Family Visits

Painting the baby's room- his writing is looking good!

Caleb and Isaac enjoying our huge leaf pile

Carving with Grandma J- can you tell Isaac was sick that weekend?

Caleb is in the bunny ears stage

Cool pumpkin innards

Sisters

Colleen, Ashley, Abby and myself climbing steps at Mt. Pisgah in Holland

Julia and Ashley

Uncle Mike could wrestle for hours

Halloween with Morrison and Gross families

October has been a fun month!  I had asked Nate for some time at the house without the kids before the baby came. He took the kids to my parent's house for two nights and it was great!  I had some friends over one evening.  We had appetizers and desserts and just enjoyed chatting.  Everyone left by 9:30 pm- we are party animals!  The kids had a good time with my parents.  They went to a pumpkin farm where they did a corn maze, saw some animals and picked out pumpkins which they carved with my parents.  It was odd to have such a quiet house.  I enjoyed it and I had the chance to miss my kids which is good- I don't often have that opportunity!

Stephanie visited which was a treat!  She got a new job in Denver so she used up her vacation time from her old job.  The kids were off from school so we went to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum.  Caleb is almost too old for it now, but it was still fun.  The next day Steph took the kids to Crazy Bounce which they love.  I think she was pretty sore after bouncing.  I enjoyed just spending time with my sister for a couple days.

Last week Colleen and her kids visited.  Mike was taking the Professional Engineer test in Grand Rapids and came down once that was done.  The kids had alot of fun with their cousins.  It was a good kind of crazy having an 8, 5,4,3,2 year old and 5 month old in the house.  While our kids were in school one morning Nate and I went on a walk with Colleen and her kids.  The weather was amazing- 70 degrees!  We climbed the steps of a sand dune called Mt. Pisgah which has a beautiful view of Lake MI- especially with the fall colors.  We didn't go many other places because someone was always napping.  They did watch Caleb's last soccer game with us- it was cold!  The kids love playing with Uncle Mike, he can chase and wrestle non-stop.  It is always nice when family visits!

For Halloween we went down to South Haven and trick-or-treated with friends.  It was cold and rainy so we didn't last long.  We then went to our old church, Hope Reformed, for some indoor games.  We're all thankful for chances to spend time with our old friends again.  Caleb was a ninja, Isaac a pirate and Julia a bunny this year.  Isaac looked like the hulk because he had his winter jacket on under his costume.  Julia loved trick-or-treating.  She is my child that loves chocolate and she was so excited that people were just giving her candy.  She also used her cuteness to her advantage.  They would give her one piece than she would kind of look at the candy bowl and look up at them with a questioning look.  And they usually gave her another piece.  Of course this all happened before I could catch up to her at the door!  We had such a fun evening that Isaac passed out during the car ride home and Caleb must have been on a sugar buzz because he couldn't stop singing the "move it, move it" song from Madagascar.  Good times.