Back in October...

We had some lovely leaf piles to jump in! Somewhere between then and now I lost access to my blog...plus with a new baby, a big Thanksgiving trip, a lot of sick, another big road trip to Cali. Conference, a visit to grandparents, a lot of more sick, some company, life in general and another round of colds...I haven't blogged in a long time...even though I did finally figure out how to get back on blogger. So, I thought I would do a few of posts I had backed up in the files from the past couple of months, starting with October.

Kate loves this photo simply because it was taken when Aunt Susie was in town and she has Gramma Jo's beloved Baby. If you look close you can see "Baby" is sommersaulting right along with Kate and in pretty much the same pose. :)

Elliotts attempt at sommersaults. :D

When your tired of sommersaults throwing leaves on your head is always fun.

better yet...

throwing them on someone elses head!

Or even just up in the air!

Such a glorious fall day!

Sunshine and leaf piles = fun times!

And of course October was Miss Kate's birthday!

She wanted a farm cake this year so we did one out of our traditional chocolate zuchinni cake with a twist of chocolate mint frosting. Yumm!!!

I went simple this year and bought some cute farm animals for the centerpieces and "built" a simple farm shed and fences from popsicle sticks. Can you tell she LOVED it! :D

When it came time to serve it up Kate wanted the piece with the ducklings on it...

And Tay-O wanted the "wild little donkey". :)

Another (much colder) glorious fall day that I couldn't resist snapping a photo of just 2 wks after the kids had been outside in their T-shirts.

Still not too cold to go out for walks/bike rides. I was able to go out walking or rollerblading with Aubrey and Tay-O in the double stroller and Miss Kate riding her new bike...though more often than not, I would end up pushing her bike and the stroller at the same time, on the way home. Somehow I missed getting any pics of kate on her bike, but did get a few of Miss Aubrey all bundled up.

she spent most of the ride asleep...

usually with her hood over her eyes to keep out the bright sunshine!

But she did come alive after we got back to the safety of home. :)

My little eskimo baby. :)

And then began many days indoors...fighting over who got to give Aubrey her binky and other such things. :D

And so began our winter months...

Birthday stuff...

Yesterday N & V and LaLa came over to help us celebrate a birthday for Mr. Wise Guy, and somehow the camera got switched to an odd setting and every pic turned out blurry. This was the clearest of the lovely mud pie cake. :) Actually it was a cookies'n'cream ice-cream cake ring with hot fudge and oreo crumbs drizzled/sprinkled over the top, but it pretty much looks like a volcano erupted in this picture. :) It was quite tasty though and the kids loved helping make it because they got to sample alot. ;)

I just had to add this one as it looks a little more appealing. :) We call it "The Chocolate Oreo Crunch Cake" otherwise known as a Pile of Yum!

I decided it was time for Daddy Dear to have a little something for his desk to rememind him of his kiddos waiting for him at home, so we had fun making this "Pot of sunshine" for him.

It is simply a cheap colorful flower pot from Walmart, filled with rocks, and poked full of pens with flowers attached to their tops.

There are pictures on each side of the centers of the flowers with little notes around them.

The back side

The front side.

I glued the pics onto paper and cut out with a border so I could simply write the messages on with a pen. I then glued them to both sides of the Foamie flowers that we cut out and attached to the pipe-cleaners, which were already attached to the pens with a little bit of creative twisting.

On the front of each flower there is a little saying about something to do with the daily stresses of life that has a semi-coordinating picture...

And the back has some words of cheer to counterbalance it...also with a picture to go along.

It was a fun project to do, but I still have a few more "projects" I'm trying to finish before the weekend so I can send them back with visiting family...and my house needs some serious work in the clean department(not so much messy as it is dirty)...and I need to make bread...and we're out of cookies (which is a calamity in this house)...and I have a basket of dirty laundry that needs spotting...and a Mt. of clean that still needs folding (but hey, at least its clean!)...and I really should be working on my sewing...and it is meeting tonight...and quite frankly, today I'm feeling exhausted. :) Probably because yesterday I got up at 5:00 am and went to bed at nearly11, and the last 2 nights I've been up alot with Elliott for whatever reason.

Guess I'm just getting warmed up for life with a new baby. ;)

If only every day could be as balanced, uncluttered, orderly, peaceful and relaxing as this appears to be. :)

But don't let this picture fool you! :D Check out the front side!. :D

More often than not this view is more like my day....

cluttered, slightly out of balance, with so much different stuff going on at once its hard to stay focused. Even some cropping and editing won't improve it that much. :)

But it really is the same scene from the front and the back( and no the top one has not been cropped or edited)...

Its just all about perspective! :)