November 28th, 2009 - Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

Over the Thanksgiving Break we took the opportunity to decorate the house for Christmas. We got everything done but the outside lights. Tyler was a big help decorating the Christmas tree. He loves to help Mommy and did his best. One side of the tree is a little heavy with ornaments since he thought he was supposed to decorate just one spot, but we'll keep it that way.

And in case anyone is wondering, we did not put up glass ornaments this year. We bought all new "shatterproof" ornaments so we wouldn't have a repeat of last year's ER visit! In between decorating we were chasing Anneliese all over the house. She is crawling pretty well now and is really fast! She loves playing in the kitchen. She has gobs of toys but would rather play with plastic bowls, wooden spoons and the cans in the pantry. Go figure!

October 2009 - Halloween Party

We had the families of Jeff's Wednesday night group (South County meeting) over for a Halloween party to see all of the kids in costumes. All of the kids had a great time playing with the toys upstairs, but the big hit was the playset in the basement. Anneliese fell asleep at 6:30 p.m. and never woke up during the rest of the party. We don't know how she slept through the noise!

October 2009 - Halloween Costumes

Here are the kids in their costumes. We had to bribe Tyler with chocolate to keep the do rag on. Anneliese wasn't real impressed with the lamb costume. We really can't blame her because it must have been hot. Needless to say neither costume stayed on very long.

October 2009 - Pumpkin Carving

A few days before Halloween, Jen always carves a jackolantern. This year Tyler was really able to help. He was pretty impressed with his handiwork, but what we will remember is that when we lit the candle inside the jackolantern and turned out the lights in the room, Tyler started singing "Happy Birthday"!

October 2009 - Fall Foliage

Fall 2009 was beautiful. It was one of the prettiest, IMO. Here is the view from our backyard.

October 2009 - Kids Playing

These are some cute shots of the kids playing. They are growing up so fast! Tyler is a chatterbox. He talks all day about Cars and Thomas. Anneliese is babbling and trying really hard to be mobile. She's close to crawling. We're sure she's going to take off any day now.

October 2009 - Day Out with Thomas

We went to Day Out with Thomas in Granite City, Illinois with Jen's parents. We told Tyler we were going to ride the "real Thomas". He had a blast looking at the Lego Island of Sodor and Thomas, the Thomas train sets on display, and of course, riding the real Thomas train.

October 2009 - Fire Trucks

Jeff took Tyler to see some fire trucks and emergency vehicles on display at the Museum of Transportation. They were joined by Dan, Ben and Dominic. What a fun outing with Daddy!

October 2009 - Pumpkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch in New Haven, Missouri with Jen's family. It was a chilly day which made it perfect to pick pumpkins. The pumpkin patch had activities for kids. Anneliese was a little too young to enjoy it but Tyler planted himself in the pool of corn and didn't want to leave - it looked like alot of fun and we found corn kernals around the house for days thereafter!