Fall Crafts and FHE Hot Chocolate

Since it is fall and I am excited that it is fall, I've decided that we are going to do crafts everyday (minus preschool days).  There are so many fun crafts we can do this fall!

For our first Fall craft., the kids painted Turkeys.

They did pretty well I think and they always love doing stuff like this!

For our FHE treat this week, we had hot chocolate.  It just FELT like a hot chocolate night.  The kids haven't ever had any and it has been ages since Daniel or I had, so it was definitely a fun treat.

Weekend in Review

We had a pretty uneventful weekend for the most part.  Friday night, Daniel and I went and got new cell phones.  I like them and I think Daniel is still undecided.  We got ones that have keyboards for texting even though we don't text that often.  Who knows, maybe we will be texting fools in no time!

Saturday, I took Ellie with me on a few errands.  We went to the car wash to get the van cleaned.

Here is Ellie waiting for the car to be finished.  It was sunny outside so she wore mom's glasses.

Here Elise is looking through the car wash.  If you'll notice, she has my old pink cell phone in her back pocket.  She has been carrying it around all over the place.

On the weekend mornings, the kids just kind of hang out and do their own thing.  Ellie has been big on crafts so I had her busy doing a tiger magnet.

Meanwhile, Owen was getting educated on his laptop.  I really like this toy because he has learned letter recognition and both kids have been learning letter sounds from it as well.

Meanwhile... Maggie is still sleeping.  In Mom and Dad's bed.  She usually wakes up at about 4 and I make Daniel go get her and bring her in our bed and then she conks out until about 6:30 or 7.

Miss Mags enjoying her exersaucer.

The kids have been LOVING playing outside lately.  The weather has been great for it.

They literally spend hours out there every day.

They play with chalk,

And collect leaves, but my favorite is when their little imaginations really get going and they tell me about the dolphins they see in the sky, or the snakes in the grass (that one scared me of course, but I investigated and realized they were just playing) or the wolves in the backyard.

Still waiting for Sleeping Beauty...

When Maggie came home from the hospital, she slept through the night on the very first night at home.  She slept through the night every night for about 4 1/2 months.   But, she has turned on me.  Sure, I am a little annoyed at her, but really, I can't be mad when she is this cute....

I think I need to resign myself to the fact that this mom will not be sleeping until she is done having kids and they're outta the house!  I'll catch up later... don't call me when I am in my forties, I will be sleeping.

November Book Picks

We like to read... a lot.  Here are some of this month's favorites:

"Alice the Fairy" by David Shannon

"Count My Blessings: 1 Through 10" by Salina Yoon

"The Farmer in the Dell"--- Classic!  This is Ellie's current favorite. 

"Fall is for Friends"-- Have to have a favorite fall book.  Elise and Owen are noticing the changing of the leaves.  Ellie has even been collecting leaves on our walks.  She is very into the changing of the season.

Reading in action. (excuse the hair... we hadn't gotten to hair yet this morning)

Blessings

I'm in Thanksgiving mode now and it's got me in the mood...

Elise Louise Weber, I am thankful for you, your caring spirit, your loving arms and your desire to take care of the people around you.

Owen Brent Weber, I am thankful for your toothy smile, your energy and your sincere heart.

Magdalyn Beth Weber, I am thankful for your precious personality, your fiery attitude and your beautiful smiles.

And Daniel Brent Weber, for whom the other three would not be possible, I am thankful for your devoted nature, your constant willingness and your growing love.

Just thought it was time to count some blessings...

Saturday at Zilker

After a very long week indoors, Owen is starting to feel better, so we decided to get out of the house and venture down to Zilker Park. First, we went to the Botanical Gardens which was having a Dinoland Exhibit. Here are some pictures of our tour of the dinosaurs...

They had about 20 types of dinosaurs on display, both small and large dinosaurs. The exhibit reminded me of our trip to the Austin zoo. The landscape was similar, the animals at both looked like they wanted to eat my babies and the tour was just as quick as well.

We seemed to be on display in our wagon as well. Lots of people commented on how it was the way to travel. I think the kiddos agree!

Maggie was so funny! Even though they were bouncing all over the place, she fell right to sleep!

Owen pointing out a dinosaur.

Ells in her shades looking at dinosaurs.

Daniel and Erin... we are so in love.

Daniel pulling the kids along.

After the Dinoland exhibit, we decided to save the rest of the gardens for another trip (it's free), so we went across the street to the park and let the kids play on the playground. We also decided we would finally try out the train that they have that goes all over the park.

Daddy and Mags waiting for the train.

Mommy and Mags waiting for the train.

Dad and his girls on the train. This is usually the arrangement... one of us gets the girls and the other gets the boy.

Mom and her son on the train.

Yummy Rice Cereal!

We held off giving Maggie rice cereal for a month longer than we did Ellie and Owen in hopes that she would take to it a little better than they did. I think it may have worked this time. She didn't seem too opposed to it. Instead of mixing it with water, milk or formula, this time I mixed it with some apple juice and I think that may have made the difference!

Must not be too awful!

Big sister helping out. I was just telling Daniel how annoying it is going to be to have to sit down and feed Maggie baby food all the time, but apparently I have someone around to do it for me... as long as I want to clean up the mess afterward anyway.

Family Trick or Treat

I promise, this is the last Halloween post. (I feel like we have been celebrating Halloween for months).

Before we hit the street to go trick or treating, I made the kids practice their lines...

Owen's medicine was just starting to take effect in this video.

Here they are!!! All decked out in their costumes and let me tell you that they were quite a sight to behold. Ellie kept waving to people so we looked like a parade float or something. We got plenty of comments on how cool our wagon was and how cute our kids were... I totally agree.
Dad pulling the kids in the wagon. We decided since it wasn't really quite dark yet that we would pull the kids along to one of our friends' houses and make them our first stop.
Here is Mags! She was a bit resistant about putting her cutie pie polka dot shoes on, so she went with just tights this time. She still looked pretty darling. Maggie was good for some of the time, but we forgot her bottle so she decided that she should be held for most of the time. We obliged.

Our little Owen. He wasn't feeling so hot, but still had fun. He didn't want to put the whole costume on, so we didn't make him. He trick or treated with Ellie for about 2/3 of the time before deciding he was done and just sat in the wagon. Who could blame him?

This little princess was WAY into trick or treating. She definitely got into it this year and practically ran to each house. She was very polite with her "thank yous" and very loud with her "trick or treats". As we headed back to our house, it was clear that this little princess was not finished, so her dad took her out to do a little more while mom put Owen and Mags to bed.

This is pretty much how Daniel and I felt afterwards as well. All and all, it was a lot of fun this year. We wish Owen was in a little better spirits, but he'll have next year and the year after... It was really fun going around as a family this year and just sticking our candy on the porch instead of one of us staying home. I imagine we will do that next year as well.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!