My pumpkins

Alison is very excited that fall is here. I cleaned out and organized the kids' closets yesterday, which I found quite challenging considering it's still in the 90's here. I discovered a Halloween t-shirt in Alison's closet that had been handed down to her and she instantly wanted to wear it. With the 'catitude' shirt on, we were looking through baby pictures of Alison and found a picture of her in her first Halloween costume. She asked if we could try it on Eli. So out to the garage we went to dig through more old clothes to find the costume.

We squeezed Eli into the costume that Alison swam in, took a picture and decided we're going to have to find something else for him to wear this year.
We just can't get over how similar our kids look. Here's Alison in the same pumpkin costume.

County Fair

Remember my chicken pox post? Well, we escaped the pox, but Alison, Eli and I all got hand, foot, mouth disease. Thankful it was an extremely light case and was nothing more than some blisters on our feet and a slightly sore throat. We spent most of the week at home, but escaped Friday evening to go to the fair.

We started the evening off with some cotton candy. Alison loved that it was pink, but said it was too sticky. She's stopped wanting jelly on her PB&J's for the same reason.Alison talked for a week about riding the ferris wheel, but when it came down to it, this is as close as she could get. We even attempted to get her to ride the carousel, but that was a no go too.

They had tigers, elephants and bears at the fair. You could ride the elephants and the bears walked around in hand-stands. We all thought it was pretty cool...

except for Alison.

5 Months

The Monkey is quite the drool machine these days. I really need one of those spit sucker things the dentist has to carry around with me. Eli is getting cuter by the day and always has a smile to brighten my day. He's still sleeping pretty good and has started eating squash and sweet potatoes (although he doesn't care for the sweet potatoes). We're going to try carrots and oatmeal this week. He's moved into a size 3 diaper and is wearing size 6-9 month clothes, and some of those are even too small! Yikes! To show his beefy-ness... Eli- 5 months...Alison 8 months...same onesie!

Alison's new chore

Alison's only "chore" is feeding the cats, but I think I'm going to add feeding Eliot to the list. She said she wanted to be just like Anna Kruger, except Anna kept Zach much cleaner. By the time she was finished I could barely find Eliot through all the cereal. I'm not sure how much actually got in his mouth, but it sure did make my day watching them together.

The funniest part to me is watching Alison's face as she's shoving the food in Eliot's mouth.

First day of school!

We started preschool yesterday! I'm continually amazed at what the Lord calls me to and many of them are things I've said I would never do-like homeschooling. But I've entered into the teaching world, and I have a whole new appreciation for preschool teachers. I'm pooped, but overall, I really enjoyed our day and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the year. By a miracle, the kids actually stuck to the schedule that I wrote out and in fact, I think Alison really liked knowing what was coming and having activities planned out. Although, I can already see my plan needing an overhaul. My problem isn't putting things together or keeping her attention, it's that she knows too much already. But I know I just need to jump in, take it a day at a time and figure it out as I go. Our biggest obstacle was Smoochie. He was into everything we were trying to do! Alison's favorite subject of the day was math. Learning addition with chocolate bars was the talk of the day. I'm so thankful for this precious time with Alison.


Eliot worked on his exersaucer skills during school. He's getting pretty good at turning around and finding things to chew on. He even learned to push the squeaky button today.




Mr. Chubby Cheeks is on his way to being the next Doug Jr. He has a couple of T-shirts that are 12 mo. and he fits them perfectly. This is a T-shirt that was a hand-me-down, but is ironically perfect for Eli. My dad played for the Wichita Shockers in College and I've seen him wear a shirt like this for most of my life.

Alison's 3 yr stats

This picture says it all...just look at those legs! Alison's still very long and lean. She's 31.5 pounds and 38.5 inches tall. She's in the 50th percentile for weight and 80th for height. She checked out completely healthy. I'm always amazed at how many fruits and vegetables she will eat-her healthy appetite might be a slight source of pride...that was quickly squashed at the check-up. The nurse asked her if she eats her fruits and veggies. She enthusiastically answered yes. Then the nurse asked her what her favorite kind was. She answered, "apple pie!". Thanks a lot peanut.

Let the Party Begin!

I said awhile ago that I was planning a party for when Eli slept through the night. I figured it would be a BIG bash since it would probably be years until that happened. Well, take a look at my well rested son. He's finally sleeping 6-8 hours straight!!! Hallelujah!!!

He's changed so much just this week. He's found his feet, he loves chewing on frozen washclothes (teething has begun), his baby hair is falling out and platinum white hair is coming in, he absolutely LOVES squash and he's started trying to laugh on his own.

Oh, and little rolls are starting to form on his chunky legs. I think I might rename our blog to "Our Giant Children".