Our Bike Riders

Andy took Rachel's training wheels off her bike several months ago and never had the time to really work with her. My smart mother had the idea that we should haul Rachel's bike up to their place over Thanksgiving. Andy would definitely have the time to work with her and they have a great training area, a long driveway that they share with their neighbors. Rachel first started out on a little bike that my parents had. Andy took the training wheels off and Rachel mastered that bike first. She felt more comfortable on this bike because it was easy to stop herself and just stand, rather than fall over while on the bike. She really didn't get much help from Andy. She then got brave enough to try her own bike and within a couple of tries, she was off:

 

Andy then put the training wheels back on the little bike and Audrey figured out how to ride that one. This was great since she was getting a bike for her birthday in a few weeks.

The girls love riding their bikes! This time of year is actually a great time of year to do so. We love mild days and when schedules permit we spend quite a few of the daylight hours outside riding bikes.

Thanksgiving

We had so much fun the week of Thanksgiving! We were brave and took Rachel out of school for 2 days (Texas is quite strict on students being absent). This allowed us to go up to my parents' place for the whole week. It was so nice! It had actually been a year since we had been up there...  Grandma was able to take the whole week off from work. The weather was PERFECT! We enjoyed spending a lot of time outside.  Here's some of the fun that was had...

Tractor rides:

  

Wagon rides:

Ian met dogs for the first time and loved them:

Rachel mastered riding a bike without training wheels. She first gained confidence on this little bike and soon moved on to her own bike.

Playing with minnows while Papa and Daddy fished:

Success! Papa was the lucky one this time:

 

 

Swinging was enjoyed by everyone. Ian's the only one we took pictures of! :)

We had lots of fun inside once it got dark. There were puzzles to do, games to play, snuggling with Papa, playing with the toys, and dressing up with exercise bands (even though Grandma has plenty of dress-up options):

 

One day we ventured to Atlanta State Park. We enjoyed a picnic lunch, the playground, and a mini outdoor theater.

 The girls had fun throwing rocks down the slide.

 They also enjoyed playing on the mini stage.

The Mackay family drove up later on in the week and joined us for Thanksgiving. Aunt Natalie put together a turkey hunt for the kids Thanksgiving morning. They had so much fun listening to the clues and finding the correct turkey. They also had fun setting up the turkeys themselves and sending the adults on a turkey hunt. Here's the kids in action:

It was Ian's first Thanksgiving, so we had to get a picture of him in his turkey shirt:

One day the dads took the 3 big kids out on a boat ride:

 

And of course after the weather got cooler we just bundled everyone up for a tractor ride:

The babies didn't go on the tractor ride. But Landon made sure to give Ian an indoor tractor ride:

 

We enjoyed our week! It was fun for the adults to play games in the evening once all the little ones were in bed. We also introduced my parents to the movie Bernie, which one can only really appreciate if you've spent some time in Northeast Texas. I'm certainly thankful for my parents who live 5 hours away. It makes little trips like these possible and hopefully it won't be an entire year before we head up there next!

Meet Hula the Turkey

Rachel had a school project where she had to come up with a disguise for a turkey and create a story of how the turkey escaped the Pilgrims. Rachel came up with the idea for this turkey all on her own. We made a grass skirt, stapled on a lei, and Rachel gave her blonde hair. Rachel then went to school and had an oral presentation. Rachel had to present hers early due to our travel plans for Thanksgiving. Her teacher emailed me today and told me she did a great job. Rachel had fun coming home from school today and telling me how others had disguised their turkeys. What a fun assignment!

10 Months

 

Mr. Ian is 10 months old today! One of his milestones this past month was acquiring his first mole. It's teeny and located on his right index finger. He has also mastered army crawling. He's fast. And he loves to play with doors, door stoppers, cabinets, toilets, shoes, and anything else he knows might bring harm or sickness to himself. He's a boy! 

We have introduced quite a few more finger foods this month. He loves veggie sticks and apple straws. The other day he enjoyed a few Club crackers. He loves bananas. He's interested in real green beans. He also enjoys rice, little pieces of chicken, and bread. He's really funny about having someone else put something in his mouth. If I put something in his mouth, he'll take it out and examine it before putting it back in. It's like he doesn't trust me... 

Ian has mastered being able to get himself into a sitting position all by himself. On day I had put him down for a nap and I could hear him just talking away in his crib. I went to peek in on him and this is what I found:

He was pretty proud of himself! It took a few days for him to go down easily for naps. He either had to be really tired or asleep in his car seat and just needing a transfer. Otherwise he would sit right up and just play. Daddy came home that night and lowered his crib. It probably won't be too long before he's pulling himself up to stand... Ian also likes to pull down his bumper to check things out. The other day I heard him wake up from his nap. I found him peeking like this and pointing to the door:

Ian loves the bath. Whether he's watching his sisters...

 

Or taking a bath himself. This past month we transitioned him from his bath seat to sitting up by himself in the bath. He LOVES it! He loves being able to get around in the bath. The other night he was just army crawling around the bath. He's discovered the drain and loves to pull it up. 

 

Our little guy adores his sisters. He loves to play with them. They are the best at making him laugh and keeping him entertained. One day Audrey was pushing him around in his laundry basket and he was loving it. It's a perfect laundry basket for such activities since it has wheels. Audrey was really cute about putting her pillow pet in the basket for Ian to sit on.

All of our little ones (okay, Rachel and Ian since we didn't have this option for Audrey) have enjoyed playing by this window:

Ian loves to stack things up on the window ledge and then knock them down. He also enjoys watching his sisters play out back from this vantage point. He doesn't get any mosquito bites and he laughs away at his silly sisters!

I couldn't resist including this picture. One day I was feeding Ian lunch and he was fussing about something. We were pretty close to the kitchen table and he was trying to reach for Audrey's water bottle. Once I realized what he wanted I scooted the high chair a little bit closer and he grabbed her water bottle and went to town. He was quite proud of himself! Ian loves water.

Ian is still sleeping great. He sleeps all night and is finally back to waking up around 7 am (changing the time last week did a number on us). He takes 2 good naps a day and is just a happy boy. He doesn't cry often. I feed him, just to feed him. I usually put him down for naps or to bed at night, just because it's time to sleep. We are definitely blessed with a little one who doesn't complain much. 

Ian does know how to wave, but only does so when he feels like it. He' really into pointing right now. And he's recently figured out how to be an active participant when playing peek-a-boo. He loves to grab his shorts or pants when I'm changing his diaper and play peek-a-boo with me. A few weeks ago we did find out that he's slightly anemic. So, I'm trying to be better about torturing him with the yucky vitamins. And now that I'm being more consistent, he's becoming more tolerant.

This little guy loves his infant car seat. It's definitely past the time to transition him to a convertible car seat and I have one for him... However, he's so happy in his infant one. Yesterday I decided not to take the car seat into church. I tried for quite awhile to get him to take a nap. Finally I gave up, went out to the van, got his car seat, and within a minute he was sound asleep strapped into his car seat. Crazy boy! Ian's favorite song is, "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam". As soon as we start singing it he starts bouncing and is so excited to be lifted up into the air. Ian can definitely chatter, but recently he prefers growling. He's growled for a long time. But now, it's almost like he's carrying on a conversation with you while growling.  It's quite humorous!  

We love Ian to pieces and can't believe he's 10 months old. Every time I come across a picture of him back in January....I just can't believe. Where has the time gone? He's learned and grown and discovered so much. It's crazy how quickly time slips by. And these monthly posts are a good reminder to me to STOP and ENJOY!

Six AND a Half

Rachel is officially 6.5 years old. It's amazing how important their half birthdays are to them. We had actually talked about it this past weekend and then we've just had a busy week. So, I was very grateful that I happened to remember this morning and was able to greet her by singing, "Happy Half-Birthday to You". She was all smiles and then she quickly asked what we were going to do to celebrate. Luckily we are having some friends over this evening, so she went for that.

Our little girl is growing up way too fast and loves being able to learn and grow. She has lost one tooth and has a second very loose tooth right now. As a matter of fact, the permanent tooth is coming in to expedite the process. Rachel LOVES school. She loves learning, she loves playing, she loves recess, she loves library, she loves writing, she loves math, and she loves her friends... She's just an easy one to please and she also loves to please. She can be quite hard on herself. Last week for the first time she got 2 of her spelling words wrong and she was devastated. I quickly informed her that she needed to be happy and proud about the 6 she got right. And half the time when she does misspell a word, you can see why. I mean why shouldn't chicken be spelled chickin???  

Rachel loves to help around the house. Oftentimes she follows me around asking what she can do. And she can be quite bummed when I don't really have anything she can help me with. I wish the furniture that usually needs dusting wasn't so tall! :) Rachel is in gymnastics and loves it. She wants to sign up again in January. She is doing awesome with her reading. She's really improved a lot in the past couple of months. She has started to get into chapter books. She really likes the Junie B. Jones series right now. 

One thing I absolutely love about Rachel is that she loves her siblings, even when she has friends over. She's more than willing to let Audrey play along and she always willing to give her brother attention. I just hope this love holds steady when I'll be ready to have her baby-sit! She's definitely a great big sister. 

I told Rachel this morning that she doesn't get to celebrate anymore birthdays or half-birthdays. That I just want to freeze her at 6.5.  She wasn't too keen on that idea. And really, I am excited for the years to come. They just need to slow down a bit... I'm so grateful for this little girl. For the good stuff, the bad stuff, and the in-between stuff.

Best Background Music Ever

So, cleaning house isn't my favorite thing to do and I don't think it is for anyone. But the other day while I was scrubbing a bathroom I overheard Audrey in the other room singing away. I love her sweet singing voice. So, I stopped what I was doing and made a quick video of her so that I could share my favorite background music to cleaning:

Halloween Fun

Celebrating Halloween started for us on Saturday night at our church's "Trunk or Treat". This year the girls have chosen Disney princesses once again - Rachel is Ariel and Audrey is Belle. And Ian is Thomas the Train. He's not too keen on his costume in this picture, but he warmed up to it...

He was more tolerant once Daddy was holding him:

And then after walking around with his sisters to collect candy, he was one happy guy:

We had fun that evening. The girls make me laugh every year because they get so excited to pass candy out to others. They are pretty quick about going around and collecting their own candy, because they want to get back and pass out to others as soon as possible. One of these years they'll probably figure out how many go around several times in order to get as much candy as they can. For now though, I'm liking that they haven't caught on...

On Sunday night we carved pumpkins. This year the girls each designed their pumpkin face themselves. They drew them on paper and then Andy and I transferred that to the pumpkins. Andy did Ian's pumpkin, I did Audrey's, and Rachel did quite a bit of hers by herself. 

Audrey rolled up her sleeves and got serious about cleaning out:

Rachel was more than happy to let Dad take over:

Andy designing and carving Ian's pumpkin:

Ian being introduced to his pumpkin:

Daddy helping Rachel:

The finished products:

I love this picture!

On our porch:

On Tuesday I was able to catch the tail end of Audrey's Halloween party at Joy School. She was so excited to have her hands wrapped up like a mummy and try to pick up candy. It's so funny how simple you can make things for kids and they love it! 

 

On Halloween Rachel dressed up as dentist for school. They are only allowed to dress-up as what they would like to be when they grow up. Rachel seems to be holding steady to a dentist, so I should probably splurge and buy her an actual dentist costume. I think it's really lame that the schools do this down here, but I guess it's their way of keeping those happy who want to dress-up and those happy who do not celebrate Halloween. I don't know... But here's our cute dentist:

We then had a very rushed afternoon. Thank heavens for dinners that can be pulled out of the freezer! Rachel got home from school, we did the homework thing, Ian got a nap, we took Rachel to gymnastics, Andy picked her up, we ate dinner quickly, and then went out to trick-or-treat around 6:30 pm. We went with the Bills and the Mackays. I think everyone had a good time! And they got tons of candy. People must have been giving out handfuls, because they got way too much. Here's the group as we started out:

A picture of just the cousins together:

The day after Halloween I had the kids get dressed up one last time so I could get individual photos of them. Halloween was just too busy to do so!

Ariel:

Belle:

Silly faces:

Thomas the Train:

I got the hat off!!!!

My favorite three:

Halloween was definitely a hit! Everyone had fun and we are looking forward to the holidays that are coming up as well. This is a crazy, busy time of year and we love it!