Maybe I should have just written a book...

It's like the longer I go between blog posts the harder it is to jump back in because I feel like I need to update EVERYTHING that happened between here and there. But I know I don't, and I really can't, because too much has happened. I guess it's a good thing I've got too much to share- we have been having so much fun together and living life is always a lot more fun than talking about it.

There are a few things I want to share and record in semi-bullet form with pictures.

Halloween was super fun with the kids- Max totally understood the concept of Trick or Treating but still doesn't know that we steal his candy while he's sleeping. Best of both worlds I say.

We celebrated Adam's birthday and him and I got away to spend the day in Springfield without the kiddos and had a blast doing a Man vs Food challenge which fulfilled one of Adam's life long dreams.

 Trying the firedbrand chili at Joe's Chili

 Defeated by the Firebrand Chili at Joe's Chili

Yum! The ultimate fair food, only without the carnies.

Absolutely delish!

Mrs. Lincoln's sewing table.

The Lincoln's Home

Me picking Abe's nose for him

We had a wonderful horseshoe

We've thoroughly enjoyed this fall weather- in fact I wish the 65 and sunny days would stay all year round.

The kids are awesome- Max is just so funny and weird we love every minute because you just don't know what he'll say or do (which can be totally fun and frustrating in the same moment).

Today he climbed up on top of his desk in his room (which he is not allowed to do) and I guess from what he said he rolled off it and scraped his back ending up with a good 4 inch gash. He was supposed to be napping. After I patched him up he went right to sleep and slept for 2.5 hours.

We were driving through the town square later today and he noticed the Christmas trees in the shop windows and asked when we were going to put up our Christmas tree (we haven't talked about doing this I don't know where he understood the idea of putting up a Christmas tree) and the other day when I wouldn't let him have candy at the store he kinds just shrugged it off and said "Santa will get it for me" and walked away. Hunh! Really? I thought it was so funny he was so sure that Santa was going to get it for him that now "Santa" needs to go back and get the candy filled plastic tractor and bulldozer to stick in his stocking.

I could go on and on with all the awesomely hilarious things he says and does.

 Penny's growing so quickly. It's so funny how quickly this stage comes and goes and a new one takes it's place.

We are practicing sitting up and rolling over (she can do it fine from tummy to back but has yet to do it the other way around) and she's loving all the toys Max will let her play with. She especially has a favorite dolly she loves and is starting to master the exersaucer.

Her absolute favorite thing to do though is watch Max. If he gets close enough she will lunge at him and grab on to him so there's lots of hugging going on at our house.

This afternoon when Penny woke from her nap Max went into her room and I listened to them "talk" to each other for a while over the monitor. Max calls her "Penny girl" "Baby Sister" or "Penny Elizabeth" and every time someone says what a nice "baby" she is he corrects them and tells them her name.

She's started that full on belly laugh (mostly at Max but sometimes I can get her going too) and loves squash and sweet potatoes. I've decided to not do rice cereal for the time being because of some digestive issues she's had along the way and she's on lactose-free formula now and just this week has stopped nursing altogether.

It's so hard to not compare your children but I feel like she's further behind where Max was at this age. But on the other hand I don't mind at all for a number of reasons- She's likely to be our last baby (or last baby for quite a few years), Max was so far ahead of "schedule" that I don't feel like he was a baby at all sometimes, and gosh babies are so much cuter when they aren't mobile (or at least in my own opinion).

I've been on a roll lately with the knitting and crocheting- Lots of holiday stuff to make and since nothing last year was handmade I feel extra pressure to make things this year. Not pressure in the bad way, but a desire and a want.

The kids are still getting their three presents but one of those is handmade this year (Max's pic above is modeling his handmade hat that will be put away for Christmas along with the coordinating scarf).

I've made quite a bit of progress this past week or two, but still a long way to go. I've got a couple more things to get done in the next two weeks (in time for our trip to Ohio)
Here's the low down of fiber yummies since August

August

September

October

November (so far, but actually I've finished two more since I put this together...)

Here are the two weekly updates from the kids to catch you up (minus today's because, um, for the first time since Penny has been born I forgot to take their picture together..... so I'll take it tomorrow and just pretend I did it today.

We have been so crazy ridiculously busy and there's just always something drawing our attention, it's been really hard to focus. God is really stripping down things we thought were good and showing us how to rely more on Him for EVERYTHING in our lives, even those things we thought we could do ourselves.