Pumpkin Carving Time

It gets more fun every year as the kids get older. And yes that's a knife in my hand and I look like I'm crazy. Watch out for mommy!

I just love that her hair has gotten long enough for pigtails.

The finished products...Dillon's is a ghost at the bottom. His light flashes on and off so I had a hard time getting it in good light. Cameron's light inside changes from red to blue to green. Pretty cool.

State Fair Fun

We went on our 2nd annual trip to the NC State Fair yesterday. On the way home I asked the kids what their favorite part was. They said, "Everything!"

Cameron and Emily get ready to fly.

Mommy, Lilly, and Dillon on a ride. I was really surprised how much Lilly loved the rides. No fear!

Dillon, Cameron, Joe, and Lilly going down the slide.

A family favorite...watching the BMX Bike show! These guys were amazing!

Watching in the stands...

Joe, Emily, and Cameron up in the top row of Pharaoh's Fury. It went very high. (Cameron was scared.)

Emily poses with the amazing plants. She is growing up too fast.

My favorite: the yummy food! We had corn dogs, a steak sandwich, a bloomin' onion, cotton candy, and candy apples.

Can't wait for next year. I love that the kids are out of school during all these fun fall activities!

Lilly is a true girl

One of Lilly's favorite things to do with her sister, Emily, is to get her toenails painted. While everyone was downstairs getting ready for dinner, Lilly apparently decided to take matters into her own hands for the first time.

I realized it when she called for mom and held her hands out at me through the banister on the stairs. When I came to her, her fingers looked like this...

And her toes looked like this...

When I went up to my bathroom, the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been. There was some nail polish on the bathroom floor and the toilet and a little on the stairs. And the nail polish was not in an easily accessible spot. Let's just say she did some climbing and maneuvering to get to it. Amazingly, she painted every single toenail and fingernail all by herself! And didn't even get any on her Sunday dress. What an independent little girl!

Here's her "I'm tired and I just got caught" pose...

And here's her "Look what fun I had" pose...

The kids are tracked out and we're looking forward to 3 weeks of fall fun! I'll post a little more often to show our adventures. Thank goodness I have my energy back for them.

Thank you, Baby!

Running on less energy the last few months has been frustrating. I've had to focus on the essentials and let other things I wish I could do just slide. Not fun. Usually I'm crossing things off my to-do list in the afternoon and evening, but that hasn't happened in a long time. Making me feel a little down on my self.

Then, things started happening lately that have helped me regain my perspective. First, a little bump and a thought of "Was that the baby?" Little bumps have turned into harder and more regular kicks. I'm so grateful to get these gentle reminders from my baby every once in a while to remind me why my body is so tired. It will pass and for now I have to accept it. It sure does help to have a baby tapping me every once in a while to say hello and remind me of what I'm doing.

I'm very excited for my ultrasound in a couple of weeks. We're not finding out what we're having, but it's so nice for us to see a glimpse of the baby. Joe will be able to go, and we're going to take Dillon and Lilly so this becomes a little more real for them, too.

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Look what greeted Joe this morning when he went to take the trash out to the curb. He said it's the biggest spider he's seen in North America. (I don't want to know what he saw in Brazil!) To give you perspective, it was about the size of his palm. Yuck! I'm glad he took out the trash today!

A Sunday Walk

We continue to find treasured spots around where we live to walk and explore. We walked the trail around Lake Pine here in Apex. Unfortunately, we weren't sure how long the trail was so we turned back just before we hit a mile. Turns out the trail was 2 miles. We'll know next time. We saw lots of turtles, ducks, and geese. The kids loved it, and it was a great way to get out and enjoy nature on a Sunday afternoon.

The girls...

The boys...

And some ponytail cuteness...

Updates

A quick update so I don't let the blog slip away into oblivion...

I'm almost 13 weeks pregnant now. I can't wear any regular pants although no strangers have asked me if I'm pregnant yet. :) My nausea in the evening has vanished (thank goodness!), but I am still soooooo tired. Everyone keeps saying, well you do have 4 kids, but I think it's really just different this time with this pregnancy. So, for now, I lay down every afternoon and am ready for bed just after the kids go to sleep at 8. Rest is good, right???

The garage door opener was found and a new cell phone was bought. Guess we'll be eating with chopsticks eventually! :)

I'm looking forward to a great little day trip with my mom tomorrow. More on that to come!

What's missing?

Current tally of things missing at our house:

1 cell phone

1 garage door opener

6 salad forks

other things to be discovered

Where did these things go?! I know the culprit. I just have no idea where she might have put them. I'm thinking the trash. She's very good about putting dishes in the sink and things in the trash, but every once in a while I've been finding a plastic bowl in the trash instead of the sink. Uh oh. It doesn't help that she's too smart for the childproof lock I've put on the cabinet where the trash is.

Good think you're cute!