November Pictures

We started off the month of November blessing Ashton.  We were glad to share the day with Rich and Allisha who were blessing Cody as well.  Our friend, Christie Marlatt (who did our family pictures last year) was there and she was nice enough to snap a few pictures for us with her camera.

 Ashton was about a month and a half old in this picture.

The whole crew!  I think Ethan's hands are funny in this picture.  He likes to talk with his hands and he was super excited to take a picture with his buddies Skyler and Dylan and so I'm pretty sure he was starting to say something.  Love my silly boy!

We were grateful that both my mom and dad and Tristan's family were able to make it for the blessing as well.  We snapped some pictures with the grandparents and aunts and uncles since we were all together.

My mom and dad with the boys

 Desiree, Annette, Nicole and Kelsey with the boys.  I love how Ashton's hands was up in the air.  Like he's saying, "Don't forget me!"

 Poor lighting, but here's an "awake picture" from later in the day.

 The boys love their little brother and like to help as much as I will let them.  Carter especially loves to help hold his bottle for him.

 Grandma Bernard brought over some yummy chocolate cake one night and, as you can see, Carter loved it!

 When Tristan is gone the boys get creative in their indoor play...they really like to use my pots and pans as drums.  This is the scene many days at our house...

 Look at that enthusiasm.  Maybe they'll take after their Uncle Kelsey and play the drums when they're older.

 This is Ashton at about 2 months.  At this point he started to get super smiley and has stayed that way. This was the best shot I could get that day.

 Poor lighting, but a cute little face!

 Tristan volunteers at the volunteer fire department when he's in Louisiana.  They had an event one evening while he was there and he brought back some goodies for the boys, including these fun fire hats.

 There were also toy cars (a big hit around here) and rubber ducks along with some coloring books.  The boys were really excited by the presents dad brought home with him.

End of Fall Fun

We had a beautiful Fall this year.  We didn't have much rainy weather so we got to enjoy being outside.  There was one afternoon that was SUPER windy.  We couldn't find our kites, so we improvised and tied some string to plastic bags.  The boys had lots of fun catching wind in them and running around burning lots of energy. I had to stay in with little Ashton, but I had fun looking at the pictures and watching out the window!

 Pure joy!

 Another afternoon I decided to take the boys out to take advantage of the leaves blown down by all of that wind.  We went on a "leaf hunt" to make some wreaths out of leaves later on that afternoon.

Ethan found a big one!

 Exploring together!

 Cheese!

 The colors were so pretty and there were so many to choose from.

 One afternoon Tristan took the boys out to explore the woods and burn some energy.  He got some beautiful shots of the scenery.  I love how beautiful it is here!

 They boys had lots of fun exploring.

I'm so glad that my boys love to be outside, no matter what the weather.  It's fun to see them enjoy playing outside together!

Halloween

We were glad to have Tristan home for Halloween.  We started out the day with a few fun plans, but ended up having a jam-packed day!

I got some special cereal for breakfast to have with some "ghost bananas".

 That's one happy boy over that chocolate cereal!

 Allisha and I had been trying to coordinate a get together so I could meet little Cody (born a couple of weeks after Ashton).  Halloween ended up being a good day, so we had the boys over.  They played, watched a Halloween movie and joined us for our traditional Halloween lunch--mummy dogs!

 Allisha and I got some time to visit and play with the babies while the boys were busy playing.

 Ethan had preschool that afternoon and afterward we headed over to my parents' house to go trick-or-treating.  We didn't stay long (and shamefully didn't take any pictures) because we had been invited to the Madill's to have pizza.  We headed over to their house and had fun visiting and eating and we got a quick family shot while we were there.  The boys chose matching army costumes, so we decided to get in on the fun as a family.

 After pizza we headed over to the church for the annual trunk-or-treat.  Standing at attention while they waited for the signal to go get that candy!

 I love how they are grinning at their dad and brother in this one!

After trunk-or-treating we headed over to the Nelson's house for some hot scones fresh out of their garage.  They are so nice to do it for all of the trick-or-treaters that come through their neighborhood.  They are super yummy and we got to visit with some of our favorite people.  Finally, we were off to Tristan's mom's house to do some trick-or-treating there.  She had lots of fun snacks waiting for them (again, no pictures...).  After our visit we were all pretty wiped out from all of the fun so we headed home for bed.  It was a great day and the boys talked about Halloween for days afterward!

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!