October in Pictures

For us, life with a new baby means not doing a whole lot for a while.  We did jump back into some things pretty quickly but spent plenty of time just hanging out.

One day Carter kept unzipping his jammies and walking around like this.  All he needed was some chest hair sticking out!

 Ethan was channeling his inner D.J. one day.

 One afternoon when Ashton stopped crying I came out to find him sucking on his fingers like this.  I thought he might be starting a habit, but it seems to have been a one-time thing.

 One night in his glider Ashton had his hands up over his eyes like this.  But we were sitting down on the floor so all we saw was...

 this.  It was really funny.  Or maybe we were just delirious!

 Ashton loved his first real bath--until he had to get out!

 We were lucky to continue to have decent weather, so Tristan took the boys out for several walks around the neigborhood.  They found this pond over by the new construction and decided to go "fishing"!

 And this tree that fell during a freak wind storm made the perfect fort!

 Tristan left for his first hitch back at work mid-October.  I had to be pretty creative on how to help them burn energy.  So bike-riding in the garage had to do!

 Our nightly fact time with Tristan turned into story time.  He has been volunteering at the local library and picked out some books to read to the boys over face time to help keep them busy.  What a good dad!

 Ashton turned 1 month old on October 20th!

 When Tristan got back, we helped the boys paint their pumpkins.  Tristan and I never finished ours this year...there's always next year!

 One chilly afternoon we ventured out and took all three boys to the park.  Tristan was helping Carter hang from the tree branches.

 And he was also helping the boys shake the fall leaves off of the trees.  They had so much fun!

All in all the boys did really well with keeping things pretty low-key for a while.  Life with a baby is so crazy and they have done a great job of adjusting!

Visiting the Pumpkin Patch

The second week of October we decided to head to the pumpkin patch to get ready for Halloween!  We decided to go back to Schilter Family Farms because the boys had so much fun there last year.  I was a little concerned when we got there because there were two school buses in the parking lot and I was thinking it was going to be really crowded, but we were able to navigate around the big groups without too many problems.

We hit up the hay playground first because there was no one there at the time.  Ethan hung out inside while Tristan and Carter explored upstairs.

The boys found this huge pumpkin and took turns trying to roll it.  Neither had any luck!

Climbing the hay pyramid

They're getting so big!

We hit up the petting zoo next!  Carter was very interested in the baby chicks.

Holding the kittens

Kisses!

Hangin' out with the pigs!

Time to navigate the hay maze!

The boys loved the hay loft last year.  They didn't spend as much time there this year, but they still had some fun throwing hay...

...and taking some leaps into the pile!

Cheese!

They were covered in hay by the time we finished!

This year one of their favorites was the huge sand table.  I think it's probably because Tristan took their sandbox apart for the winter a few weeks ago.  They are going through major sand withdrawals!

Tractor ridin' in the sunshine.  I was so glad it warmed up a little after a while.  I was a little worried about Ashton getting cold even though I had him really bundled and he was in the Ergo.  The sunshine was so nice!

The new slides were another favorite this year.  They were super fast and Carter didn't want to go down at all at first.  But after going down with Tristan a few times he loved it!

Carter coming out spread eagle!

Ethan had a little better form!

Pumpkin bowling

Trying out the saddle

We left our lunch in the car so we decided to just eat it there.  Those were some hungry boys!

After lunch we caught the wagon for the hay ride.

Checking out the trees on the tree farm

Then we grabbed a wheelbarrow and headed out to the pumpkin patch!

One happy boy!

Tristan showing Carter the corn

We decided to skip the corn maze this year, mostly because it was time for Ashton to eat again.  We will have to explore the maze next year!

Ethan hitched a ride out to the pumpkin patch with Ashton.

The boys looking for the perfect pumpkin

After 4 hours of playing, laughing and exploring we finally headed home with 5 perfect pumpkins!  Tristan had to leave a couple of days later, so painting would have to wait until closer to Halloween!  It was such a beautiful fall day and we had lots of fun together!

Changes

For some reason it seems that whenever one thing changes in our home, many things change in our home.  So it should have been no surprise that when Ashton was born Carter would also decided to learn to crawl out of his crib and wreak havoc on bedtime.  One Sunday evening we had an unseasonably early storm blow through and we lost power.  Well, while I was sitting out here with Tristan we watched Carter wander down the hallway...Ah, the joys of toddler beds.

So the next day Tristan moved the crib Carter was in into the nursery and put up our other crib into a toddler bed.  Carter thought it was so fun to have an actual bed.  And, just like Ethan instead of just climbing onto the bed through the opening he felt like he needed to crawl over the small guard rail.  So silly!

Here they are all ready for bedtime in Carter's big boy bed.

Our new, big boy!

Overall he has done o.k. with the change.  For a while I had to put the baby gate up so he wouldn't come out of his room, but he learned how to crawl over it.  So now most nights we just leave his light on and he looks at books until he falls asleep.  We are still working through the bumps but he is doing MUCH better with it than I thought he would.

The boys are adjusting pretty well to a new baby brother.  We are definitely dealing with some attention-seeking behavior, but they LOVE Ashton and always want to help me hold him and entertain him.  One morning Tristan had to leave and I was back in the bedroom drying my hair.  When I came out I found the boys with Ashton on the ground.  They had brought in a bin of toys and were playing with him.  Ethan proudly informed me they were having "an Ashton party".    Ashton parties are a pretty regular thing around here now!

Ashton at 2 weeks old

We are still working through the new life routine, but Ashton is such a sweet boy and we all love him so, so much.  I'm so grateful our boys are so in love with their little brother.