Late September evening

We enjoyed a relaxing late September weekend with great weather and not much on the schedule - just what we needed!

Ignore the mismatched outfits and overgrown grass. Aren't these 3 awesome? Really loving our little family right now.

Patrick LOVED the swing!

You can almost see all 4 teeth in this one.

Doesn't everyone wear PJ's and a tutu to play outside?

What a big kid!

And these are purely from fancy-pants Ellie Kate. Someday she'll love me for posting these :) This ensemble was all her own: Cinderella gown, multiple bracelets, pink sequin headband and plastic cell phone.

This princess means business!

"No, Mommy, I will not smile."

Halloween parade, parties, and more

Last week the kids trick-or-treated around Justin's office. We'll be eating that candy for months! Will had a great time, though. Elle did fine, but mostly wanted to be held.

Will is a pirate ("Arrghh! Shiver me timber!") and Elle is a Michigan cheerleader ("Go Blue!").
We had another party this weekend that we got to go to for a little bit. The kids had such fun playing! But believe me, it is nearly impossible to get a good picture of the two of them right now!

Will got his haircut the other night and they styled it like a mohawk. He looked pretty cute, but there's no way I'm really styling his hair every day!

I will, however, spend time styling Ellie Kate's hair if it keeps it out of her eyes! I found this cute headband for her and was amazed at how long she kept it in. These are just some cute shots of her being a big girl at the table.

Finally, just some shots before we headed to the KU homecoming game. Yes, we're still going to all the football games. It's really character building, I think. We're teaching Will how to be a graciuos loser. I don't know how many times I've explained that "We're learning and trying really hard. If we keep trying, I bet we'll win someday." The other night we had another college football game on TV and Will asked if it was the Jayhawks. When we told him no, he said "oh, is it real football?" I know he didn't mean it that way, but J & I both had to laugh. Regardless, they look very cute at the games and we have fun win or lose...but more fun if we'd win!

Aren't her ribbon jeans so cute?!

Hair-do's and Monkey Bizness

The hot water heater does not appear to be working...Justin is downstairs working on that. Let's hope this goes ok...

Yesterday Will went to a friend's birthday party at Little Monkey Bizness. He was mostly in an "I need a nap. I'm going to disagree with everything you say." mood, but he did play a little.


Ellie's hair is long enough now that I can play with it a little. I've learned I have to be very quick putting in ponytails, not to worry about straight parts or off-centered pigtails, and that the high chair (with food to distract) is the best place to style.
Yesterday was the single side pony with a ribbon bow - yay! (I think her little mouth is so cute in this picture!)


Today we tried little pigtails. These didn't stay in quite as long.


And I do believe we have a walker now. Elle has been stringing together several steps and does really well when she doesn't think about it. If she focuses on it, she's still pretty shaky. Now on to the vocabulary. The screaming until we figure out what she wants (usually a carb-filled snack of some kind) is getting pretty old.
No booms from the basement yet. I guess that's a good sign.