The Worthingtons Come to Town

A few weeks ago, Kristy and Joel brought their kids, Reese and Ryan, out for a visit from Indianapolis. We just had the best time!! The kids played so well together and were completely entertained by each other the whole weekend. Kristy and I have been friends since 1996, our freshman year in college...forever ago! It's so cool to be able to spend time not only with her but with Joel and the kids. She has such a wonderful family!!! Thanks for making the drive Worthingtons. You guys were great house guests. Next time, we'll road trip it to Indy!! I borrowed a few photos from Kristy's blog too.

Carter and Ryan "worked" in the yard on Friday.
Reese and Carter raked leaves while the other kids were sleeping on Friday. Finally, when the pile was big enough, Kristy got a shot of them jumping around.
Kristy keeping warm!

Joel was kicking the ball around with the kids and didn't know his own stregth. Here he is attempting to retrieve the ball from the tree. You can't see the ball b/c it's about 10 feet further up in the branches. Rather than risk breaking a leg, we decided to leave the ball there. Leah is hoping it will blow out during the next big storm. Tinkertoys!! This was good fun. G-ma got these for Carter's bday. Everyone joined in building some pretty cool stuff, including a water fountain by Reese and an airplane by Joel.

We went to Pattersons Fruit Farm Family Fest. It was freezing cold and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Here we are taking the tractor ride.
The kids (and dads) loved the slides through the woods.



The hay mazes were a hit. Watch out for Jeremy hiding around the corner!

Walking with the stilts is harder than it looks. I can't believe I was able to capture a shot when they were both walking at the same time.
Kristy and Elliot.

Leah, Reese, Elliot, Carter and Ryan. ....yes, we still have a VHS player and have many old Disney movies!!

The big kids holding Elliot. They were so good with him.

More Fall Fun

The kids love the leaves!!!! Here they are at Grandma and Granpa's house. My mom was running the leaf blower while the kids ran around the yard.

Yard work!!!!

Jeremy brought home a mini-excavator to clear some stumps in the yard and remove some overgrown bushes. Carter rode along and I thought it was cute that he put his hand on Jeremy's as if he were the one controlling the machine.

Elliot - 4 Months Old

Elliot turned 4 months old on October 26th. I took him for his 4 month Dr's visit and he weighed in at 12 lbs 15 oz and has a length of 24 1/4". He's doing great and more interested in his surroundings than ever. Carter and Leah entertain him with toys and talking. Now that he's giving so much feedback, they're constantly trying to get a reaction out of him. It's cute to see how excited Elliot gets when they play with him.

We're still working on sleeping through the night. He's had a few really good nights, when he slept about 10 hours. However, he usually only makes it about six hours before waking up.

His newest activity is the exer-saucer. I just brought it out this week and he loves it! To him it's all new, but it's the same one we've had since Carter was born. It's great to pull out old stuff and get new use out of it. I just went through a bunch of Carter's baby clothes and I love that Elliot is now wearing some of his outfits, makes me think of when Carter was a baby. They look a lot alike too!

Daddy's Newest Helper

Jeremy has been working on remodeling our master bedroom. He was holding Elliot for a while and then decided to set him down on a comforter in order to have his hands free. Shortly thereafter, Jeremy turned around and Elliot had fallen asleep sucking his thumb (his latest trick).

Fall Apple Picking

The kids and I went apple-picking last week at a local fruit farm. We had such a nice time. It was a gorgeous sunny fall day and the smell of the apple trees was amazing. We grabbed a few empty bags from the farm store and walked out into the orchard. Here are some shots of the kids. They were very ambitious, saying they were going to carry their own bag. Of course, once the bag was full, they asked me to carry all 20 lbs back to the store. So far, we've made apple crisp and apple sauce. My apple crisp has room for improvement, but the sauce turned out really good.

The perfect pick!

We sampled along the way.

Carter and Leah are watching a wooly bear we found in the grass.

Leah learns to ride a bike!!!

Leah has learned to pedal a bicycle. She's pretty good too! Here she is circling around the driveway on Carter's orange bike. Way to go Leah!!!! Now we just have to get her to wear a helmet.

Jeremy's New Toy

Jeremy has been dreaming about a zero turn tractor since we decided to buy our new house. After hours of searching on ebay and craigs list, he finally purchased one from a store in Fort Wayne. He negotiated a good price through ebay and picked it up a few weeks ago. Here he is using it for the first tie, cruising around smiling ear to ear! I tried it out last weekend. It's tricky to get the hang of, but after a few rows, it go easier.

Three months with three!

Elliot turned 3 months old on September 26th. Here's his first video and a few updates. He's now rolling from his tummy to his back, both right and left. He smiles, laughs and makes lots of noises. We're working on getting him to sleep through the night, a mighty tough task considering I bring him into bed each night around 3am for a meal. It's become a bad habit, but we're working on being a big boy and sleeping in our own bed! Elliot's a very happy boy and seems content most of the time. He loves being read to and when Carter and Leah talk to him!

Carter Turns 4

Carter turned four on September 22nd. He requested ribs for his birthday dinner. He had them for the first time at a local bbq restaraunt and loved them! My brother Mike coached me through the cooking process, from the rub to the grill and into the oven. They turned out pretty good. Here's Carter with his special red plate!

He also requested yellow cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles on top!

He's outgrown his orange bike already and Leah's been riding it so we bought him a new bike for his birthday. It's a little big yet, but by spring he should be tall enough.

Grandma and Grandpa bought him a new bulldozer. Uncle Matt gave him the crane truck.

Here are Carter and Leah "sharing" the cake. I made the #4 and then cupcakes with the remaining batter.

This is the special red plate, for any special occasion! We got this as a baby gift for Carter and have now just started using it. I found it in the move. What a cool idea!We had a family birthday party on Saturday and here's Carter blowing out the candle on his monster truck cake.

Tinkertoys from Gma and Pop-pop!

A softball from Great-grandma

A truck puzzle from Uncle David.

Carter had a great birthday. It was a lot of fun celebrating. Hard to believe he's already 4. He's getting so big!!!!