September

September started out hot so we had our final days of using the pool and sprinklers. And then finally we had some fall-like weather! We have LOVED spending time outside as much as possible. We finally got Emery to ride his bike without training wheels, we got Lucy her first bike, and we got me a bike (early birthday present!) Plus we got a trailer for Joel to pull the little kids with his new bike! We are all geared up for lots of bike riding. The kids are very enthusiastic about riding all day every day! Some days we go on 3 separate rides (morning, afternoon, and before bed). I'm pretty sure Emery's 2 favorite things right now are riding his bike and reading. It's great! We went to a local park called Heritage Park to go for a family bike ride one Saturday morning. The weather was cool and we all had a lot of fun. Until Lucy gets a little better at breaking etc on her bike, she'll ride in the trailer with Andy. Hopefully she'll get the hang of it soon though, because when Andy gets bored in there he starts to grab her hair or arm and she really doesn't like that. Then after we went on a little train ride that the kids always love to ride but rarely get to. Hopefully we'll get in a few more Saturday morning rides this fall!

Each Friday night we have "Family Movie Night". I had showed Emery and Lucy some clips of Shirley Temple on youtube (animal crackers in my soup and some tap dancing numbers) and got them hooked. So, we borrowed a huge set of Shirley Temple movies from a friend and have been watching one each week. The whole family enjoys it! Emery and Lucy loved helping Joel install some locks on the kitchen cabinets to keep Andy out of things. Andy is just very curious! We had fun going to watch Joel run at the BMW 2 mile run and the weather was not so hot as last time we came.

Lucy worked really hard at stopping to suck her thumb. We did the bad tasting polish along with a few rewards. She earned a little Princess Sofia toy after one week and a Princess Sofia singing purse after a month. She is still very oral and puts other things in her mouth, but she is getting better. We are so proud of her!

Andrew is loving to push around a push toy (sometimes with Lucy riding on it) as he practices walking! He has taken around 7 or 8 steps together. He is getting better every day!

It's a lot of fun with 3 kids. Lots of times crazy, and messy (see the spilled raisins picture?), but mostly just lots of laughing and having a good time!