Fall 2014: This and That...

Now that snow if officially on the ground here in Aitkin (mark the date...it's November 5th, 2014), I thought I would share some of our fall photos. It was a short fall here in the North, but as always, we tried our hardest to make the most of it all!

We were fortunate enough to get some time to play in the leaves...

(Olivya dictated her style this day. Note the pajama pants, 3 pig-tails, a bib over the jacket, and I'm pretty sure she is wearing 2 different shoes too). 

More leaves...and a nice fall day for an attempted photo shoot (though the girls were too crazy, so these are literally the only 3 shots that we got). Props to my very talented husband for these pictures and many pictures that you find on this blog. 

We spent a fun day at Afton Apple Orchard with Gramma, Papa & Brady picking apples and enjoying a great fall day! 

We spent our 2nd year in a row at a waterpark hotel for MEA break weekend. Both Adelyn & Olivya LOVED it! 

And on the work side of things, this is always a very busy but very fun time of the year as we prepare to confirm our confirmation students! I had the privilege of confirming 19 students this year and it is such a fun group of kids! (They were impressed that their pastor was so good at taking "selfies"!) 

And I completed my last project of food from my garden! Thanks to my cousin Holly who walked me through this process step by step one night, I was able to make 8 jars of homemade salsa from the tomatoes from my garden that I had previously frozen. 

Yes, it has been a great fall! Michael also took his students on a mission trip to Jamaica for a week, we had a couple of 70 degree days during the fall that we got to enjoy, and Adelyn & Olivya constantly keep us on our toes (some minutes they play GREAT together, and other minutes it's a constant battle/test of parenting)!

Fall has come and gone. We are now bracing for what the winter months may bring;) 

October 2013: A Week with Gramma (& MEA fun...)

Last week, Michael was in Jamaica with his old church (a trip that he had committed to before he knew that we would be moving) and because of my crazy work schedule (lots of nights...unpredictable hours), my mom was so generous to come up for the week and stay with us and take care of the girls while I went to work (and a week of not paying for daycare for us!! yay!!!).

Well, as I mentioned in a previous post, Adelyn started rocking the whole going potty thing...(still going strong! Well, kinda...)

And Olivya just thinks this whole thing is hysterical...

I got some one-on-one time with Adelyn during the week too when I took her to the Gobbler Football game (they are rockin' it this year!! Go Gobblers!)

But one of the best parts of the week was when we headed to Brainerd to spend the long MEA weekend. We met my dad and Brady for a weekend at a hotel with a water park, and Adelyn was in her glort!!!

Of course, Olivya had to get in on the action too. She LOVED playing in these little water spouts...

And watching these two sisters play together in the water just melted my heart...

Adelyn's absolutely favorite part of the waterpark was the "red slide". Seriously...I went down that thing more times that I can even count (over 100 for sure!!). She mostly went down the slide by herself, and I would just sit behind her and go down, but it was a bit too far of a climb up to the top of the slide where I couldn't let her go by herself, and I couldn't run down to meet her at the bottom of the slide either each time, so I got the joy of riding the Red water slide over, and over, and over, and over again (except the couple of times that I convinced Brady to take her up and down the slide). 

And Olivya couldn't miss out on the fun...she officially got her first taste of waterslide fun this weekend and she giggled and LOVED it just as much as her sister did (fortunately, she can't say "more! more!" yet, so I didn't feel guilty not taking her on the slide over and over again).

Yep! It was a great weekend at the water park with family! Definitely something that we will be doing lots of this winter to beat those winter blues:)