Our 1st Thanksgiving in Ann Arbor

I am so thankful that we had extended family that graciously invited us into their home for our first thanksgiving so far from our NC family. My dad's cousin, Mike Haithcock, and his wife Melinda (who live here in Ann Arbor), had all of their family in for thanksgiving, and the kids and I joined them for their thanksgiving meal. It was so great to see everyone again, and I have to say the food was amazing as well! Unfortunately George had to work all day and missed the fun, but we will be glad when Christmas rolls around that he's already worked his holiday shift!

This is Mike and Melinda's graddaughter, Mattie, hanging out with Emily and Elijah.

She is just too cute and we all had a blast getting to know her a little bit.

Emily absolutely loved Mattie and pretended to be her mom. Mattie graciously handled all of the attention really well. (sorry I didn't realize the flash was on in all of these pictures; that and the movement made them all blurry)Elijah in his little "I'm stuffed" shirt. He loved Ms. Melinda's mashed potatoes!

I'm thankful for two precious, healthy children!

The Coulters Visit

George's sister, Amber, and her family came to visit us for a couple of days. We had so much fun hanging out with Amber and Eric and their four children. Emily just loves playing with her cousins, especially Elise, who is only 3 months older than Emily. They are great playmates. The first night they were here, the three big kids had a sleepover with Emily in her room. The second night, Emily was invited to stay in the hotel with their family, which she thought was a most amazing opportunity. It turns out the best part for her (other than getting to sleep with Elise) was getting to eat breakfast on the couch the next morning!

Elijah was very kind to share all of his baby toys and seats ;)

We decided to get in the holiday spirit we'd make and decorate Christmas cookies. Philip insisted we have a contest and Auntie Amber made sure every child (and Eric) had a prize cookie!

You can tell they took their job very seriously.

They had to look good enough to eat!

The girls became expert Hi Ho Cherrio players.

Yes, they pretty much lived in the tinkerbell and cinderella dresses.

Tinkerbell & our baby giraffe

October 31st escapades...

Our trip home

Emily & Elijah got their first experience on an airplane last month when we traveled to NC to see family and friends. They both proved to be excellent travelers. Here are just a few shots of our time in NC.

The $3 princess phone I found in the Wal Mart checkout line proved to be well worth the money, entertaining her for most of the trip home! You just never know...

Hanging out at the pumpkin patch...

We were able to spend several evenings with George's family as well. Emily had a blast playing with her cousins and I loved catching up with all of my sister-in-laws!

our friends James & Ryan...

Saying goodbye to Leah at the airport was not something Emily looked forward to.

If you didn't make the blog I'm sorry, I did a terrible job of taking pictures that week, but I did have a blast seeing everyone! We miss you all terribly!

I'm sorry it's been a while since we've posted any new pictures. We had some Internet trouble, but we're back up and running. Somehow we've said goodbye to summer and hello to fall around here. Leaves beginning to fall from the trees and our high temps are in the low 70's now. Perfect for outdoor fun, and we've had a busy couple of weeks enjoying the autumn weather.

I will include pictures from our trip to the Saline fair (a nearby town, it was preschool day, a Thursday, so daddy didn't get to go, but all of the kiddie rides were free with admission). Emily said her favorite was, well actually, she couldn't choose, she said it was all her favorite - she loved all the rides, except for the dragon "roller coaster." She had a look of terror on her face the entire ride and had to get a big hug afterwards, but she held back the tears. You will see her friend Hannah is some of the pictures.

Then our friends Mary, Hans, Luke, & Ben came to visit. We took the kids apple picking for the first time, which was a lot of fun. I think Emily ate 3 apples after helping fill up the bag. It's a good thing they were small! We had a blast riding the wagon and picking apples, but the best part may have been the homemade apple spice doughnuts at the end. That Tuesday the kids and I went to "see Luke" again while his family was vacationing in MI. They were staying in an adorable little town on Lake Michigan called St. Josephs, and we had a great time hanging out there. It was even warm enough to play in the sand and get in the water (well, for the kids, anyway). So that's what you'll see in these pics.

Backyard Bugs

Emily and I went to the hands-on museum last night for some mommy and daughter time, although I wouldn't call "Backyard Bugs" a mommy-style event. Of course that didn't keep her from having a good time! She got to look through the "eyes of a bug," make a small habitat for a (yes, live) earthworm, and play on the many exhibits. And all with a climactic ending of popsicles and finger puppet bugs.

Challenges of Motherhood part 1

No pictures tonight, just thoughts. Sometimes I worry that my daughter is going to be able to outsmart me by the time she's six years old. As rewarding as parenting is, it's every bit as challenging. Yesterday Emily colored (with black crayon) on her table and her portable DVD player. I realize this is a typical preschool thing to do but as a punishment (since we've discussed many times coloring is for paper only) we took her DVD and CD player out of her room. So no more Jay-Jay movies when I need a break (who's punishment is this anyway?) and no more music as she goes to sleep for a while. (Yes, I realize it was partly my fault for being lazy and leaving the DVD player in her room). She "felt terrible" about it and asked mommy and Jesus to forgive her for disobeying. So all was well until this evening when she refused to clean her room. I put her timer in the room and told her if she cleaned her room in time Daddy could read her a story before bed (this type of motivation usually works, especially when she knows he's on call, and I didn't figure time-out from cleaning up would be a helpful form of discipline). She goofed around for a while and then said she didn't "really feel like reading a story tonight," and she didn't think she wanted the sleepover Daddy promised to have with her this weekend either. I decided she was only three and I'd help her get started but as I helped her pick up she said, "Mom will you start being nice to me now?" By that point, I was out of answers. At those moments I worry how I will ever answer my sixteen year old's challenging questions. It's a good thing God first sends them to us as speechless babies! Here's to mommies everywhere who need words of wisdom for their intelligent little preschoolers!