Trunk or Treat

On Wednesday night our church had its first ever Trunk or Treat event!  The kids were super excited to get dressed up another night in addition to Halloween! We used Steve's truck as our entry, and Faith named it Spooky Business!  Not only did we have the spider webs seen, but our trunk also had dry ice, Halloween music, and a candy bowl that had a creepy hand that would come down when someone reached in for candy!

 

Here are the two oldest before we headed over to the event.  Super Girl and Iron Man!

 

Faith enjoyed the face painting trunk.  She had a S painted on her cheek for Super Girl!

 

Both Faith and Shane enjoyed the dart throwing trunk.  Shane even earned two full size candy bars for hitting the bulls eye!

 

Sumo Steve made an appearance!  His costume is a hit wherever we are!  And Olivia was a lady bug!  She was so thrilled to have a costume on just like everyone else!

 

Iron Man Shane never misses an opportunity to pose for the camera!

11 Months Old

How can this little girl be 11 months already?  It's hard to believe that time is going by so quickly!  It's not the being 11 months old so much that is getting to me, but the fact that after 11 months comes the one year mark!  How did it go by so quickly??  The above picture was taken a few days before she actually turned 11 months, and it was taken by Grandma Poelstra when she and Aunt Joan were visiting!  I like how it shows her curly hair!

We continue to see more and more of Olivia's personality shinning through.  While she is still such a sweet, go-with-the-flow, easy little girl, she is also starting to show her anger when something is taken away!  And now that she is fully crawling, she is totally high maintenance and into absolutely everything!  She loves to go for the book shelves and take out all of Faith's school books!  And in general, she seems to like books as she has a few of her own that have become favorite toys. 

 

One thing that has been fun lately is dressing her in many of Faith's old clothes.  It seems as though I have more that fit her now as her growth is not so rapid and she is staying in sizes a little longer.  The picture above shows the two girls - Olivia at 10 months and Faith at 9 months - wearing the same outfit! 

Finally, in addition to crawling, working on talking, and discovering every inch of the house, Olivia is working on two more teeth!  The top two teeth came in last month, and she is not getting her third and fourth bottom teeth in.  While she cannot tell us this, I am sure she is glad as she continues to want absolutely everything that anyone else is eating!  She really loves to eat and enjoys just about everything!  She wasn't too crazy about the zucchini I made for dinner last night, but it seemed rare to find something she didn't like!

 

Next up will be Halloween posts!  You don't want to miss seeing pictures of Steve in his costume!!

End of Soccer

We spent our final busy Saturday at the soccer fields for yet another year!  And I know at least Steve and I could not be happier!  While it was fun at times, we are thankful to have our Saturday's free and open once again!

In Shane's final game, he scored his second goal of the season!  I was the ref for his game, and in a very unbiased manner I let out a loud "Yeah!" when he kicked that ball with authority into the back of the net!  After the game we celebrated the season with a pizza lunch at a nearby pizza parlor.  It was a great way to end the season!

 

Immediately following the pizza party, we headed back to the soccer fields for Faith's final game!  Thankfully I did not have to ref that game!  She ended her season and possibly her soccer career as she is interested in trying some other sports in the future!

 

And our sweet little Olivia was great the entire day!  I was worried that she would have a meltdown or two not having a nap until 3pm that day, but she was just great!  And she discovered a new food she loves - pizza! That's what happens when you are the third child!

October Havasu Trip

We are back and (amazingly!) completely unpacked from our most recent trip to Lake Havasu!  Going over Steve's four days off from work, it was another quick but nice trip!  The weather was perfect - about mid 80's - and it ended up being a great little getaway in the midst of our busy fall schedule!  We were all thrilled to discover that the heater in the pool was turned on, which made swimming very fun for all!

 

Olivia enjoyed swimming too, but did tire of it sooner than the older kids did!

 

One of the reasons we wanted to go this particular weekend was that the resort hosts a car show each year in the middle of October.  Faith and Shane were both really into the cars, and they enjoyed walking through the show and reading the year that these old cars were made!  This was Shane's most favorite car that he saw!

 

Faith really liked this bug as she thinks that it must have been a race car at one time!

 

Steve and I treasure the time spent together as a family and the memories we make together.  While Olivia took her naps, the older kids enjoyed watching a movie!  It was so cute to see them watching together so nicely!

 

And as always Olivia is trying to keep up with the big kids!  After seeing them use goggles, she desperately tried to put Shane's goggles on her own head!

 

We took the boat out one afternoon for a spin around the lake!  Faith had a blast on the inflatable and did really well!  She loves to go fast and in and out of the wake!

Olivia enjoyed exploring the boat as Steve and I were packing up after stopping at a beach to play!  It's been another fun year of trips to the lake, and we look forward to going again in 2014!!

It's just a phase, right?!?

There have not been as many blog posts lately...any guesses as to why??  One clue - the picture above!  Olivia is in the phase of life where she is everywhere and into everything!!  What this means is that I literally get nothing (okay, very little!) accomplished all day!  Since I can only do things when Olivia is sleeping, I have to be extremely strategic about how I spend my days!  I have to plan them out carefully, thinking through what needs to be done each day, and then making sure to do that during one of her two naps!  Thankfully I know from the other two kids that this too shall pass, but while in the phase it seems to be an eternity!  And again since Olivia is not the first, I am trying to embrace the untidiness, dirty floors, overflowing laundry baskets, and lackluster dinners to just sit on the floor and play with this sweet 10 month old who will be 10 years old in a blink of an eye! 

 

Olivia loves to play outside!  Put her down in the grass and let her just explore!  If only she didn't put ever leaf, stick, or bug in her mouth I could let her explore and do some laundry!

 

One more of this sweet little lady!  She is full of  personality and likes to let others let her know she is around!  On Saturday I was refereeing Shane's soccer game.  As she sat with Steve and Faith on the sidelines, each time I ran by I could hear her squeal and clap with delight!

 

Faith continues to do well with her piano lessons.  She enjoys playing throughout the day, and it's delightful to hear her play songs that we recognize such as "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (very appropriate for this time of the year!) and "This Land is Your Land".

 

Today we needed to return books to the library and recheck out some new books.  The kids found a new section of books - super hero books!  While I must admit at first I was not too thrilled assuming a lack of quality literature, as we started reading about the Fantastic Four tonight I realized finding these books was a good find!  For the first time I am actually learning about all these crazy characters that my kids love!  Throughout the day both Faith and Shane ask me questions about Captain America or the Hulk, and I have no clue how to answer them!  But now, I am learning!  What fun, crazy adventures all these super heroes have!

Parents Night at Awana

Tuesday night was Parents Night at Awana!  While I will admit I groaned a bit discovering that my somewhat free night was now occupied, it was fun and interesting to see the kids at Awana!  It made it easier this year that both kids are in the same big group, the Sparks, so that we could spend our entire time watching that group.

Faith is reciting her verses to her Sparks leader.

 

And Shane saying his verses!  As a disclaimer to the leaders, it was Nerdy Night!  But Faith and Shane decided not to participate!  At first they didn't know what "nerdy" was, but when I said it was dorky, Shane knew as I tell him he can't button the top button on his collared shirts because it's dorky!

 

And of course a few of Olivia!  This isn't the greatest picture, but I was attempting to capture one of her tricks - "So Big!" 

 

Here she is playing peekaboo with Shane around the ottomans!  It was so cute to watch!  Poor Faith was trying to do her online testing that the charter school is requiring to see where she currently is according to the CA state benchmarks! 

Pumpkin Patch

Ever since Faith started preschool many years ago, we have gone on the annual pumpkin patch field trip with the preschool.  Today was the field trip, but we ventured to a different pumpkin patch this year!  The kids were extra excited as we traveled to the Painted Pony farm where they went to farm camp this summer! 

 

After hearing about the farm and having the chance to hold some of the baby chicks, the kids were let loose in the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin!  Both Faith and Shane think that they found the most perfect pumpkin!

The ponies are right next to the pumpkins, and so Faith took the chance to pet them!  She was telling the other students and parents the names of the different ponies!  She felt very good having all the "inside" info to share with other people!  It was fun to watch her!

 

One addition to the farm from the summer was the piglets!  Three weeks ago 14 piglets were born on the farm!  We were told that in another month or so they will each weigh 100 pounds!!

 

The highlight of the field trip for Shane was feeding the goats!  I think he could have done that for an hour!

 

Faith enjoyed it too!  Naturally she was showing some of the younger kids how to properly cup their hands after seeing them just throw the food at the goats!

 

What a fun morning!  Olivia joined us too as Steve is at work, but thankfully she was happy to stay in the stroller and be entertained by all the animals and kids!