Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for this year: healthy and happy children, wonderful friends and family.  We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!  We had so much fun that I neglected to take any pictures.  We did grab a quick family picture right before it was time to go.  You can tell that by the time we took this picture Abram was all done.





 Stella also turned 7 months old today!  She had fun with her Uncle Nick and future Aunt Lisa.  You can hardly see them since they are wearing camouflage, but if you look closely, they are in the picture with her :)

Catching Up

We've been busy and haven't updated the blog lately.  A few weeks ago Abram and I rode the Hawkeye Train.  We didn't go to the game but you know wise people always tells us life is about the journey not the destination.   The destination in this case was too cold and windy - the train was much more pleasant that sitting through a 3 hour game.

While Abram had fun on the train he was anti-picture taking.

Last weekend we had Josh's college friends over for a Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving.  I didn't get a lot of pictures but here is a beautiful shot of Stella and Jasper.

As the temperatures drop here in Iowa we've been spending more time at the Children's Museum.  Here Abram was literally getting into his cooking by jumping in the pizza fridge.

This trip to the museum Abram made his first attempt at climbing the wall.  He did a great job and I think he will be back for more.  At home he has literally been jumping off the walls because we've been inside so much - it's nice to let him run free for awhile.

Our church had a harvest festival.  Abram had a great time making fall crafts and even more fun eating the sweet treats.

Trick or Treat

Stella did not want to share her treats -she cried every time someone came to the door and the treat bowl left her side. 

Abram was trying to explain to her that sharing is good but she wasn't having any of it.

Abram was ready to go and see what all this Halloween stuff is about.

Stella was content to stay home - our little happy pumpkin.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Party

Abram and Stella hosted a Halloween Party on Friday for our friends from our old neighborhood. 

We got ready by carving pumpkins.

Before putting on her pumpkin costume Stella tried out being a witch but she was just too cute.

Abram made beautiful sprinkled pumpkin cupcakes.

And finally we got into costumes. 

Abram lasted in his costume about 5 minutes as you can tell from the group pictures because he is the only one in pjs.

Even Aunt V and Nana got into the Halloween spirit!

Pumpkin Patch

We had a great weekend that started with a trip to the pumpkin patch/apple orchard on Saturday.  I'm not going to write a lot of captions for two reasons:

1) pictures are worth a 1,000 words

2) Josh is in the middle of a job search on the computer and that is worth hopefully dozens of dollars!

After all that donut eating, I mean walking at the orchard, we worked up an appetite and ended a beautiful day with delicious pizza at Pagliai's Pizza.

Beach Weekend

Josh and Abram spent the past weekend at the beach.  Did the fly to California or Florida? No, they drove a mere 4 hours to the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan (well beautiful minus the cooling tower in the background).  Since Stella and I stayed home I don't have captions for the pictures but they pretty much speak for themselves.

I did not do as great a job at capturing our girls weekend so I have to steal a picture from last weekend so Stella won't be completely left off the blog.  This is a picture of Stella and Vernon that I think is just adorable.  Yes...they really are holding hands - too cute!

You can kind of tell that Stella's hair is coming in much blonder than Abrams.  We'll see if it stays that way. 

Fall Fun

I can't believe it's fall already!  This past week was the annual Iowa Cancer Summit so Aunt Vicki met us in Des Moines and had a great time with Stella and Abram while I was working.

You can tell Abram was excited to see the ducks in the pond.

 Stella, Nana, Abram and Vicki having fun in the wonderful weather!

 Stella and her auntie V - reminds me of a similar picture of Abram and Vicki from 2 years ago:  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC6Zocb7MsGAy_cMy-po6pNjdJ1hJvxBblUj9lHi5PDADxDmS4awk9F5L1ZLwgGuUB29B4RQ5-9iTv9X4DklXqFmL_2iUQAiyTUvPHad0nA6riJlLEiNOaPP8w2gWsVVsmtKCUH5BFhj4W/s1600-h/March+026.JPG 

When we got back from the Summit - I took Abram to the fire station with the local library.  He was apprehensive at first.

But he was brave enough to get in the truck and...

 he was really excited to see a fireman use a real live fire pole.   Well, maybe I was more excited than he was!  The fire pole was from the original fire station and is over 100 years old.

Stella had an exciting first and tried cereal this week.  She loved it and couldn't get enough.  We've already moved onto green beans and sweet potatoes.

So she may not love the taste of rice cereal but it's better than nothing.