So Much to Catch Up On!

We have been so busy lately and I've been slacking on the blog. I'm going to try and catch up the next few days.


Cade had his first Delta swim meet October 16th. Here he is relaxing at home before he had to be there.

We were all there to cheer for Cade!

Emalyn was a good girl and had fun at the meet.

Cade did so awesome! He is in the far lane and you can see he was far ahead in the race. He won all but one of his heats and placed in the top 8 in 5 of the 7 races. He was disqualified in the 100 IM for some reason. We're still rookies at the whole swim team thing but we are so proud of him and happy that he is enjoying it so much.

All smiles with one of his prizes in hand after one of the races. This particular meet gave prizes for the winner of each heat.

Maddi was so excited for Cade and she would go down on the deck after each race to congratulate him. The boy he is sitting by is his same age. We couldn't believe he was 8! He is so tiny and Cade is so big, they look so funny together.

Cade's biggest fans (minus dad) after the first day of the meet.

Thanks Columbus!

Thanks to Christopher Columbus, the kids were out of school Monday so we decided to go to the Morton Arboretum with some friends. Cade has been there a few times and wanted to go this summer but it was always too hot or raining when we had planned to go so we never went there. I wasn't sure what it would be like, but it was wonderful! I think everyone in the Chicago area went there on Monday, but once we got inside it wasn't too crowded.

Maddi and Emma had fun playing in the childrens garden area.

Emalyn loved the water fountains and was trying to crawl in them. Silly girl!

Such a big girl.

It was so hard to get a decent picture of the three little munchkins.

Another try at a picture, but not so great. Cade looks like he's angry and hurting Emalyn and she looks like she is holding on to them to save her life. I promise that's not really what happened.

Emalyn thought playing with the pumpkins was really fun.

The big kids thought painting the pumpkins was fun. It was a great fall day with so many fun things to do. Our favorite things were the caramel apples, pumpkins, childrens garden play areas, and the mazes. We never did make it to the lake to see the scarecrows even though we were there for almost 5 hours.

I threw these pictures in to show how good Cade and Emalyn play together. Maddi is often at dance so it's just the two of them at home and Cade is such a great big brother to Emma.

You can see they were both having a blast as Cade pulled Emma around the kitchen on a card board box.

Times like these make my heart melt.

Running and Scarecrows

Friday the kids had a Fun Run at school for their school fundraiser. Maddi's class was the last in their grade to start and she was near the end of the pack and after the first lap around the school she was almost at the front of the pack. She thought it was a race and was passing everyone trying to win the race. She thought it was 2 laps around the school.

It was actaually 20 minutes of running and she ended up doing 8 laps. Probably about 1 1/2 to 2 miles! After a few laps, most of the kids would run really fast when they were by the parents and then they'd walk around the rest of the way until they got back to the parents and then they'd run really fast. So funny!

This is Cade's class with Mr. Struck, the teacher, before they started the warm ups and running. Emalyn was napping when Maddi's class started so I didn't get a picture of her class.

Cade did 8 laps in 20 minutes as well. The kids in his grade did the same thing with running in front of the parents and then walking. After school the kids were talking and they said it shouldn't be called the fun run because it wasn't fun. Ha ha!

Emalyn and her friend, Jack, were cheering their brothers on during the fun run.

Cade poured his water bottle over his head when he was finished to try and cool off.

Cade wanted to take Emma over to see his class after the race because he's a proud big brother!

Saturday we went to the Scarecrow Festival in St. Charles. We got there early when it wasn't very crowded yet and we all had a great time. First stop was for tatoos for the girls. This was Emalyn's first tatoo!

Emalyn's tatoo says "Girls Rule"! She didn't notice it for a long time, but when she finally did, she tried to pick it off.

There was a very cool Lego Train display. Apparently there is a Northern Illiinois Lego Train Club that puts this together. I don't know why, but I think it's so odd for grown men to be so "into" Legos. However, I can also see Cade as part of this club when he's old enough. Hee hee.

This is the Millenium Falcon that Cade has wanted for years. It's only like $500, not sure whey he hasn't gotten it yet.

The kids were enjoying making crafts and eating their lollipops. This was the tie dye butterfly.

Emalyn enjoyed watching all the people and I think this smile was because she saw a doggy. There were so many dogs and many of them were dressed in costumes. I can't imagine ever wanting to take my pet to a festival, but whatever, it entertained our kids.

The next craft was a pinecone bird feeder. They don't make them with peanut butter anymore, they use crisco. Too many kids have peanut allergies and they said peanut butter isn't good for the birds either. Who knew?!?

These were some of our favorite scarecrows.

Noah's Ark was mechanical and the animals popped out and talked. I'm not sure how that's a scarecrow, but it was very cool!

Cade liked the swimmer scarecrow.

We all liked Shrek!

Maddi liked the upside down scarecrow!

I liked the scarecrow that looked like me! Maddi pointed it out to me that it looked like me. It was for a store called Jeans and Cute Tops. We actually passed this store walking to the festival and I commented that it was a cute name for a store and I'd love to go back and shop there.

We all had a great time, as usual, at the Scarecrow Festival! Fall is such a great time of year here in the Midwest.

11 Months!

Someone is very happy to be 11 months old! I'm kind of struggling with trying to wrap my mind around how in the world she can be so close to one year old!

This little surprise baby has been such a wonderful surprise and we have enjoyed every day of her life.

How could you not love that little chunk!?! She is losing some of her baby rolls since she's so active now. Don't know how much she weighs, but I doubt she's gained weight lately. She has definitely gotten taller. She still loves to eat and she gets really excited when we walk through the produce section at the grocery store. She says "mmmmmmm" and almost shakes while saying it because she is so excited seeing all the food! She likes everything, but she LOVES blueberries, oranges, pizza, cinnamon bread, yogurt, and Chick Fil A chicken.

She is learning to share and will find things and bring them over to me. Here she is sharing her stacker piece. She loves to push things around, like her baby stroller, but also the laundry basket, her stacking pieces, tupperware, empty boxes, anything she can find. She also likes to throw balls on the wood floor and chase after them. Emalyn LOVES music and dances to any and every sound. She even dance if we sing to her. She has a little baby ipod that we keep in the car for her to play with and she cracks up when it recites the Little Piggies or Patty Cake.

Look at those little chompers! Still just 5 teeth. I keep waiting for more to pop up, but they haven't yet. I am told on a daily basis how much she looks like her daddy from friends. I could eat her with a spoon, she is stinking cute and sweet. We are all really enjoying this age.

Emalyn's hair is getting a bit longer, but not much. It has some serious curls at times, but other times not so much. You can see her one side seems to have more curl than the other. Maddi and I have the same thing. Weird.

She is getting such a great sense of humor. When we stick our tongue out at her she laughs and sticks her out too. She thinks it's really funny when Brett puts her bow in his hair. She mildly chuckles when I put it in my hair but she cracks up when Brett does. How does she know that boys don't wear bows?

Emalyn loves to go outside and has starting screaming and jumping in her seat when she "drives" her car to school to get the kids. She waves to everyone she sees, it's like she's in a parade. Maddi and Cade are always so happy to see her after school and if she's asleep, they can't wait for her to wake up.

She points all the time at things she likes. This time she's pointing at her favorite little doggy, Cocoa! She has a sweet little coo that she makes when she's happy and snuggly. Brett says she sounds like a dove when she does it. It melts our heart.

As sweet as she is, she is starting to assert her opinion about things. She is showing off how she's learning to throw a fit. She will cry and lay her head down on the floor when she's mad. LOVE IT! Happy 11 months Emalyn Faith!

Taking Steps!

Look who's taking steps!!! Emalyn took her first steps on Saturday. The most she has taken is 4 at a time. Tonight all 5 of us were in Emalyn's room before she went to bed and she was taking steps back and forth to me and Brett. The kids were ecstatic and were cheering and clapping like crazy. Then Emalyn would get all excited and squeal and clap for herself too. It's just so fun to see Maddi and Cade enjoy the milestones Emalyn is going through and be excited for her because it seems like yesterday that Brett and I were watching Maddi and Cade experience the same milestones.

I could never ask for two more precious daughters!

Emalyn's little spider bow, that she was not happy about having in her hair.

Cocoa better learn to run when this girl gets walking!

Stinker loves to take out her bows now. Naughty, naughty!

I think she's looking at me here to make sure I saw that she just threw her bow down on the ground.

I love that she's wearing Maddi's black dress shoes from when Maddi was her age. I kept those shoes all these years because Maddi used them for her baby dolls. NEVER did I imagine I'd be using those adorable shoes on another baby girl. Love that!

Funny picture from behind. She makes me laugh! Right now we are all excited for her to walk. I know in a few weeks when she's running, we will all wish she never learned to walk. Ha ha! At least we'll have Maddi and Cade to help us chase her around.