Happy Autumn!

Fall is officially here! :0) When we went outside to play yesterday, I actually remembered to take the camera out and take some pictures of the kids in the leaves. Out back we have a little play area where there's a slide and swings. Parker loves to use the little rocks around the swing set as a little "sand box." So he has fun doing all that kind of sand box stuff with the rocks, and Maddie has fun sitting and watching (she hates the grass and refuses to move at all in it, so she just sits there). There are several trees around, and the leaves have started to change color. So I got pictures of the kids playing, and pictures of them in the leaves.

Parker & Maddie in the leaves (Parker saying "cheeeeeeesssseeee")

"Wow, Maddie, look at these cool leaves"

Can you believe Maddie will be 1 in less than a month?!

Parker playing in the rocks

The other day when we were having a pretty good storm, we let Maddie and Parker stand up in the window to watch the storm (don't worry, we were holding on to them-we just cropped it out). They loved it!

And this is from Maddie eating spaghetti the other day. We looked over, and she had is all over the place!

Our little Scavenger

Madisyn has become quite the "professional" scavenger. She loves to crawl over to Parker's table, get under it, and see what "treats" she can find. We have to be careful with what we leave on his table (or under it), and if we do leave anything accidentally, she'll find it. The other day after lunch, I took Parker with me shopping while Maddie was asleep. She woke up while we were gone and was playing while Daddy worked. Well, she found the biggest treat of all: Parker's left over ice cream. As you can see from the pictures, Dad didn't find her in it until she had gotten it all over the place. But she loved it! The second picture is of her with her face in the bowl, trying to get ever lick of ice cream she could.

Maddie clapping at what she had done. What a little rascal!

Idaho State Fair

I absolutely LOVE fairs, and I really wish they would have them more than once a year. They are so much fun and there's so much to do there! There's the rides, the booths, the animals, the showcases, the food (scone nuggets, funnel cakes, and cotton candy-YUM!!), the music, the horse races, the kids areas set up-I love it all! We took the kids and went to the fair on Tuesday. It was the perfect day to go weather-wise, which made it even more great. A sweet 68 degrees-not too hot, not too cold. Parker had a lot of fun. His favorite parts were of course all the animals, the petting zoo, and the John Deere tractors (I know, very hick-ish, but he loved them!). Here's some pictures that we took.

Parker feeding a goat

A cute little puppy that Parker loved (even though he's actually really afraid of dogs)

Ben with the kids at the petting zoo

Maddie munching on a cracker while Parker checks out the animals

This horse was hilarious. It really really wanted Madisyn's cracker, and she was just so shocked that it kept getting so close to her. It was quite funny.

Parker having a blast on "his" tractor

"Don't worry guys-I got it. I'll just back it on up over here."

Labor Day Weekend

This weekend, my cousin (Brooks and his wife Megan) had their baby blessed and we all got together for that at my Aunt Joann's house. We were all going to go to the Idaho State Fair on Monday, but we got a huge cold front in, and the high for that day was only 57 degrees. So we didn't go. But Ben and I and the kids ended up going yesterday, so I'll have pictures of that to come later. Here's some pictures of my cute little first cousin once removed in her blessing dress. :-)

Anya Meuzet Haroldsen

Maddie checking out Anya

Maddie with her second cousins: Sammy, Audrey, Aiden, Alyssa, & Kenya

On Labor Day, since we didn't get to go to the fair and since it was a little cold, we took the kids to an indoor play place.

Parker going down the slide head first

Maddie going down the slide

Maddie at the top

Parker climbing the rock wall-he was really good at it!

Parker climbing the wall

Here's a funny picture of Maddie. I was folding laundry and she was "helping." I looked over, and she was trying (somewhat successfully) to put one of my shirts on. It was really cute!