Some Videos

Here are a few videos for your enjoyment:

A visit from the Rowands

This past weekend, the Rowand family (Uncle Matt, Aunt Melinda, and cousins Olivia and Logan) came up for a visit. Uncle Matt and Logan had never met Levi, plus it is a great time to come to Asheville! It was a fun weekend-but I think it wore all of us out! On Saturday night, we were all ready for bed by about 8:30 PM...except for Olivia-the night owl. Here are some pictures of our time together.

Olivia came to visit a few weekends ago and had no interest in Levi whatsoever. She somehow changed over the last few weeks and was so excited this time to hold Levi and help take care of him.
Logan decided to climb up for a picture as well:

Olivia and Addie did a lot of hand holding:

More hand holding...

And more hand holding:

We decided to go back to the pumpkin patch/apple orchard we went to a few weeks ago. It's a great place for kids and Matt and Melinda wanted some good apples!

Trying to get a picture of the cousins (Addie-18 mo., Olivia-almost 2, Logan-almost 1), but not going so well:

Uncle Matt and Olivia feeding the llama, which Addie would not get anywhere close to:

Proof that Levi was there:

Uncle Matt and Olivia riding in "Gertie":

Daddy and Addie riding in "Adeline":

Aunt Melinda and Logan in "Moo Linda":

Our little pumpkin:

When Addie wakes up in the morning...

this is the first thing she wants to do:

What a loving big sister!

Random pictures

Here are a few random pictures I took of the kids this week.

Addie still has yet to hold Levi by herself, but here is one of her being calm enough for him to lay in her lap:
Our smiley boy:

2 Month old birthday:

Another smile (Matt and Michelle, if you see this, we see a little baby Kai in Levi...do you see that at all?) :

Loving feeding herself yogurt:

The Apple Orchard and Pumpkin Patch

Last Saturday, we decided to go to a nearby apple orchard and pumpkin patch with the kiddos. It was a lot of fun and we are glad we went! Here are some pictures of our time there.

Addie kept saying "ball, ball", refering to the many pumpkins.
We couldn't believe it when we saw Addie's name on one of the cows on their cow train ride. We have never seen her full name written on anything!

Here is Addie wearing a snake gourd-whatever that is.

Ready to go pick out some apples to take home.

Family pic...don't worry, Levi's head is hiding in the carrier.

Levi the pumpkin and Addie the flower.

We ran into some friends ffrom church while we were there. Addie and Addisyn were happy to see each other.

Holding hands:

A nice fall picture.

Surrounded by pumpkins.

Daddy's Birthday

I am about a week late posting this, but Bob had a birthday last week. We didn't do anything too extravagant, but hopefully he had a good day. Here are some pictures from our celebration.

Chocolate cake! Addie really wasn't too sure of the candles on top of the cake. But, once they were gone, she had no trouble devouring Daddy's birthday dessert:

Daddy didn't get much-he only wanted money for a new tv, but the kids decided they still wanted to get him a practical present...so they got him a backpack for Daddy to take them hiking! Here are Bob and Addie showing it off:

Daddy and Addie trying out their new backpacks together:

Happy half-birthday!

I grew up in a family that celebrated half-birthdays. Apparently, my parents thought there weren't enough birthdays in the year when they only had 2 kids, so they decided to start celebrating half-birthdays. It was generally a surprise-we never realized it was our half-birthday (when we were younger, anyways), but after dinner, my mom would come out with some kind of a cake and start singing "Happy half-birthday to you" and we would hope it was OUR half-birthday. Then, the person whose half-birthday it was, would get some sort of little gift...normally a toy they already had, but hadn't played with in quite a while. So, my mom would take the toy, wrap it up, and we would forget we ever had it before and start playing with it all over again. Or, we would get something small, but exciting. For example, I remember getting my very own pack of gum-I didn't have to share it with any of my siblings! It was very exciting! Anyways, we have decided to continue the tradition of celebrating half-birthdays with our kids. Addie's was on Monday and she got to have a cookie cake and opened some presents she got for her birthday that we had put away in a closet until now. It was a lot of fun!

Here is her grin for the camera with cookie cake on her face:

Time to open presents. She still doesn't understand that concept-hopefully she will get it down for Christmas!

Here they are...all opened up! The sock monkey jack-in-the-box is very scary for her for some reason. When the monkey pops out, she starts shaking and crying and runs away from it. We're not sure why-I guess his big red lips are kind of scary.

Nana got Addie this cute little backpack. It looked so tiny when Addie opened it, but then she put it on and it looked huge! Whenever she sees the backpack now, she wants us to put it on her and then plays while wearing it all over the house. She loves it-thank you Nana!

The kids had doctor's appointments on Tuesday and both are healthy. I knew it was going to be a handful taking them by myself, but didn't realize just how tiring it would be. Addie decided at this visit that she didn't want the doctor to touch her, so that was bad timing since I was already holding Levi-she has never had a problem with the doctor before. But, we all survived and I am thankful for 2 healthy, happy kids! Addie was 31 1/4 in. (25%) and 23 lb. 6 oz. (25%) which is really good for her-she use to always be in the 3%. So, she is growing! Levi was 23 1/4 in. (75%) and 10 lb. 6.5 oz (50%), so he is much bigger than Addie was at his age! Just for an update on Levi, he is sleeping really well. He generally goes to bed sometime between 8:00 and 9:00 and then sleeps for 6 hours or so (sometimes longer, on a good night). He then eats (which doesn't take him more than 10 minutes usually), then goes back to sleep for another 3-4 hours. So, he is doing great! We just need to work on him being able to take a bottle and pacifier-he refuses both at this point.

The corn maze

I meant to get these pictures up last week so that I could be on top of what is going on this week, but it never happened. So, maybe tomorrow I will be able to post about the fun we are having this week. Anyways, we went to a corn maze (and other fun fall things) about a week and a half ago. Addie had a great time, and so did the rest of us. Here are lots of pictures of our time there. We plan to return next year and Levi will be able to enjoy it much more!

Here is Addie, getting ready to do the mini maze...made of hay bales.

She obviously did not get the idea of the maze too well:

Having lots of fun:

Even stopped to take a picture with Mommy:

Sitting on top of a cat:

The corn box was a big hit. We are thinking it is a way better idea than a sandbox since it is so much easier to get rid of the corn kernels than little sand granules. We just don't know where to get the corn! Just as a fun sidenote, as I was doing laundry the other day, I found a corn kernel in the dryer as I was taking clothes out. Apparently it was not as easy as I thought it was to get rid of all the kernels!

Taking a picture in the tractor:

We couldn't leave Levi out:

Addie got to go for a ride all by herself:

Well, Daddy was right behind her, but that didn't keep her from taking her seatbelt off all by herself...during the ride! We are hoping she doesn't successfully do that in the car anytime soon, though she does try:

Riding a pedal cart with Daddy:

She was waving furiously at the horses, so we took her over to them. As soon as we got close, she got very scared. I don't know if she hadn't realized how massive they were when we were further away, but she had no interest in petting them whatsoever. Once she was a distance away, she started waving to them again. She is quite the waver.

A nice little fall picture of the 2 kids. And yes, Levi's head is leaning against a pumpkin...it is much safer than him leaning against his sister:

To end the fun weekend, we decided to roast some smores on the grill:

Enjoying the finished product: