fall is here!

It finally FEELS like fall, with jeans and long sleeves and even a jacket needed in the morning! We are finally in the "routine" of school, (rarely the "do I have to go today?"). Alex walks right up to the door and walks right in to school without a glance back at all!

Meemom had a surprise party for her 50th birthday, thrown by Peepop Jerry. She was truly surprised! Peepop made a BIG cake!

This month has been VERY busy!!! We went to the pumpkin patch and did a corn maze (we were in there for 45 minutes - thank goodness for the "helper", standing tall on a pedestal with view of the entire thing to "help" if needed - or I'm not sure we ever would have made it out!).

 The pumpkins in the patch struggled a little because of the overabundance of rain that we've had but we still found a good one to bring home. We will be carving it sometime this week, probably tomorrow. Maya is getting so big and she loves when Alex holds her.

They had a cool hay-stack to climb and slide.

Also this month there was a Halloween party at Alex's school, Seven Generations. Alex is Ironman this year. They had a lot of fun games and activities, and even spooky boxes with "brains" (cold spaghetti) and "eyeballs" (peeled grapes) to put your hands into. This instantly reminded me of Lisa Gerken's halloween party that her mom used to put together!!!

Maya was a pumpkin!

 They had a game of "eat the donut off the string" - this reminded me of Leone Court Halloween block parties!

Later that day was the Emmaus Halloween parade. Keri and Meghan came over to watch and Alex's friend Joshua was in the parade.

Last but not least, we also went apple picking this past weekend. Jenna came along and Sarah came along with her niece, Kaylee. We had a great time! Here is one of my favorite shots:

All of this and it isn't even Halloween yet! Time is flying by.

It's been a whirlwind!

It's been such a whirlwind. I was just wondering where September went and then here is October, already almost over too. Maya will be five months old in two days, which is hard to imagine. She's growing in leaps and bounds! She's chatting away, giggling, and, to her brother's delight, is ticklish. She's rolling across the living room, chewing on things, and drooling all over.

Alex is loving kindergarten. He educated me on what the "main character of the story" is yesterday. (by the way, in case anyone is wondering, there can be more than one main character - he enthusiastically added). We had his first parent-teacher conference with Ms. Schroeder on Wednesday night where we set some goals for the year. One of his goals is to learn how to tie his shoes! Uh oh, that means new sneakers without velcro and at LEAST an extra ten minutes to get ready in the morning.

We are gearing up for Halloween and starting to talk about our trip that we are taking to Disney in December.

Alex (husband) started a new job and he has been loving it. He is going on the men's retreat this weekend so I am praying for many blessings for him that it is a great experience for him.

Coming soon: Halloween pictures!

And here is maya:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=879328746242

Alexs book.