Fall Fun!!! Pumpkin Hunting October 2010

Every year we take a short drive down to Orting where the pumpkin patches are and go to a pumpkin patch called Schloz pumpkin patch. This year we had to go two times due to rain.

The first time we went was to get Elijah's pumpkin, we had promised him we would go that very weekend, we still forget sometimes about how this Washington weather can be. Horribly rainy.

We decided to just get his since our darling Ellie was still to little to play in the rain.

Despite the rain we were blessed with this gorgeous view of the fog rising off the fields.

We even managed to find a pumpkin that was way bigger then Elijah's head, one he was just as thrilled about as we were. Notice his happy face.

Dad and him put alot of hard back breaking work into picking up all those pumpkins and loading them in the wagon. At least they had the rain to keep them from getting to hot and sweaty. Oh and to keep the pumpkins clean, at least the top of them.

But the bottoms quickly got cleaned off in the puddle of water that accumulated in the wheel barrel.

Our second trip was a bit more enjoyable, warmer, sunnier and our little Ellie even got to pick out her own little pumpkin.

She was even trying to sit up, though she has some help and support from her pumpkin friends.

The boys had fun petting and looking at the animals there at the patch and even enjoyed running through the corn maze. We couldn't pass up a photo opp with a huge gourd.

All and all it was a pretty good Pumpkin Hunt!!!
We all had fun and even bagged some awesome pumpkins.

Ellie's sitting up November 2010

What's that Mom?! I can't hear you over your excited shouts.

Yes Thats right world I'm sitting!

Okay I sat up Mom, Really you can stop taking photos now.


As the comments under the photos above show, our Ellie is now sitting up!!! She's not sitting well yet, but she's making progress. She started sitting up towards the end of October beginning of November. She's 8 months old now and slightly behind on her gross motor skills, but I'm not concerned. Also when she falls doesn't have the normal reaction she should have just yet, she won't catch herself when she falls. But hey she's advanced in other places, like speech and social skills, as my Grandpa use to say " As long as that little minds alright, the rest will come and nothing else really matters" and we know her little mind is brilliant already, but I'm Mom I could just be partial.

Chloe's Birthday Party; Elijah's First girlfriend!!!

One of Elijah's friends, or as he likes to say his girlfriend/ his girl had a birthday party and invited Elijah to come and celebrate with her and some friends from school. Of course being the good Mom that I am I couldn't resist and of course said yes ( Dad suggested I go too), So off we went....

They had a pinata and took swings at it...

There was plenty of pizza, cake and candy, for the most part a fun event. A bit crowded, but fun... Elijah enjoyed it and Chloe had fun too.

My grocery trips, also known as my traveling circus!!!! October 2010.

So once every other week, the kids and I head out to do our grocery shopping. Usually our first stop is Winco. For most this wouldn't be a blog worthy, but for our family it always is. As most of our friends know we aren't your average family, though we aren't the size of the Duggars (well known family with 20 kids) we are a large size family so any outing is always a bit of an event. I mean honestly a women with 4 kids under the age of 5 and one set of kids being twins, I get looks like I'm a traveling circus, hints the title. Above is what most people see coming through the store. A cart full of kids and groceries.

Even loading the kids into the van in itself is a bit of an adventure, maybe a short one, but and adventure still. Normally I start with loading the twins as above.

Then the next step in our loading process is Elijah and Ellie, as pictured above. All and all just to load the kids up into the car it takes approximately 10 minutes. And on our grocery trip days I do this approximately 3 times. To unload our crowd it takes about 15 minutes on average, this is done 4 times. Crazy to think huh?! So loading the kids in one grocery trip takes about 30 minutes, to unload almost an hour. Crazy thought huh.

But as a reward we get to see this view. Definitely a wonderful view after a heroic performance. Definitely worth an applaud. ( Courtesy of Elijah insisting I take a picture)

Elijah's Tent Bed. October 2010

My step Mom and I were talking one day and I was telling her how Elijah's always trying to make a tent in his room, failing miserably, then getting mad... My step Mom happened to remember the tent bed she had for my brother and though it would be cool to send it to Elijah. Above is the photo of the tent. This tent bed was my brothers, him and I played with it when we were kids. It's awesome to see my son playing with the same tent bed I played with when I was only a bit older then him... Thanks to my step Mom I got this experience...

My living room is now a Playground!!! October 2010

Adriel showing how much he loves his slide, surfer dude pose.

Ellie giving the slide a go with a little help from Mom.

The often seen sandwich effect as the boys tumble down the slide.

I have to say I'm truly amazed how the Lord works and how he provides for us. This little tikes slide for instance. We had been looking for one for the boys for quiet sometime and was informed something like this would be helpful for them, especially if Adriel gets diagnosed with Autism. I ended up getting this because I replied to an ad on craigslist, initially the lady was trying to sell it, but after telling her about our kiddos she offered to just give it to us. I guess it helped that she also has two kids with Autism or who are on the Autism spectrum. I gave her information and told her that I would help her as I could with resources to help her kids, and she gave me two little tikes slides. A big one that is now inside and a little one that is now outside. Ironically enough shortly after she gave me the slides she moved right down the road from us and ended up becoming family friends. Her youngest son and mine are now best friends and play on a regular basis now. Not only that she also gave us a playhouse that the boys now enjoy. Again it's amazing how the Lord works. We now have a slide inside and a perfect therapy slide.

Ellie Pushing Up!!!! Ocotober 2010

Normal floor time play.

I'm thinking about doing something new.

*zoobers* I told you I could do it..

I'm still doing it!

One day during floor time play I noticed Ellie doing something new, much to my surprise and to Ellie's delight I noticed she was pushing up on her hands. As the picture above shows. She starts out happy and then goes to pure excitement as she zoobers in success. It's amazing how quickly she's growing and changing. At only 7 months she's pushing up. She may be slow in her gross moter skills but as the picture above shows, she doesn't seem to be too concerned about it! I'm excited to see what each new day holds and all the progress she makes.

The Twins, A change in our toys. Trying to encourage speech. October 4th 2010

The boys toy shelf ( no longer have the bunny, long story)

Close up of the boys Toy shelf.


A while back I attended a "Special Families of Pierce County" meeting. The subject of the meeting was speech delays. Since Adriel and Mathias have speech delays I figured I would go and see what ideals they had. They had some therapist from a therapy center in Federal Way as speakers. They asked people at the meeting to volunteer to come up so they could use them as examples to help give us parents ideals. I was one of the first volunteers and explained our little Adriels situation, how he had regressed and despite all the work we do with him still wasn't coming up with many if any words. One of the things they suggested was to put toys in sealed containers and to only give the boys the toys when they brought them to me, pulled them out or brought me to them and to encourage them if I noticed them taking interest in them or looking at them. I've not had much time to put this into practice, but do try. I've not noticed any new words yet or them bringing them too me, but with time I'm sure they will get it.