thursday

esther has several hand-me-down christmas outfits from friends at church. i just love babies in holiday garb!

 last night matt and eli made a strawbery cake.

 his morning they iced it then ate some for breakfast :)

 the boy LOVES to cook and was very proud of "his" cake. it was delicious by the way.

 and this is how esther spent 90% of her morning. it was this or screaming baby. when she's in the wrap i am able to get some chores done and take the boys outside to play.

i'm currently holding her again...and typing one handed :)

tuesday

this is esther's favorite place to nap- on the kitchen counter in the baby seat. i'm certainly not complaining because wherever a 4 week old baby will sleep for 1 to 2 hours at a time is okay by me! plus it's an easy place for me to keep an eye on her :)

 oh and she insists on sleeping all mushed up sideways with 50 katrillion blankets on top (ok, really only 3).  isn't she a sweetie!!

and this is eli's absolute favorite game of the moment- pillow fight. he calls it fightpillow and now sleeps with "his" pillow fight pillow. isaac likes the game just fair and mostly plays so he can jump on daddy.

esther sleeps, boys play

the two E's

Esther

Eli

esther lovin

please excuse the unmade bed, i have a two week old and two toddlers for crying out loud. (okay, really the bed is never made) but the sweetness outweighs all. love.

O'Pa

O'Pa came for a quick visit. One perk, holding his youngest granddaughter! We love you O'Pa!!

lunch with 3 kids

this pristine scene lasted for about 5 minutes before i nursed esther at the table while the boys ate lunch. :)  

chillaxin

three kids post-nap snack and veggie tales time

special biggest brother

happy thanksgiving

We're thankful for these three sweet blessings and our first sunday at church as a family of 5!

our weekend

A very special thank you to Rachel and Bala for a last minute visit to help us out. My mom got sick so my parents left early, Matt had been down for the count since Wednesday with the flu/bronchitis, and this mommy would currently be dead without the extra help!!!

Enjoy some pics of our weekend. 

esther grace is born

happy birth day!

monday, november 12

8 lbs, 6oz

headed to church

brothers

Two brothers with boots enjoying some oranges. Love. 

two boys love trains

One day last week I met my friend Amberly and her daughter at the depot for some train fun.  The boys have been there a bunch of times, but it's still always fun to go look at the engine and go inside the rail cars. Plus, it gets us out of the house and its free!

Eli and Brooklynn in front of "the old tired engine"

Isaac saying wheels

peeking out of the train car

running inside the old coal car

i adore this picture b/c it looks like they're in 'O BrotherWhere Art Thou' trying to escape

Last Saturday we took the boys to a fall festival agrotourism thingy that Tennessee Tech  was hosting.  When I read in the paper they were going to have games/face painting/live animals  & it was free, I knew it was for us!  

It was simple, yet perfect for kids- even better than a pumpkin patch.  They had tractors to sit on, animals to look at, games to play, face painting, bubbles, coloring, stickers, pumpkin slingshots, and more.  The boys even got to pick a free pumpkin to take home!  So thank you Tech for a wonderful (and free) morning of fun!

literally running to the tractors

eli has a thing where he looooves to keep his hands in his pockets (also, it was pretty cold)

instead of a sand box they had a corn box! the boys had a blast.  behind Isaac is the little pumpkin patch they had set up for the kids to pick a pumpkin. 

pushing the tree to make sorghum juice come out of the cane

roarrrrrrr

saying 'hi' to the baby lamb

beautiful orange tree!!

happy halloween

big brother, little sister

Here are the shirts I made for the boys and baby sister.  I think they turned out super cute, but I now realize why people on ETSY charge $25 a shirt!  The letters took forever to cut out, adhere to bonding, cut out again, iron on, then sew around. Whew!  It's a project I've slowly been working on for a couple of weeks & figured since I'm due in 1.5 weeks I might want to actually finish!

leaves & treats

I think we live in the most beautiful place- just look at how gorgeous the leaves are on our hill and at the bottom of our road! Love it!!

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On Friday we went over to our friend Jennifer's house for a rice-krispie treat making party.  And oh what fun the boys had stirring, but mostly eating the rice-krispie treats! (gluten free of course)

This is right as he was attempting to eat a huge chunk off the spoon

everything's better with sprinkles

our friend Brooklynn enjoyed the party too :)