3 months old and 1st bottle

Today we are celebrating Cohen's 3 month birthday! He is so special to us! He seriously is such a good baby and has quickly won over my heart and is my little buddy! We are so thankful for his calm demeanor and what a special addition he is to our family. The girls love him to pieces...Adelyn is such a good helper especially in the car, but also with bath time. Elsie "loves hard" as she gives lots of powerful kisses and I love it when she says things like "it's okay Bud!" and "I just love those little toes."

What our little guy is up to...
He sleeps through the night (most nights), goes crazy in his big boy baths, loves getting his bum changed and feeling the breeze, gives big smiles and today he had his first bottle. We're working hard at getting giggles...nothing but painful groans as he's trying so hard to get a laugh out.



photos by Addie

Halloween 2009

We've had some fun celebrating Halloween this year. We went to Freightmares a couples times, Adelyn had her Preschool Halloween parade, we had the Ekins over for the "Dinner in a Pumpkin," and then on Halloween day we carved our pumpkins and went to a Trunk-or-Treat over at Dicks Market with the Merrill cousins and then went Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood. Adelyn dressed up as Ariel, Elsie was Dorothy, and Cohen was a skeleton!.

Halloween Night!

Dorothy and Toto




The girls were having so much fun running from house to house saying "Trick-or-Treat" and "Happy Halloween"

Our neighborhood is a workout with all of the stairs!

This house was decorated pretty spooky and I loved what Elsie said after getting her candy..."He's not scary...He's pretty normal"...after meeting the man who lived in such a scary place.

Trick-or-treating blindfolded...you try it!

CANDY!!!

Cohen getting in on the action...trying candy through osmosis

The girls made off with a whopping 8 pounds of candy!



Dicks Market Trunk-or-Treat with our cousins
Notice Adelyn's red hair...we sprayed it with this wash out hairspray...it left red wherever we went!

Elsie fell asleep as we were pulling in



Elsie got separated from us for a minute and was holding back the tears

At the end of the line there was free chili, cornbread and drinks




The Ekins came over for the traditional "Dinner in a Pumpkin," and root bear cauldron.



Everett and Cohen...1 week apart cousins....don't you love Rett's bat costume:)

Snow White, Ariel, and Dorothy did a practice trick-or-treating to show off their costumes...don't you love what Elsie's holding in both hands

Adelyn's gel stained teeth...I had the girls decorate these eyeballs for dessert...didn't know what a mess they would be to eat:)

skeleton mask $2, dorothy wig $6...Andrea dressed in both...priceless


Adelyn's Preschool Halloween Parade...I was so proud of Adelyn because she was actually one of those kids that knew all the words and actions to the songs they sang...Adelyn LOVE'S going to school so I shouldn't have been surprised.




Last week at Freightmares the girls just ran onto all of the rides..it was a bit chilly, but the kid rides were empty and so we just ran onto all the rides.
"Puff"...for like the 5th time!




Adelyn feeling the big bad Wolf's hair


Dippin' dots

Fresh APPLE juice anyone!?

Last Saturday I took the girls out to my Grandparents house to help make Apple Cider. It was so much fun! My Aunt Diane, cousins Mattie and Melissa and my Grandparents all helped to clean, chop, churn, strain and drink the yummy fresh juice. I have a vivid memory of doing that with my Great Grandpa Aposhian when I was just tiny and I was hoping for the same for my girls just being there and being with their Great Grandparents! Adelyn and Elsie helped to drop the apples into the wash basin and then they helped to eat fresh apples and then just played around in the yard. Cohen hung out with me in the backpack. I hope we can do this again next year!
Washing the apples

Cutting out the bad parts of the apples

Mattie liked to try and get the perfect star when cutting off the bottom

The old Cider Press that my Grandpa just restored

Happy girls

Chopping up the apples and pressing out the juice

The pile of scraps after the juice has been pressed out...which of course still has use in my Grandpa's Garden

Straining the juice before pouring it into the containers...Diane had a nice sticky arm!

The final product...yummy 100% Apple juice!

Fall Family Video

We went up to Meuller Park on Sunday which we haven't done in a while since we always get scared away by the $8 entrance fee...but we went all the way in this time and had fun playing in all of the beautiful fall leaves and enjoying the warm day! Tom was testing out a camera that he needed to become familiar with for work and was just so excited with the great video quality that he was able to get. Adelyn and Elsie had fun collecting leaves and Cohen was just happy to be there...even if he was smunched in a backpack:) Enjoy the video...I'm so glad to have these precious moments recorded...thanks Tom!

Check out Tom's latest video of our family by going here http://vimeo.com/7143105
Press play and then pause it to let the video download completely and then watch it!