because he knows i'm deciduous

One weekend recently, Chris surprised me with a fire pit. Evidently, eveyone in OHIO has a firepit. (Um, I know why~because it is already freezing here at night!) He and the kids spent the afternoon putting it together.

Even Miley came over to help.

 It is the little things like this that the kids really missed while we lived apart for a year. Time with their Daddy. There were just some things that I couldn't do to make up for his absence. Like....build things. Totally Daddy's territory.

The mandatory "smile at Mommy" pic of the afternoon.

The finished product. Smiles all around. I think the kids were already planning on roasting marshmallows in the next 15 minutes.

 Basically, Chris knew that this was the only way to get me outside when the weather starts getting cold. Ha!

And, it worked. Man-made fire. Hot!

We have enjoyed it several times already.  

Dylan was reading "Scary Stories" to Karsen and Ky (until they genuinely got scared and I had to make him stop).

Now, maybe I will live through the winter.

apple orchard afternoon

Thank you, Mr. Man for driving us around the apple orchard.

It was a perfect fall afternoon.

 My sisters visited for the weekend with my nephew Kyland. They surprised Dylan for his birthday, and the kids were so happy to see them. I had really been missing them too.

Kyland lost his first tooth while he was here, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from eating some apples.

After the trailor ride through the orchard, we got some treats. The boys got ice cream, Karsen got hot apple cider.

To keep track of how fast they are growing.

My sister was able to take a family pic of us in the orchard. I had to laugh because we look like "city folks" in our sunglasses in the apple orchard. Ha!

Happy Fall, y'all.

wordless wednesday~in between

Halloween 2010

Our first Halloween in OH~ The kids had a blast. It worked out perfectly. Karsen got to walk around with her girls, and Dylan was "dropped off" for his first "party". Here are the boys.

Princess Leia, NEO from the Matrix, and Osama Bin Laden. (?!?) Creative, huh? lol~Oh my. Dylan rolled his eyes like a true "tween" when I told him he actually looked more like Edward Cullen from Twilight. LOL. Yes, we dropped him off at a friends and they hung out there for a while, drinking hot apple cider, hanging out by the fire pit, and scaring whoever walked by. Then they walked all around the neighborhood. About every 20 minutes I called him on his cell phone and he answered by saying "Hi, Mom, I'm OK."

Just checking, NEO. ;) He had fun and felt very independent; I could tell.

Karsen met up with her friend, Rachel, who lives on our side of the neighborhood.

Later on we ran into the rest of the girls in the neighborhood. They all shrieked as the parents were taking pictures and blinding them with the flashes from their cameras.

About 30 minutes later, Karsen told me she was cold~thank goodness, because my feet were freezing!  It was about 39 degrees out, but it felt like 19 with the wind. So, I was ready to go too. We called Dylan and picked him up on the way home.  Everyone had a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!