Visit to Grammie and Papaw's

A couple of weekends ago we made a quick trip up to Clover SC to visit Grammie and Papaw and see their new home.  We left after Kevin got home from work so we didn't arrive until around 7:30pm.  Of course the kids wanted a snack when we arrived and Grammie found something they would like...

After checking out the new arrangements the kids settled in for bed.  The next day was a little chilly but it didn't stop the kids from checking out Papaw's new barn.

Well they at least checked out how well it could be used as a track.  The kids enjoyed some time outside riding their big wheels.  I think Leah scared Papaw with her fearlessness and reckless abandon personality.

Chase LOVES climbing trees so Papaw made the climbing a little more possible/interesting. 

 Meanwhile Henley hung out with Grammie for some playtime. 

After some good brisk fresh air Papaw patiently taught the kids how to play checkers. 

 We loved Grammie and Papaws new house and were very comfortable with the arrangements/set up.  Thanks for letting us come up for a short stay, we had a ton of fun!

Henley 7 Months!

Seven months have gone by so fast!  I know I say that every month but it is true every month how quickly the time goes by.  Our sweet little Henley is not so little anymore.

She is still our little ball of joy.  All you have to do is look at her, talk to her, or smile at her and her face lights up with smile.  Henley had another trip to the doctors office for another ear infection and another round of antibiotics.  This time the antibiotics did not completely get the infection so she had to go back in and is now on a stronger antibiotic.  We believe that she is cutting her top teeth which may be contributing to the runny nose and possibly the repeated ear infections.  The ear pain and the potential tooth pain is causing some night time waking but she usually settles herself back to sleep within a minute or so.  Since we had more trips to the doctor we know that she weighs 16lbs 2 ozs. Big girl!  With our photo shoot, the big kids were itching to get their picture taken too...

This month Henley's bottom teeth have completely come through. She is an eating machine but has decided that she doesn't care that much for baby food.  She will eat it but it isn't always that pleasant. Since she prefers to feed herself we are looking for whatever food we can find that she can pick up and eat.  So far she likes meatloaf, broccoli, cheese, grilled cheese, waffles, cereal bars, all the gerber finger foods (puffs, lil crunchies, and cookies), baby mum mum's, and teething biscuits.  She didn't care for plain mashed potatoes (I can't blame her, they were a little bland plain) and the noodles from some chicken noodle soup and from some spaghetti I made.  She certainly does show preference to certain foods which means we might have our hands full with a picky eater.  For now we keep trying the foods she doesn't care for and keep trying to find foods she can pick up and eat herself.

She still LOVES her brother and sister and they Love her in return.  Chase and Leah are super helpful and enjoy playing with Henley.

Henley also continues to get to whatever she wants. This month she has started to actually crawl but it is a very cautious crawl.  I am afraid in a couple of weeks she is going to be into everything.  I am not sure I am ready for that yet.  I am thankful for each day with this sweet little girl!  We love you Henley!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope everyone had a good time either gathering or giving out lots of candy last night!  We have had a fun time all fall leading up to halloween.  The kids went to the pumpkin patch and picked out their "prized" pumpkin.  I tried to get a picture of all three kids and failed miserably.

That is about as good as it gets.  I really need to take a photography class, not that it will help my children look at me and smile but maybe it will teach me the settings I should be using on my camera to help better capture the moments.  Ok, sorry for the tangent...

After we had our "prized" pumpkin, we needed to turn it into a jack-o-lantern.  Luckily our sweet friends Nichole, Perry, and Tate invited us over for a pumpkin party.  The "goo" is the best part...

This is the face that the kids helped create and Daddy carved....

The main event was painting the pumpkins...

That's our buddy Tate next to Chase...

And Henley hung out and watched....

Last Sunday our friends invited us to go Trunk or treating at their church.  The kids loved dressing up and playing games and of course getting more candy...

As you see she have a spider girl and a wolverine and we can't forget about Henley...

The Cutest flower I have ever seen!!!

Again an attempt of a group shot, not too bad but still need lots of help! Both kids had parties at school on friday which I forgot to bring my camera to but they had lots of fun sharing treats with friends and playing games.  Their main event was trick or treating at the nursing home that is next door to their school.  The residents of Anderson Place really enjoyed getting to see the kids in their costumes and of course the kids loved getting MORE candy.

Halloween night Kevin and I hosted our 2nd annual trick or treat bash.  Everyone came over for soup and snacks and when the sun went down the kids headed out to trick or treat.

We had potato soup, vegetable soup, and a chicken and wild rice stew. YUM!

We also had ghost pretzels and candy, and candy pumpkins and of course pumpkin roll.

We had a wonderful time with friends and have more candy than any one person should ever eat. I would say the night was a success!  Happy Halloween!

Sky Top Orchard

We have been so busy lately that we felt we were lacking in fun family time so last weekend we took a little drive up to the mountains for a little apple picking. 

The kids were so excited to be out as a family they even let us get a decent family picture.

Being the first nice Saturday in a couple of weeks, the orchard was very busy and with it being our first time there we were a little overwhelmed.  Once we got our baskets we were on our way to find some apples…

The view of the orchard and the mountains with the fall colors was beautiful...

Once we found some trees with applies to pick we found a couple of monkeys to climb up and get the good ones for us.

Chase could have stayed all day long just to climb trees and now I think apple picking is his favorite thing to do just for that reason.  After we got a good bucket of applies we headed back up to the play area they had for kids. 

Henley hung out a little in the stroller...

Since they were so busy we sent one person to wait in line to get us some fresh pumpkin doughnuts and apple cider to enjoy before we headed home.  The wait was a good hour but they were some yummy doughnuts.  Sorry, I don't have a picture.  They disappeared too fast.  We had a great time, enjoyed the fresh air and just spending time together.  

Now that we have experienced sky top and apple picking we can't wait until next fall to go back again!