Baby Blues and Giggles

I love these pictures of Z's blue-blue-BLUE eyes (you will have to click on the pictures to really see those Baby Blues)...as well as the ones where his smile nearly reaches to the back of his head. He is such a happy little guy. During his bath last night in the BIG tub he discovered he could kick his legs and hear a neat sound---Splash!!! Once he figured out he was the maker of that interesting sound, he had a good time trying to figure out the best way to kick for the loudest splash.

This is a fun time: watching Z discover and try new things, seeing him realize his world and that he can grasp at it himself. Just last weekend he was under his baby gym moving his arms all around and looking at the different animals hanging over his head. After his arm kept hitting the little bird, Z realized he could control his arm movement and would then grasp the bird, pull on it, and push it so it would swing back and forth. Milepost markers for Z: splashing and grasping!!!! Priceless!

















E loves to play with z. He and Z will be good buddies. The picture with the orange hat (thank you Miss Suzy and Miss Leigh) was taken after our walk last night. Z and I had to come home earlier than the rest of the family----brrrrrrrrr!!!!

Step By Step

Here are the kids singing some songs. D-D's, of course, is one she made up herself!! :)

And, if you are able to download these videos, you will hear the kids "change" some of the words to the songs. Though they are not all the CORRECT words we sing, they are the words the kids THINK we sing. :)

Oh, Christmas Tree

The kids helped decorate the Christmas tree yesterday. They each have a box that holds their ornaments. All of the kids had so much fun pulling out and remembering their ornaments---I had fun watching them. M-G, of course, has a few more than the other children---but she has been alive a bit longer. We will have to find an ornament for Z this year---he does not have one yet.

The kids had a blast and, amazingly, only one ornament broke---fortunately it was one of mine and not one that any of the kids treasure. We decided after the breaking of that ornament that there would be no more glass balls or other fragile ornaments to go on the tree---this means that many of my ornaments are staying packed away. Maybe next year we will put the tree in the office area where there is carpet and it will not matter if an ornament tumbles off of the tree or not.

Hope you are all having a wonderful time getting ready for the Christmas holiday!

Beautiful Autumn

We are having a beautiful autumn, riot with colors and crisp mornings and evenings. With the little amount of rain we had, I was afraid we would just see brown leaves only. However, our neighborhood is a blessing to our senses!!! The colors, the peacefulness I feel upon entering the neighborhood, the piles of leaves on the sides of our yards, the vibrant colors all around us, the smell of fall, the sounds of children playing, the sounds of the red or yellow or orange or purple (and some brown, too) leaves crunching beneath our feet, the feel of the air...glorious!!!!

The kids played outside most of Saturday afternoon. While we were out, we discovered one of our trees all yellow---a most bright yellow!!! WOW!!! Here are some photos of the children as they played in the trees and in its leaves on the ground.

D-D believes that the leaves from this tree are golden butterfly wings and wants to collect some every day.

Laughing

Here are some videos of the kids laughing. If you have a slow connection, you may want to wait until you can get somewhere that you can use a faster connection...esp. for the second clip. The second clip is much longer. Our fun new toy allows us to record WITH SOUND!!!! A very exciting "plus."

New Toy

We got a new toy this weekend...a brand new digital camera!!!! We have enjoyed taking pictures of everyone and everything. The quality of the pictures are much better and we are excited about them. Here are some pictures of this weekend.

Z rolling over

Trying to get D-D to smile---
we obviously made her cry at first!

November 10th, huh?

This past Saturday, Dana looked at the calendar. After looking at it and seeing what the date was, he turned to E and said, "Do you know what today is?"

"What?!!?!!?!!" E asked all excited.

"Today is November the 10th, the day little boys learn to ride their bicycles without training wheels!!!!!!"

E swallowed and said, "November 10th, huh?"

"Yes," Dana replied. "Let's go!!!"

Though E was a little scared at first and cried when they first started around the block, he did really well. Within 10 minutes he was riding his bike and has not wanted to stop for food or drink or bathroom or sleep.

He still cannot start on his own and when he wants to stop, he rides up into our driveway and then into the grass and falls to the ground. A good, soft, and well planned crash.

Here he comes...there he goes....and he's gone!!!

Friends

It is really hard to believe that we have been in this new town for almost 6 months. We are making some good friends here, but are still missing the friends back "home." Here are some pictures of our friends with the kids taken this past October when we made a trek "home" for a family reunion. Though most of that weekend was spent with our family, we did find some time to hang out with our other dear friends. Some of these pictures are from before we moved, too.