September 2013

 We started September off with a fun family adventure! We scouted out Oz Park that is just north of the city. It has four statues of the Wizard of Oz characters and is dedicated to the writer of the story. There was a really fun wooded playgroup too! It was a blast! After we headed to a place called TAco Joint. The father of one of the boys on Colin's baseball team owns the place so we wanted to check it out. it was yummy...pretty authentic tasting taco so the kids weren't thrilled with it but it was fun. They had different kinds of guacamole to try with different chips and fried plantains. That was really good.

 Colin seems to always have a book with him these days :)

 Evrett is just as silly as ever!

 Cody LOVES Brannon. He just lights up with Bran comes around and Bran is always able to get him to smile and laugh

 Evrett, Cody and I went with the playgroup out the the Apple Orchard again and had tons of fun!

 Boys being silly

 Brannon helped me make a pie with the apples we picked

 Brannon loves playing with and reading to Cody. It warms my heart to see how sweet this tough goofball kid can be.

 And Cody is just melting hearts left and right. He is 4 months old!!

 Evrett loves to play games. This Jake and the Neverland Pirates is a current favorite

 and still being super silly...

 Makayla is our neighbor and she loves to hold Cody. She always wants to feed him too and doesn't understand why I'm the only one who can feed him :)

 Family bonfires is one of our favorite things to do lately. The fun of "camping" without the work and with our beds :)

 I was feeling really bad Evrett isn't in preschool so I was really good (for a few weeks...) to do a weekly theme with him. He picked Volcanos this time so we learned all about them and the letter V and then made one ourselves out of salt down. He worked so hard all week so we could explode! it on friday when Dad was home from work. The baking soda and vinegar "explosion" was a bit of a let down. I guess it was really for some EXPLOSION!!! but it was fun anyway. We also made sugar dino fossil cookies.

 Brannon is finally in Cub Scouts!! With his late June birthday it was a long year waiting to turn 8 to join. We quickly did his Wolf so he could start the fall with the other boys who were Bears.

 Such a little cutie. Colin's best friend, Marcos, and his mom bought Cody this cute little outfit.

 Evrett is such a great helper while I have my hands full with Cody. Cody hates going places and shopping so by the time we get home from the store he is usually screaming. I bring the groceries in the house and Evrett unloads and puts them away for me while I nurse Cody. Often times I find him about halfway done and off task...he gets lost in his imagination playing with the food and bags. This kid is going to make a great story teller or screen writer one day! He imagines such detailed scenes, its amazing!

 Evrett was SO PROUD one day when he brought me a Lego guy. He smiled and said "Look mom! I made him his weewee!! ahahhahahhha!" I just about died...partly laughing and partly sad that my 4 year old has such potty humor thanks to his older brothers.

 Currently Cody likes to nurse and take a nap right at 3:00 in the afternoon. The boys come home at 3:15 so I don't see them until a little while later when Cody is done munching (sometimes he will want to eat for an hour!) I found this note for me one day after coming out of Cody's room. Cute cute Colin

 More Cute Cubs

 More cute boys

 We signed the boys up for floor hockey and they loved it! At first I was annoyed because the "coach" was just a park district worker that didn't put any effort into it at all but I learned quickly that is what the boys loved so much. They just got to play, not pressure or high expectations, just playing. Colin was super excited because he claimed to be the best player in his class at school. It was so fun for me to watch him go play so full of confidence! This is probably my biggest regret about this career path we've chosen for Ben...the boys have missed out on normal time spent with dad learned to play sports. They've gone into soccer, basketball and baseball with no experience and are playing with boys whose dads play with them everyday after work. Anyway, so it was a lot of fun to watch them love playing floor hockey.

 Grandma Hartmann came down for a weekend and we met her at Aunt Margarets house for lunch. She wanted to meet Cody! It was so nice to see her. I had dressed Cody in the cute outfit she'd bought for him.

 Crazy crazy fun and cute boys we have

 He loves to play!!

 And he loves being outside!

 One day I was getting ready to take the boys to playgroup when Cody started crying in his carseat, so I asked Evrett to play with him while I finished getting everything we needed. This is how I found Cody after "playing" with Evrett! haha! At least he loved it!

 This is my cute skirt Jess bought me in Africa!

 melanie and I took our kids out to the apple orchard later in the month when they didn't have school one day. We had a great time even though our favorite apples were already gone!

that sums up our September!!