Picking Pumpkins 2014

We went to Kohler Farms for our annual tradition to pick out pumpkins.  Colton fed the animals (sheep & pigs), had fun with all the signs, and Cora got her first picture with Mr. Pumpkinhead.

Stone Harbor 2014

We hit our favorite beach again this September and had a fun filled family vacation. Although as parents of two under the age of 5, we may revise that to say a fun filled family getaway from home. It is pretty exhausting going away with two little ones, but it was a lot of fun. We had a house right on the beach and the weather was pretty good. Colton enjoyed every second of it - playing in the sand, swimming, and playing with all his cousins. We had our family meals together, went on walks, went swimming, took bike rides, made sandcastles, tore down sandcastles, and went to the point on the windiest day of the week. Our skin was pristine after that sandblast of a walk.  We may have to alter this family vacation time now that more of the kiddos will be in school, but we still plan to keep the band together for as long as we can.

Jen's Getting Married

Jen Shipe (middle) is getting married on 10/10 in Seattle. She and Kristen (on the right) are my sorority sisters and we celebrated her shower in Lancaster a few weekends ago.  Jen Shipe deserves the best and she has found a truly awesome guy. Love that girl and how much she makes me laugh. Congrats!

Circus at the Arboretum

We have gone to the circus event before at the arboretum and it didn't disappoint. Cora's Godparents and Keira joined us. Keira is raising her hand to get picked to be a volunteer during a trick. We were the annoying people pointing to Keira and she did get picked. The kids ran around and had fun and so did we.

Our New Kitchen

We knew when we bought our house that we wanted to take down the wall between our dining room and our kitchen.  We were going to wait it out until we lived in the house a little longer and we just couldn't wait. We used a company called Ferrarini Kitchen and Bath.  They designed the kitchen and did all the work and we couldn't be more thrilled.  We love everything we chose and the transformation is both beautiful and functional.  We have so much room and everything flows so well. Now we can enjoy our family time in our kitchen for years to come.

Cora's Baptism

We celebrated Cora's baptism the same weekend we had Brian's party.  Family came in from out of town and that made it very special.  Cora was the only baby being baptized that day and the ceremony was nice. Colton was nervous that he was going to be getting baptized.  He kept yelling out every time the priest said, "baptism." Colton would say, "Baptism is for babies, not for boys."  We chose our good friends Jean and Tom to be Cora's Godparents because they are such good friends that we consider family. As they were baptizing Cora with the holy water, the priest offered holy water to the kids. Not knowing what to do, Colton dipped his finger in the water and put it in his mouth. Clearly we have some work to do on this topic. Nevertheless, Cora enjoyed her day and so did we.