leaves and baby love

We are having another beautiful fall here! I just love this time of year. We have a cute chinese neighbor named Linda who pays us to mow her lawn and rake her leaves (we've tried telling her not to pay us but she insists) The girls had a great time helping rake the other night.

Sophie was the most motivated to rake because she's earning money to buy an American Girl doll. (She was going to ask Santa for one - but I talked her in to saving her money so she can buy one on her eighth birthday next summer...) So she is always asking what she can do to earn a dollar.

Nora had fun raking as well...

Miles just liked riding his tricycle up and down the sidewalk, and pulling faces for the camera

The boys! Here's daddy and Miles enjoying some baby love from Wesley. Miles has been a bit more interested in "Weswee" lately.

Wesley is growing so quickly. He is such fun to have around. Sure love this sweet little guy!

One month!

It's true. This little man has been in our family for a month now. And it's sure been a busy one! It is so fun to have a little baby in our home and enjoy every second of his sweetness. He's been a very good baby and although he wakes up 3x each night to be fed he has been the best one of our babies at not getting days/nights mixed up, so he eats and goes right back to sleep. He has started making those sweet baby cooing noises and we are still waiting for that first genuine smile... hopefully it's soon!

Home again, home again jiggity jig

Brian spent most of last week in Ireland! He had a conference there for school on Saturday so he left Tuesday afternoon and spent a few days site seeing with some fellow students. Lucky. (I will post some of those pictures when he gets them all downloaded.) So I was parenting solo for the week, and the only thing that had me worried was the nights. Miles wakes up fairly often and obviously so does Wesley, so I was worried about being able to take care of both of them at the same time. Turns out my fears were legit. :) It was pretty rough except for Wednesday night and Nora and Miles both got sick on Thursday with fevers and sore throats. I ended up taking Miles to the Instacare on Saturday night because he had some red and white sores in his mouth and throat. I thought it was strep, but it ended up being herpangina. Miles had a worse case than Nora and he was pretty miserable from Thursday - Sunday. Which actually made me feel a bit better about how he'd been acting, because for three nights in a row he would wake up crying and screaming and nothing was working to calm him down so I resorted to letting him watch Thomas the Train shows at all hours of the night. It was my means of survival. I love you Thomas! Needless to say we were all thrilled to have Brian back home on Sunday night. Single parenting a newborn and sick kids is not my cup of tea. But I am so glad Brian was able to go to Ireland. He was worried about leaving me, and I know he would have stayed had I asked him to. But how could I ask him to miss out? I didn't end up taking too many pictures all things considered, but here's one:
Sophie was such a helper with Wesley. She would hold him while I made dinner or do any other various tasks that really require the use of two hands. And she loves doing it.

P.S. A big thanks to my neighbors who brought me pizza dough, dinner and watched two of the kids while I was at Instacare. You all know you are THE BEST.

Damage Control...

Miles is a determined little boy. He likes things his way... or not at all. And because of my lazy parenting skills in the last months of pregnancy and the last month of having a new baby around, well - let's just say he's pretty much gotten his way most of the time. So now we are doing damage control. There are a few certain things that need changing around here. Like no more waking up at 530am and yelling for chocolate milk - and then yelling again 5 minutes later when he's done and we have to go get the sippy cup. And no more fruit snacks for breakfast. Or calling everyone poop head. This kid needs to be reminded who's running this place, because I'm pretty sure it should be me and not him.
(But at least he's nice to the baby.)

Huff family visit!

Brian's sister Emily and her family came to visit us again! We had a great time having them here. I have so many pictures so I'll let them do most of the explaining. Thanks for coming all the way out here to see us Huff family. Here is some of what we did:

Went apple picking at a local orchard:

Visited our local zoo:

side note: Nora was wondering what the heck those bumps were on that giraffe :)

We went to another orchard that was a few hours away but had some fun stuff for the kids, it's been chilly here so I dressed Nora and Miles in long sleeve shirts and pants and this day ended being HOT. I felt bad but they didn't complain. Miles' cheeks get so red when he's warm. Cute.

They had a Ferris wheel and I rode with Nora. Here is her reaction at the very top!

They also had a fishing pond... kind of :)

We went on a walk down on the river trail here that was a lot of fun. We had cider, donuts and a great time!

And with 7 kids in the house we did a lot of hanging out and reading/playing:

It was so great to meet our new nephew Isaac. He was super sweet and such a good baby. Thanks for coming guys and being so darn good to us!

Two weeks & an update...

It's hard to believe our little guy has been with us for two weeks! It is so fun getting to know him as he adds his own little personality to our family. He gets the hiccups a lot, is waking up 3 times each night and he has a dimple in his right cheek that kills me every time I see it! I can hardly wait until he smiles for real and I can see it more often. He's doing great and is oh so sweet!

Sophie lost her front tooth a few weeks ago and instantly looks and acts older now. She's in love with her little brother and we've found letting her hold him is a good reward when we are trying to get her to do something. She is liking 2nd grade and although she is NOT a morning person she is excited for school every day... getting her up and ready on time is the hard part!

Nora also loves Wes and holding him and cuddling him. She is also loving kindergarten! Every morning she bounces out of bed with a smile and asks if it is a school day. And each day she is sad when she doesn't have homework to do! Her teacher talked to me after school last week and told me Nora is the ideal student and is doing great. I'm so happy she is loving school!

Nora also learned to ride her bike without training wheels! I helped her one day when I was a week overdue and that turned out to be a bad idea when I pulled something and had to lay on the grass for half an hour before I could move again! So Brian helped her one day last week and the next day she just hopped on her bike and started riding, It is so cute to watch her and she is thrilled about her new skill.

Miles is a little indifferent to Wesley...which is better than having him NOT like him. He has brought him a car or train to play with and occasionally wants Wesley to watch him do something. I think it is the start of a great relationship!

Naunie & Grandma's visit(s)

It was so fun to have my mom come and stay with us! We had a fun time going to Chuck E. Cheese's and Jumpin' Jax. Because most of our time was spent waiting for Wesley to come I didn't get that many pictures of all we did. But we had a great time together. Thanks mom!

We got this couch from Craigslist last month and it squeaked when you sat in the middle. One night Brian and my mom took it apart and fixed it. Yay!

I am glad she was able to extend her ticket so she could spend some time with our little guy. She was supposed to leave the day he was born. Who knew he was going to be so late? The rascal.

My mother-in-law came the day Wesley was born so she and my mom got to be here together for a few days. They are both such cute ladies! We're pretty lucky to have two awesome grandma's!

Miles was a little standoffish to both Naunie and Grandma. We never knew how he was going to react. When he wasn't being grumpy he really loved both of them.

We went to the MSU Childrens garden which was beautiful.

Saying good-bye! We got my mom to the flyer at the last minute so we didn't even have time to take pictures! Luckily we got Rhonda there with enough time to say good-bye and take some pictures. Thanks for coming! We loved every minute of it!