When the kids hopped on the bus to start the first day of school I remember thinking we have so much time before the baby comes. Now it's already November and we've fallen into fall so quickly. I love the fall in Washington. This fall in particular has been so delightful. We've had amazing weather with little rainfall and lots of sunshine. The cool crisp air has been refreshing and the changing leaves have stayed on the trees for so much longer because big storms haven't blown them off.
Haven celebrated her 9th birthday in September. We did something a little different this year...her candles were on her pizza.
One of Haven's favorite cards was a mad lib type card. Haven LOVES to write and especially likes writing stories. In order to read the card she had to fill in all the blanks first and then read it like a story. She got a big kick out of this. Thanks Yomo.
Haven helped me stain one of her birthday presents. She got a desk for her bedroom because she writes and draws so much. She loves writing short stories, books and now even writes in a diary everyday. We stained the desk the same color as all the other furniture in her room and she uses it almost everyday....for fun! Not homework.
Thanks to my wonderful husband I was able to take a girl trip with a friend of mine. We went to Sisters, Oregon and hiked everyday. It was WONDERFUL. The fall leaves were just starting to show and we hit some amazingly warm summer weather even though it was almost October.
So far this is my favorite picture of me pregnant. I was around 6 1/2 or 7 months along here. My friend and I did a peak hike. We were staying in the valley and hiked to the top of this peak. It was a gorgeous clear day and we could see multiple mountain peaks once we reached the top. My calves hurt pretty bad the next day but I was so thrilled to be able to get out and explore. The baby started moving a ton when I got to the top.
Here are some of the beautiful fall leaves at our house this fall. Haven wanted a picture with them and if you look closely you can see she now has braces.
A lot of people have told me that so far I'm all belly for my pregnancy. The kids say it looks like I swallowed a ball or ate a pumpkin. Here I am at 8 months and looking at the picture, I think the kids are right.
This year carving pumpkins with the kids was vastly different than last year. Last year they didn't have the motor skills, focus or understanding to do it and Paul and I ended up doing most of the work and were exhausted in the end. This year they were all extremely focused and independent to the point where they did almost all of the work. I marveled at how much different a year made.
None of the kids wanted to make a traditional jack-o-lantern face. They all wanted to pick something harder.
Xavier picked a cemetery, Haven picked a ghost, and Sage picked a moon with a bat.
We tried to make our Halloween dinner festive. Paul made homemade cheese fondue for the kids for the first time thinking it would be like eating out of a cauldron. They LOVED it!
We made a Halloween candy factory. Can you guess what we made?
What do you call it when you melt peanut butter chips, dip pretzel sticks in them and add colorful sprinkles? Magic Wands
We melted white chocolate chips, added nuts and food coloring. The green clusters were monster vomit, the orange were pumpkin guts and the dark chocolate with red sprinkles were vampire bites.
The marshmallow sticks were dipped in different types of chocolate as well. We called them ghost poop. They were all a huge hit and now Haven wants to open up a candy store called the Barnes Candy Shop.
Time to dress up. Why does Sage look so happy?
He's painting his baby brother! We laughed a lot when we did this. How can you not? I look pretty ridiculous.
I think the boys could have taken pictures with me all night. They were bummed when they woke up in the morning and my belly still wasn't painted.
Haven looked ADORABLE as a police officer.
The boys dressed up as ninjas from GI Joe. They are brothers who battle each other. Sage Snake Eyes and Xavier was Storm Shadow.
