October

Jacob has done more than sleep this month, but for some reason most of my pictures the past little bit have ended up with him passed out in some funny situation. Which actually seems to happen a lot. With this first picture I'd already taken him into his room and put him down for a nap. He'd come out a few minutes later and said he wanted to finish his lunch. So I told him as soon as he did he needed to go back to bed. Not too long after that I found him asleep in his chair. 

And I'm ALWAYS finding him asleep covered in books. This one is with one of his favorites - Go Dog, Go. 

Jacob is a pretty entertaining kid. His laugh is highly contagious and just music to my ears. He's also pretty ingenious with his toys. This day he decided he wanted to skate and took out two tupperware containers and slid all over the kitchen for the next 30 minutes. 

Even though he's a lot of work and can be very exasperating, I sure love my little man!

On 10/20 we started Liza on solids. She does ok with it - she pulled a few funny faces that first time and continues to do so if we give her anything with too much texture. But overall she seems to enjoy it. Now we just need to help her figure out how to drink from her sippy. She plays with it more than she drinks from it.

 So true...

 With two kids in diapers we seem to have a plethora of big boxes around. The kids tend to use them as houses, beds, cars, sleds, or as in one of the pictures below - a fort (piled on top of the garbage cans and held up by the table, but they still enjoyed climbing under it).

 Of course all three kids LOVE playing with daddy and just love it when he's home (so do I:) ) He is so good to play with them... or let them play on him. I couldn't ask for a better father for my children.

 Checking out a lego magazine

Uncle Chris's birthday

 Annual pictures at Lyle's Pumpkin Patch

 An attempt at getting all the grandkids ...

 ... and why I took over 60 pictures.

Everyone (minus those out of town) 

Our first snow! The kids were so excited. I snapped a quick picture of all three kids before Emily headed off to school. Then took a couple more of Jacob enjoying the snow before waving to Emily as the bus drove by.

The 26th was the parade and Halloween party at school. Emily was a cute witch, Jacob a great spiderman, and Eliza was an adorable little elephant. We even found a twin for Liza. Miss Mary (Emily's Kindergarten teacher) was there with her daughter who is only a week older than Liza. We're getting excited for Halloween!

Taking an afternoon to visit the Children's Museum and the Tinkertoy exhibit before our membership expired.

We had the annual Halloween dinner at our house again. There was lots of yummy food with very disgusting names. 

Eliza was sleeping during the cousin Halloween picture and Jacob was in one of his moods and refused to be in it. So the next day I did a quick Halloween photo shoot with them.  

And I snapped a few extra without costumes (well, kinda) while I was at it and kids were still happy.

The 29th we carved pumpkins. It was the first time Jacob had seen the inside of one and he wasn't so sure about sticking his hand in there...

Halloween night we had a jack-o-lantern pizza and then got ready to go trick or treating. 

Jacob made it about half a street's worth of houses and then got a large bag of peanut M&M's and decided he was done. He then sat in the stroller the rest of the night and ate candy. Emily continued on and asked at every house for something for her brother too and Eliza slept peacefully in the stroller next to Jacob.We only made it through one and a half streets but the kids had PLENTY of candy. When we got home the they dumped out their stash to show Grandma & Grandpa their goods.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

September

We had fun doing a garden again this year. We ended up with lots of tomatoes and pumpkins, great corn, a few cantaloupes, yummy strawberries, amazing bell peppers, and tons of carrots. When things were ready to freeze we pulled the last of the carrots and spent an evening washing, peeling, slicing and freezing.

 And some of our carrots were HUGE!

Of course one of the favorite things this summer was the tramp. Here's Jeff & Jacob getting one of the last good jumps in before it was taken down for winter. I love Jeff's face when he bounced Jacob higher then he planned. 

Eliza continues to grow up fast. Emily is such a great big sister. She loves playing with her and is always coming up with ways to include Liza in her imaginative play. Eliza loves to hold things and is starting to grab at anything that she can. She's doing really well had holding her head up when she's on her stomach and is even beginning to push up with her arms. 

I had to include these pictures of Jacob. One day I found a light coming from the hall closet. Inside I found an irritated little boy because his mom was interrupting his reading. And then a few nights later Jeff and I went to check on Jacob before going to bed and found that he had set up his track and then climbed back in bed and fell asleep. He's such a funny, cute little boy!

Emily is getting close to finishing fall soccer. She's doing such a good job and is becoming quite the little defender. It's been fun to watch her and see her progress. We're glad she enjoys it so much and we're proud of her dedication. 

Since Dave & Arline are now home from their mission Jeff's brothers came into town the weekend of the 23rd. The next week was then filled with family and activities to catch up on lost time. We went to the aquarium on the 25th...

 ... spent lots of time just playing at Grandma & Grandpa's house (and being wiped out from it)...

 ... had family pictures taken...

...had a tea party...

...went to the zoo...

 ...had a sleepover with Grandma and all the cousins (those over 1 year) ...

 ...and spent the weekend sans kids at Aspen Grove (well, we took Eliza). 

Sunday the 30th Dave & Arline spoke in Sacrament Meeting and we also blessed Eliza. Then we had a lunch after with both of our families and then a leisurely evening with Jeff's family before everyone left town. Jeff, Brad, & Stan took the kids on rides on the flexi flyer and the kids rode bikes till it got dark. It was so fun to finally have everyone in the same state at the same time! Can't wait till next May when we're all together again.

We are all so in love with our Eliza Ann. She is so happy and such a great snuggler. She has brought so much joy into our lives and we are all so glad she has joined our family.