In the Land of...

Kansas!

With family for Thanksgiving.

Lots of fun with cousins!

Grandpa needed help to raise his flag:

We had an early celebration of Ruthie's birthday while we were there. We put together a little scavenger hunt for her to find her gifts from Nona and Grandpa.

Finding the clue that was in the little tractor:Blowing out the candles on the cake:

Five good friends (Maryn and Anna standing, Ruthie, Josie and Landry sitting):

Reading with Aunt Rachel:

Anna and Josie reading with Mom and Dad:

Landry and Ruthie reading with Uncle Jeb:

Lots of good relaxing times.

Nona took this picture of Ruthie in her new outfit with her new baby doll:

Three sisters posing for their Nona:

Aren't we cute?!

And silly?

We love Nona and Grandpa!

Feeling thankful for:

Family connections

Fires in the fireplace

A 3 year old birthday girl

Good books to read

Skype

Yummy food

Winter weather

Smiles and laughter

Long drives in the car (car date!)

YOU!

Our Days...

...have been oh so full around here. Here's a glimpse of a few of our highlights.

Another birthday, Mitch turned 1:We had neighbors over to celebrate with pumpkin pie.

Sweet Josie napping on the couch in her new dress made by Mema. I love how this little one falls asleep in the middle of whatever she is quietly doing during her rest time, never one to actually put down her book and decide to sleep.


Josie's leaf pile, leaves that she collected on our walk this evening. All three girls brought back so many colorful leaves. We are absolutely loving all the colors that are on the trees and carpeting the ground and filling the air. My favorite fall moment happened the other day when it was quite blustery out and colorful leaves were literally raining out of the trees in our courtyard, filling the air with color. All the kids started running through them as they fell, screaming and laughing, caught up in the excitement of running through a downpour of leaves. It was a moment I think I will remember my whole life and will always bring a smile to my face.



Puzzles. All three girls at different levels working on and succeeding in doing puzzles, and then doing them again, and then again, and then again. I love watching them learn the skills needed for doing a puzzle and I love their excitement when they succeed. The whole family joined in a rousing "hip-hip-hooray!" for Ruthie when she finished hers for the first time.

Anna is making such incredible strides in her reading skills these days. She's actually starting to blend together the sounds of the letters she sees and has randomly read words on signs as we drive or walk around. So exciting! Such a huge life skill unfolding before our eyes.

Here's one more video I took this morning before ballet class, because Anna asked me to "take a video of us and post it on the blog!" These kiddos always make me laugh, they are so silly in such an impromptu and unselfconscious way.

Whew!

What an end of summer whirlwind, and its Fall already! Time has felt like it is passing in leaps and bounds, each day melting into the next with hardly a breath between. That could seem stressful, I suppose, but for the most part it hasn't been. Lots of time with friends, lots of shared meals, late summer harvests from the garden on our plate. Little girls growing up so fast. Ruthie, especially, has been growing and changing so much lately. Talking up a storm, running fast after her sisters trying to keep up with their antics. People keep calling her Josie lately because she got so big so fast. She seems more like a little girl and less like a toddler everyday.

She's my little helper in the kitchen-helping me roll out pie crust for a pot pie.

Nora and Ruthie sharing a book together.

Josie reading to Ruthie.
Josie is a little mother. If you need a room picked up and all the toys put away ask Anna. Don't ask Josie unless you're ready to put in some parenting time guiding her through the task. But if you need help taking care of a little one, ask Josie. She'll take their hand and guide them through a task, entertain them while you cook or eat, read to them, bring you a clean diaper or a sippy cup. Such a sweet, patient spirit. They each have their strengths and weaknesses.




Here's one last picture I have to share with you before I head off to bed.
This is Lars, who has hung out with us a lot lately since his Mama was on bed rest, pregnant with his little brother (now two weeks old, doing great, the tiniest little being I think I have ever held). We have had so much fun with this little guy. Anna and Josie don't really like to wrestle. I keep waiting for wrestling matches to break out in our house, but those two are never both in the mood at the same time. Ruthie, on the other hand, being the youngest and always getting tackled both accidentally and on purpose, loves to wrestle. It has been so much fun for her to have Lars around to laugh with, to good-naturedly wrestle with, dance with, and have a playmate of her own to hang out with when her sisters want to do big girl things. Lars, for his part, fits right into our little family, and brings a lot of laughter along with him. Here's an action shot of the little guy jumping off the coffee table. I think we taught him a few bad habits:) The coffee table is our favorite indoor launch pad. We loved having you around, Lars.


I have missed being in this space, sharing our life with you. Time flying by can do that, so can a computer that is incredibly slow and never gets to the next web page or accomplishes the tasks that you are asking it to do. Frustrating, to say the least. But we have a new computer in our home now (with a webcam, we can skype!), so my words can flow out again and not get bottled up in the frustration of a computer that isn't moving.

The Show

'The Show' had no name and I don't remember the plot, only plenty of laughter on the part of both the audience and the actors, so in the future it will only be referred to as 'The Show'. My favorite part of The Show was when granny first appeared and Ruthie's chin dropped, her mouth hung open and her eyes stared big and round, unmoving, for quite a long time. Until I grinned at her. Then she moved, laughed, wiggled, walked over to me and wanted up immediately so she could grab this granny's spectacles and hat with both hands all at the same time and just eat them up.

The Show:

The Dance, part of said Show by the granny, red pajama clad baby, rip-scrunch eating giraffe and pink dog:

More of The Dance (do you know how hard it is to dance in size 16 men's hiking boots?):

The Dramatic Moment:

The end of The Show involved a puppet show:

The Audience:

I think The Audience fell asleep sometime during the puppet show, maybe The Audience hasn't been getting enough sleep lately(but don't worry, we had The Audience rolling in the aisles in laughter for most of The Show, which was good to see)


After The Show there was Apple Pie for dessert:
And pie crust chocolate chip cookies that the girls made:

Mmm Mmm Mmm.

And finally, a snuggly cozy time reading with Daddy'O and Raggedy Anne Doll on the couch before bed:

Bedtime

This is a typical bedtime scene at our house.

Mitch is reading Farmer Boy to the two older girls and Ruthie is playing around on the trundle bed below. She likes to play peekaboo while they read and pop her head up over the side of the bed and grin at them. I like the daily rhythm of quiet family times like this and the antics of sweet, content Ruthie adding laughter to the mix. She is one active little girl, she hardly stops moving unless she is actually asleep.

Summer Reading Party

The girls signed up for a reading program in our neighborhood for the month of July and faithfully read every day. Well, I should say, we read to them every day. It was good for me, I think, to be reminded to make reading to them a priority even in the summer. Winter, with so much time inside, seems to be our season of reading and it easily goes by the wayside in the warm summer outside days. But the girls did a good job, even reading while we were camping. Anna listened through "Little House in the Big Woods" and "Little House on the Prairie" and we're almost done with "Farmer Boy" now. She really likes them. It's fun to see both girls incorporating things they heard from the books into their play. They definitely earned the ice cream party they got to attend on Friday night for reading all month. They even got to design their own book at the party.