life of late

It's been a whirlwind around here so I thought I'd play a little catch up . . .

This past friday night, we got to spend the evening with friends carving and painting pumpkins. While we didn't go home with one of Rebekah's pies as a prize, Ava was still quite proud of the pumpkin she had painted. : )

Having fun . . .

She got quite detailed about it . . .long after most of the kids had painted and gone off to play, Ava was still by her pumpkin, diligently painting stroke after stroke.
It has to be just right. She must get that from me. HA.

My mom came down for a whirlwind 2 days to help my sister and I make 4 bushels of applesauce. With mom in charge, we were done in no time. Mom was trying to get a picture of the girls the morning she left . . .this is the best my camera got.

Ryan and I celebrated 5 years of marriage on the 24th! Time flies when you're having fun . . .or trying to chase after 3 kids 2 and under. :)

SO thankful to have this man in my life.

So I had been planning to do a blog post about how fast Olivia has been getting around with crawling, when Ryan went to go get her from her nap on Saturday and found this.

By Sunday, it was this.
And this.
and this.

Olivia has been quite proud of her accomplishments. I had to chuckle that this kind of sums up her personality. Crawling? Check. Standing? Check. WHAT CAN I DO NEXT MOM!?!?!?! Live is constantly an adventure to be had with this little girl.

The joy of these accomplishments is "doubled" by the fact that she now likes to scurry around the house after me, find me, and try to crawl up me to hold her time after time after time. So truth be told? There are moments I have to "remind" myself to be thankful for such a healthy and busy little girl. She keeps this home hopping but full of joy as she always has a ready giggle!

Kate's "crawling" is getting closer and closer everyday too. I had just gotten used to seeing Olivia pop up in random places while I'm working around the house that it still surprises me when I see that it's Kate. Her crawl is still more of a scoot and at a much more relaxed pace, but I quite love and enjoy this little girl's relaxed pace of life.

I have to marvel at God's purpose in everything as her more laid back nature is often my "excuse" to stop, sit down and snuggle with her. I think He knew I would need it with two other freight trains running around our home! It is so fun to see her personality evolve with Olivia's. They find each other more and more for entertainment and it's become a common sight/sound to see them engrossed in each other and giggling over some untold secret.

The other morning I had put Olivia to put bed for her nap early due to a short night, put Kate in her jumper and gone upstairs to get dressed. I thought it had gotten kind of quiet but didn't think too much about it since Kate is quieter by nature. But as I came down the stairs, this is the sight that greeted me.

I guess Kate needed an early morning nap too?