Fall Cleanup with the kids

Fall fun outside is a work/play time we take each fall.  The kids love it more than any other cleanup time probably due to the leaves falling.  We still have 1/2-full leaves on the trees so we'll probably have a few more clean ups...

ps. you may wonder why we are filling a pair of pants with leaves...that would be our annual pumpkin man.  Picture coming soon, he sits on the bench each fall in front of our door.  Its kinda funny, sometimes we see it through the window and it kinda startles us. One morning it alarmed Steve as he came out to go to work.  haha.

Wave of Light

Taking a moment today to think about my babies in Heaven, my babies that did not make it through pregnancy and all the other families, that have had the same struggles.  My prayers and support are yours...

Tony Update

Tony is now 4 years old.  A very imaginative child and a very smart child.  We have started preschool and he is doing amazing at it.  He is the type of child that can sit and make his people talk and he can entertain himself for hours.  He is very funny, some of the things he says leaves me in stitches.

So recently after seeing a commercial for eye makeup he looks over and says,

"grills (girls) are gwoss (gross)"

I tell him that I'm a girl, and you love Mommy.

"well I love you Mommy and Carolyn and my grills, but other grills are gwoss!"

So then I ask him for a kiss and then Steve says "hey bud, where's mine?" and he says, "oh, no I can't kiss you, I can only kiss grills. haha.

Tony and Gwena have a great friendship.  Now that Gwena is getting older Tony is very excited she crawls after him, he shares with her, and they are starting to play together.

Right now we are working on perfecting coloring, cutting and paste.  We are doing flashcards and learning to recognize the letters and numbers.  We are on the letter E and the number 5.  We practice drawing slants and straight lines and cirlcles and tracing dotted lines and so forth.  We will begin actual writing the letters after Christmas, but working on the coordination of hand first.  He gets 2-5 pages a day of things like matching, letters, sounds, coloring or tracing, circling the right letter or number and so forth.

Kids update

So over the next while depending on my time I'm going to do a kid update, as I'm catching up on their scrap books and it will give me an entry point of where I started.  So first is....

Bathroom

To keep the unity and because I didn't like the bathroom he way we had repainted it in a clay color we also repainted the bathroom the sage color, same as the kids bedrooms

Boys Room

Before

Big Girls Room

Clutter Alert...Teenagers and thier wall hangings...ummm...they have went a bit crazy.  hehe.

Dried Sage is the color

Before Pic

Little Girls Room

So finished rooms.  This is little girls room.  The pictures, aren't great on color.  The color they actually are, are the dried sage in sample pictured.  First Pic is before pic.

Before Picture

Dried Sage is he color, first color on left

Remember October

If you could all remember in your prayers the families that have been effected by infant and pregnancy loss.  The numbers are large, the prayers are needed, the hearts are forever broken.  One never gets over a loss of their child.  Many cannot understand the heartbreak.  Many can't fathom the pain, but many have no choice.  We know our babes are innocent and with God, but we yearn for just one more moment with our child.  

We struggle every holiday
We struggle every birthday and feast day (day our baby died)
We struggle when people forget them
We struggle when someone asks how many children do we have and if we actually tell them 
We struggle with *that* look we get.
We struggle with other peoples miracles
We struggle with our own miracles
We struggle...and we pray...and we shed tears...and we will never again know a world that does not consist of loss.  Remember each following pregnancy we worry, each pregnancy is filled with anxiety and we often times worry about our children a little too much.

When I try to find a way to explain it in a way for someone to understand the thought of a terrible tragedy occurring ones life.  Lets say a terrible unexpected tragedy occurs which leaves a person injured in some way for life.  After time the pain dulls but its still there.  We learn to live with pain.  We have flareups, and we have times where we just live with it.  But never are we over it.  Never is the pain healed.  We just learn to live with it.

You know you have a large family when...

its your turn to take a nice quiet bath and there is no hot water!

Gwena's First Step

Gwena took her first step by herself today!  It was only one step but Yeah!  She could actually do it, but she is chicken. haha.  She stands, dances, rocks, sways, climbs...you name it.  She is so cute, I'll post a video when I get it.
Below is a video of her figuring out how to get into the entry/dining area.

What a difference a year makes...

So here is last years collage and this year collage, you can see how much they have grown:

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch and unfortunately it was unseasonably warm!  We didn't have quite as much fun partially because it was such a hot day, but as always you make the best, with what you have and we found some fun.

Welcome Fall

ok, well I would say this would be what I would say the most beautiful place on earth.  Mountains in the back, trees by the water, big white farmhouse with a porch.

This is my favorite time of year, cool weather, all the colors, pumpkins cooking, time outside, a little fire with warm tea or hot chocolate.  So much to do.  

Hung up the paintbrushes after we finished the kids rooms, now time for some baking and just enjoying the world around us.  Costume plans in the works as the kids have chosen their Saints.  Next week fall/winter clothes come out and summer clothes get put a way.  Not too fond of the coat and boots coming out but oh...well its part of life.  

Rosie and Joe's birthdays around the corner, leaves filled the year with little ones running in them.  It just makes for some wonderful times, wonderful memories.  Fall is heavenly.  :)