The kids had some fun the other night finger-painting their home-grown pumpkins.

It's also Fire Safety Month, so we had the Pendleton Fire Department visit school on both Thursday and Friday. The kids has lots of fun! Have YOU checked your smoke alarms lately.....hhmmmnnnn?

Kidztown Thursday Class

Kidztown Friday Class

The official countdown begins....only 100 more days of being pregnant! Wow, it's gone by so fast! We will see if I actually get to go 100 more days, it mostly likely to be more like 78 days......even more exciting!

(I don't know why this pic refused to rotate...sorry)

Traveling Circus...

I often refer to our family as the traveling zoo or more recently, the traveling circus. Anyone with more than one kiddo can understand what I mean. They are hungry, thirsty and have to go potty all at the same time! No to mention the need to explore every territory known to man.

So, today we took our show on the road and went to Walla Walla for a check-up for Mommie and the monkey in my belly. The kids were excited to hear their brothers heartbeat and find out how big mommie was getting. Of course the moment we got into the exam room they wanted to know what everything was...needless to say, I kept it all very simple..."that's a special light...those are for the doctor...those are special footrests for mommies..." you get the idea. After being weighed and simultaneously oohed and aaahhhhddd for my great growth (LOL), it was time for Dr. Jake to come in. After some introductions and catching up I was instructed by Alison to "lay down Mommie!". Once the doc found the little monkey and the kids heard the train-like sound coming from my belly, they were quiet with large eyes and mouths open. The kids thought it was so great that they could hear their baby brother.

Afterwards, Daddy took them out to play in the kids area while I finished-up all the details with Dr. Jake. Everything is going great, by the way. Dr. Jake expressed his thanks for bringing in the family for this special treat, to which I replied, "The Traveling Circus is always happy to entertain"...or something like that.

We got everybody piled back into the clown car and made our next stop doing some shopping for Daddy's hunting trip this coming weekend and made it to town in time for a quick stop at Daddy's work to run off some energy and then home for dinner. The kids were completely worn-out, but not nearly as much as we were!

We have learned that this ciaos is our life and we love it. We can change it and we wouldn't want to because it's who we are and what God has for our life. We are so thankful for time together and making the most of it, no matter what. There is no reason to worry about whether or not the nap they missed will affect them in 20 years or if that meal they didn't quite get because of all the snacking is going to create some sort of "issue" in life later for them. The facts are that we don't have the big picture yet...only God knows and so since it's not up to us, we do the best we can and trust Him for the rest.

So here are some pics from our day, some taken be each of us, including the kids....as I'm sure you'll be able to tell!

Here's another funny...Alison and I were taking pictures of my belly last night when she proclaimed "Mommie take a picture of my belly too!"

Fall happenings...

I just got back from a great weekend of scrapbooking at Wallowa Lake. I enjoyed being away and getting to catch-up on some albums, but I REALLY missed my family! John with the help of some friends, did a great job of taking care of things at home while also working, however, I don't think he'd appreciate it if I left for that long again anytime soon. I went up to the retreat with my mom for a little mom and me time...my brother and dad decided that they needed father son time, so the four of us rode up to Wallowa together and they camped down the rode while we scrapped....it was very odd to be on a "family" trip with just the four of us. I think the last time we did something like that Aaron and I were still in high school! I have to say that I had fun with my fam, but I really missed "my" little family. Just makes me all the more thankful!

After I returned home, it was business as usual...school, laundry, dishes, shopping...ect. It's been very cold lately and my garden has been ruined my the freezing temperatures...very sad for me because things have been coming in so late. I still had several tomato plants full of large green tomatoes and pepper plants that were just getting ready to produce. I decided that today the kids and I would at least go down and pick our pumpkins and gourds to keep them from getting ruined. They had lots of fun and Jeremiah even started singing a silly song he was making-up as he went about Halloween. They are being stored in the garage for now...

Here's another video of Hosann...she throws a classic "Hosanna-temper-tantrum"!

Transition...

is hard to do. We are adjusting to life w/o Daddy all day and most of the evening. John switched to graveyard shift this month and so far it's been kind of rough. Not only rough on the family, but rough on him. Our bodies are just not made for being awake at night and sleeping in the day. He is a trooper though and I'm sure he will manage.


On other exciting news, I finally got some video clips of Hosanna walking! Enjoy!

Also, last week, Alison and Hosanna went to school with Jeremiah and I. Alison was in HEAVEN!! Hosanna did pretty well and received lots of attention from the other little girls. I was very impressed with how well Alison actually did...she paid attention and also did the project very well.

Expanding the territory...

So I last blogged that Hosanna was walking....well....now she's officially climbing! Who knew she would achieve so many milestones so quickly! Tonight we were at Grammy's aka my Grandma's(Yvonne) and she was all over the place and then all of a sudden it was like she looked at the ottoman and said "Hey, I think I can climb on that" and she did! Once she got on it she giggled and got down and played like it was no big deal. It was so fun to see her chase Sophie, the little pug around, fearlessly of course. Jeremiah and Alison are still worried that Sophie is going to attack them like a man-eating dog...when they are three or four times her size. Kids are funny.

They do love playing with Vern though....no, Grammy doesn't have a man....it's her life-sized teddy bear that Jeremiah has been playing with since he was Hosanna's age....so precious.