Mizzou Homecoming

Last weekend, we traveled to Columbia, Missouri again to visit Nannie and Paw Paw and to participate in some of the Mizzou Homecoming festivities. Fortunately, no one went to the game to see Mizzou get killed by Texas. It was ugly. We got there on Friday afternoon and had some yummy pizza for dinner. Then, Grammie, Gabah, Mommy, and Hannah went to campus to see the fraternity houses. Each year, they all put up big stages that are decorated and do skits about the game. It was very cold and a little drizzly, but we still had a great time! After that, Mommy went back to the house to put Eli to bed and the rest of the group met up with Paw Paw to go to the Mizzou practice basketball game. Obviously Mizzou won! ;) On Saturday, our whole group (Mommy, Hannah, Eli, Grammie, and Gabah) went downtown for the homecoming parade! It as pretty cold and breezy, so we all had to bundle up! It was Eli's first opportunity to wear his new winter coat, hat, and mittens. After the street was closed off and before the parade started, Gabah put Eli in the street and let him walk around--he ended up walking back and forth about 4 blocks! And then proceeded to sleep through the parade. Hannah, however, was wide awake waving at all the people and collecting tons of candy. After the parade, we enjoyed the afternoon together at Nannie and Paw Paw's playing. Eli had fun playing in a box, and Hannah had fun playing with pom poms and "selling" little pretend coolies. Then, Hannah and I carved them a pumpkin which turned out to be one of the most creative pumpkins I have ever come up with! TOo bad the "teeth" melted after a few hours--I hadn't thought of the fact that the juices from the pumpkin would melt the candy corn into a huge puddle of sugary goop. Oh well. Saturday night was the horrible football game, which no one enjoyed watching. And Sunday was our drive home! It was a wonderful weekend filled with great memories! :)

A Sick Elijah and The Pumpkin Patch

Elijah has been having such a rough time lately... First of all, he has been having such a hard time with teething! He's working on his molars--he has two in so far, and the third is almost there. One of his newest favorite playthings has become my muffin tins, and apparently they make great teethers, too! Last Wednesday evening, I had to take him to Urgent Care because he had been crying uncontrollably for almost 3 hours and had a 101 fever! I was afraid he had an ear infection since he'd had a cold for a few days. But, as it turns out, he had "pink eardrums" which were apparently "almost an ear infection but not quite yet." Hmmm. Anyway, the doctor said it's just pain from his teeth and there's nothing I can do about it other than giving him Motrin like I had been. Nights were rough and he didn't get much better, so I took him to his regular doctor on Friday morning, and then he really did have an ear infection. He started taking antibiotics and started feeling better fairly quickly. So, on Sunday afternoon, we had planned to go to the Pumpkin Farm with Hannah, Eli, and Hannah's best friend. This was the only day we could go before Halloween. Just before we were going to leave, Eli started throwing up! About 5 times in an hour! So, Gabah took the two girls, and Grammie and I stayed home with Elijah. But, after that hour, he never threw up again. And now, he's back to normal except for his slight cold and his painful teething. But the girls and Gabah had a great time at the Pumpkin Patch! They saw some giant pumpkins, bought our pumpkins, rode on the haywagon, walked through the corn maze, petted the animals, and lots of other things! I'm glad they were still able to go! This weekend, we're headed to Missouri for the Mizzou homecoming and a wonderful visit with my grandparents!!

Apple Picking '09

Well, we had a really fun afternoon today! We decided to go apple picking at Appleberry Farm, about 15 minutes from home. We also decided to bring along Hannah's best friend, Tayla! All 3 of the kids had a ball gathering apples! Hannah and Tayla were running around like crazy collecting apples, and Mom and I had to work hard to get them to stop--we didn't want to end up with a hundred apples at home! LOL Eli got attached to a couple apples that were just his size--one in particular was so tiny and cute! He had one in each hand the whole time we were there, and there was no taking them away! At one point, he decided to bite into them--he made lots of teeth marks but never really got a real "bite." After collecting lots of apples, I took the kids on the hayride while Grammie warmed up in the car. (It was a pretty chilly day!) It was a fun day, and everyone had a great time! Can't wait to go again next year! P.S. To see all of our pictures from today, go to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2627545&id=8621722&l=a7daa04b9c

Wow! You look older!!!

And no...this post is not about my birthday and ME looking older!! (Well, I can mention that my birthday was on Friday, and that my family made it a wonderful birthday by fixing my favorite dinner, a baking gorgeous cake decorated by Hannah, and giving me awesome gifts!) No...this post is about this picture of Eli! I took it this morning before church because I thought he looked so cute in his little dress-up clothes. When I looked at the picture on the computer, I was completely amazed at how much older he looked!!! Almost like a little boy rather than a toddler! So, enjoy this picture of my adorable little man!

A Trip to Missouri

It's been a while since I posted on here, hasn't it? Sorry 'bout the delay in posting again. Hannah has really been enjoying Kindergarten! She has been riding the bus every day, she has bought school lunch, she loves her teacher, she's made friends...everything is going just great! This past weekend, we all took a trip down to Missouri to spend the weekend with my grandparents (Mom's parents)--AKA Nannie and Paw Paw. While there, we also went to a Mizzou football game and watched them beat Furman 52-12! The kids loved spending time with their great-grandparents, and we all had so much fun being together, even though it was for such a short time! I am so excited that fall is now upon us--so many fun things to look forward to! Trips to pick apples and to the pumpkin farm, watching the leaves change, Halloween, Thanksgiving...it's all so wonderful--my favorite season! I will try to post more often! Until then... enjoy the pictures! (The ones at the top of the post are from our drive home from Missouri--the rainbow was gorgeous, and really couldn't be captured in a picture. It was the brightest rainbow we had ever seen!)

The First Day of Kindergarten!

Well, it has happened! Hannah has gone off to her first day of Kindergarten! The bus arrived at 7:47 AM on Thursday morning, and a somewhat nervous but very excited Hannah climbed on board! I had no idea how hard it would be for me so see my baby ride away on that bus! But as she arrived back home, she came running off the bus, gave me a huge hug, and told me "I had so much fun!" She proceeded to tell us all about her day at school, and can't wait to go back! She even made a friend who is in her class and rides her bus! I'm so proud of my big girl!

A Beautiful Day to be Outside!

(I just realized that I have to start this post with two of the cutest pictures I have in recent history, and they're from yesterday...Eli suddenly walked up to Hannah and gave her a hug! And he did this several times, so I was able to capture a picture. It was SO sweet!) Yesterday was probably one of the most beautiful days of the year! And we just HAD to spend it outside! In the morning, I took the kids over to the Middleton Good Neighbor Festival. It was a little cool when we arrived--jacket weather--probably in the 50s, but sunny. There were lots of craft stands that we walked through first. I got Hannah an adorable hand-made jumper--green with little watermelons all over it...and it has a matching one for her doll. It is VERY cute. We also went to a stand where someone had done a beautiful job of carving things out of wood--LOTS of games! So, I got Hannah a little tic-tac-toe board since she really loves that game. I also got Eli a little hand-carved wooden car, which he loves to drive around the room and say "vroom!" (Hannah taught him that!) Then, the kids played on the play structure for a while--Hannah even made a friend there! Eli enjoyed the swings, and Hannah and her friend played on the slides and the swings. Last, we went over to the carnival. We didn't do any rides because Eli was too little, but we did play (way too many!) carnival games. The kids won some great junk, and had lots of fun! After we were done there (at about 11:45), I dropped Hannah off at her best friend, Tayla's, house where she stayed until after 6:00! During the afternoon, Brent and I took Eli to the Vilas Zoo in downtown Madison! We saw some great animals, and I think Eli's favorite was the tiger. The tiger came right up to the glass, so we were less than a foot away from him! Eli was pointing and saying "ga! ga! ga!" Very exciting! Of course my favorite were the poison dart frogs, which were very elusive, but I got to see a few. And Brent's favorites were, of course, his favorite animals, the buffalo! Very big and very impressive! I think when we were at the zoo, it was about 68 degrees with not a cloud in the sky. The perfect day! Tomorrow is orientation day at Kindergarten!