Catching You Up

We've been busy since I posted last time. Nick, Joni, Kale and Brady came and visited for Thanksgiving. Brandy and Henry's first (Thanksgiving!).We had so much fun! The kids all had a great time together. Aunt Kathy bravely watched all 6 kids so the adults we could go to a play at Randy's work. And Joni and I shopped, shopped, shopped Friday - it was great! Here's a few pictures of our time together.








The Sunday after Thanksgiving we decked the halls, inside and out. It actually went pretty well. The kids stopped to watch Charlie Brown Christmas in the middle of the decorating, and Randy and I finished up decorating that night.


For the first time Henry shared a bath with his big sister. There was lots of laughing and splashing!

Sophia's Birthday and Stuff

Sophia with her Cinderella cake, and I guess on your birthday silverware is optional.


The 3 blondies (Aunt Kathy, Sophia, and Cinderella).


Max in Sophia's new princess snuggie from Aunt Donna,Uncle Steve and Heidi.


The family complete with Randy trying on Sophia's Princess Presto's crown.



Last Monday Alex and Max had their rain gutter regatta. They had a good time building and paining them and then raced each other for their first race. Alex won the race, but even so Max took it in stride. They both had a lot o fun.

Last Wednesday

Here's one of the kids in front of part of the lake. (Henry's with me in the pack)


All of us at the end of our little hike.




Here are some photos the kids wanted to include because they took them. (Alex took the middle one, Max did the other two.)

Last Wednesday Alex and Max had the day off school for Veteran's Day. So the kids and I headed out to Beaver Lake for part of the day. We had a lot of fun, tromping through the woods and checking out the (used to be alive, now stuffed)animals inside.

Henry is sitting!

Henry sat by himself Wednesday (and happened to be in the same outfit Alex was in the first day he sat by himself. I remember the picture). He was also up on his hands and knees today but fell as soon as he tried to move. So he has almost begun crawling!


Oh, yeah and it snowed here Friday!

Happy Halloween !

Max, Alex's and Sophia's pumpkins(she said "I want a super spooky one".)





Carving and posing with their pumpkins. You see, Henry had a pumpkin, but the squirrels got to it right away and almost half of the back of it was eaten, so his didn't get carved.


All our trick-or-treaters. It has become traditon that our friend Holly and her daughter, Clari, trick or treat with us most years. So Clari is the rock star in the group. Sophia is Cinderella, Henry is a ghost, Alex is a clonetropper and Max was a stormtropper.

Happy Halloween !

While the big kids were trick-or-treating, Henry was swinging.

Randy's Birthday

Last Friday was Randy's birthday! Now he's 35! We took him out to eat and had angel food cake for desert. The kids made him a birthday sign and here they are with him on his big day.

We also started giving Henry baby biscuits and he LIKES them! We're pretty sure we saw his first temper tantrum when he dropped one and wanted it back.

The last few weeks

Here's a sneak peek at the boys in their Halloween costumes. Just last Monday they had a little party for boyscouts.

We were back in Iowa at the beginning of the month. Randy and I were honored to be Brady's (Nick and Join's new son) godparents!

I got the best present for my birthday- being in Iowa with family! Randy's little brother got married that weekend. Yeah! I didn't get many pictures but here's one of the kids before the wedding.

October

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since September. We've been too busy having fun and making a quick trip to Iowa for Randy's little brother Joe and our now official sister-in-law Renee's wedding, as well as Brady's baptism and being surprised Henry just turned 7 months! I'm too tired to post pictures tonight, but they will be coming. :)

Chimney Bluffs

A whole bunch cub scouts.

Alex, Max and their friend Anthony on the shore where they threw in a ton of rocks.



Alex, Max and I went to Chimney Bluffs State Park with some of the cub scouts. It was pretty amazing. First we walked along Lake Ontario shore, and were at the bottom of these huge dirt formations. Then we went up along a path so we were looking down at these formations - which were cause by erosion. The pictures don't do it justice - another good reason to visit to see these things. It was a great day.

Last weekend

Here it is Thursday and I'm just posting pictures from last weekend. Oh, well. We had a fun weekend, but couldn't seem to remember our camera. Friday was an all school picnic. The kids had a lot of fun. Especially Alex, since he got a chance to just play with all his buddies. Max saw his teacher and ran up to her and gave her a big hug, that was nice to see.
Saturday we went to a mid-evil fair kind of thing at a local museum with the other boy in Alex's boyscout troope. Again we forgot the camera. It was fun, the highlight was probably seeing the life size trebuchet break in half. Opps!
Sunday we got to go to Dale's sister's grandson's (Timothy) birthday party (did you follow that?). It was a great day for it out by Lake Ontario, we had a fun time.
And Henry decided he really likes his exersaucer.

6 months old

Henry turned 6months old Sunday!


In honor of turning 6 months we started feeding him something other than baby cereal. You can see he's not so sure about green beans. ( I got a much better reaction from peas today.)

But he does like his bumbo seat.

First Days of School

Well the kids and I just got back from a trip to Iowa on Tuesday (9/8) and the day after we got home school started for Alex. And although I have pictures to share of the trip I thought school photos should take precedence. Alex's first day was Wednesday (9/9) he came home with a big smile and said he had a great day! Max had kindergarten orientation that day for an hour, and parents we expected to be there and we were. Max was really nervous and threw up 3 times on the way into the classroom. But on his first day Friday (1/2 the class went Thursday the other 1/2 Friday) he was excited and smiling and came home smiling saying he had a great day too.


Here they are getting ready for the big day.


Here's Alex on his first day (9/9). Grandma and Grandpa Steffen were still here for his big day. (Out of the generosity of their very big hearts they helped the kids and I get to and from Iowa)


Max on his first day of kindergarten (9/10).

Sophia in a sleepy daze watching her brothers get on the bus.