sure. 

I got a smart phone! So we've been playing around with all of the fancy features and sites I've been longing for. Like instagram and blogging pics from my phone.  So cool! 

Evelyn and Mia make me laugh everyday.  Evelyn wanted me to take a picture of the heart on her forehead.  Mia decided that Evelyn had an owie on her face. Yeah, that was real fun to take off....

Zoo

We had a fun trip to the cities today.  First we stopped to pick up Amelia's flower girl dress.  Then we stopped at a Michaels. The one we have is so small that they didn't have a unfinished wood castle I was looking for.  I was Super excited that the one we stopped at today had the castle.  Now our wooden saints dolls will have a home to live in.  I'll post pics of that project when it is completed.  Our final stop of the day was the zoo. The girls had so much fun!  They loved trying to find all of the animals in each of the pens.  We had a picnic lunch which is also a huge hit around here lately.  They were so exhausted that Evelyn actually fell asleep before we left the parking lot!

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.  

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.  

Potty and Nighttime

The last week of September Amelia had a wicked diaper rash on Sunday morning after pooping the night before and not saying anything.  After church I told her it was over and she had to wear undies and pee on the potty to fix her owie butt.  And that was that.  She was potty trained.  In the next month we had maybe an accident a week.  She gave up the little potty after a month and will only let me help her wipe, otherwise she does it all on her own.  She still wears a diaper at night but most mornings she is dry.  I'm very proud of my independent determined girl.  Once she puts her mind to something she will accomplish it.

Evelyn has always given me trouble with sleeping and bedtime.  She just really would like to be right by me all of the time.  Every single night when trying to put her into her crib she would wake up crying before she was even laid down.  In desperation I borrowed an extra mattress from Kait for her room.  I tried laying next to her to nurse and get her to sleep and then would sneak out of the room.  It worked!  I finally was able to get her to sleep and she would sleep pretty decent through the night.  She still wanted to nurse for at least an hour before I left her but I was super excited to get to sleep through almost every night 

Curious George

We were so lucky to get to see Curious George a second time in September!  George was coming to storytime at Barnes and Noble.  With Amelia I just never know what to expect so I've learned to lower my expectations and to be mentally prepared for any reaction.  I wasn't sure if George would be scary to her or not.

I was pleasantly surprised that not only was George awesome she couldn't get enough of him!

Even Evelyn thought he was great and was squealing at him.  She got herself so worked up and so excited she actually conked out.

Amelia did a pretty good job listening to the stories and sitting patiently until some other child couldn't contain himself and had to run up to give George a hug.  All of a sudden Amelia was up on stage giving him a hug as well.  It was so sweet!  After the quick hug break, everyone settled back down to finish the story.  

There were more hugs and high fives after the stories were done.  Amelia was only somewhat ok with walking away from George when I explained that he had to go back home to see yellow hat, or the man with the yellow hat.

Hilary & Cooner

First we had lunch at Hilary and Bob's house which suited Amelia and Evelyn just fine as it allowed them time to play with kitties.  Then we headed over to see Cooner.  After our visit earlier this year I wasn't expecting too much.

Amelia wanted to help brush Cooner which I thought was a huge step for her.

Then Daddy convinced her to actually sit on Cooner.  She wasn't too sure but after a couple of laps she was smiling and loving every minute.

Hilary taught her how to tell Cooner to stop and Amelia declared that she never wanted to be done riding.

Daddy took a turn and Cooner was a little nicer to him this visit.

She was sad to be done riding but helped lead Cooner back to the barn and gave him a "cookie."

Since then she won't stop talking about Cooner.  She colors him pictures, spots other horses that are like Cooner, asks to pray for Cooner, says he's her favorite and has even declared that he is her horse.

Daddy's Fixin' School Buses!

August 1st was a very exciting day for our family.  Lucas began a new job as diesel mechanic for Palmer Buss in North Mankato.  After working for the St. Peter treatment center for seven years we were very blessed that he found this new position at Palmer.  His time at the treatment center was becoming harder and harder on our family as we were growing.

So now he is in a job that is not only more fulfilling for him personally but we are able to spend regular weekends and holidays together as a family!  His work is only six minutes away from home so he gets to come home for lunch everyday.  It is also a very friendly work environment and the owner has encouraged us to come up and visit.  So we do, and we have daddy take us for school bus rides!

At first Amelia wasn't so sure about school buses.  She only wanted to sit in one when it wasn't running.  Then she wanted to ride in one in her carseat.  Luckily there are some carseats in the mini buses.  Then she wanted to ride in a bigger bus and was alright without a carseat.  Now she's says the "school buses go fast!" and "go fast daddy!"

Blue Earth County Fair

We went to the Blue Earth County Fair this year.  I think Amelia and Daddy could have spent all day there!

Amelia had to say hi to all of the animals and of course the pigs were a favorite.  She wasn't too sure about the cows since they are so big and were louder than the horses.  She was excited about the horses and kept saying, "it's Cooner!"

Then we went to look at the baby chicks.  First she was fine just observing but some kids came up and started holding them, so of course she wanted to hold one too.

She tried grabbing one herself but wasn't too sure, so Daddy helped her.

Then there were the tractors.  

 "Look at the BIG tractor!"

And being the monkey she is, she would climb up by herself to check them out.

Even Evelyn thought the tractors were fun.