I love this baby!

My brother in law Jarred took some more photos of Hazel for me.  I think he's just fantastic and did such a great job capturing her joyful little personality in these shots! 

 

 How about those blue, blue eyes!

 

 

 Couldn't help but smile back, could you?

 

 

 This one is my favorite

 



 

The tounge...she's quite fond of it...

Life

A smattering of photos for those of you who pay attention...

 

 Livia LOVES puzzles!  She's worked her way up to the 24 piece frameless puzzles.  I think she would sit and do puzzles for hours some days. 

 



We took a Saturday after potato harvest was over to go up near Leavenworth to Smallwoods Harvest...the Cow Ride (plastic 50 gal drums turned into cattle with wheels and pulled behind a gator) is our family favorite!   

 We have been loving our Classical Conversations community in Yakima.  Here's Hudson trying to come up with the answer to a review question with a couple of his fellow students.

 

Dissecting owl pellets at school - clearly not Hudson's favorite!

 



 Family pizza night!

 Oh Hazel!  What a messy, messy eater you are!

 

 Full fledged mobility has meant time for the baby gates around here.

 

 Hudson and Livia enjoyed our first snow a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

 Hazel was so proud of her riding abilities!  Also worth noting - she's wearing an outfit that my sister wore when she was little...so fun.  :)

 

 

Things were very quite downstairs, which usually means trouble, but I was pleasantly surprised to come upon this precious scene...Hudson reading to Livia!  

Hazel - 8 months

Our baby girl turned 8 months old on Friday.  She is such a happy little girl.  I love that she always has a big smile for just about anyone who will look at her.  She is officially mobile now although not actually crawling.  She has some kind of weird worm movement where she gets up on her knees and then flops forward and repeats until she gets where she wants to go.  It's pretty funny to watch but she gets around! 

That's the smile I love!

Look out...here I go!

See the kinds of places you can get stuck in when you're strangely mobile.

Stuff

My little helper.  Livia is eager to help but then usually only lasts a minute or two before she's done.

Our pumpkins have been harvested from the garden so it's officially fall here at our house.  Hudson lined the pumpkins up on the stairs by himself....that's my boy...nice and organized.  :)

Me and my baby on a hay ride at cave b's fall festival.

Hudson was doing math outside on the patio with his sidewalk chalk - love it!

Whole family piled into the tractor to ride with daddy for a little bit.  Around here this time of year it's the surest way to spend time with the man.

Livia enjoying her bumpy tractor ride.

Color Vibe

My brother-in-law Jarred asked me to do this crazy run with him in September.  It was unlike any run I've ever done...not a lot of serious runners there (they didn't even time it) but it was a blast - way more fun than a lonely Saturday morning run!

 

 



Before the run

 

 

 

After the run

 

For those of you who are wondering....it was dyed cornstarch and yes, it all came off pretty easily.



Summer Fun

These three blonde boys belong to my cousin and have been a very real part of our summer.  Hudson has LOVED having these boys around to play with this summer.  

We went to the Grant County Fair with cousin Vesta. 

 The kids enjoyed seeing all the animals but it was too stinkin' hot!

Fresh super-sweet corn from the field - there's nothing like it!

This is my son - organizing his gummy bears by color before eating them.  :)

I don't know why blogger is being retarded and not rotating this one...but I thought it was too cute to leave off.  When we moved here a year ago she was deathly afraid of our dogs...not anymore!

Hazel - Six Months

 Time sure flies with the third child.  This sweet girl is already 6 months old!  She is seriously the easiest baby ever.  She has a smile for anyone who asks and is super content.  What's not to love!

Push up position - but this is so last week....she's now on to hands and knees and rocking.  I am so not ready for her to crawl yet!  But, alas, she is not asking my permission at this point.

Look, two teeth!

I love it when they think their toes are so much fun.

Cute!

Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks!

Cute times two!

Livia's Birthday

Livia turned 3 on August 4th.  If you ask her how old she is she'll tell you that she's 5 now.  Apparently she skipped right over 3 and 4 so she can be the same age as her brother.  We had a fun afternoon celebrating with the both sides of our family....I tell you what, when our families get together it is quite a crowd!  

Livia is a sweet girl with a strong opinion about everything.  We're working on obeying right away...and not saying "No" to Mom & Dad.  In spite of her strong will and desire to be independent, it's hard to resist her grin and those big brown eyes!

Pink trike!

The princess cake.  

When asked what she wanted for her birthday her only response was "princess cake"....even when I specified what kind of present she wanted.

What a smile!

 Look at the personality.

Trip to Portland Area

Sunday me and the kids headed to Lake Oswego to stay with the Jensons and attend a Classical Conversations (homeschool) Practicum.  Unfortunately the practicum turned out to be a bust - due to a sub par speaker and kids who did not want to stay in the kids camps.  But, in spite of that...we had a great visit with the Jensons and also had the chance to see some other dear people who live in the area. 

We had dinner with my sister Christie & her hubby Dustin on Tuesday night.  Christie took these photos of the kids outside the restaurant.

The kids had a great time playing together - especially Hudson & Leyton.

The Jenson family jam session - plus Livia & Hudson.  So fun!

We did some serious blueberry picking and managed to come home with over 20 lbs of berries!

Livia mostly did serious blueberry eating

Hudson was also  more interested in eating.

We spent part of one afternoon at this great park near the Jensons' house.  The park had all these trucks in the sandbox - exactly Hudson's kinda place!

Mmm...frozen yogurt face!

I hit a deer a few miles from Goldendale on the way down.  It was a scary experience but I'm so glad it wasn't any worse!  The kids didn't even notice.  They were watching a movie when it happened and when I pulled over Hudson asked "why are we stopping?"  Apparently the squealing tires and the big thump didn't phase him at all!

We have to get a new radiator and the bumper and hood fixed - so thankful for our good insurance coverage!