ready to go...

well, we're pretty much packed and ready to go! ethan reminded me this morning that we needed to "move the suitcase" to the next spot, and i happily moved it to the "1" on our "days till disney" countdown! and for the first time in a while, my bag was mostly packed a day early! i will attribute that to the fact that i am not having to gather up 1,000,000 items that fall under the category of baby paraphernalia. :) all you parents know exactly what i mean!! tonite, ethan said, again, "i stay with nana and pappy and gram!", and i clarified, "yes, tomorrow night, gram will come stay at our house"... and his reply was, "NO! i stay with gram toNIGHT!" so i think he's ready for some grandma spoilage, what do you think??

i had an adorable audio clip of the kids laughing today that i was planning on posting, but i can't get it to upload. and i need to get to bed. so remind me, and i'll share that when we get back if i can figure it out... and after i share all my pictures of disney world. did i tell you i'm going to disney world??????? tomorrow?!!?????? :) heehee!!!

have a great weekend. you know we will. at disney world. :)

a couple of YUM-O holiday recipes for you...

yes, i should be packing...for disney world. i'm getting to that... because we are leaving in TWO DAYS for disney world...but who's counting!? before i drop off the face of the blog world for a few days (did i tell you we are going to disney world?), i thought i'd share a couple of YUM-O recipes with you, as my sweet mother-in-law would say (who is imitating somebody off the food network, but since we have diet cable, i don't know who it is. rachael ray maybe?) anyway, back to the recipes.

the first is what is cooking right now as i type this... it's those yummy, a little on the spicy side, sausage balls. i only think of them during the holidays, but i'm not quite sure why. it seems like you could eat them all year long! (or at least all afternoon long, hypothetically, of course...) to be completely honest, i set out to buy these frozen because, well, i'm packing for disney world, but i could not find the right kind at publix, so i bit the bullet and called mom for the recipe. thanks, mom, for always rescuing me from my grocery store dilemmas! in the end, i made 109 balls for $10, and a box of 24 (with jalapenos) was $4.99! so i saved money and tried a new recipe... and here it is.

Spicy Cheesy Sausage Balls

1 lb. hot sausage
2 c. grated sharp Cheddar cheese
2 1/2 c. Bisquick (biscuit mix)

Allow cheese to come to room temperature.
Combine all ingredients (easier done by hand).
Shape into 1 inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
Serve immediately or may be frozen for future use.
Makes 40-50 balls.

if you are doubling this, i would use 1 lb. hot & 1 lb. mild sausage for people like me, who really want to eat 50 of these little boogers, but they're just a little too spicy!

this was my first time making these sausage balls, and they were pretty easy. because i am just that impatient, i managed to feed the kids lunch while i had my hands in a bowl of raw pork sausage... i could have waited 30 minutes until they were asleep, but where's the challenge in that? :) yes, lynsay, i did thoroughly wash my hands in between mixing the raw meat and interacting with my children and their food!! anyway, all that to say, they are easy to make, it just takes a little bit to get the bisquick, cheese, and sausage all mixed in. i doubled it and it made 109 balls before i ate some for lunch... so maybe 40 to 50 per batch is pretty accurate. :)

the second recipe is more of a thanksgiving/fall type recipe, but it is so good, i just might whip it up again in january. i first discovered this dream during a mops brunch (for which the above sausage balls have been made), and from the first bite, i knew this pumpkin cobbler was made for me. but i'll share it with you too. :) and no, i have not lost my mind for sharing a recipe with nuts. i usually avoid nuts at all costs, especially in desserts, but i actually like this better with the nuts. i made it 1/2 with and 1/2 without nuts for thankgiving, and the nuts add a good crunchiness... so never say never! i like something with nuts! but don't you go putting nuts in my christmas fudge, now ya hear me!?

pumpkin cobbler

3 eggs, beaten
15-oz. can pumpkin
12-oz. can evaporated milk
1 c. sugar
1/8 t. salt
1-1/2 t. cinnamon
1 t. ground ginger
1 T. vanilla extract
18- 1/4 oz. pkg. yellow cake mix
1- 1/4 sticks butter, melted
1 c. chopped nuts

Mix the first 8 ingredients together; pour into a greased 13"x9" baking pan.
Sprinkle cake mix over the top; drizzle with margarine.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes; top with nuts.
Bake for an additional 10 minutes.
Makes 15 to 18 servings. (or 2 if you're sharing it with me!)

what is your favorite quick holiday recipe? please share!

little maddie needs prayers again

remember sweet maddie that we prayed for a couple of months ago? boy has the last month been full of recovery for her! her family was readying themselves for her to be discharged from the hospital last week, and she suddenly became very critical again. she is back on machines for breathing that she was finally weaned from, and it looks like a heart transplant is now necessary for this 3 year old little girl. her parents ask for prayers that her lungs would heal so that the process for a heart transplant can begin. here is the email from her dad that i received this morning...

Monday November 26, 2007

11:00 AM
The ENT team is about to start a rigid bronchoscope to try and remove the casts in Maddie’s lungs by suction. The eminent risk for any procedure while on ECMO is bleeding. If the bronchoscope nicks her trachea, she could bleed and possibly be unable to stop. The hope is that they will encounter only a few casts and once removed, her lungs would inflate. The other possibility is that they would encounter massive amounts of casts to the depths of her bronchial tree. They would still attempt to remove these, but at a greater risk of bleeding.

12:10 PM
The bronchoscope was very productive. Unfortunately they found lots of casts. Fortunately they were able to get everything they saw without any significant bleeding. In a couple of days the doctor will come back and take another look to see if the casts have returned. In the meantime the RT will attempt to puff a little air into her lungs and see what happens.

There is a two part problem that needs a two part solution. Part one is to clean up her lungs presently to get her off of ECMO. Part two is to treat the underlying cause of the plastic bronchitis. If the underlying cause is her Fontan circuit, she may be looking at a heart transplant. I hope that is not the case.

10:45 PM
Since the day Madeline was diagnoses with HLHS we pretty much knew what her course would be. She has been a difficult case in every stage, but at least we had the hope of being "Done" for a while. We have always said, "Norwood, Glenn, Fontan, and then maybe a heart transplant in her early teens to late twenties." What a great feeling it was last week to be at the end of her Fontan. - ready to go home and enjoy normal life for a couple of decades. Sadly, that will not be the case for our beautiful daughter. The topic of heart transplant as one of many alternatives has become the only alternative. No one can say what the precise cause of the casts that have spontaneously formed in Maddie's lungs is, but it is clear that they are a product of her Fontan circuit. When she comes off of ECMO there is every reason to believe that the casts will return.

Today has been perhaps the hardest for me to swallow, because I always knew the plan, and now that plan is gone. Today we closed the book on the three-stage procedure we started three and a half years ago. Tomorrow begins a new chapter of the story of Maddie's heart transplant. There are still many obstacles to overcome before she is even eligible for a heart, so tomorrow we will focus on her lungs. She must come off ECMO to move forward and she must use her lungs to come off ECMO. She has two lungs, so take your pick for prayer.

please join me in praising God for carrying this family so far, and pray not only for healing that would bring glory to God but peace for her parents while they are in this valley.

finding the kid in us... and leaving our kids here!

one week from right now, i will be walking down magic kingdom's main street, hand in hand with my husband, and we'll be smiling and pointing out all the christmas decorations... or maybe we'll be at epcot, experiencing christmas around the world at all the little countries they have there... or maybe we'll be touring the deluxe resorts' christmas displays, like the grand floridian's gingerbread house... (sigh)... i just can't wait! i don't know exactly what we'll be doing this time next week, but we will NOT be pushing a stroller, changing diapers, or replenishing cheerios to a hungry toddler. that, my friends, will be the job of ethan & caroline's wonderful and amazing grandparents! yes, that's right! brian and i are going to disney world without our children! for 5 1/2 days! while i know ethan would get a kick out of seeing some of the sights, we decided that he is not old enough to make it worth the trip. i know lots of people take their 2 year olds and have a great time, but we have chosen not to do that.... mainly because we would love a few days to ourselves! you know we adore our children (remember i just posted THIRTY pictures of sweet caroline's birthday party??), but we have yet to have a night's sleep away from them besides being away from ethan while i was in the hospital GIVING BIRTH to caroline. so that one doesn't really count.

SO we are getting ready to pack our bags to head to disney. i say that so calmly. :) i really should have stated it like this... SO we are getting ready to pack our bags to head to DISSSNEEEEEEEEEEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that is more like me, wouldn't you say? (rachel & julie?!) :) i am not really a huge disney fan, like my kids don't own one thing that is mickey or minnie (yet), but i will say that going to disney world is just a wonderful experience. the last time i went was with my two best friends right after i graduated high school in 1997. it has been TEN YEARS since janie and nichele and i had a blast there...wow. i will have to drag out a picture from then and post it for you.

now brian loves disney, especially epcot (not much of a shocker for those that know him!). out of the two of us, i am the planner. i am always the one who gets in "travel agent mode", voraciously searching the internet for places to stay or things to do the MOMENT the mere MENTION of a trip crosses either one of our lips (side note: i also kick into "real estate agent mode" anytime a friend is looking for a house, so feel free to call upon my services!! ha!). brian usually goes with the flow and agreeably does whatever i have set out for us to do, though i will have previously asked his opinion on several thousand items related to our trip. when we're actually on vacation, i verify that brian is having a good time by incessantly asking, "you're having fun, right?!" :) i know, i must drive him insane. (but he has yet to slip a sedative in my drink!) well, once we determined that we were going to head to disney sans young ones, he ordered a disney vacation planning dvd. YEP, my husband is EXCITED ABOUT A VACATION! so in turn, that makes me (unnecessarily) even more excited! we have had so much fun mentally getting ready for this trip. come thursday, when our bags should be packed, we might not be so excited for a moment. but when we are driving down the road with nothing in the back seat but our customized disney park maps, we will be nothing short of giddy. gosh, i'm getting giddy just writing about it.

while our excitement has been building, i have also weighed the concern of how ethan will handle our 5 day absence... i have wanted to tell him about our trip, but i desired to make the idea concrete... and nothing speaks louder to a 2 year old than a picture. with photos of his grandparents. and numbers. and a car. so i came up with the "countdown chart" below as sort of a way for me to be able to communicate time to him... i wanted him to see that in a few days, mommy & daddy would be leaving and that we would be gone this many days, and then (Lord willing) we would come back home. i probably had way too much fun making this. but then again, this also serves as a little countdown for me and brian as well! :)

as you can see, the countdown began on wednesday with 9 days until our trip. ethan gets to move our suitcase (actually our exact land's end bag in a different color) each day, and i tried to also include other events on there, like thanksgiving and church, to give him a better idea of time. who knows if that helped. when we leave, ethan gets to move the car with us in it each day, showing him that mommy and daddy are one day closer to coming home (and he's not allowed to touch the car until we leave!). the kids are staying half of the time with my mom and the rest of the time with brian's parents, so i put pictures of them on the chart to show him who he would be staying with. i wasn't home when he saw the chart on the refrigerator for the first time, but i talked to him shortly thereafter, and all he could talk about was "mommy & daddy in nana's car!" yesssss, it worked! my goal was for him to be SO EXCITED about moving the car when we leave that it would downplay the fact that we were LEAVING HIM. so far, so good. every time he talks about our trip, i ask him if he's going, and he says, "no, i stay with gram and nana and pappy." i smile because i think he thinks it's gonna be one big slumber party with all three grandparents. :) but at least he gets the point that we are going and he is not. so here's the chart...



if you think about it around lunchtime on friday, say a little prayer for our family. while i am more than thrilled with the blessing of this late-anniversary trip with my sweet husband, i am sure a little part of my heart will sink when i see ethan and caroline standing at the door waving goodbye to us as we drive away without them. i know they will be fine without us for a few days. they will laugh and sing and play, and caroline will probably even sleep 12 hours while we're gone. this won't be the last time we're away from our kids, i know that for sure. but it is the first time. and i'm a control freak. so i do thank you for your prayers.

have a great week, everyone. i can't promise that i'll post again before we leave on friday, but be assured, i will return with pictures. lots of pictures. and i'll eventually share them after i get about a thousand kisses from my babies. because i sure will miss them. have a great week.

my friend has exciting news!

click here to find out why kristi is smiling so big these days!

if you know her, your guess is probably right. :) heehee!

sweet caroline's bakery & sweet shoppe

oh i had such a fun time with caroline's first birthday party! well of course i did...it was a bakery party, full of brownies and cookies and cupcakes! we invited good friends and family to our church fellowship hall, which mama d, kristie, and i had transformed into a quaint little bakery. kristie made her sweet little sign, and my mom & i had a ball making ABC cookies to spell birthday wishes for caroline.






the kids had their own table, where they colored pictures of birthday cake, cupcakes, and a baker! they decorated their own cupcakes and got their pick of the other bakery goodies. i had also planned for them to make their own cookies during the party, but they were content to decorate cupcakes and color, so i left well enough alone! (and ethan had a blast playing alone with a balloon for the majority of the party. simple joys...)





and then came mommy's favorite part... the cake! my mom experimented with an adorable "cupcake" cake, and i was so happy with how it turned out! caroline didn't really care much for the cake, though i didn't mind that because i got to eat the rest of her cake with my FAVORITE buttercreme icing! (and thanks, mom, for the bowl of extra icing you left in the fridge at my house!!) i love waiting until their first birthday to give them anything sweet (besides fruit), so perhaps my kids are just not ready for that sweet taste when they are invited to DIG IN to their cake! ethan really didn't care about his first cake either, but oh by his second birthday, he was singing a different tune! so don't worry about my kids, they love cake eventually. (i mean, they are MY kids!)






we were blessed to celebrate with many friends and family...


here are aaron & heather with caroline and their daughter, savannah. s & c are already big buds and light up whenever they see each other. last sunday during worship service, caroline wanted to talk to her friend SO BADLY that i ended up having to take her out. :) oh dear, it's beginning already!!


natalie & joseph were so proud of the present that they gave caroline. it was a cookie jar shape sorter, which natalie insisted on getting because it went with the bakery theme! she's already a thoughtful gift-giver at 5 years old! natalie was also excited about wearing her "100% sweet" hat because i had told her a few weeks ago that her hat would be perfect for the party. :) my little flower girl is getting SO OLD!



gram, pappy, & nana were all so happy to celebrate caroline's big day. thank you for being such wonderful grandparents and such a HUGE part of our lives. i seriously don't know what we'd do without you!


caroline is DYING to get her hands on her newest friend, claire. with their birthdays only being 3 days apart, i can envision some future joint bday parties for these 2 girls! caroline was so excited to see this baby! in the picture below, you can see that claire followed her sister's advice and wore a bakery-themed hat too! it has cute little cupcakes on it!! so sweet!


caroline received plenty of sweet gifts, but the sweetest gift (literally) was the set of knitted cupcakes that auntie kristie made for her! oh, i just wanted to eat them! rhema crocheted the little cherries on top- thanks, girls, for such a great gift! (ethan has discovered they make great balls, too!) kristie also knitted caroline her adorable cupcake hat, and after helping me decorate for the party, she ran home and whipped up the pink gingham apron with "sweet caroline" embroidered on it. she told caroline, "every baker needs an apron!" oh, you are too wonderful for words, kristie! in the first picture, i am asking kristie, "this is buttercreme icing, right?!" :)







at the end of the party, our bakery "customers" were given white paper sacks and were invited to take home a bag of goodies from sweet caroline's bakery & sweet shoppe! below, you can see avery taking this goodie bag thing very seriously! he wants some peanut butter cookies!


i still can't believe caroline is one year old. every day is an adventure with her, and it's all a blessing!




we love you, baby girl! happy birthday to you! happy birthday to you!

a lifetime of thanks is not enough...

last night, we were blessed to be a part of our church's thanksgiving eve service. i did not grow up with this tradition, but over the last couple of years, i have loved gathering with family and friends to worship God and to remember Why we are thankful on the eve of this thanks-centered holiday. after a few hymns and a "thanksgiving" message, people are welcome to share why they are thankful, and then at the conclusion of the service, we all gather for a pumpkin pie fellowship. last year was my first time to be a part of this service, and i will never forget kristie expressing her thanks for our family and, through her tears of joy, praising God for the birth of newborn caroline.

this year, i did not get to hear everyone share their reasons for thanksgiving because our two little blessings wanted to check out the desserts in the fellowship hall a little early (translate: caroline was a squirmy worm through the sermon), but before we scooted out, we participated in a responsive reading geared toward thanksgiving. as the congregation was reading the provided passages from psalm 103-105, i was absolutely struck in the middle of the reading by these words (psalm 103:8-12)...

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

though the responsive reading continued, i kept thinking about these words...

He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities...

wow. that really hits the thanksgiving nail on the head. i can think of no greater reason to be thankful today. yes, i am thankful for my husband and children and for every member of our extended family. i am thankful for the physical blessings that God has provided, such as our home, cars to drive, clothes to wear, and food to eat. i am thankful to be an American. the list could go on and on. those are typical blessings that will be remembered today as families gather around an oversized turkey and pumpkin pie. but if my thanks-givings only include the things of this earth, i might as well not even begin to give thanks.

i can only give thanks to the One Who gives grace when i deserve punishment. i can only give thanks to the One Who is abounding in His great love for us. so on this thanksgiving day, i pray that your thanks will be given to God, for He is surely worthy of all of our praise.

i'll close with the final verse of a wonderful hymn of thanksgiving... we sang this last night, and i'm sure i'll be humming it all day long!

Praise to the Lord,
O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath,
Come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen
Sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

a picture for each year...

well, i decided that a neat tradition would be to post one birthday picture for each year that we are celebrating... so for caroline's first birthday, i will post only one picture.


juuuuuuuuuuuuust kidding! c'mon, did you really fall for that? if you really know me, you should know that i would never place such limitations on my-photo-addicted-self. but it was fun while it lasted. :)

i am currently sifting through my favorite 82 photos from her party to determine which ones will make the blog-cut. because though i know you all love my daughter, you really don't want to see 82 pictures of her party. so i will whittle them down to a modest 20 or so :) and eventually, i'll post them.

in the meantime, go eat some turkey, thank the Lord for His goodness, and if you still have time to kill before i post the pictures, watch the videos of my silly son again. just watch out for the flying drumstick!

another great website!

i know, i know, i'm supposed to be posting pictures from caroline's birthday... i honestly sat down tonite to do that. i really did. but after brian expressed his complete dissatisfaction in the one "the first thanksgiving" book that we have to read to ethan, i had to do a little online hunting and gathering (thanksgiving/pilgrimish/indian pun intended)... it's a totally secular book that i think i bought at a school book fair a few years back, and when i read it to ethan the other night for the first time, i found myself having to interject the actual pilgrim story and Reason for thanksgiving on every page! so when brian sat down to read it to him last night, i warned him that God was totally left out of the book. well finally tonite, after reading it ethan again, brian commented that the author of this book was "throwing into the air an undirected thanks". he was right. so why was i even trying to read it to my son? so i set out tonite to find a God-glorifying thanksgiving children's book. and google led me to this wonderful treasure of a blog! please go visit this christian children's book review blog. you will be so glad you did. i know i always say that. but i mean it. but visit when you have time to soak in all the books they suggest. i've spent at least an hour checking out the books they recommend. so go read away, and in the meantime, i'll get back to those birthday pictures...

happy Thanksgiving everyone. Praise God from Whom ALL blessings flow! more on that tomorrow, hopefully.

a fun & yummy website to check out...

happy monday morning to all of you! i am working on getting caroline's birthday party pictures posted (hey! an alliteration before 9 am!), but in the meantime, click on over to this m&m's website to get some cute holiday dessert ideas. here are some of my favorites. you can click on the picture to go straight to the fun recipe!


ok, a little disclaimer about the dumplings... i absolutely refuse to combine chocolate and fruit, so if i made these, i would probably either leave out the chocolate or substitute it with something... i just thought they looked like really cute pumpkins! or maybe they're supposed to be apples... oh well, they're cute whatever they're supposed to be.



don't those look fun? there are many more on the website... go check it out! i think there are also activities and other neat things, but i got a little distracted with the desserts. :) have a great week and a happy thanksgiving!

a year of smiles

my mom made this cute monthly montage of caroline, and i just had to share...

a brother's birthday ballad

ethan is already reaping the benefits of his sister's birthday! we celebrated caroline's special day a little early with my dad & joy last night since they are unable to be at her party this weekend. they gave caroline (and ethan) the cutest bee bop band, which is a set of musical instruments with a bug theme. yes, i approved this gift... yes, i may change my mind in two weeks when i can't get the sound of the tambourine and beating drum out of my head! anyway, both kids have already had such a blast with the instruments, and ethan is pretty impressive with his ability to drum to the beat. today, he sang the entire happy birthday song while drumming to the right beat. pretty good for less than one day's practice, wouldn't you say? so of course i had to capture this sweet brother serenading his sister on video... and of course the perfection flew out the window once the green light on my camera started blinking! but these 2 videos are pretty good, i think. watch them both all the way to the very end if you have time (they're not real long). you'll be glad you did. especially the second one. i'm still laughing pretty hard about it.





i am thankful to say that i successfully dodged the flying drumstick... boy did that catch me off guard! and let me just say that it's a good thing that caroline was asleep during this video vs. sitting beside me or she might be permanently wearing a drumstick! oh boy.

next i'll try to catch ethan shakin' it with the tambourine and jingle bells. this kid is gonna have an interesting future in the music industry.... but his audiences better beware of flying instruments!

happy birthday, baby girl!

sweet caroline turns one year old today! i absolutely can't believe it. it seems like just a few months ago that we were welcoming her into our world, introducing her to her brother and bringing her home. what a whirlwind year it has been, full of sweet baby memories and plenty of two-under-two challenges. i have definitely learned that every baby is not the same, and we are still working on figuring out some things about our little birthday girl. :) while i am not quite sure how to get her to sleep more than 10 hours at a time, i can tell you for sure that she loves playing with her brother, she enjoys riding in a shopping cart more than any child i have ever seen (uh-oh, daddy, hide your wallet!), and like her mother and papa, she has never met a stranger. the resounding comments we get from strangers and friends are "she is the happiest baby" and "she is always smiling". caroline loves to be out and about, and she does not want to miss a thing! she is without a doubt a momma's girl, so my arm muscles are getting quite the workout these days!

caroline loves music, dogs barking, and cars whirring by our house. she is beginning to imitate words like "night night", "bye-bye", and "more". she cracks us up by signing "all finished" with every bit of energy in her body, sort of with the same gusto that ethan once used for signing "please". i'm laughing just thinking about them! caroline has already figured out how to climb up the slide in our backyard fort (with me right behind her), and she is so happy outside.

apparently someone told our little birthday girl that for their birthdays, girls like to have slumber parties where they stay up all night and get very little sleep... because that has been the trend around here for the past couple of nights! nobody has been invited except caroline, me, and a couple of pesky teeth trying to break through, so i wouldn't really call it much of a party... but this too shall pass, and before i know it, we'll be celebrating her second birthday, and i'll be saying, "remember when she was teething?!" ok, so maybe we won't reflect on that too much in the years to come!

we are planning a fun little bakery party for her this weekend-- i can't wait! so stay tuned for pictures of sweet caroline's birthday party! until then, know that we are celebrating this first year with our daughter and praising God for her life. may every day that we share with her bring glory to God!

two lil punkins

i know... 2 posts in just a few hours! well i figured i'd better share these pumpkin patch pictures before thanksgiving, huh? we had such a fun evening at the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. unfortunately, in our town, we don't get to drive out to the country to an actual pumpkin PATCH... we drive through 4 stop lights to a small patch of grass in between a restaurant and a bank on the main road where a church has brought in a bunch of pumpkins that they probably bought from sam's club. and this year, there weren't even an abundance of pumpkins... so please ignore the used car lot in the background and also ignore the lack of pumpkins. i tried to gather about 25 pumpkins to make a good little photo area, but i failed to consider the necessity of filling up the background as well. but boy have i learned my lesson for next year. :) maybe i'll scope out a place in the country for next year...

jeff & kristie met us out there with karina, and heather brought avery & savannah, too. nana also came to help make the kids smile. ethan and avery had so much fun running around the "patch", which was very easy to do since there weren't very many pumpkins in the way! we failed to get very many pictures of ethan because he was just enjoying himself waaaay too much to settle down, but we did manage to capture a few group shots. and we even got one with all 3 cousins actually sitting and looking at the camera. i think that is a first since caroline's newborn days. and i'm not exaggerating.

enjoy the pictures of our little punkins. we have so much to be thankful for during this thanksgiving season. boy do we ever.







"cheese!"

"if we smile, do you promise to stop singing?"

"yay! they stopped!"

heather and me and our 4 punkins

"please don't make us sit still one more minute!
there's a field to run in!!!!!!"



"this is one heavy pumpkin!"

oh how i love this picture...
i can just imagine these girls talking
to each other like this in a couple of years.
they look like they are in one serious conversation!

stairsteps: karina- 14 1/2 mos.,
caroline- 11 1/2 mos, savannah- 8 mos.



this one is a momma's heart-melter...
he is getting way too big.

it did not take ethan long to find his
"eee-beeee" (itty-bitty) pumpkin.



since this was caroline's pumpkin patch debut (and really since she was sitting surprisingly still during the photo shoot), we have the most pictures of her... it was hard to just choose a few favorites, so just humor me.



this picture is ONLY adorable if you have seen caroline make this funny face...
she scrunches up her whole face and grunts to imitate dogs, cars,
and pretty much anything. i'm so glad brian caught it on camera...

this is precious to me because of this picture of ethan last year. caroline signs "please" with more precision than ethan did... i guess she is slightly dainty after all! :)







i love this last picture of our family... not exactly a portrait-perfect pose, but it's pretty indicative of our family in motion... my mouth is open, ethan is 2 seconds from escaping, caroline is trying to fling herself backwards, and brian is... sitting still. :) haha.


i hope you are enjoying the fall as much as we are these days! i can't believe that caroline's birthday is this week, and then thanksgiving is right around the corner! have a great week!