Elizabeth's Fall Festival and Babysitting

Today we had a very busy day with Cooper and Jackson. I babysat the boys while Jessica was at a training for work. Jackson was so easy, the boys were definitely the most work! :) Elizabeth loves to hold Jackson, feed him, and make him smile. She's getting very good at it!
Ben also loves to hold Jackson too. The boys were watching a show before nap and Ben wanted Jackson to watch, too.

Elizabeth is doing a great job making Jackson smile so big!

BIG NEWS! Elizabeth lost another tooth! The first one she lost hasn't come in yet so she has a huge gap in front. So cute!

On Thursday Elizabeth had a fall festival at school. The kids wore their Halloween costumes and got to play games. The parents were invited to attend so Jessica was nice enough to babysit Ben for me so I could go.

I thought this was a great idea. We are doing this next year.

Obstacle course.

Here is her class. It was funny because all the girls (minus one) were some form of a princess or fairy and the majority of the boys were things I had no idea what they even were...storm troupers and things like that. I'm so out of it in the boy department. I need to catch up!

Elizabeth with 2 of the girls in her class that she talks about.

I was very glad I was able to be at the festival with her. I liked seeing her with her friends. You never really know how the school day goes, if she talks to any of the kids, etc... It was good to see everything in action!
Have a Happy Halloween tomorrow, everyone!

Busy Week and Weekend

So this past week/weekend we had a few different activities to go to, and I haven't blogged in a while, so be prepared. This is going to be a long post! Jessica had the kids over for a Halloween party last week. She had the house decorated so cute, a few activities for the kids to do, and our traditional Halloween meal. Here the kids are busy running through the streamers in the entry way.

We tried long and hard to get pictures of the kids together. Tomorrow we are headed to get professional pictures of our kids in their costumes. We're going to need lots of luck - they are so bad about looking at the camera!

My kids love holding Jackson so I got a picture of both of them with him.

The kids were playing this game Jessica had and all the sudden Cooper started holding the cards with his toes. Monkey see monkey do - Ben started doing the same thing.

Enjoying the Halloween meal (see Jackson peeking over the couch?)

On Saturday our old neighborhood had their annual Halloween party.

See our vampires?

They had a little petting zoo. Only my brave boy would venture inside. (what kid doesn't like a petting zoo? Elizabeth I guess! :)

On Sunday we had Jackson's baptism. I got hardly any pictures because I was taking a child to the bathroom during the beginning of the photo shoot and then was in a few and couldn't talk anyone into using my camera. Good thing Jessica is good about snapfishing her pictures. I am lucky enough to be the Godmother to this beautiful boy.

My dad and Jackson.

After the baptism we headed to a local park that was having a haunted playground party. My kids look really enthused about having their picture taken - huh?

Elizabeth is watching this cool toy that whenever you talked it distorted your voice and repeated you. We stayed there for quite a few minutes playing with it.

We caught up with Drew and Josh after we made it through the playground and they all wanted a turn on the tire swing.

Ben playing a game. I had to add this picture because I loved the shirts of the kids behind us! I saw that idea in a Family Fun magazine. It's tie dyed shirts and you draw on the pumpkin face. So cute!
I had to add this last one (ignore me please) I kept asking Jackson how big he was and every single time I raised his arms he got that huge smile on his face! I just love that little guy!

Ben's Last Day of Gymnastics

He's running along the balance beam.

I signed up Ben for the mommy and me gymnastics class again on a day that Elizabeth had preschool. He's almost too old for the class, and it was very obvious by all the 18 month old kids - and then my 2 1/2 year old Ben. He was about a head taller than the kids and only one other child could talk more than just words. It was kind of funny - but he loves doing this class with me so I thought we'd switch him to a class by himself when he was 3. (We accidentally went to the Thursday class once - that's another story - and there were a ton of kids his age so I think we just lucked out to get in the class full of young kids.)
He loves everything about his gymnastics class.

This is his favorite - running as fast as he can to the spring board - and jumping up and down.

Practicing his forward roll.

See all the young kids?! I think the boy on the right is about to be 2 - he's the closest to Ben in age.

The beginning of class. He had a great session and we are looking forward to one more session (with our friend, Emily!) before the end of the year. He wishes he could do it every day!

They Broke Ground!

The kids and I went to our "land" to check if anything had been done on the house yet. We go pretty much every day because it's very close to where we live now. We were so excited to see they had leveled out the land and built the frame for the slab. The kids enjoyed taking a tour of their house. They are standing in their playroom in the above picture.
Here's our ground with the outline of the house.

Our first night in Halloween jammies. We haven't been able to really wear them because they are long sleeved and pants - it's too warm here for that right now.

Over the weekend we went to the zoo with our cousins, Drew and Josh. We didn't plan the boys - aren't they cute in their yellow shirts?

Chris and Tom got to come to the zoo with us. The kids had a great time with all of us being there.

Checking out the zebras. It was a great weekend!

Spider Problem

I really dislike spiders (my nice way of saying it) and we have a spider problem at our apartment. Yuck! Large spiders are found almost every day through out the apartment - and I know I could get them sprayed - but I don't want the kids around the pestisides...so we may just have to live with it.

But I really like this kind of spider.
So does Ben. He's really admiring himself!

Where is Elizabeth you ask? She refused to cooperate for a picture, so we just get spider Ben today. I wish this was the only spider in our place!

First Field Trip...Almost

So, as you can tell by the title, Elizabeth was going to have her first school field trip today. We were scheduled to go to the pumpkin patch but unfortunately, due to weather, it was cancelled. (It hadn't rained in 2 days so I thought we were all clear in the weather department.) The other unfortunate thing was the teacher emailed this piece of news sometime after 8 pm (that's when I last checked my email) to let everyone know. So, I woke up early this morning, got Elizabeth all dressed in her school shirt and pumpkin hair clips, and we headed over to Jessica's because she was babysitting Ben for me. After the 40 min. drive to her house (due to rush hour traffic) it took another 45 min. to drive back to her school. We get there by 9 (just barely), I unbuckle her huge car seat, drag it through the door, and was then told - oops -you didn't get the email??

So, we'll repeat this day next Thursday - weather permitting of course! :)

On Wednesday Jessica invited us over to play, along with Janet and Allison. Jackson was being so smiley!

We did a comparison of Amelia ( my SIL Victoria's little girl) and Jackson. Amelia is 5 weeks older than Jackson - I would say they are pretty comparable in size!We did the same thing when Ben and Cooper were born. Ben is on the left. Ben is 5 weeks old than Cooper - and again - very comparable in size! Jessica and Ryan make big babies!

Some of the big kids. Emily and Zach - the 2 kids under 2 - were a little too busy running around to pose for a photo.

Elizabeth and Josh with Amelia.

I caught Emily just hanging around. She smiles and plays all the time - next time I'm working on getting a smiling picture!

Thanks for having us to play, Jessica!

Weekend at the Pumpkin Patch

We met some friends at the pumpkin patch this weekend. Unfortunately I got NO PICTURES of anyone other than my kids, Cooper, and one picture of my friend Joanne's little girl. I don't know why I don't have any of anyone else!! We were too busy running around the pumpkin patch playing I guess!
This is darling, Jill, my friend Joanne's little girl.

Ben is trying to figure out which pumpkin to take home.

The best one of my two together. We need to work on this before Christmas! (I also don't know what's up with Elizabeth looking at me over her glasses. She does this all the time now! We went to get them adjusted today so I'm hoping that it helps!)

The tractor ride. Oh wait- there is another cousin in the background - I think Drew. I did get one of someone else :)

This was a great pumpkin patch with tons for the kids to do. We'll have to come back when the big hay ride is happening. Have a good week everyone!