Ten Months

Whoa?! Ten months old last weekend! This guy is keeping us on our toes. He is into everything. Open the fridge, he climbs in. Open the dishwasher, he climbs in. 

At 10 months, Miles is quite the little mover. He's quick and has started walking along furniture and pushing toys (or end tables) across the room. He loves the Christmas tree and pointing at the decorations throughout the house. Although he has been saying "Mama" for a while now, he's added a few more words/expressions - most notably "Da" for dad, "bye bye," and consistently a phrase that sounds a lot like "Got it!". 

Got it!

A Very Festive Week

I don't think we could have fit anything else into the past week. We started off the holiday season last Sunday evening with our annual trip to the North Pole on the Polar Express (out of Monticello, IL) with the Flotts. It's always a fun trip and we added Grandma and Bapa to our crew this year! 

Feeling shy around Santa

Next up...Thanksgiving! We made it to Hollowayville in time for Rip's chicken for dinner Wednesday evening and stayed through lunch on Thanksgiving day. We then took a well timed car ride (nap time for the kids) to Dwight for dinner with the Flott family. The kids loved getting to play with all their cousins and we definitely didn't go to sleep hungry! 

Golden side cousins

They decided to trade clothes :)

Winding Down..

The day after Thanksgiving we dedicated to getting our house ready for Christmas. We made a quick trip to Bloomington to pick up a tree (and Erik's coveted Bourbon County Stout that was only available in very limited quantities) and then we came home to decorate and prepare for our 5th Annual Baking Day! Saturday was filled with cookies, cookies, and more cookies! 

Finally, Sunday morning we capped our festivities off with a breakfast with the Rudolphs and Flotts. We even managed to make some homemade ornaments with the kids. 

The countdown to Christmas is on! 

9 Months

Not to be left out of all this celebrating this week, Miles turned nine months old today. In the past month, he has started crawling. And climbing. And getting into just about everything. We thought our house was baby-proofed---Elsa never got into things. It is apparently not Miles-Proofed. We have some work to do!

Waited his whole life for a Cubs' World Series...

1st Halloween - Sebastian the Crab

Cousin Fun!

Getting so big, so fast!

Three

In the midst of this World Series craziness, our sweet baby girl turned three years old. It's hard not to get a bit sappy when I think about how much she's grown, how much we've grown, and how much love and joy she brings to our lives.

Elsa has an independent spirit. She plays hard. She's so very bright. Recently, I've been noticing how observant she has become. She recognizes peoples' facial expressions and reads their emotions better than some adults I know. She notices things as we drive in the car...the moon is behind the clouds tonight, that cloud looks like a dog, I see grandma and grandpa's house...

She can be downright demanding. She is the pickiest of eaters. She is not a morning person. But, she wants to snuggle. And is so happy with a bowl full of fruit. And loves to read stories. She's into mermaids and princesses. Playing dress-up is a daily event. We go from pirates to Dora to horsies in a matter of minutes. Elsa loves to dance in the rain,  splash in puddles, paint pictures, and build forts. She loves her dollies, being chased, swimming, and playing hide and go seek. She sings songs, likes to help cleaning, and loves to play with her cousins. 

She loves being a big sister (most of the time). She is always looking out for Miles and tries to take care of him. She does not like that he has started to take her toys, but she has a semi-sweet way of getting him something else to play with and taking her toys back. She just looks at you and says, "I'm teaching Miles how to share."

I could go on and on, but instead I'll share some of the Elsa's own words, because, she says the best things. 

7/9/16 - Elsa has peanut butter all over her face (because all sandwiches must be open face). She gives Miles a kiss and says, "That was a peanut butter jelly kiss!"

9/21/16 - Elsa pretending to be on the phone, "I can't get a signal, I will try again later."

10/9/16 - "I want to be naked in church." 

10/18/16 - After Greta announced she was going to be Elsa (from Frozen) for Halloween, I asked Elsa to tell everyone who she was going to be. Elsa: "Greta."

10/31/16 - Giving Elsa a piece of Halloween candy: "It's called a Kit-Kat."

                  Elsa: "Does it meow?"

Happy 3rd Birthday sweet girl. We love you more than words could ever show. Thank you for making us smile and laugh each and every day!

A Tale of Two Pumpkin Patches

In attempts to wear our kids out during the weekend so they fall asleep early so we can watch the Cubs make memories, we've been getting outside a lot to enjoy this beautiful fall weather! Of course that means a trip to the pumpkin patch! Over Columbus Day weekend we made our first trip to Rader Farms outside of Bloomington. It has just about everything you would want in a pumpkin patch - tons of activities, yummy fresh donuts and cider, and not too far from home. It also had insanely long lines. For everything. Even though it was very crowded, we had a fun couple of hours -- and agreed we'd never come back on a weekend! 

Cubs hat in hand, ready to go!

Elsa loved the little play houses and stores!

Time to Jump!

Fell asleep waiting in line for a snack...time to head home!

Feeling like we didn't quite get enough pumpkin patch fun, we decided to visit Jones' outside Pontiac. It might be the exact opposite of Rader's....not quite as professional, not very polished, and most importantly - absolutely no lines. Elsa wanted nothing to do with taking a hayrack ride to pick a pumpkin, but we still had fun playing in the other areas! 

Hanging out in the woods!

Re-enacting the Story of the 3 Little Pigs

All I want is to eat the corn!

My Pumpkins!