What a difference a year makes.

Kim, Tracy and I did a retake on last years photo shoot with the kids. The obvious change was that both Kim and Tracy had a baby this year. I didn't realize though until I went back to look at last year's picture how much the kids had actually changed. Obviously there has been a dramatic change when I stop to think about it. Last year, she couldn't sit up, let alone run, jump and dance. Last year, drool was about the only thing coming from her mouth. Now we laugh, moo, give kisses and say about 75 words. She has also become a blonde...hmm. Enough words, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.







The kids sat down and immediately let us take pictures. We took a brief break to readjust the babies and after that things went down hill. Lily informed us that "it's too cold" and proceeded to cry. It was very sad (and also cute in that weird parent way that sobbing children are adorable).



This is Connor Matthew, he belongs to Kim, Matt and Caden. He was born July 21.


This is Ella Rose. She belongs to Tracy, Phil and Lily. She was born June 24.

Scrapbooking and the Backyardigans

I made this layout this past week. I know, there is no journaling and I'm trying to come up with some additional embellishments, but I like it otherwise.

Megan absolutely loves the Backyardigans. If you ask who her friends are the list usually includes Caden, Tracy, Macy (who are all real people) and she always includes "Tasha" and "Pablo" who are cartoons from the show. Last week, I decided to make her a little book of the Backyardigans. I was able to print off all the pics from the Nick Jr. website and here is the final (quickly made) product:

A trip to Cooper Farms

We spent a perfect fall day (or three hours of it) at Cooper Farms, a local farm market. They have a "Pumpkin Festival" every Saturday in October and probably make a killing off of people like Chad and I who want to give their children a country experience. That sounded a little cynical. Megan loved it and so we loved it. There was a lot to see and do and it was a very fair price. In fact, Megan got to ride everything free. I, however, paid two dollars to ride the barrel train below...Megan liked it because we have been looking at books about trains and tractors lately. We also took a carriage ride with "horseys" which was a big thrill for Megan.

They had lots of hands-on activities set up, pumpkin tic-tac-toe, pumpkin bowling, bean bag toss. Megan liked the bubbles.

We went on a hayride.

I just thought this tree was pretty.

They had a petting zoo. Megan was excited but was also too scared to get down or touch anything. She likes animals, but she likes them from a distance which is fine by me.

Eventually, she allowed me to set her on the ground and even patted this goat several times. I think her favorite was the pig. And yes mom, we used hand sanitizer when we were done because I know pet zoos have lots of salmonella or something bad.

After a lunch of hot dogs, we went into the corn maze. Neither Chad or I had done one and I think it was a mistake. Megan was tired by this point and wouldn't let me put her down. It was hot and we had dressed for cool. Plus, once you go in, you have to find your way out (that probably should have been obvious to me).

We bought some of the little tiny pumpkins for decor, but Megan walked among the bigger ones.

Megan was very busy inspecting pumpkins and wouldn't stay still long enough for the photo-op I wanted so I asked her to hug the pumpkin.

She has been very affectionate lately so the hugging quickly led to a kiss. She then walked from pumpkin to pumpkin giving them kisses...

Falling for Fall

We have had a beautiful week here in Pennsylvania. The trees are turning and the weather has been low 70s with just that touch of cool when the sun disappears. Yesterday afternoon, Chad got home a little early, so we picked up some Subway and went to Parker Dam State Park.

Megan found the whole experience to be so exciting that her hair stood up on end!



After our picnic dinner, we (I say we because we all did take turns crawling through the tubes and going down slides) played at the playground.


Then, we (I say we, but Megan got carried a fair portion) hiked around the lake. She thought tramping through the leaves was great fun and found lots of things to explore including the pine cone seen below. She also thought the gravel path at another point on the hike was great and stopped to eat a few handfuls.




See what I mean about a great fall!


After our hike, we went back to the playground for another round. Then went to the nature center for an up close look at some stuffed animals of both the synthetic and the once living and breathing variety.

Bubbles

I got a chance to scrapbook the other day and I finished it tonight. I tried to stamp the letters and it didn't work, so I came up with these bubbles which I do like.

Too big clothes and a skinned up nose.

Megan has been fascinated by the Vista Windows t-shirts that Grandpa Gorrell got for our family bikeride. She likes the ball on the front. Today, she found one of them (he got 6 to send home with us) and she kept trying to put it over her head. I asked if she wanted it on and she said, "Yeah" (another new word).


As for the skinned nose, we had a little accident yesterday. We started to take a walk yesterday, but it was raining by the time we got to the corner and we turned back. Rather than go back, we sat on the porch swing for a little while and watched for buses to drive by (a new favorite pasttime). Megan got tired of sitting so she stood and watched. Well, she got a little too close to the edge of the step and tumbled down. She did quite a job of falling and scrapped up her nose. She was pretty tough about it and quit crying after I gave her an oreo cookie.

The Revised Living Room

We finally got around to painting the living room (2 times actually, 3 if you count primer). I'm not sure I love it, but I can't figure out what else to do, so for now it will stay this way.

Here is the room as decorated by the previous owner.

The previous owner's curtains.

We removed the chair rail. It was too ornate for the room. We would have removed the top moulding too, but it would have destroyed the ceiling, so we just painted it to blend in a little better.

We used the same lace curtains in the foyer and I think I'll also put them up in the dining room

The photo doesn't really do it justice.