NANA

We celebrated Nana's 84th birthday at Jamie's house after the pumpkin patch. We each brought her a mylar balloon so that she would have something to take home as a reminder of her party - she had 14 balloons! It was hard knowing it was probably her last birthday celebration, but I think she really enjoyed it. Little did we know that it would be the last time we saw her. As much as I miss her and know how hard Thanksgiving and Christmas will be without her, I am comforted by the fact that she died peacefully and did not have to suffer. She was such a wonderful person and I will always cherish my memories of time spent with her. We love and miss you Nana!

Every time you asked Nana what she wanted for her birthday or Christmas,
she would always say I don't need anything but toilet paper and paper towels.
She lived a simple life and was so happy.

Pumpkin Patch!

We celebrated Sarah's birthday at the pumpkin patch again this year. So much fun!

I thought we would never get Julia out of this tunnel - she had so much fun
crawling back and forth and would crawl the other direction every time we tried to reach her!

Fall in the Mountains

Most of our post summer mountain weather has been rainy and foggy, but we were able to see the leaves during their peak at the higher elevations. We went to Oktoberfest at Sugar Mountain where Ivey met the Sugar bears and rode the lift to the top of the mountain. The best weather we had was a weekend when Gramma and Grandad came to help Joe work on the new mountain house. 

Ivey's "L" party - We had lollipops & lemonade and invited our friends
lamb, lion & ladybug. We also had lipstick & the letter L, of course.

The view from our new mountain home

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall

August & September have been filled with trips to the mountains or playing outside on the porch. We also celebrated Kevin's birthday at the lake in August and Gramma's birthday in September at Nana's apartment, but unfortunately the camera did not make it to either event.  

Julia's favorite new toy is Ivey's little purse. She carries it around everywhere and pretends to be going somewhere, telling us bye as she leaves the room. She is talking a bit more, she says hello, bye, shoes, more and Daddy and she has several more words we can't quite understand. She still growls at every animal she sees whether it is a dog or squirrel outside or a picture of an elephant in a book. 

Ivey is getting to be more rambunctious, climbing, jumping and running all the time. She ran smack into the corner of Julia's dresser one night trying to hug and kiss Julia good night. Joe was at a meeting and I thought I was going to have to drag them both to the ER with the amount of blood. Thank goodness that was not the case. Now she's sporting a not so pretty scar on her forehead.      

Julia & Ivey had so much fun playing with the bath duck
 before it went to the consignment sale. 

Julia helped herself to a rice roll snack for breakfast one morning 

Hey guys, these PJs have built in socks!

Helping Daddy make a yummy cake- he used flaxseed in place of one egg
and applesauce in place of the oil and we thought it was actually better! 

Ivey pretending the bear is sick at school and calling his mommy

Julia trying to do the yoga moves listed in the book