Leaves are Falling Everywhere!

Fall time is by far one of my favorite season. It's crisp and cool and the colorful leaves just explode from our trees. The kids love to be outside and the leaves are their all time favorite. These photos were from the first day of raking and we were all in the spirit of "playfulness" but by the third raking day mommy and daddy's leaf spirit deminished a tad bit. Okay a whole lot.




Daddy needed a small break after the first 45 minutes and the kids instinctively started burying him with the surrounding leaves.














Looking pretty!

New Editions

Well, we've had several new editions to our house and family this last week. My sister-in-law had her second child, a little boy, Cash Emery. He's cute as a button and much to our suprise Trey can't get enough of him. I think he held him about 4 or 5 times during the 20 minutes visit at the hospital. He told me several days ago that he wants one of those babies like we saw at the hospital. Hmmm...I just smiled.

The other edition to our home was 4 little tiny kittens. They actually just showed up one day and we were totally confused because all our barn cats are "boys"! Anyway, much to our suprise again, Breanne became attached to them instantly. Whenever we are outside she seeks them out and just walks around carrying one at all times. She has even tried to sneek a few in the house.

I just asked Trey what the kitties name is and he said, "Drugger". I have no idea where he pulled that one from.

It's About Time!

Well, as some of you know, our backyard has been nothing but a big dirt pile for MONTHS!! Arlan worked so many hours to get our rock wall finished and it looks georgous!! We finally finished everything last weekend. Planting, seeding and mulching. My back hurts and I've got a few callouses but it was all worth it.

Jon Chappell did the design and the kids, as you can see from above, helped with the physical labor as did Arlan and I.

Below is the pictures of the semi finished look. The rock wall and steps, and some of the flower/plant beds that we landscaped with.

I can't wait for next spring to arrive and see all that hard work bloom into vibrant colors and a cozy backyard!!

Boo-Boo

The cutest thing happened to me today with my son Trey. I totally lost my voice last evening and when I talked it was mostly squeeky noises. Trey was very confused by the change in my voice and wondered what was wrong.
To make it simple I told him that my throat hurt like a boo-boo. Minutes late Trey returned with a bandaid for my throat saying, 'here's a bandaid for your boo-boo, it will be all better now mommy'. He even came back a few minutes later asking if I was all better. Maybe he'll be a doctor some day.

Flower Power

Lately I've been finding Breanne roaming over to my flower beds for an afternoon of "picking and plucking".

She would pluck a bunch and smash them in her hand so as not to lose any of them. She steps right up to me with a smile and hands me the remains of a beautiful white flower and says, 'Thank You!'

Touched by the fact that this is the very first gift that Bre has actually handed over to me I run in and fill a glass with water, dump the crumbled buds and stems in and watch them float around thinking, "how precious, she must love me!"

The Horror!

Arlan and I threw a little birthday party for Grey & Lydia (our neice and nephew on the Beiler side) since Lydia's mommy was on bedrest and Darlene was vacationing here in PA and didn't need the stress of organizing. All went as planned...........

Now, those of you who know me well know that I can be a bit of a "freak" about germs, and dirt and messiness. So when all 10 of the birthday kids decided to go out back and play I seemingly forgot about the gigantic dirt pile left from our landscaping project. And believe it or not our dainty, precious little daughter Breanne got the, "hands down", dirtiest!! I just sat out back with my mouth hanging open trying to figure out how to get her cleaned off without leaving a trail of dust and dirt the whole way to the bathroom. In the end about 7 of the 10 kids took baths at our house before the left they were that dirty

This dress never got totally clean!

It's so fun to watch Trey and Breanne play nicely together because there are more times than not that they pick or tease each other to death. But recently they have had a ball reading to each other. Breanne turns the pages and babbles while Trey narrates each picture through the book.

Yesturday Arlan and I bought a pack of Strawberry Shortcake books for Bre to read through and Trey LOVES them. He say Strawberry is his new favorite thing. Not sure if we should be nervous or not. At least the book he's reading is "Strawberry Shortcake Plays SOCCER."

They are both so cute aren't they?