Where did October go?
October is my favorite month, mostly because I love fall.  But there are a lot of exciting things that happen in October, which make it go by way too fast.  Jeremy and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on October 6th.  We went to church that morning, and then we got a babysitter for Julia and Claire that night, and we had a dinner date with Evan at Signatures.  We ate in the restaurant, and the view was beautiful.  We had our wedding reception at the event center here, so eating at the restaurant always reminds us of our wedding day.  This year, October 6th was exactly how I envisioned our wedding day being.  Cool, crisp fall air, and beautiful fall colors starting to peek out.  We even saw deer walking around on the golf course outside the window.  Our wedding year, the beginning of October was really hot.  The trees were all still bright green, the summer flowers were still in full bloom, and our wedding day was a steamy 90 degrees!  Evan was the perfect dinner date.  We feel sorry for him that he has to hang out with his boring parents all the time, but Jeremy and I are still the only ones who know how to give him his insulin and check his blood sugars, so it's our only option.  We are lucky he is always such a joy to be around.

With the cooler weather on it's way, I knew the fountain at the "fountain Park" would soon be turned off.  We went to the library one day, brought our bikes and lunches, and then biked over to the fountain park for one last picnic.





   

 

 

My sister got married this year, too, on October 13th, which made October even more fun and eventful than usual.  Kari and Keith got married at the most beautiful place I have ever seen.  The Maywood Stone Barn is a magical place, and when you are there you feel like you are in another world.  The beautiful fall day made it seem even more magical.  I didn't get a lot of pictures on my own camera, but my family members have been sharing the pictures they got, and the awesome photographers have been posting pictures, too, so here are a few of my favorites so far.

 

 

I can't believe my little sister is married!  I'm so glad she has found such a great soul mate, and am so excited to watch their lives as a married couple unfold.  Kari, you are a treasured friend, and a beautiful woman, inside and out!

 

 

One of my favorite things to do in the fall, besides go to the apple orchard, is to go to the pumpkin patch!  We are so lucky that we have a great pumpkin patch to visit right at the top of the Stockton Hill.  So really, just about five minutes from home.  I think we've already stopped there five times this fall!  Sometimes, when we are heading home from grocery shopping, or picking Julia up from pre school, we will stop to look at all the pumpkins and the animals.  It's always fun to get to go with friends and family, too!

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I turned 30 on October 20th.  It's not really a big deal to me to be 30.  Actually, for years I have been wondering when I am going to start feeling like a grown up!  It was a bummer to be sick on my birthday, though.  We were going to have a fun fall celebration on Saturday night, but we cancelled it so our guests wouldn't catch what I had.  My family still came, and we had a fun time as usual. 


 

Evan is officially too big for the bathroom sink now!  I should have graduated him to the kitchen sink weeks ago, but he didn't start complaining until this week.  So here is a picture of his last bath in the bathroom sink, and his first bath in the kitchen sink. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Oktoberfest!
Oktoberfest is a big deal in my family.  Even before I was born, my Dad's side of the family would gather together to watch the big parade, and then have a get together afterwards with beer, brats, and all the rest.  When I was young, we would walk to the parade from my Gramma's house, and then have the party at her house afterwards.  Now, we get there really early to find a parking spot, sit for a while waiting for the parade to start, and then when the parade is done we go to my Aunt Betty's house for the party.  My aunts, Betty and Pat, are usually the ones who stake out our parade spot on Friday afternoon.  They sit there all afternoon and evening, and finally when it's ten or midnight or something like that, the police patrolling the area allows people to leave their chairs and blankets on the boulevard.  So we usually get our same spot each year.  I didn't get many pictures this year because Claire kept me busy with her trips to the bathroom.  She was wearing her new Doc McStuffins underwear, and she wanted to make sure they stayed dry.  And she was worried about the haunted house coming in the parade, so I think that was another reason she had to keep going to the bathroom.  But here is a picture of Evan and Gramma enjoying the parade.

 

Awkward first roll-overs



 

 Evan has been working very hard with his teachers in the Help Me Grow program.  They have been coming once a week to work on strengthening his muscles, and stretching the right side of his neck where he has torticollis.  Before we knew he had diabetes, because it wasn't being managed, his body was starving.  Most of the nutrients from the milk he was drinking were just coming in and going out because his body couldn't use his insulin to get the nutrients out of his blood stream and to his cells.  Because his body was starving, his muscles were being attacked to be used as "food" for his body.  Right around 3 1/2 months of age we started noticing a decline in his muscle tone and core strength, and then just a couple weeks later we found out about his diabetes.  He will probably reach certain milestones later because of this, but we're working hard to keep him on the right track.  We work with a physical therapist and an occupation therapist, and a teacher who coordinates our visits, and also watches for other developmental delays and behavior issues.  So far it's just his muscle tone that is causing some delays.  Thank God Evan has such an easy going personality.  He has many reasons to be a crabby little guy, but he never is.
 

 

 Claire still loves sucking her thumb.  Sometimes we still have to give her a pacifier at night to give her poor little thumbs a break.  Last week we had a popsicle after playing outside on a nice day.  There must be a LOT of food dye in those things, because afterwards, when she was sucking her thumb, she noticed it, too, was dyed red!  She said she was turning into Pinkalicious, from the Pinkalicious story books.

 

 

 Evan loves swinging in our  back yard just like Julia and Claire did, and still do!

 

 So proud of my little sewer!
Julia craves "big girl time," as she calls it, so sometimes I have an activity ready for her to work on while Claire and Evan take their nap.  I am up a lot during the night with Evan, and sometimes I am too tired to read a book, so I just look at things on Pinterest while I feed him.  I'm SO glad Jeremy got me a smart phone the last time we had to get new phones, even though I told him I didn't want or need one.  This was a little Pinterest project that Julia loved!

 

 

 

 

 
 I didn't think she would use all of the leaves I cut out for her, but she wanted to use every single one.  And she insisted on sewing them together in a certain color pattern, too.  Her leaf garland turned out great!  It makes a pretty fall decoration (or a nifty little scarf!).