Zoo in November

We've had a bit of a warm spell here in Akron and we are trying to take full advantage of this special gift. Today we went to the Akron Zoo with our good friends the Smedleys.
This is how poor Pepper gets to see the animals.

Morgan and Abby as penguins.

Morgan wouldn't go over the bridge until Abby went. Way to lead the way little girl!

Pepper loved Abby's daddy and couldn't stop smiling. She might also have been just super happy to get out of the stroller. Love the bottom teeth!

Sweet Abby.

The kids watching the crazy flamingos.

It was a wonderful morning!

Pepper is getting so great at sitting all by herself and I just she was too cute not to photograph.

Morgan vegging in front of the tv. Gotta love the relaxation in his face.

I love his pity smile.

Life Nowadays

Meet Robin Morgan has never been very interested in dolls or stuffed animals, no matter how many times I try to get him to play with them. He also has never really played "pretend" very much. However, recently that has all changed thanks to a broken bobble head doll we got when we went to a Cleveland Indians game. Morgan named him Robin (I think the glasses remind him of Robin from Batman) and carries him all over the house and plays with him. Morgan doesn't seem to mind at all that he has no arms (Morgan broke those off the first day we got him), is not cuddly and not really a toy. So there's a picture of my son's new best friend.

To each his own!
Last weekend Morgan decided to take advantage of Mommy sitting quietly on the couch reading a magazine and build a Mommy Mountain.

You can't tell but I have toys stuffed down my shirt and in my socks and every random article of junk sitting in the living room piled on top of me. At least I got to read the magazine!

Just some pictures of Pepper doing her thing.

Just like her brother she loves to eat everything and anything that you will feed her.

She follows Morgan's mealtime motto: keep eating as long as someone is trying to feed you.

A little musical interlude.

On Halloween day we took a little time to go to a playground.

It was chilly but the kids had a great time swinging together and playing with Daddy and Mommy.

A week or so ago we babysat Morgan's friend Jack so his parents could go on a date.

Morgan and Jack have a very love/hate relationship, so sometimes it can get a little crazy with these two but it is always pretty entertaining.

After playtime with Daddy we had a little quiet reading time and then bed. Luckily, Jack didn't mind sleeping in the pack-n-play in Morgan's bathroom. You have to get creative with small apartments!

I loved this brushing teeth moment with Daddy. And yes, Cody is brushing the side of Morgan's face with his other tooth brush. Whatever distraction works!

I think Pepper is on the verge of crawling.

This is one of her favorite positions and she is getting really good at tucking her legs under if she gets mad enough.

We have a picture of Morgan just like this at around the same age. Of course he was naked but Daddy is being a little more modest with his baby girl.

I caught Daddy and Pepper in the middle of a peek-a-boo game that was just too cute not to document for the Grandmas!

This girl has some interesting dimples but they are still mighty cute!

Oh I just love this face!

Halloween 09 Extravaganza

So Halloween is a little different here in Ohio. Most of the neighborhoods, towns, churches, etc celebrate Halloween on other days before and after Oct. 31st. I still haven't quite figured out why this is but let's just say I was so tired of Halloween related events by the time Saturday rolled around that we did absolutely nothing on the actual holiday, except watch Sleepy Hollow at night.

So here is our week leading up to Halloween and all our fun adventures. On Wednesday morning our playgroup went to Richardson Farms to pick pumpkins and apples and go on a hayride. Once again the weather was not perfect, overcast and chilly, but we had a great time and the kids loved it!

Morgan and Mallory

Hayley and Reed

They took us on a little tour of their working farm and we got to see the egg laying hens.

Apple orchards.

Saturday I made an apple pie with my pickins' and my was it good!

Honey making demonstration.

Jack had a fight with the cement floor and lost!

This kid just cracks me up!

Jack, Becky and Abby

Excited to start our hayride.

Reed, Hayley and Mallory

Venturing into the mud to pick pumpkins.

Morgan really loved helping me pick apples and the hayride.

What a great day!

That night was our ward Halloween party and Trunk-or-Treat.

Abby, Jack and Morgan

Cody had to work late so I had to be a lone farmer but we were glad Daddy was able to join us for some of the fun.

Jen, Pepper, Wade and me

Heather, PJ and Jack

Becky, Ben, Cody and Pepper

The results of our pumpkin carving.

My cat.

Cody hard at work.

I thought Cody's turned out awesome!

On Thursday morning I hosted another playgroup to paint the pumpkins we had picked.

Morgan, Abby and Jack had a great time and are quite the artists!

I also made some Halloween themed sugar cookies and let the kids decorate them. We didn't have any icing so we used peanut butter and sprinkles!

Lack of money definitely helps with creativity!

Morgan showing off their work.

On Thursday afternoon our apartment complex had a little Halloween party for the kids at the clubhouse. Morgan got to decorate yet another pumpkin and play some fun games.

I thought Pepper looked like a pumpkin colored Batman in this picture.

After the party, Jack, Heather and PJ came over so we could take the boys Trick-or-Treating around our complex. It was a lot of fun but very tiring since our complex is pretty big and each building has three floors and no elevators. Also, not every apartment was participating so you had to hunt through each building looking for orange signs on doors. The boys really loved knocking on doors but usually chickened out when it came time to say "trick or treat." Luckily, they usually managed to say "thank you." Heather and I completely forgot to take any pictures of our boys out and about but here I am showing off Morgan's spoils.

My dried cherry/apple pie heading into the oven.

I still don't have a pie crust shield so I have to use tin foil, well the foil squished my nice edges and kept one side from browning. Besides those aesthetic downfalls the pie came out great and was very yummy. I love pie season and can't wait to start making more!

So Happy Halloween everyone...I'm still tired!

Pepperoni at 6 1/2 months

On Tuesday I took Pepper for her 6 mos check up. Nevermind that she is more like 6 1/2 mos; we got a little off schedule. However, here are some updates on her life.

She is just itching to crawl and move. If you lay her on her back she instantly flips over and does a huge push up. Yesterday she got mad and started scooting herself backwards. She has also started to tuck her knees under her so I think it is just a matter of time before she is mobile!

Crazy, crazy, crazy!

On the day she turned 6 mos her first tooth popped through and two days later the other bottom tooth joined in. This new development has made life a little unhappy for the last couple weeks, with her grumpiness and the fact that she is now trying to bite off my nipples (sorry if that is too graphic but I am in serious pain!).

This girl just makes me laugh and smile everyday!
Oh and thanks everyone for your sleep advice. I am happy to report that our little sleeping angel has returned and we are all peaceful once again. It helps a lot when they can breath through their nose!

Pepper is really starting to discover toys, especially her brother's instruments, much to Morgan's dismay. Poor kid will have some serious adjusting to do once she starts moving.
To give her stats Pepper is now 17.9 lbs and over 27 ins long.
She is shorter and skinnier than Morgan was at this age.
The doctor said she is just perfect and to keep doing what we're doing. He was impressed with her ability to sit by herself and how well she pushes her head up. He said to start baby proofing again soon!
So that is our little Peppermint and we are just so blessed to have her in our lives.
She is definitely sugar and spice and everything nice!

Fall Fun

Last Friday night Morgan's Little Gym had a Halloween Party.Morgan went as a punk rocker from the 80's.
Ever since we bought the purple hair spray on Monday he has been obsessively talking about his "blue hair." He told everyone he met all week about it and was very cooperative while I was getting him ready.

I guess all it takes to make this kid happy is a little color on his head!

After the initial photo shoot I could not convince him to put the jacket back on but at least his hoodie has skulls on it so that helped.

Pepper was a pumpkin, thanks to Jill's hand-me-down costume.

Got to love free!

Morgan was on the go from the moment we arrived.

You may notice Batman is in the background. Well, later Morgan saw a kid dressed like Robin and became obsessed with finding Batman. Luckily, Robin was more than happy to help so the two of them spent a lot of time running around looking for this kid who, of course, had already left. Morgan is still talking about Robin and saying "Where's Batman?"

The night was an open invitation so Morgan's friend David came as a bumblebee.
And Jack came as a very cool pirate.

Even though it was past Pepper's bedtime she did surprisingly well and just hung out in our arms the whole time.

On Saturday morning we went with Laura to a local park and took some amazing family pictures. I don't have any yet but I can't wait to post them. Pepper looked just like a porcelain doll!

On Sunday afternoon we decided to carve our pumpkins.

Morgan had a great time helping me clean it out and then spent the rest of the time coloring on the newspaper and trying to play with the little tools from the carving kit.

Such a handsome helper!

It was a really thick pumpkin and kind of complicated cat design. I was so tired by the end of it but I hope it will be worth it when we buy some candles.

After the pumpkins, we decided to to take a walk around our complex and capture how beautiful the leaves are around here.

I know it's a little out of focus but I just love her eyes in this picture!

And yes, she is just wearing pink tights but they kind of work like leggings.

Morgan made some friends with the neighbor kids who were nice enough to let him play in their car.

I REALLY love fall!

Pepper was done with all the picture taking! She also has a cold now, on top of the teething madness. Poor little baby is just miserable!

I love fall colors!

(Please ignore the fact that I look like I'm pregnant in this picture, I assure you I am not!)

Pepper sleeps while Mom gets a makeover

I've been wanting to get a picture of Pepper sleeping but I never want to disturb her... so on Wed. when I needed to wake her up to go to playgroup, I decided to take advantage of the situation.
So here's Pepper in her cradle, in our closet, with the bumper pads and blanket my talented sister Jill made especially for her.

This week we have had beautiful, beautiful weather so we had to take advantage of it. We went to a playground or on a walk everyday and just loved the special fall weather in the 60s and 70s.

Morgan likes to push Pepper on the swings and she gets the biggest kick out of it. This is her mid giggle with tongue out and eyes closed.

On Thursday a lovely new friend in our ward Jen, came over during nap time to give me a quick haircut. I'm growing my hair out so she helped shape it and trim the back so the rest can catch up. She was fantastic and we had a great time getting to know each other better.

It of course will never look this nice again but we can dream.

However, this is how it looked when I woke up this morning!

All I can say is I have some super special hair that I had to share with the world or at least my friends and sisters who would get a big kick out of it.

Now my turn to complain.

Pepper has been such a great sleeper from day one. I thought we my have just lucked out with Morgan but Pepper seems to have been falling in his wonderful sleep habit footsteps. She has been taking 2 or 3 naps a day and going to bed between 5:30 and 6 pm. She sleeps until around 1 or 2 am when she wakes for a feeding. I nurse her and lay her back down in the closet and she sleeps again till around 5:30. She usually hangs out with Cody for awhile then he brings her back when he needs to shower, I feed her and we both lay back down till we are forced to get up and hang out with Morgan when Cody leaves for work. Just kidding, we love watching Sesame Street with Morgan every morning at 7 am!

But Pepper's two bottom teeth decided to arrive last week and our wonderful sleep filled lives have just fallen apart! She now has a hard time with her afternoon nap and wakes up around 10 pm every night just screaming. Of course this is when Cody and I are just getting into bed so now no one can get to sleep. I finally give in and bring her in bed where we all sleep pretty well, albeit slightly uncomfortably, for most of the night. I am torn between training her to sleep by herself and everyone getting sleep. I'm thinking this could just be a momentary issue with her teething and us all having colds, so maybe I should just let her sleep with us till the torture passes. But then again I don't want this to become a horrible habit we have to break later on. Thoughts? Suggestions? Sympathy?

Ramseyer Farms

Saturday morning we decided to brave the elements and visit Ramseyer Farms in Wooster. It was really cold and overcast but that did not deter our fun.
Part of the children's play area. That is a hay bale maze in the background.

Morgan really loved playing in the corn kernels and it was even better that he didn't have to share the toys with anyone!

Our little Pepper Bear.

The playground is behind us.

A big slide into corn kernels. I didn't get to try it but Cody and Morgan did. Morgan did not seem overly impressed and Cody said it was cold and bumpy but fun.

Morgan and Cody took a ride on a tractor train.

Here's a video of their ride and more of the farm:

The goat run.

Morgan had a great time feeding the goats up high.

The boys launching little potatoes into a field.

Pepper and I trying out our launching skills.

Time for a chilly bike ride.

After all the fun and games, a brief tantrum and time out, we decided to go pick our own pumpkins.

Morgan couldn't pick up the big pumpkins but had fun pulling the wagon.

We had a blast spending some time as a family enjoying the wonderful fall activities. I still have days when I really miss living in NYC but on days like this I am truly grateful for our new life in Ohio. My intense love for fall and all of its activities does help my mood immensely!

I was looking through old pictures of Morgan as a baby and realized I had a lot more documentation of him learning to eat food. So here's my pity picture of Pepper (say that three times fast). Even with peas and oatmeal smashed all over her face she is still such a beauty!

This is for Chamaine and Mesha, since I know how much they enjoy seeing me at my best.

I have some truly special hair in the mornings!

It's amazing Morgan can see anything when he smiles, his eyes get so tiny!

On Friday our RS had a girls night slumber party activity at a friend's house. We were supposed to bring a treat to I decided to try my hand at making challah. It turned out delicious and I think my bread braiding skills are starting to improve!