Pumpkins

After a week of the stomach flu, Duckymama was not up to any festivities on October 31. But, our neighbors gave us two pumpkins, so we carved one tonight and read the Pumpkin Patch Parable. Everyone had a great time!

Whose feet are whose?

I can not believe that my oldest baby has grown so big! Dude now wears a size 7 shoe! He worked at the other house with Daddy today and wore my work shoes! When did this happen? We need to go shopping. :)

Cousins

We had a wonderful visit from my sister and her kids today. It was so good to chat with her and see all of our kiddos playing together. Thanks for coming!

Dude helping L.

L to R: Girlfriend, Z, D, Dude and L, Punkin' and J. Monkey was sitting on the other couch and Sweet Baby was sleeping. We had a full house!

Z helping Monkey.

Emergency Room

Well, we took our second trip to the emergency room this year. Around 6:30pm last night, the kiddos were playing outside with some friends. All of a sudden Dude comes running in the house holding his face with blood everywhere.

Dude (10) was pulling away from someones grasp and Monkey (4) was moving toward Dude and they whacked. When Daddy got the bleeding to stop we took a look at his nose and thought, "Oh, no!" And we headed to the ER.

Thankfully it is a very slight fracture and all of his airways look clear. So, no lasting damage or big procedures right now! It is swollen and pretty painful, but not a lot of bruising.

So, two breaks in one year. What will we get to experience next? :)

UPDATE: 10/18/11 We saw our family practitioner today. He said we really don't need to do anything else, but let it heal. So, Dude needs to take it easy for the next 4-6 weeks. When Dr. J. told Dude that he shouldn't wrestle with his brothers he was a little sad. :) I think he will survive until Thanksgiving.

The Joys of Potty Training

Sweet Baby started showing interest in the potty recently. We have sat him on it every once in a while. Two weeks ago we noticed his diaper was dry after church service, so we sat him down and he did some pee pees. Yesterday he pee peed a little bit.

Today he poo pooed on the potty! We were all so excited. I was sitting there thinking, "This kid is great! Maybe we will be done before baby comes!" I spoke too soon. :)

We didn't get a diaper on him soon enough and he proceeded to poop on the floor a few minutes later.

So, I think we have a ways to go...which is perfectly normal. And I am okay with that! Good thing he is so cute. It makes the work a lot easier to handle.

Family Photos

Well, after watching Daddy's sister take pictures of our kids the last couple of years, I decided to try it myself.

We were asked for some recent pictures of our kids and I realized we did not have any nice, posed shots. And, we have not gotten a family photo taken since Monkey was 1(he just turned 4:)).

So, we scoped out some pretty areas after church on Sunday. Went home and had a good nap. Then, ended up just walking up to the park at the end of our street. I am pretty happy with these pictures!

Dude - 10 years - 5th grade

Girlfriend - 8 years - 3rd grade

Punkin' - just shy of 6 years - Kindergarten

Monkey - 4 years - Preschool

Sweet Baby - 18 mos

Daddy did an excellent job of posing everyone for this shot.

(Yes, we are big Hawkeye fans!)