9-29-14

Sibling powow - when they're doing this in 3 years they'll probably be up to no good! However, I love seeing Bridget and Carter pay more attention to Alison now that she's older and more responsive. It was nice that they kind of ignored her when she was a newborn, but now she just loves it when they talk to her! 

"You ready thought I'd want to eat at 5am and then go back to sleep? Funny mom, very funny." 

Alison has been kind of a stinker about sleeping the part couple weeks. She had been doing a good 12 hours, but now will only go about 7 hours, and getting up two or three times in that 7 hours.

4 months old! At 4 months Alison:

- rolls all over, both back to tummy and tummy to back. 

- chews on everything

- wants to be in the same room as everyone else

-likes to be outside

- has replaced her sweet cooing with a loud, sick parrot sounding squawk

Watching something on dad's tablet - his lap is running out of room! (And Alison this thrilled to be in the middle of all the action)

Bridget finally got her hair cut! It looks so much better! She was pretty thrilled with the experience!  :-) 

Ackerman farm

We went to Ackerman's last week to pick up our fall supply of pumpkins and mums. Bridget and Carter are always excited to the pumpkin farm. 

They're a little short still! 

Ackerman's has all sorts of animals - goats, sheep, chickens, rabbits, a horse, a cow, peacocks, and this ginormous turkey. 

Alison hung out in the moby wrap the whole time.  :-) 

Pumpkin festival!

About 2 weeks ago the highlight of Morton's fall arrived - the Pumpkin Festival! We headed out the second night of the festival. It was quite chilly, but we had fun anyway. 

We skipped eating at the festival, because it just sounded stressful to stand in line that long with 3 kids. 

The kids got to go on lots of rides, because I bought 20 tickets, much to Luke's chagrin. :-) (as the ride loving parent, I can totally relate to enjoying rides. Luke, as the ride hating parent, gets sick pushing the kids on the meri-go-round at the park.)

 The first ride was the train, which they both thought was a little boring.  :-)

Little dolly was bundled up all cozy in her car seat, and slept through a good portion of the night. 

The kids loved the Farris wheel! 

But the motorcycles took first place as the favorite ride! 

We didn't go to the festival on Friday night, as it was way cold and drizzling. Instead we stayed home and waited for our company to arrive! Kenton & Heidi and Tony & Sarah came and stayed for the weekend! With 6 adults and 7 kids under the age of 5, we were filled to the max, but we had so much fun! The adults stayed up much to late talking. The whole weekend went very smoothly, and we hope to do this every year! 

Saturday morning was the parade! The weather was perfect, and the kids got way too much candy. 

Alison nursed for the majority of the parade, and then was a happy girl! 

After lunch the kids (and some adults) took naps.

Kids table  :-) 

Lots of cookies for dessert! 

The dads and all the kids (minus Alison) on Sunday morning. We actually made it to church on time! 

August everydays

Our pace has somewhat slowed down the past couple weeks, which I'm certainly not complaining about! The kids have enjoyed playing outside, usually with the neighbor kids. 

Alison has continued to be her happy contented self, although she's been getting up more at night. It's a little hard to get used to get up again at night, because she had been sleeping 12 hours straight! 

I took the older two shoe shopping the other week. Alison stayed with grandma. It was fun to just have 2 kids for a morning and I was reminded how easy it was with two!  :-)

Bridget thought shopping was great fun, Carter could have cared less. They both cowboy boots, which they thought was quite great. And since payless had the whole store buy one get one half off, I got a couple pairs for myself too. 

After our visit to the mall we went to Chick fil A for lunch, and playing in the play area before we headed home to collect Alison. 

I can no longer leave her unattended in the bouncy seat because she does acrobats and nearly flips herself out of it. 

I think she's just the cutest.  :-)

Knapp family day

Almost every year, the Knapp family goes on an extended weekend trip somewhere. Well this year everyone had a lot going and going away for a few days just wasn't going to happen, so we decided to have a family day out at Mark ands Tammy's. 

We arrived a little before 9 on Saturday and whipped up a delicious breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage, and fruit. After breakfast we sat around and talked for a while, then a large group headed to the far side of the pond to shoot clay pigeons. They went through over 350 of them! 

The rest of the day was spent talking,  snacking, riding 4- wheelers, kayaking, and swimming. 

We had lunch/supper around 3, and re- stuffed ourselves.  :-)

We headed home about 5:30 and Bridget and Carter fell asleep about a minute down the road. 

We had a great time, although we were all exhausted by the end of the day. Thanks, Mark and Tammy, for hosting! 

(Sorry for the lack of pictures -I was busy with the kids and just enjoying the day rather than take pictures)

Alison and Tyson getting to know each other better. They're 9 weeks apart. 

Enjoying chips and lemonade. 

Shooting clay pigeons

Tired kids, heading home

Bridget's modeling debut

Last week our neighbor, Becky asked if her mom and sister could use Bridget as a model for some clothes they sell at their boutique shop called Lulu's. Last Tuesday we headed to the store, and Bridget had a great time trying on clothes.  :-) 

We had talked about her getting her picture taken in pretty clothes, and she was so excited! I had to remind her several times to stop jumping up and down and stand still. :-) 

I forgot to take any pictures of my own, so these are just screen shots of Lulu's Facebook page. 

9-7-14

Again, with the safety goggles.  "Mom, I look cool!" Um... something like that.  :-)

Last Saturday afternoon/evening Caleb and Bethany invited us and some other families from church out to their grandparent's lake. The kids had a blast swimming, fishing, playing on the playground, and being rowed around in the canoe. 

They were busy having so much fun in fact that it wasn't till we were ready to leave that I noticed that his eye was all red, puffy and gunky- pink eye.  :-( 

Thankfully it cleared up quickly and no one else has gotten it. 

Alison's new favorite spot is sitting in the bumbo on the kitchen table and watching us eat. 

She looks like such a little scrub in the bumbo. :-)

Pretending to be sleeping

Alison tends to be an attention hog, and her new thing is eye contact. She not only wants to be in the same room as everyone else, she also wants you to be looking at her. 

Carter woke up extremely grumpy a few days ago. When I asked him what he was fussing about, he replied with "Alison is looking at me!" How dare she!  :-)

Given Alison's nosey nature and need to see all that goes on, I pulled out the jumperoo a bit early. She thinks it's great, and can just reach the floor with the tip of her toes.