And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be THANKFUL.

Colossians 3:15

Happy Thanksgiving! Our Thanksgiving was pretty low key this year. Due to the rain, no one in the house ran the Thanksgiving Day race in the morning. Anna was sick earlier in the week with strep throat and was being treated with an antibiotic and everyone was really just relaxing in the morning enjoying each other. We headed to Matt's aunt's house around 5:30 for a nice dinner. We headed to my parents for another Thanksgiving dinner, leftover style, with Jonathan, Maria and Andrew on Saturday.

Matt took vacation for the whole week so we took advantage of "family time" and went to the zoo, the aquarium and out to eat. Matt put up the Christmas lights outside on Sunday and the girls helped a little when they woke up from their naps. It was a very nice holiday spent together. We definitely have so much to be grateful for!

Remember that Halloween "recap" I was supposed to post? Here it is only about 5 weeks late.

Pumpkin Patch and Pumpking Carving


Trick-or-Treating

It was funny when our neighbors, two doors down, walked out of the house with two cowgirls and a little 1 year old cow. I joke every year that we have the cutest costume (monkey, pumpkins) on the block, but this year we truly had the cutest cowgirl and cow on the block... I may be a little biased though :)

Lunchtime Conversations

Anna at lunch yesterday ("Maw" is Grandma Blaze and "Baw Baw" is Grandpa Blaze): "Maw is my mommy and Baw Baw is my daddy."

I reply: "Really? What about me? I'm your mommy and daddy's your daddy, right?"

Anna: "Well.....(very dragged out and in deep thought) Maw is my old mommy and Baw Baw is my old daddy."


And today at lunch ----

We were discussing what would happen if we have another baby (no we're not pregnant yet but we do want more). I was talking about how we would need to put another carseat in the backseat or maybe we would have to get a van.

Anna's reply: "I would like a van. I want a minivan. (Then her eyes got really big and excited and she continued) I want Minnie on it AND Mickey AND Daisy!"

I love these sweet everyday conversations. Who knew that all this time Anna heard the term minivan, she thought it was a MINNIE van?! ha ha ha :)

Autumn

That season between summer and winter...sometimes exists in northern Kentucky, sometimes gets lost. We were fortunate to have many warm, summer days (70 degrees) all the way up until last week which meant tons of opportunity to still be outside. That's good for us because a typical day at our house is: wake up, eat breakfast, leave the house to play outside and then return in time for nap somewhere between 1:00 and 2:00. When it's warm, you will find us outside whether at the zoo, a park or our yard. And now that it's starting to get cold, my rule is that we will be out there, even if for an hour, if it's 38 degrees or warmer. It's too much to be stuck indoors all day. So here is a photo recap from our day-to-day adventures over the last few months.

A trip to the zoo with our good friend Katie.

We love to play at the Cincinnati Nature Center!

Just relaxing for a ride around the neighborhood.

We got to have a live playdate with our friends Charlotte and Becky (and Grandma Susan) when they came home from Texas for a long weekend in September. Yay!

Eating one of our many picnic lunches at a park.

Enjoying the deck and the pond with daddy.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I'll post a little recap later. Enjoy some pictures for now!

Meeting Our Newest Nephew

Thank you mom and dad for allowing me and Matt to take a trip to South Bend by ourselves. Truly. Not only was the ride very quick -four and a half hours like it's supposed to be, but our time with Matthew and Kasey and the kids was very enjoyable and gave us total QUALITY time.

Matt and I have never been able to be Aunt and Uncle to Myla (and now Luke) without being mommy and daddy first. It was wonderful to be able to give them our full attention and of course to help Matthew and Kasey while we were there. I definitely loved my time walking Luke around the quiet, dark house singing him to sleep while Matt and Matthew watched college football and Kasey had some time to herself. Matt loved that Myla wouldn't let him put her down at the tailgate and wanted him to continue making her crack up laughing while holding and tickling her. Matt definitely had a little buddy in Myla that weekend which could never happen without his own little girls getting jealous and wanting to join in.

It was a wonderful time to visit and to meet sweet little Luke by ourselves. We're happy to have a little boy around all these girls! Can't wait for Anna and Megan to meet him in person. He's a cutie!

Smarty Pants
Yesterday, we went shopping at Kroger in Walton. On the way we passed a local shop that had handcrafted wooden rocking chairs on the front porch. I hopped out of the car to check out the child-sized chairs and told Anna and Megan that maybe we could get one for Christmas. We were getting ready for story time last night in Anna's room and she told me she wanted to get that new rocking chair. I told her that we might get one new chair for Christmas so that Megan could have one since Anna already has one with her name on it. She told me that she wanted one too. "But you already have one Anna. And it has your name on it so we can't give it to anyone else." "Yes we can! I know! Let's paint it with 'Josie' then we can give it to her!!!...and I can get a new one." :)

There was a gorgeous full moon last night. Anna told me a whole story about it as we were staring at it driving home: "Mommy, I'm going to get a rocket ship and fly up to the moon. I'm going to take it out of the sky and bring it home. I'm going to keep it in my room and look at it all the time because I like it and it's pretty." (Oh, to have that sort of innocence!!!) Maybe I'll just get her some glow in the dark stars for her ceiling. That seems a bit safer.

Tales of a Preschooler

Anna took a trip to Dick's Sporting Goods with Matt. In reply to "Anna did you have so much fun there?" she excitedly exclaimed, "I saw a road for my running shoes!!!" (The track around the shoe section.)

Anna accompanied me to my monthly Familia Trainers Meeting (my Bible study leaders meeting). She was very good and cooperative. She sat quietly playing with a few other children and didn't really bother me for the whole two hours except for a few potty breaks. I think she was sort of in her own world, zoned out watching the adults when all of a sudden she leaned over to me and in a loud whisper said, "Mommy, what was that noise by my butt?" It was hysterical and we were all cracking up. Anna got her sweet little half smile on and realized what she had done and started laughing too.

I took the girls to Kroger one afternoon. To give you a visual, I put Megan in the front seat and Anna sits in the basket and gets groceries piled around her until she's basically squating on her feet in a little ball. Anna kept telling me her butt itched and so I kept telling her to scratch it. She'd say no and I'd continue shopping. Finally, I guess she couldn't take it anymore after about three of her own refusals to scratch it. She told me again in the frozen vegetables aisle. Once again I said, "then scratch it." She stood up in the cart, pulled her shorts down to her knees and scratched her butt. Oh my goodness, I was laughing so hard I could hardly stand up. There were about three adults in the aisle laughing too. I told her to pull them up and she said, "Mommy, I told you I had to itch my butt." I guess she was trying to be polite the whole time and then finally caved in. Even Megan understood her sister was crazy and was laughing!

Meggie Moo!

This little girl deserves a post of her own. Megan is really growing into quite a little "big girl". It seems like it happened so fast. She's talking like crazy. She can say her ABC's pretty well. She can count (with many holes) to twenty. She can jump off two feet and get some air. She can sing songs.

Her verbal abilities, especially, have impressed me lately because she already speaks about herself in first person using "I" and "me". She uses prepositions such as: to, with, from, at. Of course I compare her milestones to Anna's and I'm pretty sure Anna was calling herself "Ahh-na" until well over two years old.

Megan is also becoming a pretty funny girl. Matt and I have already deemed her the family comedian. She loves to be silly and deliberately try to make us laugh. She will say things in funny voices or with funny tones. She will jump up to be in the spotlight if we aren't paying attention and do something funny to get herself noticed. Even though Anna doesn't always appreciate the way Megan gets in her face to be funny, she loves her baby sister and is definitely entertained by her. Megan is always making us laugh and has the best sense of humor.

She is also one of the sweetest, most loving kids you'll meet. Her hugs will melt you and are better than most adults I know. If you have the privilege of holding little Megs, ask her to give you a hug - you'll see, it's the greatest!