Temptations of Fall

A day or two of windy, blustery cool weather and then back to 100 degrees-needing-a-pool-and-ac weather. What is going on?? We decided to take the kids to a pumpkin patch on Friday and it was almost too HOT to enjoy. V hung out in the sling as the boys stood and stared at the animals in the petting zoo (too scared to pet or feed them...glad we paid for the staring) and then played in a few bounce houses of various shapes. We decided that was enough of that and headed into the mall (the pumpkin patch was in the parking lot of the mall) to cool off and have a snack.

unbothered by the heat
the girls hanging out in the shade - yes, with hot coffee in hand
inside the bounce house airplane
my boys
probably the most exciting thing about the pumpkin patch--the free Now and Later candy when we left
Ezekiel's big crazy eyes remind me of myself in many pictures. I also love that you can see some of V's crazy hairs
V is now looking at Jason and saying "dada"
I gave V her first food (besides a few bites of avacado once or twice)last night - some brown rice cereal. She LOVED it. It did not, however (as myth will tell you--and I had wondered myself) allow her to sleep longer. This isn't why I did it...I figured I should start giving her cereal here and there...why not? Probably because V is my last baby, I have really wanted to hold off on food for her. I guess its mostly health reasons - b-milk is so good for her - and if she's doing well on it, why not just keep nursing her? On the other hand, its ok for her to have a little bit of food too. Maybe I'm afraid she'll wean early or something? I don't know. Its probably my emotional attachement to her and her babiness...I don't know if that makes sense, but I do know babiness is not a word...So if I am going to her school to nurse her at recess when she's in 1st grade, you'll know why. Hahaha! I'm crazy, but not THAT crazy, guys! :-) I'll wean her before then - don't worry...4 at the oldest...
This morning before church
We are ready for Christmas! just kidding. V was playing with these on the ground for at least 45 min if not longer, so I decided to get a cute picture of her. She is doing the "rocking" that is usually a precursor to crawling, but I don't' think she'll be crawling soon. G crawled at 10 months and E at 9 1/2 months! I was looking forward to crawling, then as Judy reminded me, then she'll be in everything! Oh yeah - at least now she stays where I put her - sort of. And just kidding about weaning her at 4 at the oldest :-)