Little Feather-weight

Sara had a "well-baby" visit today. Do they still call them that when they're three? Any way, we were behind on a set of vaccinations so I took her in. Good news, she went up from the 4th percentile to the 5th percentile in her weight. She is almost 26 pounds! Sooooooo tiny! She is somewhere in the 30th percentile for her height. And so I've learned how vital the self-adjustment waist bands are! I won't buy a pair of pants for her without them. (The only downside is when the elastic gets lost inside the back of the waist band. It's impossible to retrieve!) And in case you're wondering, we're not concerned about Sara's size. I was always really tiny, and so are her siblings. It's just in their genes. You would think marrying a guy who is 6'2" would have factored in there somewhere, but his genes haven't made themselves known...yet. We'll see what happens in the long run. Aaron tells me he didn't hit a growth spurt until later in high school and continued to grow throughout his mission. I always embraced my petite-ness and I hope my kids will love that about themselves too. Small, but MIGHTY is a great way to be :-)

2009 School Pictures

Here are the kids' school pictures for this year. They wear school uniforms so that's why they're in blue polos :-)

Rylie - kindergarten

Kaeli - 3rd grade

Sam - 4th grade

Don't they look studious?

The Great Pumpkin Mystery

We have had such a funny experience with our jack-o-lanterns which sit on the stairs of our porch. Late on Halloween night just before bed I noticed there were 5 pumpkins sitting outside instead of 6. I realized Sammy's pumpkin had gone AWOL, all except for his lid, which sat right where his pumpkin should have been. I couldn't see any smashed pumpkin remains in the street so I figured his pumpkin met that fate on some other street by some thrill-seeking teenagers. On Monday as I pulled into the driveway and the kids and I noticed there were 4 pumpkins sitting on our steps instead of 5! This time Aaron's pumpkin had gone missing. I actually didn't mind. It's easier for me to have them stolen than for me to haul them to the garbage can. The next day, Kaeli's pumpkin met a different fate than the first two. It was EATEN ALIVE!!! Half the pumpkin lay in the flower garden in front of the porch, the other half undoubtedly in the tummy of a deer. The next day I noticed the three remaining pumpkins had their teeth eaten out, but the rest of the pumpkins remained intact. And finally this morning, this mystery really had me baffled! The three remaining pumpkins had been turned to face the house!!! So the backs of the pumpkins faced the street. How funny is that! And how the heck...? Or should I say, WHO the heck is messin' with me??? Garbage day is Friday, so I intend to keep my pumpkins where they sit and see how this mystery unfolds. And when Friday morning rolls around I will toss any remaining pumpkins, or pumpkin pieces away. I'll keep you posted :-)

Halloween!

I LOVE Halloween! I think my favorite part is dressing up the kids! Here are my little trick-or-treaters:

Sara the monkey

Rylie the witch

Kaeli the ghost

Sam the vampire

And what do my little monsters eat on Halloween night?

BOO-berry pancakes with goblin milk!

After trick-or-treating we sipped hot apple cider,
bathed the little monsters,
and put them to bed

...dreaming of candy :-)

Our little GHOUL is THREE!

Our sweet Sara turned 3 on Friday! She has looked forward to this birthday for the longest time! Her siblings all have birthdays in the first half of the year, so the wait for Sara to have her own celebration seemed like forever to her. At first she would say her birthday was "coming up", as her birthday got closer she would say it was "Halloween", and finally she was able to say her birthday was "the day before Halloween." Maybe next year we'll work on saying October 30th.

This birthday was so much fun for me because of Sara's sweet innocence of it all! She couldn't wait to have cake and she couldn't wait for us to sing to her! Having presents to open didn't occur to her until the day of. She would ask me if her "birthday" was in the fridge, referring to her cake. Her excitement for it all was through the roof and I loved every bit of it!

Of course Sara had to endure a photo shoot in a new and cute outfit.

Love dem BOOTS!

Sara loves to pretend to be a ballerina, so I couldn't resist this leotard, tutu, and slippers. I figure that out of four girls my odds of having a ballerina are increasing. Maybe it'll be my Sara Kate :-)

This little princess has captured our hearts. Here she is at just a few weeks old...with her crazy dark brown hair that I couldn't ever get to lay down :-) Who knew she would end up with "yellow" hair.

Breaking News!

We just found out that we're not having
a boy or a girl!

We're having a pumpkin!

How can that be?

Oh, this explains it: