Early November

I just realized how out-of-order these posts are... oh well, I'm getting to most of November in November, so that counts, right?!

Rayna's very good with helping Asher.         *burp*

I guess most of these pictures are somewhat random snapshots of our life. They make me smile though, especially to see the big kids playing so nicely with baby, and even with each other.

these boys play so nicely together (meaning Asher doesn't mind when Chi plays with him), hopefully it will always be so!

sleepy little chunk!

We've been taking a lot of pictures when the girls are at school lately. Malachi particularly likes taking and posing for pictures! and I gotta say, he sure makes me smile!

ladybug game anyone?
(ps, Chi won)

Afton was reading a bug book to Asher... She still wants to be an etymologist most of the time

goodnight sweetheart, it's time to go-o... goodnight sweetheart, goodni-ight

you didn't think I could post all those pictures of the leaves without finding some somewhere to jump in? hooray for fall!

and this little guy evidently moved in to our yard. The kids named him/her Wise, and she (I'm guessing girl because it was pretty big, we'll go on that assumption?) was in our front yard, mostly right next to the garage, for a couple weeks, maybe a month before she died (Malachi may have helped that along by accidentally stepping on her... though she was still able to move a day after the initial impact). We're now awaiting spring to see if she left any eggs nearby somewhere.

zoo with Dad

so we went to the national zoo a couple times so far... and evidentially I haven't posted any pictures of it yet! shame on me! anyways, here's a few of our favorites. (first, I should say, we had a great time when we went before with our cousins!) this time we went as a family; we love Dad's new job because occasionally he has some time off when he doesn't have to be working on something (aka dissertation) at home, so he can play with us! we had a chilly, fun trip with him on Veterans Day.

the cheetahs are a great favorite, especially with chi, and double especially when you can see the zebra in the background

just to prove baby was there too :)

Afton desperately wanted to visit the children's area last time, but we ran out of time, so we went this time. It was fun, but mostly farm animals, so not perhaps super-exciting. The girls did get to pet this cow. If I remember correctly, her name was Rose (the other was Tulip, I think i'm remembering which is which...).

There was a lovely tiger-enclosure, this one just had a baby a few weeks ago, the baby wasn't on display at all yet, but she was quite majestic on her own!

There were also some lovely lions, this guy was reclining happily at the top of the hill, looking for all the world like the king of beasts :)

We were also very excited to see the caracals and bobcats--we got there at lunch time, so they were all awake, and moving around. Rayna was particularly excited to see the caracals, though she was a bit disappointed that they didn't feed it live birds so it would jump up to eat them... I didn't have the camera at that part or I'd have a great picture of her excited face!

gorillas... there was a baby cambering around in there too, but by the time I got the camera on, he was hiding :)

the panda was particularly active that day too. I didn't realize she ever really walked around in that area... it seemed last time like she just laid there most of the time, doing not much of anything.

and it's not much of a zoo post if there isn't a picture of the kids climbing on a statue :)

east coast fall leaves

So now that we're living on the east coast, I felt it was time to take a million pictures of the autumn leaves for everyone that lives in the south (where it's brown) or the north or west where it's already snowing... these were actually about three weeks ago. We took the camera on one of our walks to get the girls from school. These are all within about a mile of our house, and all taken within an hour of each other, but the colors were amazing for over a month! It felt like it took a little while for everything to start changing, but then the bright colors stayed around for a good month or 6 weeks... there are still some left, though the cold snap we've been enjoying is finishing them off.

I wish I were better at waxing poetic, because the bright colors really brought out that side of me... but I'm really not! so feel free to insert your favorite autumn poetry here, or make up some of your own :)

This was a picture Malachi took from the stroller, just to give you a little of his perspective.

All three big kids had turns with the camera, and to be honest, I'm not sure who took most of the pictures (there were nearly 100 all together, so I really did pare it down for posting). I love all the bright reds, golds, and greens mixed together:

and the long, long streets, reminds me of an old painting or something... though the telephone wires don't quite work with my ideas, or even the cars, I guess I need an old barn or schoolhouse or something :)

I love this street:

it felt like walking through a tunnel

it surprised me to remember how truly bright and brilliant the colors can be! red, yellow, and brown don't begin to cover the variety we saw! they're really jewel-tones, and I'm sure I knew that at some point, but you forget when you live far away from it, or have a really short season... or at least I did.

and this one might be my favorite: the schoolbus was stopped there for some reason (I've never seen it stopped there before or since, so it was a perfect day for me to have my camera!)

okay, they're probably all my favorites, but still, I knew autumn was my favorite season, and now I remember another reason why :)

happy fall!

Halloween

you could call this a theme... or not, i'm not really sure if they looked like anything in particular, what do you think?

asher is technically part of the crew, though he doesn't look like much of anything... I was too rushed this year... like always ;)

any guesses?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cinderella (not Disney, of course), Evil Queen (note the mirror), Prince Charming, and the poison apple.

 

Malachi really doesn't like being told what to wear, so I really wasn't sure if he would dress up at all, even for candy (though that is his most powerful motivator). He was excited about the cape and horse though, and the crown was little enough that it didn't bother him.

 

This was from the night of our church trunk-or-treat. We had fun at the chili cook-off and costume parade inside before going up the sidewalk where the cars were parked as quickly as we could... it was COLD! I liked how the organizers arranged it though, the kids only went to each car once, and they weren't running through the parking lot like crazy people.

It turned out to be a really good thing we got so much candy that night too, because evidentially Halloween isn't much of a holiday around here! we only had 5-6 trick-or-treaters and we went all up and down our street (and the 4 little circles that stick off of it), and we only had 2 houses where people were giving out candy :( I was kinda glad when it started raining because it gave us the motivation to get back home, and we still had plenty of our candy for the kids.

 

The kids' school doesn't celebrate Halloween either... kind of... They had a school-wide Wizard of Oz unit where they decorated the school and had special activities relating to the story for the week leading up to Halloween, and on the 31st they got to dress-up (which is an even bigger deal when the option is a uniform!). The kindergarten and first grade hall was munchkin land, so they had the option of being a munchkin or Glinda... I had one of each (ps, you're right, Glinda doesn't really have wings, but we thought they completed the outfit anyways :). I was impressed with the costumes we were able to pull together at the last minute. Afton's bonnet is made of paper! and her apron is a napkin... she was being munchkin-like here, but she also had a big poufy skirt and striped knee-socks :)

Happy Halloween!

October Pictures (lots of pictures)

well, I've been keeping up (more or less) with Asher pictures, due to popular demand, but I haven't done too much for the other kids, so, here's a few pictures to showcase the last month for everyone else :)

primary kickball at the church kids vs. bishopric

attitude welcome

run, get that ball!
sorry for the bad pictures, the kids kept moving...

Asher was dressed for the game too, red tennis and a sporty burp cloth.

one random teacher-in-service day we went to the park with some friends.

Afton loves holding the baby too, but she has the least patience, so she frequently will burp him over her leg and be done for a while. he loves it (though it doesn't look like it in this pic...)

FHE activity/lesson, learning to shine our shoes :)

and Afton was finally able to change her earrings... green!

the boys like to play cars together... the boppy doubles as a headrest for Asher and a road for Chi

have I ever mentioned that one of the things we were most excited about with this house is a real fireplace?
we ordered a half cord, and stacked it one Saturday morning. We warmed up pretty quick!

I couldn't pick just one picture... I liked them both :)

everybody really loves baby!

This series might not mean a lot to those that don't know Malachi well, but he absolutely HATES getting his hair cut... which is why every 6 months or so over the last few years you may have heard a faint echo of screaming from our direction... well, I gotta say, it comes in super-handy to have a psychologist for a husband! I finally, jokingly, said to Paul a couple weeks ago something about if he wanted to do me a favor he could convince Chi to get a haircut... and this is what happened:

Chi had 'homework' for a week or so every night with the girls (they did their reading and math stuff), his job was to hold the buzzer. just hold it. then they held it while it was turned on... etc, until one night he said he wanted to try it on his hair!

ta-da!
(note, he's even smiling!!!)

and when he started to get nervous, instead of letting him cry or scream, he got to try it on Daddy's hair!

or just hold it on his hand and remember it doesn't hurt.

me:      *SIGH*

 

speaking of homework, Rayna's reading is coming along AMAZINGLY, feel free to compliment her if you talk to her on the phone... she was rather hesitant, and not too excited, but she's doing really, really well!

Chi wasn't sleepy, but he was willing to keep quiet for a minute for a picture...
and it's the only one I have of his haircut so far

we're accomplishing things here folks! and we feel good doing it :)