Sweet Cousins

Adi doesn't get to see her cousin Ally a lot.  There are lots of miles between us.  But, when they are together they spend some good, quality time with each other.  Lots of stories, a little baking, and lots of jumping on beds and laughing!  Ally was up for a day and we planned for the girls to do a little baking together while the guys spent the day in the woods.

Of course, Adi is crawling right through the middle of the mess!  She had us all laughing and smiling.

She wanted to do everything on her own.  Just like a big girl would!

I love these chubby little fingers.....even when they are into EVERYTHING:)

Ally dressed her in an apron and a chef hat that she had given to her.  I don't really think the apron helped to keep her clean!

Even though it's hard to watch them grow so fast, I love being able to do fun things like this with my big girl.

We are happy for some quality cousin time:)

Oh, My!

This room always looks a mess.  Majority of the time it looks like a small tornado has blown through it.  This is where the kids play.  For hours on end, they will be happy and content, and just plain, busy.  I try every night or two to get in there and put some organization into the room.  It doesn't take long to put things where they belong, but it's one more thing to find time to do.  I think the kids need to start sharing in this responsibility.....

Especially when shortly after I had finished cleaning the other night, the room again looked like this!

I have to say, though, that instead of being upset and disappointed, I was happy to find them reading stories to each other.  Nothing makes me happier than to find the little ones enjoying stories together.  Even if they sat through a tornado and acted like nothing ever happened!

Picking Pumpkins

Papa Neal and Grandma Linda plant a whole lot of pumpkins each year with Grandma Great and Papa Great.   I think they grow all these pumpkins mainly so the grandkids can go out and pick them.  Papa Neal loaded up the grandkids the other day when we were over visiting for Grandma's birthday and took them down to the pumpkin patch.  We waited in the yard for them, and while they were gone we could hear lots of shrieks, laughs, and giggles.

And they returned with a trailer-ful of cute kids and pumpkins!

They had to make silly faces for the camera.

The kids were excited to bring home all of their pumpkins, and we have plans to carve them and roast seeds very soon!

Pumpkin Patch and Lots of Friends

For the 2nd year in a row we met our friends at Market 101 in Otsego.  They have a huge pit of corn that, of course, was a hit again, along with a little petting zoo, go karts, rubber duckie races, and more.  The kids had a great time, and couldn't take it all in fast enough.  Chad and I had fun chasing them from one activity to another.  This is definitely a family outing that we will hold onto year after year.  It makes it even more exciting when we are with our friends all day, too!

Bubbie wasn't quite big enough to get this horse to move, so Daddy had to help him.

The corn pit was a huge hit.  Adi spent most of her time in here.  It was the perfect place for her to just run wild!

Jacob, Reagan, and Eli took turns racing the duckies back and forth to each other.

Kendall wanted crazy hair!

Jared is so patient and gentle with Adi.  He spent lots of time in the corn pit entertaining her.  Maybe she was entertaining him?!

Our little group of 4 yr olds are getting so big!  They each raced around the track on their own go-karts this year.  Last year they were still riding with their Daddys!

Eli and Kendall racing around the track!

He moved too fast and wouldn't stop to smile at me!  I could never get a good shot of his big, smiley face!

Daddy took Adi for a ride.  Of course, she loved it!

He had so much fun the first time around, he had to go again.

Adi was waving to everyone around the track.  Love this sweet picture of Daddy and his girl.

I was a little more nervous than the kids about petting this alligator!

Our little brave one put her finger right up to it's mouth!  I wasn't in the petting zoo at the time with the camera, but Eli actually held this thing!!!

Adi loved the little hedgehog.

And the pictures of her and bunny are so sweet!

This was Adi's actual birthday, so it was a special day for us to go to the pumpkin patch.  After we all went out for dinner together we went back to Rick and Kathy's house for the night.  Kathy bought Adi her own little special birthday cake.

Adi and Jacob are waiting to blow out the candles.

Adi was so proud to be the birthday girl.

Jared and Eli had fun listening to music.  It was so cute how they shared the ear buds!

I LOVE, LOVE the expressions on their faces!  Jared is so good with the little kids, and they just adore him!

Our little girly, girl wanted to wrestle Reagan.   They laughed and giggled the whole time.

Birthday girl finally got tired and was ready for jammies and bed.

She convinced Jared to read her one more story.  How sweet is this picture?!

We got up the next day and got ready to celebrate Rick's birthday, and the Vikings!!!

Little kids all came in their cute Vikings gear.  Belle was ready for the game.

A huge, purple and gold, crowd gathered in the garage!

The kids played hard for a 2nd day in a row.

They are all such buddies.  I love to watch their friendships grow!

And the big boys like to get in on a little of the action, too.  What a great weekend....We love spending time with our wonderful friends!  We laughed until our stomachs hurt....Until next time, friends- We miss you already!