Kerri's Visit with the Kids!

My sister Kerri came in town to visit from Texas a week ago, and I was fortunate enough to get to go to lunch with her! We are definitely busy people, but both left that afternoon knowing that we need to get together more. And we both want our kids to know their cousins! I love visiting with her! It is nice to have another mom to be able to talk to as well! Needless to say, I was delighted that she contacted me about meeting! I wish it was longer, but that is always the case with loved ones. Here are some pictures of the kids at lunch ;)

From left to right: Averi, Gavin, Gianna, and Evelynn


We kind of forgot it was Veteran's Day! Applebee's quickly reminded us!


Again: Averi, Gavin, Gianna, Evelynn



Gavin showing Evelynn some love, all on his own!

LOVED her ensemble!

Averi has some attitude like Evelynn does!

In front: Gianna and Gavin

In the back: Me, Evelynn, Kerri, Averi

Halloween Part II

I think this is one of the only pumpkin carving pictures Chase would let me capture him in ;)

Just because it's a beautiful picture of my my baby! Sorry, should have handled the red eye...

She couldn't wait to eat it...

And again...she couldn't wait...this is THROUGH the plastic, oh MY!

But at least she likes to share!

Halloween

Sorry for the massive amount of pictures in the next two posts. Phew, there were apparently TOO many taken for Halloween. That being said, there were lots of events to take capture! We were blessed with free tickets to Trick-or-Treat Street (given to us by my Aunt Ann), which I had always wanted to attend! We followed that up with a GREAT party at the Berry's house ;) Kids came in the beginning, then they were shipped off to have some adult time! It was the MOST fun I had in a LONG time. It was a true treat!

The next day was Fun Night at St. Francis. That is always fun, although too crowded for my crowd-anxiety tastes! It is always fun to have the kids all together (with Mallory as well!).

We came back to carve pumpkins that night...much to Jes's dismay ;) We had never done it! And I didn't want to go ANOTHER year without it!

Halloween was the next night. It was full of visits with family as well as a little bit of trick-or-treating...

Allison made these for us. Didn't she do a fantastic job?! It was a little more time-consuming than I thought it would be!

She had had enough...

She loves to courtsy...and she loves for us to take pictures of her doing it ;)

Pumpkin Patch

So please bear with my lack of blogging. I have such DREAMS of having a beautiful blog that I can keep up with! The reality is, it never happens. L-I-F-E tends to get in the way. Four kids and one on the way tends to get in the way. However, I hope to never truly give it up completely. Some months may just be better than others, and I have to learn to accept that myself and move on. All we can do is all we can do, though it is SO hard as a melancholic mom to be OK with this ;)

So, I will trudge on. I will hopefully be filling in some of the gaps over the next couple days and weeks, so please look back in the past blogs in the future!

We were blessed with a BEAUtiful day to go to AppleJack's Pumpkin Patch with our dear (patient ;) neighbors. Don't these visits just have a way of bringing fall to us immediately? Even when the weather will turn to 80 the next day! The sights, smells (cough/sneeze the allergies...we won't dwell on that here). And I LOVE the colors of fall, which are so VERY present at pumpkin patches!

Well, as it is getting late here, I will share some of the picture highlights...

They do love each other ;) Though I am SURE this was followed by a load squeal from Evelynn!

She LOVED being able to pick them up herself!

I am absolutely in love with this one's smile...It's a good thing she can give sweet ones...this one is as ORNERY as they come!

Ha! And here is miss drama queen ;)

I was SHOCKED to see a picture here with BOTH looking and smiling!

Because this is how it usually is...one smiles...

then the other ;)

Our sweet friend Taylor.

Melt my heart...

Aww, now this one isn't too bad either ;)

I just love this face! This is my DEAR friend Julia (neighbor). I don't know what I would do without her. This face just shows how GREAT she is!

And no, she didn't start OUT this way! The slide was a bit lop-sided! Made for some fun entertainment!

Barrel train ride!

It was a good thing it was almost over! I was beginning to worry Evie was going to jump!

The crew (and Joel taking the picture ;)

She LOVES mums...she is infatuated with their softness...I am afraid we made a bit of a dent on this one, whoops!

It HAD to be the green one, of course!

Evelynn decided to take a stab at it...unsuccessfully of course! Thank goodness for Joel's help!

She thought she could pick up ANY pumpkin then...phew, how we made it out as light as we did, I will never know!

Perhaps I should have fed my children?! Kidding ;)