October Wrap-Up

October absolutely flew by. It seems like something was happening nearly every day and definitely every weekend! Here's some snapshots of the day to day that I want to remember!

1. baylor rocking his blue kinesio tape 2. my birthday present finally arrived 3. katie and squishy at my cousin's wedding (he was her "plus 1") 4. scissor practice 5. jumping at the toy store 6. visit to the pumpkin patch 7. dress up fun at cole and cooper's birthday carnival 8. baylor. sleeping on his own. 9. making cookies for no reason at all 10. sweet smiles 11. chili for our sunday school cook-off 12. after school playtime at the park

 

Baylor - 2 months

 

Another month has gone by and Baylor is changing every day. The days seem to fly by and before I know it, a whole week has passed! He sleeps so well at night and that is really helping us all get more and more adjusted to being a family of four. He really is a happy baby for the most part. When he cries, he is easy to figure out and calm down...just like a guy! He's definitely not as complicated as Katie was at this age. He has a smile that covers his entire face! He smiles best for Katie which she absolutely adores.

We are continuing therapy on a weekly basis. For now, the ortho doctor wants us to continue for 6 months.

Now that he has had his 2 month vaccines, he can safely attend church! He's been coming to Sunday school and worship with Doug and me but now I can let him go to nursery. I'm just not sure I'm ready to leave my baby with someone else!

Baby Dedication

I am so thankful for the children's ministry at our church. It is a ministry that led me to the Lord when I was a child and I love watching Katie learn about God and get excited each week to go to church and recite her memory verses. 

On October 21, we dedicated Baylor to the Lord and committed to raising him in a Christian home. The dedication service recognizes that Baylor will make his own decision to follow God but we commit to guiding him along that path as his parents and family. 

After the service, there's a wonderful reception for the families of the babies who have just been dedicated. Each child receives a gift box full of goodies. My favorite thing in the box was a Jesus Calling devotional book for kids. If you haven't read the Jesus Calling devotional book for adults, do yourself a favor and get it. The kids one is pretty amazing too. I'm working on reading the devotions to Katie. I know some of the stuff is beyond her age range, but I think even the discipline of a daily devotion is a good routine to get going.

Here's some more pictures from the afternoon. I really love the one of Baylor and my dad!

Totally engrossed in each other

Baylor still staring at my dad

My parents and the kiddos

Our family!  

Pooped out from the busy afternoon and ready to go home

Cease Farms 2012

We went to Cease Farms again this year. We had so much fun at our inaugural visit last year, we wanted to go back now that Katie was older. The farm's main attraction is actually an enormous corn maze. We didn't do the maze because we spent hours (literally) on everything else.

The highlight (for kids and grown ups alike) is the big tube slide! Katie was super apprehensive about it last year but this year it took very little coaxing to get her to go by herself.

                 

 There's a couple of large pieces of the tubing that is just on the ground. I'm not 100% sure what it's for, but we've used it to roll people around. No one has yelled at us, so this is what I'm going with. Katie and I rolled Doug all over the ground until we were both exhausted and he was about to puke!

We did a few other things while we were at Cease Farms - a small tire maze, some tricycle tractors, and a blow up horse rodeo. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Until we got to the duck race. Oh. My. Word.  I saw a side of Katie that I've seen glimpses of during soccer or "friendly" games of chase. She is crazy competitive. She absolutely lost it when Caleb's duck (or the strangers racing their duck next to us) got even remotely close to hers. And I can't even begin to describe the meltdown that occurred when Caleb's duck won one of the races. If they were older, it could've been the end of their friendship.

Despite the ending of the day, we had a great time! It was nice to be outside in the fall weather enjoying friends and family!

The Fair is in Town!

 I'm still on full maternity leave so it's nice to be able to enjoy some of our favorite fall activities without taking more time off of work. Doug took a day off and we all went to the fair together. I probably should've done better research because it turned out we went to the fair on "kindergarten day" which made it exceptionally more crowded, especially in the children's areas.

We skipped the fair last year and haven't really been to other amusement ride places so I wasn't sure what she'd want to do. She went in pretty gung-ho and ready to ride things. We started on the carousel and then headed over to the dragon roller coaster pictured below. She was excited to ride her first roller coaster with daddy by her side.

 Let's just say I'm glad I got a picture beforehand because she was hysterical by the end of the ride. It was loud and fast and rickety - a perfect formula for distress in Katie's mind. She really didn't want to ride much else after that. We coaxed her onto a few mundane rides but it was clear she wasn't thrilled.

So we moved onto food which was just fine with me. My favorite are the sugared donuts. You get 26 in a bag and I'm always thinking "there's no way we'll eat 26 of these things." Well 26 donuts later, I was wanting another bag!

Before we left, Katie wanted to ride the carousel again. I definitely wanted to end on a high note so she wouldn't harbor this fear of the fair so we got back in line again.

It wasn't the "ride extravaganza" I thought the day would be, but it was nice just being together as a family. Oh and here's the little man. This is the extent of what he did while we were there!