Grandpa's Visit

Grandpa Scott came to visit us last weekend and we had fun playing at the park, dressing up for Halloween, eating BBQ, keeping the house show ready, and celebrating Caleb's birthday.  Looking forward to our next visit in December!!

Here is the next birthday girl - can't believe she'll be a year next month!!!

 Oh this Caleb, he sure is helpful.  Funny thing about Caleb, he hates to swing.  Alices loves it though, so it's a good thing he loves to push Miss Alice at the park.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the cutest chicken and airplane this side of the Mississippi (and probably the other side too!).

We were invited to an awesome Halloween party this past weekend.  The hosts pulled out all the stops for their guests - down to every detail.  We all had a great time, especially Caleb who asked if we would just leave him there when it was time to go.

Why fly to the top when you can just climb?

Caleb's first pinata!  I don't think he made contact, but he loved it all the same.  

Happy Birthday Caleb!!!

Caleb is 3!  He had a fun birthday - I assume anyway as he asked when we would do it again.  Caleb got his first big boy bike, ate pancakes for dinner, and indulged in a lot of cupcake icing (not so much cupcake).  He is such a sweet boy.

Hmm...is that for me??

 Let's go!!!

 One of the draw-backs of a fall birthday, it gets dark so early!  We definitely went for a sun set bike ride last night.  After learning how the brakes worked, Caleb was a natural.  We could hardly keep up with him.  There was a lot of swift walking/jogging on August and my part.

Fall is Here!

Fall is here, but that doesn't mean things are slowing down one bit for the Patterson family.  The lake is beautful this time of year, but the water is getting low.  We took the boat to get it winterized last weekend, but not before one more quick pull.

This is a good one.  Caleb recently fell and skinned up his upper lip.  On Sunday night August put on a band-aid and creatively gave Caleb a handle-bar mustache.  Yesterday morning, Caleb went to school with the band-aid still on, which we thought was fun and fancy free!  Well, later that day I was going through old emails and saw that it was actually picture day at Caleb's school.  Shoot, I thought, we forgot to put Caleb in a nice outfit.  It took me another couple hours to remember the outfit was the least of our worries.  Needless to say, Caleb is getting his photo taken today instead, minus the mustache.

Caleb and Alice...they love to just hang out.

This picture means one thing - baths go twice as fast at our house now!

10 months!

10 months...where has the time gone??  Let's see, Alice has spent the last month working on her sounds, pincer grasp, and trying to stand on her own.  She still loves to be in on everything and when she gets excited, she kicks...a lot.

Her hair is also always messy when she gets up...it still doesn't have enough length or fullness to behave.

Yet, it's still long enough for the ever popular mohawk.

Trying to get creative with these month by month stickers.

Standing on my own!

As many of you know, Alice's mom loves cardigans!  So that means Alice loves them too.  Here is a cute picture of Alice in one of her many cardigans (thank you Lily and Reese for all of the amazing hand-me-downs!).

Caleb - Countdown to Three!

In just about a month, we're going to have a 3 year old on our hands.  He has really become quite the character in his old age. My current favorite Calebism:

"Hey Little Fella" - Caleb says this to Alice all the time.  Who taught him this?  August is sure he heard it from another child at his old daycare.  Either way, I continue to remind him that Alice is a "Little Gal", but he continues on with the orginal phrase.  Caleb has asked me what I am; I made the mistake of saying, "I'm a big lady."

Last night we went with Caleb to his new school for parent's night.  It was very fun to have him show us around his room, see him play with his classmates, and meet the other parents.  Most common question I heard coming from the parents - Why doesn't my child do this/act like this at home?  Whether it was eating well, picking up toys, or listening to the teacher, we all watched with pride as our toddlers funtioned appropriately in a classroom setting.  Then we all grilled the teachers on parenting tricks.  So great to see that a toddler will be a toddler, no matter what.

9 Months and on the Move

Oh sweet Alice - my little sunshine girl.  She is growing up so quickly and developing quite the personality.  In the past month Alice has become more mobile, now pulling herself up to standing.  She's also pretty good at walking when you're holding her hands.  She is constantly captivated by what people around her are doing - a true observer.  But she also loves be in on the action.  If Caleb is doing anything, Alice wants to be doing it.  Those two just love to be together...Caleb regularly asks August and I to leave the room when he and Alice are playing.  Oh the fun that these two have.  Here are a few pictures of Alice in her fairy wings.