A lot of fun memories the past couple weeks. The kids dressed up in Halloween costumes four times this year. It was starting to feel a little ridiculous, but they had fun. Quinn's top two choices for costumes this year were Mary Poppins or a midwife. It was close, but she ended up going for Mary Poppins. She really wanted Archer to be Bert with her and we just happened to have all the elements needed to throw together a chimney sweep outfit for him thanks to hand-me-downs. We went to our church harvest party, a pumpkin carving party, the library's dress up day, and trick or treating with our neighbor kids. Jonathan carved a perfect Mary Poppins pumpkin too, but we forgot to take a photo. Probably because our power was out for 30 hours. Fun times.

Archer got his first tooth and turned seven months old. He is such a lovable little guy and full of laughter and funny faces. I feel like he has really strong legs. I guess he has since the womb, really. We finally broke out the jumperoo because of his love for jumping and I think he might pound a hole through our floor. And beware of the splash zone when he is in any water, yikes. This dude is a little power house. But also so sweet and mild the vast majority of the time.

My parents took Quinn to Disney on Ice and that was quite a magical experience for her. There has been much skating around our living room with her Cinderella doll ever since. I took the kids to Salem to meet up with my sister and nephew. I'm so glad they live close!

Quinn and I went on a shoe shopping date courtesy of my grandpa's birthday gift card. It was love at first sight with these gold beauties.

Jonathan has been busting his hiney at work and around the house. He is an awesome husband and great with our kids and we seriously would not function at all if it weren't for him. He also bench pressed 205 the other day. What a man!

I also need to brag about my girlie. She had been talking about wanting to learn sports for a while so I had my parents sign her up for a sports class at the community center for a birthday gift. First thing, the morning of her class, she wanted to get into her sports clothes and was asking when class was every five minutes. She was wearing every single color of the rainbow even down to her socks. Seriously, she mentioned it in the car ride there. You would think based on appearances that she was going to be running the class.

But when we arrived, she suddenly became extremely overwhelmed and refused to leave the bench. It was soccer, which she was most excited about too. If there was any suggestion that she leave my side, she would wimper and cling on to me. I definitely questioned whether this class was a good idea. But I remembered that even when she was a little baby she had this tendency to want to observe at my side for 20-30 minutes before being held by someone else or exploring near other kids. So, the next week, I dragged her to the class again. It was rock climbing day and she insisted that I stand right next to her while she watched the other kids at the wall the whole time. She actually touched the rock wall for a total of about three minutes which I felt like was a small victory. Week three was basketball. She plopped on the bench immediately and when I or the coach would ask her to try for the first couple minutes, her response was, "Not yet, not yet." I got the idea to play up on her recent interest in echos and told her that bouncing a basketball in a gym was really fun because it made a loud echo. I plopped a basketball in her lap and told her to try. She dropped the ball and it made a loud sound and she smiled. I smiled back and told her to go get her ball, she hopped down, and joined in the class. Such a huge relief! I had misty eyes watching her try to dribble and shoot. Her physique isn't the typical basketball build, but she was so cute! 

After class, there was a froyo reward and proud smiles. The following classes were lacrosse and tee-ball and she joined the other kids immediately. It was so moving watching my baby girl overcome her fears.

Quinn keeps sitting behind Archer to "watch over him" and I had to snag this photo the other day.
She told me, "Archer is my best friend and I'm his best friend and I'm singing because I'm happy about it."