September

Yeah. It really has been since the summer since I last blogged about our family. Wow. When I do sit down to blog, it has been to record my training progress for my half marathon on this blog. So between taking care of my kids, going to school, running, studying, cleaning, and FACEBOOK (the bane of my existence, sometimes, I swear!) this blog has sadly been neglected. Enough excuses. I have some time right now to rewind and catch up on here.

We were able to take a lovely visit up north to see family at the beginning of the month. It was gorgeous weather up there. My mom's grape arbor was simply awesome. Joseph spent so much time outside and just loved picking the grapes off the vine and eating them.

While up there we had our family pictures taken. Joseph was quite the stinker and it was a difficult process. These are all we came out with. I really want to try again, probably in the springtime.

(if you look closely you'll see my lovely cut and paste job on this one...)

This one is probably my favorite, were Kaili looking at the camera.

So super cute of Kaili, Joseph... what in the heck is that face?

Joseph, really?

Joseph loves playing with his little sister, and this love grows every day. It's really fun to watch. And, as you can clearly see in this picture, she absolutely adores him! Sometimes he is rough with her in a way that I don't like, so I tell him to stop and then Kaili laughs. Kai, you aren't helping me out here! Joseph will say, "but Mom, she's laughing! She likes it!" Yeah, well I can't argue with that!

Kaili has a trademark "I love you" sign when she sucks on her two middle fingers. It is so super cute. You can see she definitely prefers her fingers to the binky. In fact, we don't even use it for her ever anymore, which is sooo nice!


And speaking of binkies, we've finally broken Joseph of his nighttime binky addiction! yaahoo!!


One day I laid Kaili down for her tummy time on TOP of this play mat and after some rolling around, this is how she ended up all on her own.


And, without fail, I can't take a picture of Kaili without Joseph getting down too and saying, "take a picture of me Mom!"


Kaili at 5 months old


My aunt Dixie crocheted this darling little ladybug cocoon for her that we were excited to use for Halloween.

I signed Joseph up for a little community education class called "active arts." They met for an hour every week for 12 weeks and did fun little activities and crafts. I thought his teacher was super cute and creative with all the things she did with the kids. And Joseph needed this type of experience to help with his social anxiety and shyness. (Which I'm not all that sure it made a difference!) He did love going to his class, but always had to have me RIGHT by his side to do anything, and even then, there were some activities he wouldn't get into... basically any ones that involve running around, jumping, any kind of physical activity like that.

We are sure loving these wonderful moments with our kids!