more of the usual

hudson and maria play well together most of the time. they were having so much fun on this day that they had to take nap together.

little linkies. he's so cute.

always happy to visit with anyone.

libby. so libby. she'd gotten herself ready for the day. this picture was taken in the morning before i had a chance to change her diaper. notice the duct tape around her diaper? this is what we've had to resort to.

so cute in her little hat.

she was suppose to be napping. she's got maria's slip on.

we enter a new stage:

smart aleck.

we went to vote this evening. it's about five blocks from our house, directly down the street. we were in a hurry - ethan had to get back to work. about a block from our house maria finally buckled herself. to make less of her situation with her angry parents she said something like, "well, we're almost home anyway." ethan said, "ya, you were supposed to buckle a long time ago." maria's response?

"a long time ago - like when the dinosaurs were around? ha ha (laughing at herself)."

oh, how cute. her first smart alecky comment. a monumental milestone has been reached.

pumpkin walk

every year we go to the pumpkin walk. this year's theme was "the magic of animation". every scene depicted a story from animation made with pumpkins.

hudson and maria ready to go.

libby is always ready to go anywhere.

here were some of our favorite scenes:

"cloudy with a chance of meatballs" is one of our favorite movies.

this was a christmas scene and ethan and i loved the tree. notice the presents are pumpkins.

this is "monsters inc."

"madagascar"

the monkeys from madagascar.

the penguins from madagascar.

"sponge bob square pants" - not one of our favorite animations but they did such a great job.

"up"

we like when people get really creative. some people just paint faces on the pumpkins but we like when people use the pumpkins and other things to make the character look as "realistic" as possible. ethan and i think it would be fun to do a scene as a family when the kids are older.

lincoln - 6 months old

lincoln is now 6 months old. he is such a cutie. he laughs all the time. he is also moving all the time. he is so wiggly! if he is sitting in his car seat in the house he kicks his legs to make the car seat rock - i should get a video of that sometime. he is tall but thin (for a baby) so all his clothes are too short, or if they are long enough, way loose around the middle. he does have some fairly chunky thighs for being so skinny.

and he has two teeth! i can't believe it. all my other kids waited until about 9 months to get teeth, and then it was only one. but poor linky got two teeth at the same time. he didn't like it.

check out those chompers.

he's really good at sitting up now.

he's a lot of fun and very patient with the other kids. he's pretty vocal and makes all sorts of cute baby noises. we all love him so much!

i'm so glad we have him. some people think he was the "accident" in the family - someone even said that at church. but he is not. we knew it was his time to come. and even though my life is really crazy with four young kids, i'm actually really glad that he is here right now. he forces me to slow down when i'm feeling rushed - you can't rush a nursing baby. he cheers me up when i'm having a rough day - his smiles are so infectious. he snuggles me when all the other kids are running around like crazy people - it calms me down.

i'm very, very grateful for my little linkies.

sweet, sweet dreams

conversion from the morning nap to the afternoon nap is going . . . um . . . well . . .

okay.

libby . . . why, why, why?

i found this surprise on my way down the stairs the other day.

climbing kids

ethan and his siblings joseph and elise took maria and hudson rock climbing. maria didn't want to even go but once she saw hudson climb she wanted to get up there. they LOVED it. they can't wait to go again.

learning to repel.

on her way up. isn't she so cute?

ready to climb.

look at him go!

natural climber.

not a natural repeller.

held up by uncle joseph. she says this was her favorite part.

and going and going.

maria at the top.

so proud of herself.

two awesome kids . . . and an awesome daddy.