Our One Year Old

Our amazing little girl turned ONE on the 23rd!

Check out her four teeth...

and her giggling...

and she's off.

Delicious cupcakes...

and awesome people to celebrate her year of firsts!

Sweet smiles.

Chubby cheeks.

Thanksgiving (and Earplugs)

Our Pilgrims.

Stella's First Thanksgiving.

A full table.

Our post-dinner walk through the pond.

Looking for the items in the bottom of the toy basket.

Checking out Momma's new pink earplugs (an impulse purchase for one tired momma with one vocal baby who loves to nurse in the wee hours of the night...and the morning).

Our Eleven Month Old

We've definitely reached the end of our "Let's see how much Stella has grown next to Dog" phase.  Stella is a mobile girl.  She's also chatting up a storm, cutting her top, left, front tooth, eating dinner with us, and waving bye-bye.  Love, love, love.

Hanging with her baby -- a favorite activity.

The Spy, Vampire, Dinosaur, and Giraffe

We had a great Halloween this year with a pumpkin carving party and two trick or treat outings -- an earlier one for all four kiddos and an evening one with the twins and our friends.  We managed to stay dry, cross paths with classmates and J's teacher, and head home with way too much candy.

Getting into character.

Heading out for round one of trick of treating.

Stella's first Halloween.

Trick or treating in the Wedgwood business district.

Our post-Halloween visit to the Museum of Flight.

Our Ten Month Old + Big Brother Iver

Our pulling-herself up, scrambled egg eating, adoring her siblings tow-headed girl:

Post-bath outside time.

Checking out our pumpkins.

Iver strolling Stella.

Exploring our neighborhood pond -- despite the recent downpours.

Hoedown Festival

We kicked off Fall with a romp at Oxbow Farm.  After a full afternoon of parades, hay rides, food trucks, and hanging out with friends, we loaded back into the van with 6 pumpkins and 4 tired kiddos.

Working up a sweat in the House O' Hay.

Our Hoedown Crew.

Jorja and Scout managing the pumpkin cart.

All six of us -- in one photo.

Denni and Stella on the search for the perfect "Cinderella Pumpkin".

Face time.

Fall Festivities

Fall is one of our favorite seasons around here.  Basically between September through New Year's, there's one holiday after another to get excited about.  First up, it's Halloween.  In fact, Kristin kept saying it was already October -- despite it still being in the middle of September -- as the rationale to bust out some crafty activities on a sunny Sunday.

Last weekend, the rest of society caught up with the season's celebrations and we attended a Hoedown Fall Festival at the farm where we get our weekly share of fruits and vegetables.  Once again, we had great weather.

Even though we still have over three weeks until Halloween, you never know when preparations for the next holiday may start ...

Our Nine Month Old

Our on-the-move, two tooth, awesome little girl:

Giggling her way to her tummy.

Zeek lurking near her feet.

New Contributor to Hoot n' Howl

As I just wrote on my blog, Kristin and I have decided to merge our two blogs into one since neither of us has the time to get everything posted that we would like.  For instance, I have months of photos and videos on my iPhone that I keep saying I will put onto the blog but never seem to be able to.

The good news is that since we're both semi-competitive people, Kristin and I will undoubtedly post more regularly if we know the other one has (that's a joke ... sort of).  I think the blog will automatically say who writes what post.  If not, my guess is it won't be too hard to figure out who has written what!  

For my first post on Hoot n' Howl, here are a couple of pics from this past week.  Stella clearly enjoying some quality independent sitting time, and Iver at his absolute favorite place in the world: an active construction site.  More with the twins next time.

Back To School and Iver's Two

Our Second Graders.  It's been a great start to the school year with the twins in different classrooms (A's in Room 8 and J's in Room 9), biking to school, and reuniting with school friends after an awesome summer.

A and J counted down the number of days until the start of the school year -- they made it!

The Littles aren't quite ready for school, but they love the drop-off and pick-up adventures.

Stella tasting (and loving!) beets for the first time.

Iver celebrates his 2nd birthday with a great group of friends (and his beloved cup of milk).

Party cupcakes.

An awesome family hike to Franklin Falls before the start of the school year.

Our little hiker.

Immersed in the fall's spray.

Happy Hiker #1.

Happy Hiker #2.

A brief walk in the salt water during our August day trip to Bellingham.

And rock throwing.