Grace at 16 months

Here's a pic I took of Grace a couple of weeks ago. She is already 16 months old and discovering new things every day. Her latest accomplishment was climbing to the top of her brothers' bunk bed. AHHHHHH!!!! Somebody STOP that lil girl!

But she is precious and sweet and LOVES a good book. When she is quiet and not in my view I worry and think she is into something or climbing somewhere she shouldn't be but I often find her sitting quietly with a book.... just looking at pictures.

Grace also enjoys wearing anyone and everyones shoes that are bigger than hers around the house. It seems to be a daily occurrence that someones shoe is missing as we try to get out the door.

She also loves necklaces and hats! She has some beads that she puts on and takes off all the time. (No one warned me that girls are pre-programmed for this kind of stuff). And she also enjoys hats! She has an assortment of winter hats (mostly hand-made from my Aunt Shirley) and she often puts on anywhere from 1 to 4 hats at a time. It keeps her busy and she often puts a giggle in our family's hearts.

We love our sweet and busy little girl!

One More Pic

It's not often that I get a decent pic of all three of the kids these days... all smiling... eyes all open, etc. So, I thought I'd post this pic of our three monkeys all looking pretty chipper.

As I mentioned in the previous blog entry, we he had trick or treating here the day before Halloween. This picture was taken shortly before bedtime on October 31. It was a pretty low key day at our house due to the onset of some sickies.

I think Grace was getting ready to read her brothers a book here... she's quite the story teller these days.

Happy Halloween (in November?)

I know Halloween is looooonngggg gone... but I thought I best post a few pics from our festivities before everyone is into the Christmas spirit!

We enjoyed a great October with lots of traveling (yet to post the pics) as well as some great fall and Halloween activities: we spent a long weekend in Italy, as well as a quick weekend trip to Brussels, we also did a lot of local things and visited a corn maze, carved pumpkins, went trick or treating and Benjamin had a class "Where the Wild Things Are" parade. Our month was a bit of a blur with one thing after another. But fun-filled nonetheless.

Since our October was so busy, it wasn't until right before Halloween that I took the kids to pick out pumpkins.

The commissary was down to some pretty slim pickins by then so we opted to try a German pumpkin stand. It worked out great and the kids really enjoyed picking out their pumpkins.

However, once we started carving I realized that we mistakenly bought a couple of pumpkins obviously NOT intended for carving. They were rock solid. And, um, as you can imagine, trying to carve a rock was NOT easy. But I was determined and made it through all three pumpkins.

Note to self: Beware of the variety of pumpkins at the German pumpkin stand next year.

October 31st fell on a Sunday this year so our military community had trick or treating on Saturday. We had black Spiderman, Captain America and a cute white lil bunny. Grace took a good long nap that afternoon and missed out on most of the trick or treating. Luckily, she didn't know what she was missing out on!

The boys and I walked around our neighborhood with their friend who was a cute lil lion. They all had a great time.

Although, Samuel started complaining that his stomach hurt about halfway through trick or treating.

He toughed it out though and made the rounds. In hind site, that was just the beginning of a whole lot of sickies in our house. ugh.

We had a rough start to November with one child or another sick for at least two weeks straight. I was starting to go stir crazy as I spent many days at home. I think we are finally on the mend here.

But, rest assured Kleenex, we still have plenty of runny noses and feel as if we solely support you.

Fall Soccer Season Comes to an End

Benjamin just wrapped up his fall soccer season with the Heidelberg Blue Hornets. He moved up a level this season and played with kids ages 6-8 which meant he was one of the younger kids. He really improved on some fundamental skills and enjoyed playing goalie. He made a couple of surprising yet impressive stops as goalie too!

Some of his highlights this season were not only learning to play goalie but also having one of his best buddies on his team and his dad as assistant coach.

Overall, it was a fun-filled season and it looks like our soccer player will look forward to playing again next year!

Eat Up

These pics were taken awhile back but since I haven't posted in forever I thought I might as well post them.

Grace has been eager to feed herself for sometime now. She's not always "graceful" about getting the job done but she sure is determined!

She is also not so good about sitting still at the table. Much like her big brother Samuel was at this age,

Grace is always on the move and rarely in one place for very long... it can make meal time rather challenging.