October 2011

As promised, here is the first installation of months I missed sharing :).

October is a fun time in North Shore. It was a very mild start to Winter so the weather was great for lots of outings.

Eden wanted to be a mermaid for Halloween. She spends a lot of time asking me to draw mermaids for her to color. Eden milks the benefits of having parents who can draw and is constantly requesting specific coloring pages from scratch.

For the costume, I found a gymnastics leotard at Goodwill that I used as a base for the top (the blue sparkly sequins part) and added shimmery fabric Eden helped pick out at Hancocks. The tail is actually an "apron" tied in the back. I used this tutorial as a guideline for constructing the fin, but kept it a bit short so she could run around.

There were a lot of pumpkin parties: school party, church party, and the playgroup party hosted at our house. We served peanut butter yogurt dip died orange:

 

Decorated pumpkins (I stole this idea from Eden's school):

Made caramel covered apples:

At some point in October Eden and I adapted this Martha Stewart craft to make pumpkins:

There was also a carnival at Eden's school. They do a lot of fun things :).  There was digging in the hay for prizes, hula hoop ring toss, and a magician.

At our church's Fall Festival there was a chili cook-off! We are such nerds when it comes to food competitions (we really miss Ryan's Burger Cook-Off!). We also miss doing chili and smores every Fall around our firepit at our Logansport St house. We used the chili recipe that we always served at those evenings and can be found here and won. We make very minor changes and I recommend you all make it immediately!

A local farm has a large "farm stand" near our church. The grounds are fairly large and they host a Fall Carnival with lots of rides, a pumpkin patch, and baby animals for oogling.

We bought all our little pumpkins from them. Eden had a blast because you have to wash them by hand in a big tub with a brush before purchasing.

By chance one day Thomas happened upon the most magical farmers market ever. This is in the back alley of Lake Forest's downtown shopping center. Along with regular produce they had every kind of crazy exotic root vegetable you could imagine, homemade gourmet jams, artisan cheese and bread, and lots more. We only discovered it the last two weeks of season. I can't wait until they reopen for spring!

We also finally made it to Growth Spurts. It's about a 25 minute drive and a bit pricey for an indoor play place. They have a great stock of Haba toys that I love but can't usually afford, the coolest play house (a little washing machine and ironing board included), and a constant rotation of art projects set out. Around the corner is a really fun diner. Perfect greasy spoon with a big box of kid's toys (Eden always chooses the dinosaurs to watch her eat). They tie Eden's straw in a knot and decorate her cup with stickers. There are also dozens of rubber duckies hanging from the ceiling. Such a fun outing when we need a break from our normal schedule!

And of course- there was just a lot of this- love this picture (had to document the mustache of course)!!

Quick Check In

Poor blog. So mistreated. The last time we posted was *squirm* November 1, 2011. Many of you requested more blogging over the holidays, so I'm going to try to get back on the blogging horse!
I constantly think about posting things, take pictures, etc, but fail to follow through, and I hate to not share some of the fun of the late fall/early winter: Halloween, Eden's Birthday, Christmas, so I am going to attempt to whisk through the next last few months to catch up.

But first, let me give a quick update on our current state as this blog primarily serves to keep everyone in the loop about how we're doing.

Thomas: Is working SO HARD. Currently he is set to graduate in May, but has quite a few hurdles on the path to completing his MA at Trinity. To accomplish this he has to take four comprehensive exams, complete his field experience, and finish a few classes. The first of his two exams are middle of March, the last two at the beginning of May. These are scary exams that require a LOT of reading (we're talking a heady book every 2 days). He has completed and submitted his PhD application for the Trinity Old Testament/ Ancient Near East program and should hear back about admittance in March/April. For his field experience he is teaching Old Testament Reading Skills at our church for 15 weeks. He is over-viewing everything from genre to geography to history to culture. It's a fascinating class and for those of you who know Thomas well, an opportunity come true :).

Eden:  Is having a much healthier Winter than past which is allowing her to consistently attend her nursery school and weekly Trinity playgroup. This has been a huge answer to prayer as we were afraid 1) she would rarely get to attend school due to illness and 2) that school would make her sick more often. We think she is picking up some reading/word recognition skills. Every once in a while she correctly identifies random words on boxes or in books. She of course will not do this on command (she won't even say correct letters and numbers on command which she certainly knows) but it's fun when she surprises us with her skills! She is very excited about being a big sister and plays mommy and doctor a lot (as most of you have seen demonstrated on Facebook). She still loves to dance and paint, and has gotten really into talking with various silly voices. Lastly, drumroll, she's potty trained!! And very proud of her panties :).

Katie: I have been really busy with Trinity Wives Fellowship publicity responsibilities, lots of fun advertisements and hosting/decorating for Moms Ministry events. I've also enjoyed using my art educator skills to prepare weekly crafts for Eden's Sunday school (though it isn't very challenging to come up with crafts that are neat and appropriate for 2-4 year olds = crayons + glue sticks). Since Christmas break I've tackled (with lots of help) a few house projects- painting an old china cabinet bright blue, organizing our basement, sewing for a few new babies, and organizing my "craft room." I'm sure I'll post pictures when I get caught up on the past few months. Of course, there's being pregnant! It hasn't been as easy as my first (I hear it rarely is). I am 17 weeks, and luckily morning sickness is long gone, but I have been struggling with insomnia (the kind that doesn't allow you to get deep sleep, I fall asleep just fine). Unfortunately lack of sleep aggravates my tremors so I've felt a little off the last month. Sleep is slowly returning to normal- more good nights then bad the last week- and my tremors are gradually improving too.This time around I feel much more anxious to meet the baby, having an awesome one around all day. We should find out if it is a boy or girl in 2.5 weeks, which will gladly give me some insight. Of course we will share when we find out!

Speaking of babies, and because I can't have a pictureless post, I thought I'd leave you with a few of our first born :). Aren't you all dying to know how a second version will turn out?!!!