Life Around Here...

The fall colors around here this year are truly amazing...I've never seen colors so vivid.  I see this tree on the drive to Sam's school every morning and just love the color of it.  We have been enjoying the fall colors as much as we can around here.  And all of the fun things that come with fall...

I took the girls on a little nature walk the other day (okay, so I was much more interested than they were on that particular day...I had to drag them on the walk:) and we found this praying mantis on the path...pretty fun!  Emmeline had to get a very close look at it.

The kids have been all about monkey bars lately.  Hanging and swinging as much as they can.

Sam has been working on getting across these monkey bars at his school playground.  He gets out quite early in the afternoon, so we usually head there to play for a bit.  So far he's made it about 3/4 of the way across...it's fun to watch his progress.

The girls love to play on the swings while Sam conquers the monkey bars.

But the theme has definitely been all about climbing around here.  The other day, I went inside to get a drink and came out to find the girls on top of this little playset:)

It's cute to see them holding hands.  It always amazes me that they can be fighting one minute and walking like this the next.  I love when they ask each other to hold hands:)

Last weekend we went on a family hike to enjoy the great weather and the fall colors.  Everyone did great!

Then we had a rare family lunch at a restaurant...a very rare outing for us since keeping 3 little ones entertained in a restaurant is quite a job!  But we made it and got a few hugs in the process:)

Here is Mollie figuring out how to come down these bars by herself.  Everything is "I want to do it BY MYSELF!"   And I have to give her credit, she usually figures out how to do about 90% of the things by herself too.  She always wants to be able to do what Sam is doing, so that is good motivation.

The kids enjoyed climbing around on these rocks at the park one day.  Climbing is good!

Sam has been enjoying the use of our old camera.  We've had that camera for about 9 years, and decided it was time for a new one before Ed and I head out on a little 10 year anniversary trip soon (yippee!!!!).  It's been fun watching Sam learn to use it and to see what he likes taking pictures of.  He has really been enjoying the video option and it's fun to see what he captures and how he narrates:)

I caught this shot of Sam jumping down a big slide at the pumpkin farm last weekend.  Fun!

Last weekend we had a big bon fire and burned some brush piles that were accumulating from our efforts to clear out some spots in the wooded areas we have.  The kids ate marshmallows while watching the fire instead of roasting them because the fire was so hot!

We walk past this painting on the way into Sam's classroom every day.  The kids like standing by the little people that are the same height as them.

And the girls wanted me to paint their toenails for the first time.  They've seen my friend Shellie with her "pretty" toes when she watches them and wanted toes like Shellie (obviously mom does not have pretty toes very often:).  It was fun to see their excitement and to watch them show so many people their pretty toes!

I think the girls are about ready to transition out of their cribs...we just didn't want to tackle that before we leave for our trip.  They can both climb in and out, but are pretty good about staying in their for naps and bedtime.  They both like their beds, so that is a good thing.

Last night, for the first time, Mollie walked into our room at 4:30 am:)  Luckily she just wanted a hug and willingly went back to bed (climbing back in by herself of course:).  Unfortunately I still don't get many full nights of sleep.  Someone is usually up at least once during the night for one reason or another.

But so it goes.  Life around here is busy, busy, busy.  These 3 are growing and changing by leaps and bounds each day.  And even though trying to keep up with them is tiring and at times frustrating, I wouldn't change it for anything.  I love these 3 sanity stealers more than I can put into words:)