Happy Fall!

It's not really fall yet, but it sure has that fall feel.  School is back in session, cooler temperatures have arrived (for the time being), and apples have been picked.  We are falling right back into our school year routine and even though we have to get up early tomorrow morning, it feels kind of good.  We are busy, yes, but it's a good busy, filled with errands, work, friends, and lots of family time mixed together.  

Here are a few pictures from the past couple weeks.  A few of these early ones are from Mid-August I think...I apparently hadn't downloaded all of my pictures from my little camera.  

Our smiley girl.

This little gem has one of the best smiles ever.  It's so full of gums and big cheeks and cute dimples.  It is delicious! 

 She's finally starting to enjoy tummy time.

 CRAZY hair!

This past weekend was the big Iowa vs Iowa State game.  We had the "Iowa Crew" over for the game and Anna got to play with her good friend Brecken.  They played together so happily all afternoon.  In fact, it was probably one of the best playdates this girl has had for a long time.  There were no incidents where there was any drama over a shared toy.  They played Candyland (as seen here), legos, trains, and outside.  They ate lots of chips and cookies and anything else they could sneak from the counter when no one was watching.  

 Some of the crew watching the game.  

 Playing with finger puppets was another highlight for the kids!

 Building a tower together...

 Getting taller....

 Falling down!

 They were both laughing so hard!

 The Iowa kids that were present.  Ranging from 2 weeks old to 3 years old.  

 The two newest members of the gang.  Claire 3 months old, Graham 2 weeks old.  What a lot of growing takes place in those first three months!  Claire looked so big next to tiny Graham.

Claire is really getting chatty lately.  She loves to vocalize and tell us what she thinks.  She also is very into "standing."  Here she is showing mom her muscles.  

 Focusing on her standing technique.

 Resting.

Smiling.  Gotta love the hair :) 

Today we headed to our favorite orchard and farm. We went a couple weeks ago and Anna hasn't been able to stop talking about it so we headed back again today after church.  

Showing Daddy the cows with the "really big horns!"

 They have a spot kids can pick up and hold baby chicks.  This is Anna's favorite part.  Not sure that the chicks feel the same way....

 They are bigger than last time we were here...now they have some more real feathers mixed in with their down.  

 Feeding the goats.  Anna taught Daddy how to do it right.  

 Daddy with his two girls walking through the orchard.  

Picking an apple.  "I'm really learning how to pick apples this time." 

 The kids could pick up apples off the ground to feed to the cows....Anna was very excited about feeding it to the cow.  

 The cow was excited too.  

 While it looks like the cow is about to take her hand off, do not fear...it did gobble the apple down in one bite, but Anna was unharmed and so thrilled that the cow ate the apple from her hand.  :)  

Then she got to hold the baby goat...

 She loved that baby goat....

 But he started crying, so I had to help out a bit.  

 Climbing and playing.

This is what Claire did for most of the trip...she looks annoyed here and I think that may have been the case. Next year Claire, you can play too!

 Peek-a-boo!

 Heading to the corn....

 Taking a corn bath!

And now it's Sunday night, on the eve of another new week.  We've got Daddy's bowling league starting up again this week, cooking club for Mommy this week and birthday parties this weekend.  Lots of fun things to keep us on our toes. Fall is in the air!