Enjoying Fall

We've been having a great, busy fall.  Baby James sprouted his first tooth (finally!) about a week ago and is working on his second. Hannie got her very own bike a few days ago and is learning how to ride. Charis is moving right along in school and having fun in music class and skating every week. Bethany is along for the ride, having a good time trying to do all the things her sisters do, but still wanting to play "tiny baby" from time to time and be rocked and snuggled.  Here are some pics!

Baby's first fall!

Hannie's new haircut (and a bunch of clean laundry)

Ridin' bikes

Coach Daddy trying to teach the girls to ride. This was too cute.

Nathanael loved sitting in my lap on the swings at the playground

New bike...Surprise - it's pink!

Her "thinking face"

They're dressed alike again!

Silly faces with the Mercers. They left us to go to Australia for a month! What will we do without the play dates?!

Playing wedding. Sssshhh, don't tell Mike. ;) 

Career Day

Today was career day at Charis' music class. She decided she wanted to be a teacher. A public school teacher, she wanted to clarify. 

Bessamie

Little Bethy Michael (aka "Bessamie" or "Bessie Michael" as she calls herself) celebrated her second birthday today with a family party and her favorite part: CAKE and ice keems!

Her current interests include playing with baby dolls, getting into mischief, and scattering an assortment of objects around the living room floor several times a day.  (Wipes, DVD's, toy food, chewed up carrots, you name it). 

Seriously though, this baby girl has been an absolute joy to our family.  She has such a sweet spirit and the cutest sense of humor that keeps us all laughing with her new sentences.  She tries to keep up with her big sisters when they play together and do school work, but she is definitely still everyone's baby here.

Next on the agenda: potty training!!

They were more excited about a pack of Smarties than anything else!

The candles really messed up this picture, but that expression was priceless.  The three girls helped make the cake earlier this morning, and she was very excited about tasting it!   

Trying to blow out the candles with "fffffffff"

"Is dis my phone? Who's calling?"

Opening presents

I can never get a picture...

...of all three sitting still and smiling at the same time.

Crayons in the Dryer, Buttons in the Nose... and Pink in the Eyes?!?!?!

There have been a million times in the past six weeks that I've wanted to write and post pictures, but time simply doesn't allow much blogging lately.  I have a few moments now while all four of our pink-eyed children are napping, so I'll try to update a bit.

That's right, we're treating all four kids for conjunctivitis (YUCK!).  Neither Mike nor I have ever experienced the joys of this highly infectious pest prior to the past 10 days.  We're dropping antibiotics into all 8 eyeballs religiously, and popping candy corn into 3 of the little mouths afterwards.  So far it works. 

We've still managed to keep up with school and have fun on these beautiful fall weekends.  Here are some highlights. 

 This boy is as sweet as sugar.

 Hannie has started using training-skates and running in the sock races on Thursdays! 

 Best buds.

 Inflatable wonderland in the mall.  You can bet we brought our sanitizer!

 We bought season 2 of Little House.

 Out for a walk.

 Charis (see her?) started her first little music class, a bell choir!  It's cute, cute. 

 Yo.  This boy sits up and eats baby food.  No teeth yet, no crawling yet, but sporting a very cool teething necklace.

 Snuggle time!

 Big James & Little Jamesy

 We got to meet baby Claire and see Erin & Robert!  We also saw Aunt Sally & Susannah that weekend, and I failed to take any pics! 

 After Daddy mows, the girls get a slurpee. That's fair, right?

 Poor baby woke up with red eyes yesterday. :(

 Moustache straws!  That's great!

We're gearing up for some great extended family time during the holidays over the next few months!