7 months ago....

our sweet baby boy was born. I say it every month, but I honestly cannot believe it! He is such a joy, I feel so blessed to have him as a part of our family! I think his 7th month has been his busiest by far!!

Here are some things he is doing now:

• eating two stage 2 jars of food for lunch and supper, plus a breakfast of cereal and fruit. His favorites are green beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, and any and all fruits. (just like his sister! only she loved peas and hated green beans)
• rolling to toys to play with and playing while on his tummy (though not for long)
• drooling, gnawing, chewing, sucking, on anything and everything.in.sight. Teeth are so close...I am certain!
• sticking his tongue out to be funny
• rocks on his tummy--"swims"
• reaches for our noses, eyes, ears, hair
• loves to smile at Sydney and laugh at her
• still is such a mellow little man--very patient and sweet and snuggly!

We love you Gavin!

Delphos Weekend

Okay so this post will be in reverse order since I am too lazy right now to reverse all the photos. :)

We headed back to Delphos last weekend to be with family as we remembered our mom. Saturday, the 23rd, marked one year since her passing. It blows my mind to think I have lived this long without my mom. Then to think of living the rest of my life without her is just unfathomable and quite heartbreaking actually. I am so sad that my children will not have vivid memories of her, only those that we keep alive through stories, books, and pictures of Mom. I know in my heart she is watching over us and especially over her grandbabies, but every day I still wish she were here with us. I am glad she is no longer in pain and no longer has to struggle through the days--I am glad that she has been reunited with her loved ones in Heaven that passed before her. But that doesn't take away the pain of missing her.

One thing Bailey and I wanted to do was to plant something at Mom's headstone-so Sydney helped to pick out this beautiful bright, colorful mum. We didn't get out there until Saturday afternoon but it was a windy and pretty evening.

Earlier that day we had enjoyed lunch at Grandma Dodo's house--afterward the "big" girls (who used to be the babies!) played outside!

Sydney talking with Grandma Dodo

Getting the sidewalk chalk ready to go!

a praying mantis by the girls as they were coloring!

Grandma Dodo, Gavin, and Sydney with her pink Tina Turner wig

She was pretty proud of her new 'do!

The current "babies"...Gavin and Piper; they are approximately 3.5 months apart in age

the little Mister playing :)

Big Day! 2 parts...

Part 1: On this day (October 16th) we went to Olathe to Deanna Rose Farmstead. We had never been and it is such a neat little place! It has many farm animals, an old one room school house you can go in to and write on slates, a barn with baby calves and a cow-milking station, horses, goats, an Indian teepee, and so much more! I have been a part of an online group of moms for the last year or more and we just recently discovered that a few of us didn't live all too far from one another! So we decided to meet up at the Farmstead.

Ringing the bells with Noah
Visiting the baby calf with Noah
observing from the fence

Part 2!

For awhile now Joe has been dropping hints to me that Sydney needed a haircut. I didn't really want to cut her hair for a very long time because I wanted it to grow out. But then I started noticing her "bangs" were always in her eyes and the way her hair tapered in the back bugged me. So we made an appointment at Shear Madness along with Noah to go get Sydney's hair trimmed. She did so well! She picked the red car next to Noah and got to watch Elmo on the t.v.-even though she ended up watching herself in the mirror more than the movie!

Getting prepped!
Is it just me or does she look TOO big in this picture?
All done! Waiting to get "styled"
Sydney with her trimmed hair and "princess" braid
Sydney with her buddy Noah!

Noah's Halloween party

Since this day was mostly for Syd and her friends, I have to put a picture of Gavin. Looking thrilled as usual.

The first Saturday in October we went to Sydney's friend, Noah's house for a Halloween party. She had such a fun time! The first activity was painting pumpkins, so first step was to pick the pumpkin!


Next it was lunchtime. There was so much yummy food and Sydney ate almost all of it! The string cheese and the ghost cookies went first!After lunch the kids got to go on a ghost hunt through the yard. They were all surprisingly nice about sharing the wealth with the younger "ghost hunters."

All the kids!

To end the day they colored some wooden Halloween shapes and then played in the sand. The kids also made witch's wands!

Thanks for the great day Dunns!

Happy half birthday Gavin!

I cannot believe that he is 6.months.old. Honestly, it blows my mind. He is such a sweet and happy boy....we are so blessed to have him. He is so different from his sister in so many ways...one way being that it takes a little more to get a smile out of him. In that regard he is just like his dad! (Sydney is more easily entertained---like me.) He doesn't fuss, he just spends a lot of time analyzing the situation. You can just tell he is taking everything in.

Evidence that it takes more to make him smile....take #1:

take #2:

take #3:

Some things he can do now:

• roll to get things
• grab parts of faces and hair (ouch!)
• blow raspberries and just "jabbering"
• sit up for several moments at a time
• eat a jar and a half of baby food at lunch and supper
• favorite foods: sweet potatoes and carrots and ALL the fruit
• sleep through the night (usually)
  
• he is sleeping unswaddled and goes down on his own! yay! we are all so much happier because of this
• recognizes us and gives us huge smiles when he sees us--interacts with Sydney by giggling at her, grabbing her face and hair :)

These have been an amazing past 6 months--crazy but I cannot imagine our life any other way. He is the perfect addition to our family (I feel as if I say that every month!) and we are so grateful for him. We love you Gavin!

"Punkin" Patch! (tons of pictures!)

Normally I really don't like to hear the word "punkin"...maybe it's the teacher in me or maybe it's that my mom never liked that word either and that just wore on me, but this is how Sydney says pumpkin. I must admit that it's hard to find it annoying when it rolls off the tongue of such a cute little girl! Anyhow, I grew quite used to hearing "punkin" after this weekend when we went to the pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful fall day--windy--with blue skies and a cool, sunny day. To our surprise it was not very busy! We kind of figured that since KU played away that all the KU fans might head out to the pumpkin patch on their off weekend. We don't know where the fans were but they were not at the pumpkin patch, thankfully. :)

Sporting the pumpkin shirt that I made for Sydney (Gavin had a matching onesie)

Not long after we arrived Gavin needed to eat so I found a place to park while Joe took Sydney around to look at the animals and play on some of the equipment. She loves slides and found both that were there. She loves animals and found all of the animals they had to show!

with Cameron the calf

Once our family was reunited we hopped on the hayrack ride to head out to find our pumpkins!

Joe and his mini-me's....it's ridiculous :)

Sydney decided we would look for her daddy's first and she came across this huge, green pumpkin. She was dead set on it but my husband, keeping in mind that we are charged per pound for our pumpkins, kindly turned her away from that particular pumpkin, to a more Daddy-appropriate pumpkin. (Ahem--smaller. ;) )
We then proceeded to find one for Sydney, then Gavin, then Mommy and then Maggie. Sydney was so "take charge" this year--I know I should not be surprised. When taking the following pictures with all of our pumpkins, it was quite the ordeal. Sydney was talking to Gavin the whole time, Gavin was completely uninterested, then Syd would touch Gavin's pumpkin and look around, etc. SIX takes later, we finally get a decent picture of the two of them and our pumpkins!

To end the day we stopped and got some apple cider. Sydney likes the slush so that's what she got--Joe and I took the hot cider!
How Gavin spent most of his first trip to the pumpkin patch...cuddling with Momma :)

Modeling his pumpkin shirt! (I went so far to put one tooth on his jack-o-lantern to symbolize his first Pumpkin Patch and three on Syd's...I know I am a nerd!!!)

It has been so wonderful to see how our experience has changed from year to year. The first year we came here she was barely sitting up well enough to sit with her pumpkin, last year she was more interested in the baby calf, and this year she was just Little Miss about everything. Add to that, this year we got to enjoy Gavin's first trip to the pumpkin patch! It was a beautiful family day!

4th day of fall actually felt like fall!

I have been battling a cold and between naps and Joe mowing we didn't make it outside until this evening. What a beautiful evening we had though! First Sydney picked up sticks that were promptly stolen by Maggie. Then Joe "zapped" Sydney into a frog so she was hopping like a frog in the driveway. :) We found our way to the backyard and this was where the realy cute stuff came in! Sydney and I discovered a baby cricket (otherwise known as a "crippet") and Syd took right to it! She knelt down next to it and started having a little conversation that went something like this:
"Oh hello little crippet! What are you doing? Awww, he's so cuuute. Look there's another little crippet...now there's two crippets! C'mere ittle crippet, why don't you hop on to my finger?"

Joe then found a big, fuzzy caterpillar and Sydney was telling us not to squash it--that the caterpillar was fine. Together we decided that it might be nice if we could find a leaf for the caterpillar to eat when he woke up. So a search for the perfect leaf ensued and soon she was placing a leaf next to the sleeping caterpillar. She probably woud have tried to tuck him in if we would have let her! :) I love this stage (most of the time!)---the imagination and things she says is so exciting!