Lauren's first few steps...with a little help!

Music to my ears...

A friend gave us this little "baby" toy trumpet that plays the same song over and over again. Well, all day Sam "played" the toy trumpet around the house and was excited for his dad to get home so he could play the trumpet with him.

We couldn't resist getting the whole performance on video. It's very cute and I'm excited for the day when Sam plays a real trumpet just like his dad! :-)

Fall Fun

On Friday we went to a local farm and pumpkin patch with some friends. Sam has been begging me for weeks to go to a petting zoo, so this was right up his alley. Besides a petting zoo they had a fun play area for the kids with tractors to ride and climb on, a big slide, and not to mention the huge bin of corn to play in. Anyway, Sam LOVED it. Lauren liked it too, especially when she could get out of the stroller and crawl around.

On the drive up to the farm I kept telling Sam we were going to a farm and a pumpkin patch. Well, he must have heard me wrong because since then he's started calling any and all pumpkins "pumpkin hatches." We'll be driving down the road or going into Fred Meyer and he'll see a pumpkin and say, "Look, Mommy...there's a pumpkin hatch!" Or, "Look, Mommy...look at all those pumpkin hatches!" It makes me chuckle out loud every time I hear it. We've tried to correct him, but he won't have anything to do with a pumpkin patch...it's a "pumpkin hatch!"

And, finally the petting zoo...The other funny thing Sam did was he kept taking handfuls of corn from the huge corn bin and then he'd run over to the animals and "feed" them corn. He did this at least three or four times...running from the corn bin to the animals. He'd get up to the pen where the animals were and say, "Here Sheep (or pig, or duck, or horse/mule)...have some corn." Then he'd drop it on the ground inside the pen. They're probably not supposed to eat corn, but I couldn't interfere with his fun. Besides I was having too much fun watching him! :-)

Our new pet...

We were at a friend's house last week and in her D.I. pile was this enormous stuffed dog. Well, Sam immediately fell in love with it and instead of going to the D.I. the dog came home with us. Sam named it, "Soft Dog" and loves to feed him (usually bread), pet him, and ride him like a horse. As you can see from this picture, he also likes to put him to bed at night and he gets a soft pillow and one of our best blankets. :-)

Here Comes Trouble

Lauren's in the power crawling stage where she gets into EVERYTHING! I'm certain she'd crawl to Alaska if I let her out of my sight long enough. She seems to know when the front door is open because any time it's open she makes a B-line for the door. She has no problem crawling outside and loves to crawl on the sidewalk, lawn, mud, and rocks.
She also thinks it's fun to pull mom and dad's books off the shelves. The other day she was in our room with me while I was folding laundry and would say, "Uh-Oh" with every book she pulled off the shelf. It was cute.

The Big Brother

Sam has a small cold and when he has a cold he thinks a Kleenex is the solution to everything. Well, yesterday morning on the way to church I handed him a Kleenex and then hear

this conversation in the back seat...

Sam: See, Lauren (holding up the Kleenex for Lauren to see)...this is called a Kleenex. You go like this (in my rear view mirror I see him demonstrating how you wipe your nose) and the Kleenex gets all your snots!

Lauren: squeal, ah-dah, ah-dah, squeal...

I LOVED it. It made my mama heart so happy to hear. Lauren is so lucky to have a big brother who I'm sure in the coming years will teach her many things.

Happy Birthday!!

September 21st is Evan's birthday and Lauren's is the 22nd, so last night for FHE (September 21st) we celebrated both birthdays. Woohooo!!! It was fun...Grandma Hatch and Analise (Evan's cousin) joined us for the fun.

Happy Birthday, Evan...I love you so so much!

This is Lauren's 1st birthday, so it's kind of a big deal. We got some FABULOUS pictures of her opening presents and eating our birthday cake (dirt cake...Evan requests this every year for his b-day).