Family Fall Day and Girls' Annual PF Shopping Trip

We had a family fall day last weekend at Mom and Dad's house. We had a cornhole tournament and carved pumpkins. It was a blast!

Here's Matt and I carving our pumpkin!

Here is our finished pumpkin unlit.

And here's the best picture I could get of it lit.

Watching the cornhole tournament, waiting for our turn.

All the girls (minus Mom and Libby) with the food.

Peter and Scott playing cornhole.

Ben and Dad playing cornhole.

Mom, mid-throw and Brianna.

Trying to catch some action shots.

The teams were: Nicole and Sam, Mom and Dad, Scott and Ash, Peter and Bethany, Ben and Bri, and Matt and I. The tournament came down to Scott and Ash verses Mom and Dad, the final game was never played. It was double elimination and our two losses were to these two teams.

I didn't get any shots of Libby at Fall day, but I did get a few when we were picking out the pumpkins on our annual Girls' shopping weekend in Pigeon Forge. I didn't get a ton of pics, but here are a few that I did get. None of them were during our actual shopping, as the stroller was loaded down enough without adding my camera to the pile, but I would have loved to get a picture at the end of all our bags. Libby did great (considering) shopping for two days. She enjoyed a scrambled egg and some pancakes with peanut butter syrup (the best!) from Pancake Pantry.

Picking out our pumpkins.

"Is this a good one?"

"No, I think this one is better."

"These are all shaped very funny. I don't think they would work."

"Ah, now here is a pumpkin worth keeping, Or eating!"

Libby's pumpking choice.

Libby's first pumpkin shopping trip with Mom.

And so begins Libby's first Fall.

I did download thise pictures when I said I would, I just haven't had a chance to finish the post till today. Computer problems. I do have a few more pictures to post, but hope to get a bunch more. We were hoping to go to the zoo this past Friday, but weren't able to because of the rain. We hope to try again this Friday. And if the weather clears, I hope to get some awesome tree shots in the mountains this week. Don't know when I'll post them if I do get any. So, tata for now!

More Apple Pics

Here are a few more pics of our apples. Libby posed for me. :)

She was helping me fold laundry today. She would pull things out of the basket and hand them to me. If only I could fold as fast as she could pull the clothes out! Unfortuntately, she doesn't understand the concept of folded clothes, so she doesn't distinguish between the folded clothes basket and the unfolded basket, so I often find I have to refold many things. Just one of the joys that I love about being a housewife and Mom. This definitely beats going to the office!

Here are the pics of Libby and her apples.

More pics tomorrow!

9 Months

Libby has now been 9 months old for a few weeks. She's actually coming up on her 10 month b-day. I can't believe it! Time is flying by so fast! It seems like yesterday she was 3 months. She is still learning so many new things every day. She can pull up on stuff and walk all around the coffee table or anything else at her level. She crawls everywhere and follows me around the house. Yesterday she played her first game of hide and seek. I would leave and go to another room and then call her. She would follow my voice as best she could (she's not so good at the game yet :) and make it to the room I was in. She would then sit down while I continued to say her name (from behind the bed or door) and she would finally find me and get all excited! So fun to be able to start playing games with her!

She now has two large teeth on top (I think one is coming in crooked) and two little ones on the bottom. And I just noticed today that she has another one coming through on top next to her big one, on the other side. I'll have to get pictures to post them. I hope the other side comes in quickly so she doesn't just have 3 teeth on top. :)

She crawled in the grass for the first time today. She's sat in the grass before, but never ventured out. I can't believe I haven't had her outside in the grass much since she's been crawling. It has been VERY rainy and soggy. Today was beautiful so I took her outside on a blanket. She sat there for a while and was having fun looking around and pulling out grass on the side of the blanket. Then I think she figured out she could get off of it. It was funny watching her figure that out. She was on the blanket on her knees and would put one hand out in the grass and pull it back, then try again. Finally she got it through the grass and onto the ground, then she was off! She crawled a few feet away, lifting her hands very high each time and then sat down and pulled out grass.

She LOVES dogs and animals! She's always looking for them if she hears them. She tries to talk to them. When she hears a dog outside, or a bird like today, she talks back with, "aaah, ah, ah!" yelled very loudly. She likes to do this with Rose, too. Funny, this is also how she sings.

We've got a great new CD - "Seed of Courage" from the Seeds Family Worship group of CD's. We also have "Seeds of Praise". Libby loves the songs and dances to them, sometimes clapping her hands, sometimes trying to sing along. It's great! The first song she sings will likely be a Bible verse (they are all Bible verses). She'll be memorizing Scripture as soon as she can talk! The CD's are great and I find myself singing along. I now have about 10 more Bible verses memorized. :) For those of you who know some of the songs, her favorite is the "Crushed" song based on Psalms 34:18 . Her favorite parts are the kids at the beginning yelling "crushed" and the "Ya ya" parts (she can sing that part. :)

Sorry for not having any pics to post today. I actually have a bunch more to post, but don't have time at the minute. I just thought I'd share some of Libby's current experiences. I hope to post more pics tomorrow.

Now off to the park to run and then to the grocery store.

NC Cabin and Apples!

We went to the cabin in North Carolina a few weekends ago and had a blast! I didn't get many pictures, but I love the few I got! It was the perfect temperature! Cool in the morning and evenings and warm during the day. The air felt crisp and cool and we knew fall was definitely well on its way. Here are a few cute pics I caught one cool morning.

Libby loves leaves!

I love the way the camera caught the rays of light. I still have a lot to learn about light filtering, but I thought this was cool!

Libby's first hoodie. Surprisingly, she left it alone for the most part.

Hanging out with Daddy.

Sitting outside in the sun to warm up. Love those blue eyes! This blog site doesn't do them justice, the pictures are always poorer quality.

It's apple season in NC and we were able to stop and get some on the way home. I made my first batches of apple sauce and really enjoyed it! I made some rasberry apple sauce and froze it in ice cube trays for Libby. I also canned a jar of "Apple Pie Applesauce" after we had some for desert that night. It turned out awesome! And I still have a bowl full of apples left.

I got some fun pictures with the apples in the kitchen.

Here are my Jonna Golds.

And of course lots of honey crisps!

Working with some neat angles.

All my apples (before applesauce and apple crisp).

I'm so thankful that the Lord saw fit to provide us with such a variety, not only of food in general, and not only of fruits and vegetables, but even many varieties of apples! And all so delicious. I'm so thankful for our Creative God

and his abundant provision!

Misc. Pics

Now that I'm finally done with the last group of pictures downloaded from my camera, I'm ready to set into a whole other folder from this month and last month. Here are some miscellaneous pics that I got.

We had a "girls' day" with Sarah and Lucy and Holly and Hosanna. Here are some pics of the girls playing together. One of the only pics I got of all three of them together looking the same direction. It's hard to keep the interest of three curious, playful, growing girls! Libby and Lucy. Love their faces here! Lucy looks like she's singing a ballad. Hosanna was so photogenic! And I love all the red curls and bright blue eyes! She bumped her head so took a little snuggle break with Mama. So cute!
Hosanna playing. Libby was so funny that day. She doesn't particularly enjoy playing with her toys anymore... until someone else has them. She wanted whatever Lucy had. I guess it's a good time to start teaching her to share! She was also very physical, pushing and pulling the girls around. I don't know where she gets this from!

A few weeks ago I decided to try out some new tricks with my camera. I was working with depth of field and focusing on certain objects. I practiced with Libby's toys. I love my camera! Here's one of the practice shots.
I got some great practice shots, until Libby noticed her toys on the railing and decided it was time for her to end the photo shoot of her animals. :)

A beautiful fall day. Libby looking out the window and "barking" at the dogs across the street. She was so interested at finding the source of the noise and was immitating the little dog. :)

Libby eats a variety of foods now. Many of our adult foods, too! Here she is eating some cowboy spaghetti with Matt's family. She was so funny trying to share her noodles with Papaw. And finding her fallen noodles in her bib and happily pulling out handfuls!

Here are her little fingers picking up some noodles.

Making a mess.
Cute face!

Lots of practice!

Those things are hard to grab!

She loves cowboy spaghetti! And regular spaghetti, too, for that matter! We had a deliscious meal at Matt's parents' house on Saturday. No pictures of that, my camera's battery was dead.

So long for now! I'll try to post a few more catch-up pics tommorrow and hopefully have a 9-month post by the end of this week. I'm sure we'll have a bunch of pic's to post next week after "Family Fall Day"!

8 Month pics

I am now over a month behind in my postings, but hopefully I can catch up in a week or so. Libby is now 9 months old, but I haven't yet posted her 8 month pics, so I thought I'd do that first. We went to Cove park and had a great time on a beautiful day. Sorry if these are all very similar. I picked my favorites out of about a hundred, so this is definitely a limited list, but we didn't have much variety in the pictures, so they are similar.

I love her hand in this one!

And she made the cutest face!!

Hanging out on a swing. I love the sailboats in the background.

So happy to be posing for me! :)

I think I'm going to have to frame this one! I think this was Matt's favorite.

I think she was looking at the sailboats!

Love what she does with her hands!

Clapping.

Another black and white of her looking off into the distance. :)

Love this one!

Here is one in color. I don't know where that strawberry blonde hair came from!

She looks ready to beat someone up in this one. :)

Cute.

Another cute face.

Another cute pose.

Her little injured toes.

Watching some kids go by. She loves people watching!

And smiling at strangers and friends alike!

Last one.