LL's 7th Birthday

Our sweet LL turned 7 on Tuesday, October 16! I wanted to post a photos of her when she was younger, and these are the oldest ones I have saved on this computer, from her 5th birthday!

Two years later she has much longer hair and a few less teeth, and she's pretty much caught up with AG in height! The morning of her birthday we took cookies to school to celebrate with her classmates. Here she is with her teacher, Mrs. T:

That evening we went out to eat Mexican food and came home to open a few gifts...

We all love this sweet girl so much!

That Friday we celebrated with her friends at a bowling party!

The fun and silly bowling girls!

Cake time!

Happy 7th, LL! We are so thankful for you!

Pumpkin Patch (Oct. 13)

A few weekends ago, we checked out a local pumpkin patch with friends. The kids enjoyed a hayride, having their faces painted, and picking out and painting pumpkins. And of course there were a few photos taken. Credit goes to our friend, H, for the ones below that are especially good!

SA's First Birthday (Sept. 29)

Our littlest boy turned one a few weeks ago! Seems like just yesterday he was like this...

or this...

but here he was just a week before the big day, showing off 8 teeth and a nice scraggle of long hair!

Hanging out with the guys...

and flying high...

and snuggling with Nana on the eve of his birthday.

We celebrated on his birthday, a Saturday, with a party at home with all 4 grandparents. He had plenty of help opening gifts...

and liked his cake, although he didn't get too messy, considering the potential!

He is beloved by all, especially Nana and Grandpa

and Gran and PopPop

and his Daddy and sisters and big brother.

And his mommy of course, who is the one that gives thanks she still gets the daily and nightly snuggles of this "incredible melting baby" (on left hip, with his lovie, thumb in mouth, head in crook of neck, cheek to cheek and his little breath in my ear)...oh how I wish I could capture that feeling to keep forever, and so I record the details here hopefully! He is a dear sweet one, growing up but not in a big hurry about it. Over the last few months he's mastered the army crawl but that seems to be enough for him for now. He likes to stand at low tables or the couch if we put him there, but pulling up on his own seems to be a long term goal for him. He is a good babbler, working on his wave, and getting better at sitting still for a very short book. Likes to drink regular milk now and eats almost anything we do as long as it's mashed up or in tiny bites. Such a trooper about all the run-around-town to which he is constantly subjected! We are all so thankful for this little guy!

Zoo and Rural Life Museum

The weekend before SA's birthday, Gran and PopPop came to visit and we packed two days with outings and activities. We started on Friday evening with a trip to the zoo. The whole zoo crew...

SA watching the giraffes with PopPop...

and checking out some other interesting creature with Gran

RL tentatively approaching a really big snake

Waiting for the elephant demonstration

Saturday we had an 8 a.m. soccer game for SJ and somehow all made it there! Later that morning, we headed out to the rural life museum for their Harvest Days celebration. It was our first visit there and there was plenty to see and do. We enjoyed a wagon ride and tried to imagine riding like that for weeks, like Mary and Laura!