Two weeks ago we had another nice, quiet week. It rained a couple of days so we spent as much time inside as we could. One of the days the kids wanted to go outside so we did, in the pouring rain and jumped in the puddles. they LOVED it! The puddles were so deep and splashable. We had armed ourselves with raincoats and umbrella's which worked out wonderfully.

Samantha has started to "read" to us and teach Blake. She gets this from us working with her. She has learned all of her uppercase alphabet and nearly the sounds of all of the letters. We don't push her but take advantage of her willingness to learn.

Blake has become such a great eater in the fact that he'll try most anything and likes things tasty and on the spicy side. He will east Sour Cream by the spoonful if we let him and asks for my spice on his boiled potatoes. He seems to be just the opposite of Samantha who proves to still be a picky eater.

We got Samantha's blood work back and it confirmed the she suffers from high cholesterol. We have started to make small changes in our diet and hope to make big changes over time but we also know that is hereditary. I have an appointment to meet with a dietitian in December and hope to get some help with preparing better foods for our family. It's something that I hope to make Samantha aware of when the time comes and hope to set a good example for her how she will have to make good decisions the rest of her life.

Blake continues to pick up so many words. Tonight he heard me say "Bravo" while reading a good and he said it several times. It's amazing how effectively he can communicate with only one word at a time.

Last week we talked about apples. We ate carameled apples, colored trees and painted apples on them and then hung apples from our dining room light as they would hang from a tree.

A week ago we joined our church on a train ride. There was about 25 of us on the train and on the way we went backwards. The gentleman in the back had the door open the entire time and we were able to stand and watch the track coming and let the breezes blow on us. We all had a great time. At the end Blake was running up and down the aisles, I guess the swinging of the train didn't bother him.

Monday we headed to Travis' parents to attend the funeral of his aunt. We spent Tuesday there and headed back Wednesday afternoon. It was a short trip and the reasons were unfortunate but we all enjoyed the time with the grandparents and his other family members.

This week we started to right things we're thankful for on our patio door. It's fun to see what the kids think of. Samantha even asked for the marker so she could make her own list.

Enjoying the train ride...

Playing in our slide off of our deck...

Working on our apple crafts...

Playing in one of our many piles of leaves...

Misc. pictures...