Birthday Pictures

Autumn got some new dress up clothes and a rocking chair. She loves to sit in that and rock her new baby. She also got some play food and lots of family to help her celebrate. She was fascinated by the candles and of course wanted to touch the flames. She did a pretty good job blowing the candles out with a little help from Daddy. It was a good day all around and now, we officially have a 2 year old!

Thanksgiving Dinner

We had 14 people in our small living room for Thanksgiving Dinner. It was lots of fun. Autumn helped make the sweet potatoes in the crock pot. She really likes to 'help' cook. She had so much fun having 4 grandparents here and didn't really know where to turn first. My parents stayed with us and Kurt's parents drove down for teh day with his sister. His brother and fiance came along with our niece. My brother and his wife and son were also here! Later Autumn's birth mom came over and we had presents and cake. Autumn took all her presents to Amanda and openend them with her, it was so cute. She got lots of fun things and had a VERY HARD time sharing her new toys with her cousins. :) We would say "you need to share" and sign it as well. She would sign and say 'share' while tears were running down her face. I felt a little bad for her, they were her new toys after all. But she did a good job.

Random

Here are a few random pictures that I found on my phone. I forgot I had taken them.
We went to a praise team gathering at a friends house. They grow blackberries and raspberries in their back yard. Autumn and the girls were picking and eating these berries. They were coverd from head to toe in berry juice but had such a good time. And the juice came out with a great tip from grandma!



Autumn was tickling the tree's toes. She thought that was so funny.

The girls were trying to hide in the sand. That took forever to get out of hair!

Having fun at the Children's Museum.

One of my favorite pictures!

Love My Boots

Autumn has these boots that we got for wearing in the snow. Well, she's in love with them, she would wear them to bed if I'd let her! She would rather wear her boots than shoes. As soon as she sees that there is snow on the ground she says "side mommy!" and "boots" and then runs to the closet to get her boots. This time she even got her boots on herself and then said "reay" (ready)! But see if you can tell what's missing from these pictures. When I said she needed clothes and a coat and hat and mittens she said "no no no" and then "boots reay" There's no arguing with her logic.

Victorian Tea

The UMW at our church hosted a Victorian Christmas Tea. We had lots of fun cookies and yummy cider. A few of the church members dressed up in period costume to help demonstrate different holiday customs from Advent all the way through the 12th night celebration. I dressed up as a woman going ice-skating, hoop skirt and all. Unlike a proper Victorian lady, I not only showed off my ankles but also my red flannel petticoat and plaid flannel bloomers! The crowd had a great time and I didn't have to skate on those old fashioned skates! Here are a few pictures from our fun afternoon.

1st Snow

Here are a couple of pictures of our first stick to the ground snow. We'd had snow a week ago but it was more of a blizzard and nothing stuck. This was the first time Autumn got to wear her boots and she decided to take a nap in them too. She now wears them everywhere, even when there is no snow. She'd rather wear boots than shoes. She also thinks that mommy should wear her boots all the time too. We made a little snowman and then Autumn ate him. :)

Potty?

We've had this little potty sitting in our bathroom for about a month or two now. This weekend is the first time Autumn has shown any interest in it. She sat on it for about 20 min reading books with mommy and every time I'd say "are you all done" she'd say "no". Eventually she got up. Then she had a babysitter who said she peed a little in the potty. Yesterday I was in the bathroom so Autumn decided that she needed to sit on her potty too. It's so funny, every so often she'll stand up and look in the potty to see if anything happened. She had some success and had this really funny surprised look on her face when she peed. So we put a new diaper on her and she pulled up her pants and then she got a big kick out of pouring the little pot into the big potty and flushing it.

I was reading a message on a list I subscribe to and the teacher, after helping a student who has constipation issues through a bad pooping episode, said: "I feel like a midwife". I like that, I may use it from time to time. :)

A note to grandparents. It would be really nice if you could have a little potty seat that fits on your potty at your house or a potty chair so as we do more and more of this we don't have to lug our potty around with us and then perhaps forget it somewhere. :)