It's fall!

I love this time of year!  There are so many great family friendly activities all over town and we've enjoyed taking advantage of the weather and time together.

Recently we took a trip to Burger Farm with a group of moms from church.  The hayride was a huge hit and so was the puppet show.  Jack reenacted the puppet show for a whole week... every bad joke included. We each took home a little pumpkin and we bought a few at their store, too.  We've now got plenty of pumpkins and Audrey has enjoyed playing with them as we leave and return from the house. I hope they survive long enough to carve for Halloween.

We've enjoyed time with friends at the zoo:

Owen and Levi Gould

Our whole family took a fun trip to A&M Farm in Midland.  It was a hot day in October, and we were sweaty and uncomfortable in our fall clothes.  But I'm so glad we did it.  I love being able spend time with each other - just the four of us.  I feel like we are always busy!  We like to fill up our free time with friends and family, so a quiet morning together is rare. It was great to connect and get refreshed together!

Cracker, the imaginary friend

Posing together

              

 Pointing to Cracker on the floor

  

Meet Cracker. He's Jack's new friend, and he's stopped by the house the past few nights during dinner.

In case you were wondering, the 'r's in his name are silent, so it sounds kind of like Cacka. 

Who is this friend, you ask? Well, Jack filled us in when he first introduced him to our family: 

He's small. Very small, actually.  In fact, at his first visit we had a hard time finding him. Jack picked him up and put him in Jacob's hand after calling for him to come out.

According to Jack, Cracker is two months old. And "he lives in College Hill with us."

Jack is a good friend to Cracker. While we were getting ready for bed on Tuesday, Jack put his hand up to his mouth and called for Cracker, shouting, "Cracker! Come inside, now! It's getting dark outside!"

So now you know about Jack's new friend. We've read that imaginary friends are common among firstborns and bright kids. Maybe he's just showing us his intelligence? We've decided to not make a big deal about it and not bring him up unless he talks about it first. 

It's been a fun peak into Jack's vivid imagination. I can't wait to see what he's  pretending next!

What a gentleman

Jacob is doing wonderful job training Jack to be a gentleman.  I've been blessed by the way Jacob treats me, and I'm thankful that he's passing this along to our son.

One simple example is that Jack always holds the door for me when we're leaving the house.  It's a huge help when I'm getting out the door with both hands full!  While holding the door, he often says, 'I be gentleman, Mommy."

Here's a picture I snapped last month of Jack pumping gas for me.  The kids typically sit in the car while I do this, and it's a time for me to quickly clean out any garbage and straighten up my car while the tank is filling.

As I was getting out of the car on this day, Jack said, "I do gas for you, Momma."  Perhaps his intentions weren't as sweet and pure as I'm making them to be.  Maybe he just wanted out of his seat to stretch his legs.  But I'd like to think that somewhere in that sweet little heart of his, he knew he was doing something kind. We'll leave it at that!

Jack has become quite complementary lately.  Recently, after a long day in yoga pants and a t-shirt, no make-up, and probably messy hair, I decided to throw on a sundress before Jacob came home.  Jack walked past the bathroom as I was putting on my make-up.  Without missing a beat, he looked into the room and said, "You look good, Momma." He kept on walking, but it melted my heart.

This morning as the kids were eating breakfast, I came into the room after getting ready for church.  Jack looked up, with a mouthful of english muffin, and said, "Where you going in that dress, Momma?  You look pretty."  

Seriously?  What a sweetheart.  Jacob has always done a great job of telling me that I look nice and complementing me both when I'm in sweats or all dressed up.  Jack is obviously paying attention. Thank you, Jacob.  

Spaghetti Dinner

Tube shaped pasta makes for the perfect finger food.  Add in some spaghetti sauce, and this is what you get:

Norris Lake with friends

We took a fun trip to Norris Lake with friends back in September.  We had 8 adults and 9 kids in the house which made for a busy weekend.

It was so nice to spend quality time with these dear families.  We are thankful for their friendship - whether they live in Cincinnati or far, far, away in Minnesota.


You have to stop at Waffle House on vacation!

Lake life with friends:

Margot and Annabelle

Margot and her daddy

Can I go back?

Buddies with the same blankie

Jack and his twin Graham

Juicebox!  Delicious. 

Dan Larson is nuts!

Our tour guide

Most of the kids.  How did I miss Lucy????

Sweet Annabelle reading to Audrey

Audrey's first trim

Audrey had her first haircut over a month ago, and I never got the chance to share the before and after pictures. 

I took my chances and cut her hair by myself... something I probably won't be doing again.  The one thing I was told when I was researching how to cut a little girl's hair was DO NOT CUT HER SIDEBURNS. I was told that if I cut them she would end up looking like a boy. Ok, easy enough, right?  

After cutting the rest of her hair I felt like something was missing... like messy sideburns.  Just a small trim wouldn't be a big deal, right?  Well, my intentions to just even them out failed and I whacked them off.  They were short.  Really short.  Like little boy short. Ugh.

So after a  month, I feel like her hair is getting close to normal again.  And I've learned my lesson.  My daughter deserves a professional haircut.  Or at least deserves for me NOT to be the one to cut it. 

Before 

After

Birthdays 2013

Jacob and I have birthdays less than weeks apart, so there is a lot of celebrating going on in this house for a few weeks.  We are really good at stretching out fun events and we know how to have a good time.  So I'll quickly recap a few highlights from #35 and #32.  (And no - those aren't hashtags.)

Jacob is the.best.husband.ever.  I know that everyone feels that way about their spouse.  And I'll let you go ahead and think it.  But Jacob and I, we're a good match.  I'm so thankful for him.  And I think he's pretty awesome.

He gets the 'best gift ever' award for my birthday this year. I was completely blown away by how thoughtful and creative he was and how he made me feel loved and cared for.

The night started out with drinks at Metropole,  which lead to him revealing the surprise that we were going to be staying at the 21c Hotel that night.  In all honesty, I was a bit panicked.  I didn't pack!  I didn't have a clean pair of underwear, or clothes to wear home in the morning, let alone a toothbrush. Well, surprise #2 was discovered when we went upstairs to see the room and there was a drawer full of everything I needed.  He went out and purchased new clothes, bras, and shoes, and packed everything else that I needed for the next day.  Amazing. And everything fit.  Even the bras.  Because he was clever enough to go to Nordstrom and have them look up my account and he got my size and favorite style.  Serious points here, folks.

We enjoyed dinner at Sotto and a champagne toast at the rooftop bar at Metropole.  The next morning he woke me up with the final surprise:  I was going to have a massage, manicure, and pedicure at the salon upstairs.  Score!

The weekend was relaxing, refreshing, and so much fun. The date night was perfect and I am so thankful for a husband who chooses to be so thoughtful and creative.

those donuts are amazing.  amazing.

For Jacob's birthday we actually headed back to Sotto with his family.  Dinner was just as wonderful, but I didn't get any pictures that night.  I did manage to snap a few pictures of his annual chicken and dumplings dinner at our house. Jacob's mom spends a whole day preparing for this wonderful dinner that holds a lot of history for the family.  She passed down the recipe this year and the kids jumped in on the cooking: