And how excited were we about jumping in the leaves?

We have one very small maple tree in the backyard that dropped a couple of hundred leaves at most.  Regardless, one afternoon Grace asked for a rake, determined to produce a pile big enough to jump in.  Never willing to admit defeat, she insisted that her pile of perhaps 25 of those leaves was sufficient.

Greta contributed by standing by to offer commentary when necessary :)

She also had an obvious opinion on Zeke's batting skills.

Despite the obvious abundance of mucus, Elias was as cute and content as ever!

How excited are we about the first snow?

My kids insisted on having a "Snow Party!" They dressed up in full snow gear to go play outside, despite having only just the lightest of flurries :) It's so cold that even with all that bundling they were out for MAYBE 5 min before coming in begging for hot chocolate.

Zeke's 2nd Birthday

 In theory, taking a 2 year old horseback riding for his birthday seems unnecessarily extravagent, but in reality it was a perfectly relaxing low-key family activity that has made a horse-lover out of our little Z-man.  This is all thanks to our amazingly generous friends and brother and sister in Christ, Tarryl and Anne Bockelman.  When Steve aproached Tarryl about taking him up on his offer to let the kids come ride their horses as a fun activity for Zeke's birthday, we were only expecting to show up and let Zeke sit on the horse for a few minutes.   They made it so much more!  We rounded-out the afternoon with a cookout, 2 rounds of riding, feeding the fish in their pond, and some playtime in the hay pile in the barn.  The pictures themselves tell the story of what an awesome time we had!

Zeke had requested breakfast food for his birthday meal, but I wanted to make the pancakes and eggs "extra special!" 

Banana birthday cake (what else for our banana king?) complete with a "2" candle that Grace (our little eagle-eye) found in the Bockelman's barn!

The Princess is 4!

Ok, so she's been 4 for almost two months now, but we've already established that I'm behind on blogging and playing catch-up!  When my mom called on September 2 and inquired, "Oh, Terryn, can you believe she's 4?" I told her I certainly could.  Not a typical mommy reaction (usually it's all "I can't believe how big they are!"), but we'd been talking about Greta's birthday so often and for so long (probably at least since Grace turned 5 in April) I was relieved that the big day had finally arrived.  I wondered if on September 3 we would have to begin discussing Greta's 5th birthday, but thus far we've been spared her constant, but cute birthday babble :)

Filling the kids rooms with dozens of balloons while their sleeping is fast becoming a favorite birthday tradition at our house. 

Greta desperately wanted to camp out and we agreed that the backyard was the best venue for our first attempt.  It's a  blessing that I have generally easygoing kiddos b/c a thunderstorm hit that evening and changed our plans.  Praise God we weren't out in the woods somewhere!  Anyways, Super-Daddy came to the rescue and created am impromptu indoor campout complete with hotdog roasting . . .



. . . and a couch/blanket tent reminiscent of the forts of my childhood. 





Our God is so good!  Wouldn't you know he followed up that thunderstorm with the most beautiful birthday gift for our little princess!