Catching up with life!
I started this blog to keep track of the fun times we are having as a family, and to help me at the end of the year when I make our family shutterfly photo book.  But since Evan's diabetes diagnosis, life has been moving so much faster, with a lot less time to do things like this.  I am going to try to work on the blog each Monday, and see if that helps me keep up a little better.  I am going to catch up on a few things with this post, and I think I'll start with Julia going to preschool.  She is going to the Community Kids Preschool at Goodview Elementary School.  She goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8:15-10:45 and really loves it!  Here are some pictures from her first day on September 9th.

      

    
While Julia is at school, Claire likes to have "Claire School" time.  She always asks what we are going to do for Claire School.  Either that, or she says, "Can we go somewhere?  I want to go to a story and buy something!"  For Claire school, we usually work on fun projects and games to work on fine motor skills.  Here is Claire with her playdoh cupcakes, and we have made pudding twice now.  She likes making pudding because she can do it all by herself, and she gets to lick the whisk, the bowl, the spoon, and eats as much as she wants!

Before we knew Evan's DNA test results, our doctor thought we should start getting him used to solid foods in case he could be transitioned to oral medication for his diabetes.  We didn't know at that time that the Glyburide could be compounded into a liquid, so our doctor was trying to get us ready for having to crush a yucky tasting pill and hiding it in baby food.  Since then, we have learned that Glyburide can be compounded into a liquid suspension that actually tastes quite good and sweet!  But before we knew this, we started getting Evan ready for food by giving him baby oatmeal.  Julia and Claire never cared for it, but Evan really seemed to enjoy it!  Even so, I couldn't wait until he was six months old so I could give him some foods that looked at tasted a little more appealing!  Here he is with his first baby oatmeal.  

Now we have tried squash, peas, apples, and green beans.  I make his food like I did for Julia and Claire.  I just puree a big batch and freeze it in an ice cube tray, and then put the little cubes into Ziploc baggies.  So far he has loved everything he has tried!  Today we went to the store and I got some more things to try.  Later this week we will try bananas, pears, and carrots.  I'm sure he'll love every bite!

 

One of our favorite fall places to visit is Ferguson's Apple Orchard.  We have gone twice so far this fall, and will probably go a few more times.  So if anyone out there wants to go, we'll go with you!  Any time :-)  The first time we went was to celebrate our friend Quinn's 4th birthday.  The second time was a cool Saturday afternoon so Jeremy could go with us.  Here are a few pictures from our visits.

 

 

 Evan is growing so fast!  One day I started realizing how many cute little outfits he was growing out of, and some of them I had never even gotten good pictures of him in.  This is a special outfit because my friend Robyn knitted the vest, and I made the pants. 

Fall is my favorite time of year!  I love doing fall projects and crafts, and love doing just about anything and everything this time of year.  We grew mini pumpkins in our garden again this year, but some of them turned out bigger than we were expecting.  We used some of the bigger mini pumpkins as planters for our marigolds.  These poor marigolds were planted at Children's Church in May, and have not had the best life living on our window sill in Styrofoam cups.  We thought it was time they had a better home.

The first time Julia has enjoyed scooping out pumpkin guts!



everything ends up in Claire's hair!

 

adding a little water
 

The girls LOVE eating pears this time of year, so after snacking on some one day, we used the left over parts to stamp with.  We mixed green paint and added cinnamon to it so it would look speckled with brown like a pear does.  The pictures smelled great, too!

 I love Winona, and really miss living right in town like I did in college.  It is so much fun to just walk or bike where you want to go.  Today we decided to have a picnic lunch by the lake, and then bike to Dairy Queen for ice cream.  Often times, we will drive into town with our bikes or a stroller, park somewhere central, and bike or walk to a different destination so I can pretend we live in town :-)  The girls love doing it, too.  The girls have been doing a great job on their Strider bikes, too.  They go so fast now that it is easy to bike places.

 

Claire's favorite thing to pick from the garden: RASPBERRIES!  We usually pick a big bowl full each day Julia goes to preschool, but by the time we make it back into the house, they are mostly eaten up!

 

That's it for now!