Thanksgiving

I didn't take many pictures on Thankgsiving, but here are the few I took. The girls and I spent the morning watching the parade with my sister and brother (and sometimes my parents) while Robbie went and played football with some of the guys from our ward and another local ward. I also helped cook, the girls snacked on some of the food being made, and eventually we got dressed. We had some friends from our ward over for Thanksgiving. The girls had so much fun with their two girls-one Gwen's age, the other in between Grace and Georgia's ages (and they are expecting baby girl #3 any day now). We had a wonderful Thanksgiving-we have so much to be grateful for!!

Pumpkin Picking &Super Hero Halloween

The girls really looked forward to Halloween this year. We didn't get to go to a pumpkin field to pick our own pumpkins at my parents house, so Rob's mom took the girls and I to a field on our way down to her house for a visit one weekend. The girls got to go out in this huge field and pick out their own pumpkins.

Georgia picked her pumpkin fast. It was pretty much a look this is the first pumpkin I found and it's mine sort of thing. Course, after she picked her pumpkin, she kept finding other ones to take home as well. She had lots of fun running around in the field and kept saying "puhkin momma."



Grace didn't have a hard time finding a pumpkin either. About 5 minutes after we got there and had looked around, Grace found a pumpkin that she really liked. She stuck with that pumpkin the whole time we were there...she never wanted to switch pumpkins and never found another one that she liked.


Gwen had such a hard time finding a pumpkin. We would find a good one and show it to her, but she would say it wasn't the one and that she had to keep looking. I think she just liked pulling the wagon along and didn't want to stop. At one point I stayed with the wagon so she could go look all over the pumpkin field with Grandma Congdon for her pumpkin. Still didn't find one. She came back and we convinced her to get one of the pumpkins we had shown her before.

After we finally got each girl to pick out a pumpkin, we had them stand by the wagon for a picture. Don't know if they are standing in front of their pumpkin, but the older two remembered whose pumpkin was whose when we got back to Grandma Congdons. We carved the pumpkins a couple days later when Rob was there to help (and we could have baths afterwards).

Georgia loved helping push the wagon all over the place. Grace finally came over right after I took this picture and helped push the pumpkins over to the car. They had so much fun picking pumpkins from a field.

We spent Halloween at my parents house. We went to a local farmers market to get pumpkins, and they had already picked all the pumpkins out of the field, so we just went through the pumpkins they had and had the girls pick some out. I even got some pie pumpkins to make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving...yuuummm. We carved the pumpkins the day before Halloween. Gwen helped me with Georgia's after she lost interest, and then Rob helped her carve her own pumpkin. Gwen actually drew the face on her pumpkin and had Rob cut what she drew...her pumpkin even had a beard!

Rob helped Grace carve her pumpkin as well. Grace helped give Rob ideas for what shapes she wanted for eyes, nose and mouth, and even helped him carve the pieces out some.

Georgia was only interested in taking the goop out of the pumpkin. Once we were done doing that with her pumpkin, she moved on to someone elses pumpkin and tried helping them. She came back to her pumpkin when I was carving the face out, and wanted to help carve, but I didn't really let her help. In fact, she tried helping everyone carve their pumpkin. She had so much fun.

I think this is the last year I will make the girls costumes. It was a lot of work, and really stressful. It was cheaper than buying costumes, but I'm just not sure I will do it again. The girls were all super heros, and we used old cloths or cloths we found at a second hand store to make their costumes, along with some fabric.

Gwen decided to be Wonder Woman this year. I cut out, ironed interfacing on, and sewed a lot of things onto her costume. I made her headband (drew the red star on with fabric paint), the Wonder Woman logo on her shirt, her armbands, her belt, the stars on her skirt, and her "boots" which were made out of girls tights that I cut and we slipped them on over the top of her shoes.

Grace wanted to be Batman, but we made her into Batgirl instead. I made the headband (which didn't turn out as good as I had wanted it to), the Batgirl logo on her shirt, her armbands, her belt, and her tights (which I had to dye a pair of white tights to get the yellow). My grandma made the cape for Gwen for Christmas last year (Grace got a superman cape as well).

Since the other two wanted to be superheros, we thought we'd do a family theme and make Georgia a superhero too. So we made her Hawkgirl. Sooo many people didn't know who Hawkgirl was, but Rob and I love watching Justice League and cartoons like that, so at least we knew who she was. I made her feather headband, her belt and her boots. Her costume was a bit easier because I didn't have to sew anything onto it, and I didn't have to make the wings (thank goodness).

The girls loved their costumes and had so much fun trick or treating. This was Georgia's first year trick or treating and she had a blast. They are already talking about what they are going to be next year!!

Apple Picking

We went apple picking back in September at the same orchard we went to last year. To our surprise, there weren't a whole lot of trees that had apples left. We don't know if they were ruined by hail, an early frost, or if the owners simply picked them all and sold them to the local grocery stores, but we had a hard time finding apples to pick (it was a lot warmer this year too). There were lots of granny smith sort of apples, but we really wanted some empire apples and macintosh. So we really searched the trees and found enough of those two apples to fill two bags. The girls had lots of fun.

There were these huge pumpkins out in the grassy meadow before the rows of trees started (where they usually keep sheep) and the girls thought they were awesome and wanted a picture with them. While we were there we also got to see one of the orchard owners gathering eggs from the hens they keep there as well. The girls thought that was neat.

Georgia loved finding apples and putting them in the bags, but loved eating them even more. Georgia loves apples-especially if their small ones that are perfect for a little shmoo to eat them. Even after we got home, she would sneak into the food pantry and grab an apple and start eating without anyone noticing.

My sister joined us again this year. Gwen decided to be her buddy and help her pick apples. Gracie joined her later, but Gwen wanted to be Aunt Mimi's picking buddy.

Gracie decided that she really wanted to try a green apple. Normally the girls don't like green apples because they are a bit more tart than red apples are, but Grace really liked the green apple she tried.

Gwen thought it was really cool that she got to eat an apple that she picked herself. Even better was the fact that it was the perfect size for her. She ate two or three apples while we were at the orchard.

Gwen and Grace had so much fun helping Aunt Mimi find and pick apples. They love their Aunt Mimi. My sister would pick them up and help them pick apples higher up in the tree, and would also point out the ones lower on the branches for them to pick themselves.

Georgia loved the apples so much that we couldn't take them away from her. She would eat them as we were walking around looking for more. We had so much fun picking apples, and I hope that there is an apple orchard near the town where we will hopefully be moving to. This has become a wonderful family tradition.

Pittsburgh Trip-Our Visit and Swimming

We had so much fun at Gigi and Pappy's house. One of things we loved to do while we were there was get all the coloring stuff out and just sit and create.



Georgia really loves coloring now and gets so excited when we tell her let's go color.

The girls loved blowing bubbles out on Gigi and Pappy's patio with their cousins and with my Uncle Paul. They loved spending time with Uncle Paul.

Gracie and Gwen had so much fun with Nate. They did puzzles with him, colored with him, played computer games with him...everything they could think of.

It was so nice to spend so much time with Daddy too. We miss being able to cuddle and play with him as much as we used to. Little girls sure do love their daddy.

Georgia sure loved her Uncle Paul. She spent a lot of time with him, and gave him hugs over and over and over again one night...she just wouldn't stop.

Gwen wanted so badly to have some snuggle time with Pappy, so while we were all resting/taking naps one day, she grabbed her blanket and stuffed animal and snuggled up with Pappy.

They loved spending time with my Aunt Ruth as well (my mom's sister). Gracie kept calling her Nana, which is what they call my mom, but Aunt Ruth didn't mind.

We took the girls swimming almost every afternoon while we were there. They loved the pool so much that I think next summer we might have to get pool passes for the local pool and take the girls a couple times a week. Probably even have the two older girls take swimming lessons. The kiddie pool there was really cool...they had a little slide that looked like a frog. The girls loved spending time at the pool. Gwen was even brave enough to go under the water a couple of times.

Grace refused to go down the slide without someone at the bottom to catch her. The pool wasn't deep enough for her to go under, but it still scared her. Most of the time Pappy was there to catch the kids. Grace even had her second cousin Lily there to help her off the slide this time.

Georgia absolutely loved the pool. Oh my word, it was so hard to get her to come out of the pool when we were ready to leave. Georgia didn't even want me holding her hand most of the time. Sure she slipped a couple of times, and went under the water, but I was right there to grab her. She loved playing in the pool with toys, and going down the slide over and over and over again.

We had such a wonderful time in Pittsburgh, and it was hard to leave. The girls are constantly asking me when we can go back. Thank you to Gigi and Pappy, and to all the rest of my family, for making this such a wonderful vacation for our little family, for being so loving towards my girls, and for just spending time with us. We love you all so much!!

Pittsburgh Trip-The Zoo

One thing that the girls really looked forward to our whole trip was the zoo. It was one of the last things we did before coming back home, and the girls were so excited!! The Pittsburgh Zoo is awesome, and even Robbie said he's never been to a zoo that big before. The girls loved it! Here are some of the animals we saw:

The two baby elephants were taking baths when we got there. The girls loved to see them splashing around and shaking their ears and playing with each other in the water.

The gorillas were awesome!! They have this huge viewing area where the glass goes from floor to ceiling, so the gorillas can walk right up to the glass if they want to. That's exactly what this gorilla did. Within seconds of the girls getting their turn up at the glass, this HUGE gorilla came over to the plate of veggies by the glass, picked up a bunch of brocolli, stuffed it into his mouth, then walked back and forth in front of the glass with the brocolli hanging out of his mouth. The girls were thrilled!!

The bears were cool and sad at the same time. We found out that during the previous night, one of the brown bears had passed away from old age. It was a bummer not to get to see any of the brown bears, but they loved watching this black bear take a bath.

I think these were gazelles, but I almost think they were called something else. Just another neat animal the girls had never seen before.

The girls loved the giraffes. They couldn't believe how tall they were and had so much fun watching them walk around.

We didn't think we'd get to see the lions at first, because they were napping high up on a ledge and you couldn't really see them. Then the male woke up and poked his head up, and the girls finally got to see a lion. So glad though that Robbie has such an awesome camera, so he could get such a good picture of the lions for the girls to look at.

The ostrich wasn't moving much at first either. The girls didn't show much interest in it thanks to it being in the same enclosure as the giraffe, but once we started talking about how fast it could run and that it couldn't fly, Gwen at least showed a bit more interest in it.

The rhino has always been one of Gwen's favorites. She has loved rhinos since she was about 2 (I know...a weird animal to have as a favorite). It was fun to get to see some rhinos again.

A new part of the zoo are those tunnels that you can walk under and the fish/animals swim around it. They had one for the polar bears, and then a short walk down the path there was another tunnel filled with sharks. Gwen and Grace loved it! They loved watching the sharks swim so close and know that the sharks couldn't hurt them. Gwen loved looking at their teeth and Grace would wave over and over again and say "Hi shark." That was one of my favorite parts of the zoo.

The sea lions were a lot of fun to watch. The girls got to sit right by the window, and some of the sea lions kept swimming back and forth in front of the window, which just made the girls giggle with excitement.

The otters were so cute...they've always been one of my favorite animals.

The polar bear is something new that they've added since I was last there. It was so cool to see a polar bear. And we got there while the polar bear was having some play time with his ball. He was pouncing on it, batting it back and forth between his front paws, and knocking it into the pool and then swimming after it. So much fun to watch the polar bear playing.

We saw so many other animals too. There was a whole monkey house filled with lemurs and baboons and many other different monkeys. We saw penguins and different fish, and the girls even got to touch some sting rays. We saw camels and meerkats and just so many many other animals. We all had such a blast at the zoo. I'm so glad we were able to take them. They still talk about it and all the cool animals they saw.

They had misters positioned here and there throughout the zoo to help cool people off, and the girls loved running through them. Gwen and Grace would run back and forth until they had water dripping from their hair.

Georgia was most content to sit in the cool little stroller we rented from the zoo that looked like a safari jeep.

The girls were so thrilled to have their second cousin Nate come with us to the zoo. They love Nate.

They had lots of fun with their second cousins Joanie and Ricky too.

We had a wonderful time at the zoo. More updates still to come!!