Blog dump!

I can't believe it's been over 2 months since I posted something on here...my cousin Alexandra warned me of this, that now that I'm on FB, it's easy to just post pics on there and get lax on the blog. My apologies to those who check this often (especially Grandma, Meme and Pepe and my Aunts) for the long delay. So I am officially going to start "blog dumping" as Alexandra and John call it. These are some pics and videos from October and November (and a few from early December when Rachel started rice cereal). I promise to post pics from Christmas and beyond sometime soon!

A pic of Rachel at about 4 months old...she will be 6 months old this Sunday!

The classic moments of trying cereal for the first time (these are the most recent things on here, taken about a month ago).

I feel like she is growing up so fast!

These were all taken Thanksgiving Day. We put up the tree and had a yummy dinner of course. Above is Caleb's first slice of pumpkin pie and him enjoying it below!

I just like this picture above, he seems so grown up eating his eggs, sausage and toast. :)

And of course I had to put the rolling videos of Rachel on here! Here was the first time I got each direction on video.

And over the course of a few months, here are a few throwing and catching videos of Caleb. This is his absolute favorite thing to do...he loves balls and playing sports already!

Finally, this video was taken a few months ago, but it is kind of cute to hear Caleb practice counting/say his ABC's. He was actually pretty un-cooperative in this video, but I haven't gotten around to getting him saying these on camera since, so maybe I'll do that soon so you all can see how he's progressed!

Halloween 2009

This was Caleb's first year trick or treating, last year we took him out on Halloween night, but just saw some neighbors and checked out the sites around town. This year we actually took him out to try out the whole trick or treat experience. He went (as you can see) as a Celtics basketball player (which was a total hit I might add...Boston fans are die hard with their teams so people loved it!) and Rachel was a pumpkin of course. You have to do the baby pumpkin you know? We went to a Halloween party a week or so before too, so Caleb was able to wear shorts and no shirt making him look more authentic that day. On Halloween night of course though, we bundled him up...don't worry! He had a blast, and got to eat his first piece of candy ever, which he was thrilled about as you will see!

The kids at the party!

It was impossible to get all of the kids to look at the camera, so this was the best we could do!

I didn't take any pics of Rachel on Halloween night for some reason, so this is a cute one of her at the party above.

Here is Jason taking Caleb to the houses on Halloween night.

We only did one street total, but I think he was pooped by the end.

So as you all know from before, Caleb has a peanut allergy, so his choices for his first piece of candy were all non-chocolate...but he didn't seem to mind. He picked Mike and Ike's.

And then he did his candy dance...

Finally, Caleb got some tattoo's from someone, and he and Daddy decided to show off their "guns" another evening with their tats. Ha ha! :) All in all, it was a fun time!

A Last Minute Trip to the Poconos

So as I posted earlier, I (Val) took a trip to the Poconos with the kids to see the family a few weeks ago in the middle of October. Mom, Dad and Matt were already planning on going, but since I had just recently gotten back from the trip to York, I hadn't planned on it. But the night before the family was leaving to go up to Lake Naomi, I decided at the last minute to join them. Unfortunately Jason couldn't go on this trip either because of work, but he did get some more seminary done in our absence. We had a great time seeing everyone again!

Here is the house we stayed in.

It was definitely cold in the Poconos. I had to bring out some of the kid's fleece outfits for the first time. It actually snowed like 5 inches or something like that the first few days we were there. It was crazy, but seriously beautiful!

Rachel hanging out with Roxy and Rowdy.

The first night we went to the country club of the Lake Naomi property and had a fun dinner overlooking the lake. It was the most gorgeous background for dinner with all of the new fallen snow.

Over the time that we were there, we took Caleb swimming in the indoor pool a few times. He had a blast!

Rachel came to the pool too, but she didn't go into the water just yet!

A group shot another night out for dinner.

After dinner out, we had a movie night, and Caleb and Pops didn't make it very long before falling asleep on the couch together. Caleb was so cute...he looked a little bit deceased actually (not to be morbid)! Ha ha!

Nora came to visit on the last day the kids and I were there (she lives like 20 minutes from where we were). We had a great time catching up and it was great that she got to meet Rachel!

One last pic with Grammy and Pops before heading to bed on the last night.

Mom and Dad snapped this one...we always have to take a picture of a deer while in the Poconos of course! :)

Rachel is almost 3 months!

This has been a busy month of traveling for the kids and I, as we have taken two trips to PA in the span of three weeks or so (I spontaneously went to visit my family on their vacation in the Pocono's just this past week...I'll post pics of that trip soon!). I meant to post Rachel's 2 month stats before all of these trips, but didn't get around to it. I can't believe that she will be 3 months old this upcoming Saturday! She is definitely growing and being as cute as ever! She started giggling right after she turned 2 months old, (there's a cute video of that below) and she has found her fingers just like Caleb too. Although it looks like she is going to be partial to her thumb! Here were her 2 month old stats:

12.6 lbs (76th percentile)
24 inches long (90th percentile)

Topsfield Fair

Two weekends ago we went to the Topsfield Fair for the first time. It is the oldest fair in the country apparently and it was definitely fun all around with animals, rides and of course great food! I think I am still partial to the York Fair and Jason to the Minnesota State Fair though (since we grew up with those). But we still had a fun family outing at this one!

Caleb loved pretending to drive the tractor!

This was Caleb's first time on a carousel. He liked it a lot!

Rachel had a good time too!

Checking out the goats.

This was the 1,400 some odd pound winning pumpkin this year!

One more time on the carousel before we headed home.