Our days

... are waking up in warm flannel sheets

... in bunk beds in the room that's been shared since August. (Sawyer sleeps on the top, Ian on the bottom- they worked that out themselves)

... reading the Fall and Winter books that have been put away since last March

... playing in the leaves and making Dad rake them over and over again

... enjoying the vibrant red on our Japanese Maple out back

... forgetting about the rain boots out in the rain

...crocheting and knitting every evening


... making pumpkin faces with paper and seeing them glow inside when it's grey outside

... playing "action-figure bowling"

... with rain boots on of course, just in case we get a chance to run outside.

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Thank you all for the baby boy congratulations! We can already see him here with us and that makes it hard to wait 5 more months. And it doesn't hurt that I'm feeling MUCH better and the holidays are almost here! Hope you are enjoying the Fall things around you.

The boys' turn to share

It's true! We found out this past week that we are expecting another BOY!!!! (Although I realized after making the signs that "on his way" could be interpreted as possibly soon, it won't be for another 6 months until we get to see his little face.) We decided to go in for an impromptu sonogram because we were all curious about whether a little boy or a little girl would be joining our family. And we are so excited to know! He was so little in there but everything about him was perfect. We saw each individual finger and he would push his arms up above his head and then jump with his little feet. Absolutely beautiful. His little profile was perfect and we both thought right away that it reminded us of Ian's and Sawyer's profile pics. Here's his profile, facing up:


We can't believe we get to have another one of these boys. We can't wait to meet him and he has two VERY excited bigger brothers who want to know what he will be like. I can almost picture him sitting on the steps with them. What fun life is going to be like with 3 little boys running around. They will all three be teenagers together and we hope, the best of friends. How lucky are we that we get three handsome, gentle, sweet-natured, full-of-life boys to surround ourselves with. Keep growing strong little one... we'll be kissing you someday soon!

We're back and it's Fall!

Our Maui vacation was exactly as expected... relaxing and busy... wet and sandy... warm and breathtaking. We swam and played on the beach, we read books, and ate delicious food. I ate more fish in that week than my entire life combined I believe. And by the end of the eight days, the boys were so encrusted with sand it was hard to tell where their hairline began. They loved it, of course. We were a bit worn out because vacation with two young boys is well.. busy. But the memories are awesome and I love that we made some there.

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And we came back to Fall! The weather was very cold when we flew back home but the sun was shining and that makes all the difference. I'm happy to be back where I need to wrap up warm when I go outside and where the leaves are almost off the plum tree that was still bearing fruit before we left. The colors are amazing and remind me of why I love this time of year so much. This is what we've been doing since we've been back....

Painting autumn trees of our own.

Spending our mornings playing many games of "Let's Go Fishing".

And our afternoons making a craft. Today they sorted through buttons to look for all the colors of Fall.

Then they took turns threading them with string...

and making sure they were on tightly.
When they were finished we hung them from the tree branch in our family room.

And lastly... we picked pumpkins from our own garden! They started from a single seed that we had found sprouting in our compost bin. We planted it just to see what would happen and it took over our strawberries, basil, and lettuce reaching past 8 feet in every direction. But we got two beautiful pumpkins that sit perfectly on our porch. (Sawyer in full "smile" mode!)