Fall


Every year, Aunt Liesel and I try to get together to celebrate our birthdays.  I usually go to Missoula, that town is the BEST in the fall.  My dad used to take me there every homecoming for my birthday, it makes me love fall even more.  We had a blast.  Carousel, farmers market, epic nap, birthday party at Tower Pizza complete with moustaches and video games, park, lunch and REI.  Love you Aunt Liesel, thanks for a lovely birthday weekend.

You know what else makes me love fall, now that we have moved, I don't have to rake leaves from that &%*$! maple in our neighbors backyard.  Beautiful tree, three trucks of leaves to the dump.  I am not exaggerating.  We have some leaves here, but they will blow away, it is the pine needles that need to be raked, we will see if that happens.  It will be winter soon, I can feel it.  We still need some outside time.

We pulled the tomato plants and hung them upside down in the garage in an attempt to turn the green tomatoes to red.  Stinkin Graham sneaks out there every time he can and eats green tomatoes.  We still have 3 pumpkins in the garden (only one orange one), some carrots and onions.  We still dig back there when we have a few free moments.

Anyway back to fall.  It is getting cold, but we are trying to get out as much as possible even though it requires so much negotiation.  Jr. put your shoes on - repeat a million times.  Jr. find your coat - repeat one million times.  Graham, get back here, you need a coat - repeat one million times.  Jr. put your brother DOWN!  Selma - GET!

Missoula's Carousel. 
Aunt Liesel asked me if Jr. was okay to ride by himself and I said - oh yes, TOTALLY.  She gave me the weird eye.  Then I saw the carousel take off - it is about 3x as fast as the one here in Helena and takes off like a rocket. 
Woah.  Jr. was totally fine though.



Happy Moustache - I mean, Happy Birthday Aunt Liesel.

Psst.  Don't tell her her stash is upside down.

Ron Swanson Jr.
I BARELY got him to put it on and he BARELY let me take his photo.

Park photo.

BFFs

The boys love the carrots from the garden, I helped Graham pick this one and he at it, dirt and all.

"Look Momma, the perfect carrot!"  Repeat 100x.

That carrot went everywhere with him.  Up the play land, down the slide...

Carrot boys. 

Happy Birthday to us!

The end of September marks the glorious birthdays of the jokers otherwise known as mom and dad. We celebrated this year. Actually put the babies down and did something for ourselves. It was cool. We kept saying - wow, we love those boys so much, but we need to do more things for ourselves. For ourselves or for ourselves together. It is hard to not feel guilty about leaving them behind but I think we make better parents because of it. Now some photos.

Oooh my big boy can put his own socks on.

Monster drawing.

Nanny and Graham and Graham's favorite book.

Graham got a red sucker from the bank.  I took it away and threw it in the garbage.  HE WAS SO INCREDIBLY PISSED OFF FOREVER.

Back in the saddle.

Our rafting buddies - Brian and Angela.

Fatty rainbow hog that I caught.  I call him Steve.

Chick boat.

I know - cute - right?

Jokers.

Brian said I couldn't pull it off.  Group photo.

Nude ATV.  That is how we roll around here.

The big news around here, Graham decided on Saturday to spend more time walking than crawling.  24-7 head injury watch.  Love the baby - hate the head wounds.

Summer. Summer. Summer.

It has been a long time since I rapped at y'all.  Dang, we have been busy.  I will say a very few things and then try to paint a picture of our summer with some photos.  Make sure to check out the Picassa photo stream at the bottom of the page for lots more photos and lots of videos.  I especially LOVE the ones of Jr. and Graham dancing to the music of the new toy excavator.

Although very busy, he will occasionally stop moving to take a sweet photo.

Loves to wear sunglasses - you are obliged to say "OOOOOO SO CUTE!!!" 

When they aren't wrestling, they pause to snuggle.

Impossible to get him to pose for a photo, you have to catch him off guard.  Here he is cooking with his Grandma Sheila, yelling at me not to take his photo.

Uncle Bean and Jr. trying to figure out what Graham is pointing at while yelling NANANANNNAAAA.

Cuz.

Practicing for her school photos - did I mention she is in KINDERGARDEN?

Artiste'

Jr. LOVES having his photo taken.

She kind of likes him.

Nona and Faith glamor shot.

Faith wanted her photo taken with John and Shelia.

Three hour tour.  Three hour tour.

Gilligan and the Skipper.

Ginger. . .

The Professor.

Small blue eyed version of his daddy.

The boys.

Hang on Grandpa!

He was pretty nervous - for his first time on the carousel.

Leaving Helena for Yellowstone!

45 minutes later.

He climbed in there to read his books.

Camping at Carbella.

He LOVED those binoculars.  He wore them all weekend.

Maybe one of my favorite photos - ever.  Photo credit - Cissie!

Binoculars and Ballcanos.

She is pretty cute.

Hot.  Baby.

Nice little hike - Jr. was very good.

Impossible to get a decent family photo.

Pushing the naptime.

Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon in Yellowstone.

We had to drive almost all of the way down the Lamar Valley to see this guy.

Baby in a field.

Thanks Cissie.

Yay!  Yellowstone!  Yay - we are going to Chico tomorrow!

Jr.'s family portrait.  His dad is the biggest one, then Jr., then Graham and lastly me.  I have spiky hair though!

Naked baby!

Lochlin's play date.

Four wheelin buddies.

"I am going to kick the camera Momma!"

I swear he was having fun.

Oh HUG Amelia.  Took this photo just before he started to hit her in the head.

He is taking two to three steps.  He will be fully walking soon.  14 months old - just like his brother.