A preview of what's to come...

Saturday night Noah had a Halloween party. And you know that once Noah got to put on his costume it wasn't fair for Mommy not to let EVERYONE try on their costumes. Luckily Mommy was anxious to see how cute they were all going to look and caved to their whining. I know what you're thinking, Raising brats... But look how cute...

Pumpkin Picking...

So last weekend we spent all day Sunday at Eckerts getting dirty and looking for the perfect pumpkin. The kids loved every minute of it. My brother and his wife (Jay and Megan) and their kids came along for the festivities.

Eckert's is great about giving ample opportunity to get a great photo. Out of the hundreds of photos I took this was the best. From Left: Camden, Rylan, Noah, Sofia, Connor and Colin.
Here's Rylan with his pumpkin. Daddy said he could only pick out a pumpkin that he could carry. Noah scooted around this rule by rolling his pumpkin to the wagon.
Here's a great photo of Sofia. She had a carefree day of riding in the stroller and being carried through the pumpkin patch. Not so carefree for Mommy who had just as much difficulty walking through the vines. But couldn't cry until someone carried her.

Soccer Mom

Noah started a fall soccer league about a month ago. He took to it like a pro. And looks like he has more experience than he really does. Here's a great shot of him chasing the ball.

A Day in the Country...

So one lovely fall morning we went as a a family out to Greenville, IL to tend to the deer stand. The kids loved running through the fields and exploring the woods. Here are a few of the better snapshots from our day in the country.

Fall Festival in Marble Hill Missouri

We spent the last weekend of September in Marble Hill, Missouri. Marble Hill's Fall Festival was celebrated that weekend, and we spent Saturday riding rides and driving tractors. Noah & Rylan both drove a John Deere pedal tractor in a tractor pull designed just for kids. Neither did well enough to place. But they both loved the experience.





The fall festival was full of various types of rides. Most of them being very kid friendly. Sofia's 1st and only ride consisted of these cars and trucks that drove slowly in a circle around the center post. Nothing scary about that right. Wrong! Check out Fia's face in the before and during photos.



Noah and Rylan rode several rides. Noah wanted to love the rides. But I think the repetitive motion was messing with his belly.


Claire and Rylan loved the swings.


Here is another cute pic of Ry. He was our little dare devil. He even rode the Scrambler with Mommy. And loved every minute of it. As he put it "I want to ride all the scary rides..."

Momm

Our First Broken Bone...

Okay, so technically this is our second broken bone. Rylan had the same injury at birth, but the second time around was more traumatic for everyone involved. He was tripped at the bowling alley and landed on his shoulder. Who knew that such a insignificant injury could break a bone. The ER doc assured us that it would be painful, but that the break would heal perfectly. And we would be back to normal in a couple of weeks. The first two weeks were rough, but he has regained full movement and life has returned to normal.


Here is a photo of Ry in his brace. The ER doc said "If the child and the collar bone are in the same room, they'll heal just fine", but he sent us home with this weird contraption anyway. Ry hated it. It would not stay on. And so we quickly abandoned it. I thought our pediatrician would fuss at me over the lack of a brace at our follow up appointment. But he agreed with the ER doc that it was pretty useless.