Fall

It's my favorite time of year, and one of the best places to be for it! So I found this picture from our pumpkin picking last year and had to compare. I can hardly remember her being this small, but I do remember her stumbling around the pumpkin patch.

And here we have her running around this year. Yes, we're in a cemetery, but I swear I'm not morbid. Our house is on the other side of the trees you see in the background, so it's really close and it's flat, no cars, no other kids, the grass is mowed, it's just a great place to let her run and there's an amazing maple tree with beautiful leaves that I wanted to get some pictures of.
I love the bright colors with the blue sky and dark branches!

And here's some fun picks of the girls. Sydney's on the left and Cora's on the right.

Sydney's doing some serious leaf inspection.

Poor Cora is stuck and sucking her thumb.

It's amazing how wonderful everything is when you see it for the first time.

If I keep waiting to get pictures up then I won't be posting for another month. Here's a little recap. We took Jeremy to the ER on Labor Day. We'd gone to our church's picnic, had a blast visiting and playing with people, then the boys started a game of football. Jeremy was doing great, but the last play he was looking over his shoulder as he was running and stepped in a whole. Luckily, one of the guys there was an ortho doc and he told us to call if we needed help. At first Jeremy was just going to go home and ice it, but after we got home and started icing it, decided otherwise. We went to Dartmouth-Hitchcock's ED and the wait was 5 hours with a few more traumas arriving soon. So we called our friend and he took us into his clinic. After a few x-rays we found a tiny little hair-line fracture in the outside ankle bone. Jeremy got a boot out of the deal and was back at work the next day. We're so glad it didn't need to be casted, and he's been a real trouper still helping with the three kids as much as he can.

That Friday Jeremy was on-call and our church was having a mother-daughter/women's camp-out at a small lake East of Manchester. I haven't been camping for a while and have been wanting to take the girls all summer. I figured it'd either be crazy at home, or in the woods, so we chose the woods. I took me all day to pack enough stuff, but we did it. It was an hour and a half drive and the girls were great. I couldn't get a single picture taken because the entire time was spent somehow feeding or holding one of the three, but it was beautiful. We had a fireside overlooking the lake which had the sun going down behind it. There were other women there and several 10 year old girls just dying to hold the little ones or help with Katie. We were in a little Adirondack cabin. It had screen covered openings on all four sides and 8 bunk beds with little mattresses. I set the girls up in two pack and plays on the floor (they're like portable cribs). I knew it was going to be cold, so Katie was in two shirts, a coat, sweat pants, and winter jammies and completely buried in blankets. The girls were in long jammies, winter fuzzy jammies, and these snow suits that covered their heads, hands, feet, and everything else. They were so bundled up they were stuck in a little snow angel position. The stars were beautiful, I couldn't get enough of being in the forest, and I was so proud of us for doing it. We packed up the next morning and made it home in time for lunch.

This last week Katie had a short trip to the ER due to a playground crash. She bit the back of her tongue so hard it sliced through and there was a little flap. I felt a little silly about going in, but I wanted to make sure she wasn't going to have a forked tongue in the future. She did great and the doctor and nurses were fabulous. No repair needed, but as I was signing the discharge paper she fell on her face again and bit her lip and that started bleeding. I just picked her up and said we better go home and get you a Popsicle. The doctor just looked at me and said I was a very cool, calm, and collected mother. He was very impressed. The nurses wanted to know how I was smiling with three small children in tow (the twins were with us). They don't know I was smiling because I was so happy to converse with adults!

Those are the big happenings. I'm excited for Conference coming up. This will be the first one Jeremy will be home for in the last 2 years. I'm sure glad DirecTV lets us pick up BYUTV so we can watch it at home. To take this crew to the church to watch the broadcast would be a joke. Technology is amazing.

Fall is definitely here. The leaves are turning all kinds of reds, yellows, oranges, intermixed with the green pines. The air is crisp, we went apple picking Saturday, and the smell of apple cider was intoxicating. I feel like I need to buy school supplies (though I'm so glad I don't need to, just feeding everyone costs enough money). Pele gets super excited to go out and run in the cool air. I love being able to wear sweat shirts again. Katie likes the leaves that fall to the ground. I feel so blessed to live here and see these amazing colors! My mom's coming out in October and we're excited for that.

We've been trying out having the girls sleep in Katie's room at night again. Katie actually asks for it each night: "how bout I think the girls sleep with you tonight." Most nights it goes well, but some nights we have to go in and get her and all of her blankets and stuffed animals out of the girls' crib. She can climb out of hers and into theirs. It's so cute and at the same time you just want them all to sleep and not stay up and play or beat on each other. But I love it. Both Sydney and Cora love to follow Katie when they play. And Katie loves to include them, when she's not taking away their toys.

Life is good. There are still many a day I feel like I've lost my mind. I find some way to escape and bawl my eyes out for a bit, then I get it together and can do this again. Parenthood, particularly motherhood, is a marathon that does not end. There is no praise of man for making sure your kids get their vegetables in every day, everyone has clean clothes on, or getting the dishes done for the eighth time that day, but I've never been so tested, stretched, strengthened, guided, and blessed.

One Month Later...

Guess it's been a while since I've really done any updating, so here's the last month's photo review. Yes, the girls still sleep in the crib and it melts my heart when I catch moments like this.
Jeremy's sister, Lori, came out to see us for a week in August. At first I attempted to potty train Katie that week, and it only lasted a day. The temper-tantrum-twos convinced me it's OK to wait a little longer. So we spent the rest of Lori's time here out and about. This was a picture of our visit to a farm in the area that gives you free cheese and syrup samples. They also have animals for the kids to visit and Katie loved talking to the chickens.

I had to put this picture up to show we have record of her smiling as opposed to her currently preferred scowl.

It's sure nice to have so many people come visit us. I enjoy the long talks I get to have with everyone and it's nice to get out more with the girls. Lori and I had a blast, especially once we found a good ice cream place.

My dad would say to me sometimes growing up, "it's all who you know." Well that's true for us in this case. Jeremy's buddy helped us get seats to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park. We took the girls and Lori had Kate, then Jeremy and Lori went to another game the next night. Our little troopers did great for the whole nine innings.

Us and the Green Monster.

Aunt Lori only spoiled Katie a little. Katie sure enjoyed having her to play with so much.

We were able to spend a little bit of time with John before I took the girls back home.

These stinkers are 8 months old now. Sydney still army scoots when she wants to go fast, but she was the first to stand up on her own and has taken a few steps holding onto things. Cora's great at crawling and has been standing up a little now as well.

Katie picked this car up at a used lot in town. I told her she could drive it if she covered the insurance. She took us for a ride to several friends' houses that day.

We did a quick hike one of the evenings when it had started to cool down (no longer 90 degrees). Kate was a little devastated we weren't going to let her swim in the lake at the end of the hike. You just can't please everyone, can you?

We have a semi-more reliable way to tell the girls apart now since the nail polish comes off so easily. Cora always sucks her thumb and Sydney always sucks her two fingers. I love it because there is no need for a pacifier (one more thing I don't have to worry about losing or forgetting).

The corner between our two couches has been sweetly named "Pooh Corner," where all the toys reside when they're put away. I was doing something in the kitchen when I noticed how quiet it was. All three had crawled in there and were quite entertained.

It's not make-up, it's blue berries. We've picked them three times now and they are delicious! I figured I better share with the girls. If only it wouldn't become random spots of purple puke throughout the house.

The previous picture was Cora, this is Sydney.

Here's our Labor Day weekend hike somewhere in the White Mountains.

Nothing like goldfish to rejuvenate you.

The girls just can't get enough of Daddy being home.

I cut Katie's hair a week ago. We were driving back from picking berries and she brushed all her hair out of her eyes and said, "Now see!" I figured I had to do something. Jeremy read to her and she held pretty still. I need to get a better picture of it. It's even, but the bangs are super short. It looks good if I pull her hair back. For my first haircut, I'm proud of myself. Hopefully my skills get a little better as we all get older.