Fall Sports for Nicholas

This is Nicholas with his good friend Jimmy on their last day of baseball this fall

This fall Nicholas has been playing soccer again,  and baseball (T ball) for the first time.  He plays soccer for the SPC church league and particularly loves all the running and that he sees so many of his friends on his own team and on the teams they play against.  For baseball, he played an instructional league where they had a mixture of days where they just had different stations to learn how to hit, catch, throw, etc. and then other days where they played a game.  For the games, the coach pitched to them and only if they couldn't hit it after about 5 tries, then they could hit off the Tee.  The first game, Nicholas needed to hit off the Tee but by the last game, he was hitting the pitch!  We were so proud of him!

Getting instructions from the coach

Our big slugger

Our big kicker

Receiving his soccer trophy from his coach

Pumpkin Patch

This year we visited Berry Patch Farms, a pumpkin patch about 20 minutes from us.  Unfortunately, Shawn had to fly out of town for a funeral, so he missed our annual pumpkin patch visit this year.  Even though we missed him, the kids and I still had a nice time.  The weather was lovely and the kids particularly liked running through the fields.  Henry was obsessed with the tractor for the hayride!  I think he would ride the hayride all day long just to be that close to the tractor if he could.  

Happily watching the tractor driving by

Best buddies

Such a tough decision....

Silly kiddos

Our sweet girl

What a fun tractor

Everyone say "Pumpkins!" :-)

Henry 20 Months

Go Cardinals!

Henry continues to grow and learn each day.  This month he has learned several new words including "shirt", "shoe", "sure", "cook", "K" (for OK), and "ope" (for open).  He is putting two words together regularly now, such as "Hi Dad", "No mom" and "yes please".  He also very frequently says "beep beep" instead of excuse me when someone or something is in his way.  He has learned to say "meow" for a cat and makes a "whoowheee" sound for a firetruck.

He has gotten quite impatient lately and is struggling with sharing.  He particularly has a hard time sharing me....he gets very upset any time I hold or give attention to the other children and not him.  He always seems to want whatever his brother or sister have,  in general.

He still loves to play outside, especially riding bikes and cars.  Inside,  he will play with blocks for a short while and can stack about 4 blocks on his own before he feels the need to knock it down.  He is interested in books more and more.  He particularly likes lift the flap books.  He has a couple books (e.g.: Hop on Pop by Dr Seuss) that are his favorite because he finds one part very funny and he wants me to read that same page over and over, laughing each time.  He continues to love to play in the toy kitchen with Grace, saying "cook" each morning when he sees her.  The two of them love to prepare birthday parties for us and Henry especially loves to carry play food and sing his own version of the Happy Birthday Song while presenting it to me.

We just finished a music class this fall which he LOVED!  He is still very interested in music and dancing, participating quite well in the class!  He has gotten quick and pretty stable climbing up and down all the stairs in our house.  We still get nervous having him go up and down on his own but have decided to give in and let him go up and down as he likes on his own.

And finally, our little buddy still charms everyone with his smile and social nature...last week at the grocery store he waved, smiled, and said "Hi" to every single person we passed in the store, all while driving the car shopping cart that he now knows to request for when we walk in the door!

Embrace Walk

Last weekend we attended and helped with the 3rd annual Embrace Walk.  Embrace is a ministry in our Atlanta Archdiocese for families who have lost babies through miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death.  Ironically it was started shortly after we lost Juliana.  It's a beautiful ministry which Shawn and I are honored to sit on the board for.  The annual walk goes through the outdoor Stations of the Cross and relates the sorrow of the passion to our sorrows in losing our children.  It ends with a prayer service and butterfly release.  We went as a family this year and it was neat to see how Nicholas and Grace both really understood the event.  The whole evening afterward they were talking about Juliana, heaven, etc.  We are so blessed to have our sweet girl there watching over us!

There was a big banner where you could write a note to your baby.  

Here is Nicholas' note....he wrote it all by himself and from the heart!

Preparing to release our butterfly

Grace's First Haircut

After three years, Grace finally grew enough hair to require a haircut!  She had her first ever haircut this past week.  They trimmed about 2-3 inches off the bottom.  She did great, sitting very still and listening.  I think watching Nicholas get his cut many times helped.  She is always happy to do what big brother does.

Grace's Favorites at Age 3

I interviewed Grace about her favorites and here are her responses at age 3.

What is your favorite...........

Color - pink

Food - peanut butter and jelly sandwich

Movie - Little People Birthday Celebration

Clothes to wear - princess clothes

Game - princess paper dolls

Snack - goldfish and pretzels

Animal - my stuffed lamb

Song - Hickory Dickory Dock

Book - Arthur Goes to School and Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes

Friends - Henry, Nicholas, Aubrey, Finley, Fiona

Drink - lemonade

Thing to do outside - ride bikes and my little car and push my shopping cart

Place to go - the park

Thing to do inside - dress up in princess dresses, play with Nicholas

Thing to do at the park - climb on the really big playground

Fruit - cantaloupe

Vegetable - celery

What do you want to be when you grow up?  A mommy just like you :-)

Apple Fun!

Fresh fall air, picturesque rolling hills, crisp juicy apples, sweet cider donuts and refreshing apple cider....I love our annual visit to an apple orchard!  It's one of my favorite family activities, not to mention a great photo op with the kids.  This year we visited Red Apple Barn in Elijay, a little over an hour from us in the north Georgia mountains.  We enjoyed a perfect weather day and brought home lots of apples!!  We all had a great time running around the countryside and picking several varieties of apples.

Exploring the orchard/farm....Nicholas wanted to bring along his binoculars and was so excited to use them throughout the day.

Looking out over the farm

In front of the barn where we enjoyed donuts and cider

The kids had a blast playing inside this apple crate

It was a fun hayride through the whole farm to and from the orchard

Henry thought this big hay bale was so fun

Henry picking his first apple ever

So proud :-)

Daddy gave Grace a lift to reach this really good one

Little buddy watching

Great pick Grace!

Nicholas prefers the Granny Smiths

Enjoying the fruits of their labor

Henry wasn't too sure about the skin at first

But then dug right in...he carried that apple for a couple hours, eating it the whole time and not wanting to let go of it!

They had a beautiful garden of wild flowers

Got apples????

Happy Birthday Princess Grace!

The weekend after her birthday, we invited a few of Grace's little friends over for a "princess" birthday party.  Grace is really interested in princesses right now so she chose the theme.  It was a fun little party!

I built a cardboard "castle" for our little princess and her friends to play in

Grace was so surprised and excited to see it

Our Princess ready for the ball

We had a craft table for the girls to decorate their own princess picture frame

And a fancy table for them to sit and dine

The castle was thanks to a Pinterest idea, a friend who just moved and gave me some boxes, and some left over paint from Grace's room

We brought all our "girly, princessy" toys and books into our empty front room to create a fun princess room to play in

We had plenty of gowns. shoes and jewels for the girls to dress up and play with

I made a princess castle cake using two layers of strawberry cake, rice krispy treats for the towers, and sugar cones for the turrets.

The princess feast (chicken nuggets, PBJ sandwiches, fruit, goldfish, pretzels)

Playing princesses together

Cooking up a storm

Of course our little prince had to join in the feast

Princess Grace

Princess Fiona

Princess Caroline

Princess Aubrey

Our bigger prince couldn't resist jumping in on the craft

Pin the Tiara game

Happy 3rd Birthday to our little Princess!!!