Connor kicking a ball in the fall

What

a

beautiful

fabulouswonderfully

warm

fall

day

tolaugh

and

kick

a

ball

run

and

play!

Pumpkin carving

Connor watching TV

Just hanging out

Watching a little

TV in comfort!

Fall

Fun

with

a

fabulous

family

that

I

Love

so

very

much!

We

had

such

a

great

day

laughing

and

playing

with

each

other.

Maggie and Bad dreams

Lately Maggie has been having a lot of bad dreams. She has been wandering into our room in the middle of the night looking for comfort and hopes of climbing into our bed. With patience, most of the time, we lovingly walk her back to her room. We tuck her back in, give kisses, and rub her back for a minute or two. Or we hear her crying out and go in to comfort her. Then we go back to our bed and hope that the rest of the night offers more rest for her and for us.

I seem to recall both her older sister and brother going through a bad dream phase around this age. It will pass. She will learn to "deal" better with her dreams when she wakes up. In time.

So yesterday Maggie, Ben and I were driving in the car headed to school and I was telling Maggie that Daddy was picking her up. She said she already knew and that Daddy had told her that in the middle of the night when she was crying from her bad dream. That then led to a conversation about her bad dreams that went like this...

Maggie: I have been having a lot of bad dreams at night. They are only when I sleep though, not when I'm awake.

Me: I know, why? What are the bad dreams about?

Maggie: Well, the bad dream last night was about me getting fried dough with sugar on it. I went to the sink to wash my hands and Katelyn was there. Then my fried dough fell in the sink and the water washed all the sugar off.

Me: Oh, really, that was why you were crying? Because your fried dough fell in the sink and the powdered sugar washed off?

Maggie: Yeah, that was my bad dream.

I had to keep myself from laughing! The more I thought about it though, I am so glad that her mind is so innocent and this is what her bad dream was about. There is so much terrible stuff in our world but Maggie is still naive to it. Honestly I think I am still so naive to it.

I hope to keep our kids safe and some what sheltered for as long as possible. I hope to keep their bad dreams about fried dough catastrophes and not "real catastrophes"...

Our family came to watch soccer

And the kids were very excited about it!

Even Great Grammy came and braved the cold to watch her great grandchildren play soccer.

Nana lives in the same town as us and rarely misses a game but it is still wonderful to have her there.

Watching Katelyn kick a corner kick was just one of the parts of soccer our family witnessed today.

Connor getting right in there and being very into and aggressive with the ball was another.

It was a cold and windy day but we enjoyed it anyway.

The kids loved having the adults watching but I think even more than that it was so much fun to have their big cousins there too.

I just love this picture of my niece Julia and Maggie. They look so much alike!

Thanks for coming to the game everyone! We hope it was worth the trip across the country for some and across the state for others! I know it was worth it for us!

Grammy and Grampy brought lollipops

Papa, Chris' dad who passed away almost four years ago, would love these pictures and this post! It's funny, when my parents gave these lollipops to my kids the other day I had such bitter-sweet feelings running through me.
You see, when Adam was alive he bought a bunch of these lollipops that contain real scorpions and passed them out to friends, family, and others. He loved to "shock" people with unique and, at times, gross things.
So when my parents, who are visiting from Arizona, gave these to my kids and my kids just loved them, I felt a pang of sadness that Adam wasn't here. This is a moment that he would have loved to share with his grandchildren.

Thankfully Grammy and Grampy are here and were able to enjoy the moment with them.

Well, my mom was pretty grossed out as she didn't think the kids could actually eat them but I think she still enjoyed the moment.

But, yes they are edible, and of course these creepy crawly loving children of mine wanted to eat them.

For a few minutes at least.

Then they tried to figure out ways to get the scorpion out of the lollipop.

I am not sure exactly how they got the idea of running them under water but it worked.

Well, water and some very gentle fingers!

What fun for my creepy crawly loving monkeys! Thanks Grammy and Grampy!