Christmas Fun

Who doesn't love a good dance number?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! Here are a few pictures from our fun-filled day. They're not in order, I still haven't figured out how to arrange them and give them captions!

Isabelle Can Spell Her Name!

It's true! Isabelle can spell her name. I am so proud of her. I've included a video, in it she forgets the letter "b" but she spelled it correctly, without prompting, about fifty times today so we'll have to give her this one. We went to dinner tonight with Mom, Dad, and Aunt Kitty (Erica) so she had a great audience. That's who you hear cheering in the background. This is such a fun age to watch. She's been writing her name for about a week and a half but she'd ask "What comes next, Mommy?" I asked her today if she could spell her name out loud and she did it! I can't wait for her to be able to read books. I'm such a bookworm myself that I am excited for her to discover that joy that comes from a good book!

Halloween Fun!

This year we decided to throw a small party for Isabelle's friends as well as ours. Several people canceled at the last minute so it really was a small party but the ones that made it made it great! Our friends Lynn and Glenn and their son Gus had two events to attend so they stopped by for a couple of hours right after work. Then later the Carpenter/Romeri families came with Isabelle's special friends Sophie, Ben, and Clara. We had dinner (mummy dogs for the kids) and the went trick-or-treating. They were so cute and so excited! Afterward we came back and decorated cookies and made masks while the grown-ups ate pie and talked. Then we destroyed a pumpkin pinata. Lots of laughter accompanied the blows and shouts of "Watch out!" as well! It was hard to get a clear picture with the kiddos being so excited but here is a sampling of our fun evening.

By the way, the adorable princess wrap was made by Isabelle's great-grandmother, Betty Mowrer. Talk about the perfect accessory!

A Great Weekend with the Topeka Grandparents!

We had a wonderful weekend in Kansas with our Topeka relatives! Our first stop was Friday at the Kansas City Zoo. Isabelle particularly loved visiting the chimpanzees in Africa. We got to see them being fed (and boy do they love that!) and Isabelle and an infant chimp got quite cozy...through the glass.

On Saturday we joined a group from Penny and Thad's mission church, Vida. We headed to Wakarusa, Kansas for a Bean Feed! The ham and beans are cooked over an open fire in a huge pot. Combine that with cornbread, sides and home-made pie and you have an incredible meal.

Then we headed to a visit with Great-Grandma Ruthie where we had a balloon fight (started by Ruthie herself) and a lovely chat. After a quick nap (for Isabelle and Mommy) we headed to Gary's Berries, again with the friendly folks at Vida, to pick pumpkins, find our way through a corn maze, a relaxing hayride and lots of trips down a giant slide. There was also fun to be had in the corn pit and hay stacks. A funnel cake and kellte corn rounded off the evening and then it was back to the house for dinner and sleep.

We were going a hundred miles an hour the whole weekend but we had a great time.

The pictures didn't display in the order they happened. You'll all have to use your detective skills to figure out what's happening in each!

Pumpkin Pickin'

Another gorgeous-weather weekend meant spending time at Eckert's. We picked pumpkins and took a fun wagon ride. We also walked to the Swansea Kingdom playground and played our hearts out before walking the mile and a half back to the house.

The Best of Missouri at the Botanical Gardens

We had such a great time together at the Botanical Gardens. We climbed all over statues, decorated a pumpkin, built a bird house, made a silly crown, decorated a doughnut, played with dancing water, had Isabelle's face painted and so much more!