Sick of Pumpkins Yet?

I promise, these are the last of the pumpkin pictures -- for this year! All in all, we made 5 pumpkin patch visits this year! It would have been 6, but one got rained out. It's my favorite time of year, so I tend to go a little overboard!!

Have you ever tried taking a picture of 4 kids under the age of 4? Pretty much an impossible task.

Tessa was perfectly content until the mean mommy came along and took the car keys out of her hand...
King of the Pumpkins!
Mom's helper!

The Sweetest Kiss!

Aunt Vandana has the best dress up box!

Weekend in Dallas

My friend, Niki, moved to Dallas a year ago, and I finally made it down there for a visit. Tessa came along and we had a fun mommy-and-me weekend!

Her first flight was a success!! She did amazingly well both ways. And it didn't hurt that we sat next to baby-friendly women on both flights. Although, I was frustrated and annoyed to learn that airlines no longer allow you to board early when traveling with young children (at least American doesn't).
The Dallas Arboretum was having a fall festival, so we decided to check it out. It was crazy cold for Dallas (low 50s), but the Arboretum was so pretty and decorated really well for fall!

My little pumpkin!

Hangin' out with Aunt Niki!

It was fun to show Tessa the Women's Garden at the Arboretum. It's the very spot where Uncle Sean and Aunt Vandana got married -- 7 years ago!

Big pumpkins, little girl.

Vandana's brother and sister-in-law live in Dallas and they have a 1 year old little girl. So, they were nice enough to let me borrow tons of baby gear and toys, which was a lifesaver when it came to packing! Here, Tessa shows Uncle Sebastian how the toys work!

Pittsburgh Pumpkin Patch

During our visit to Pittsburgh last month, Calder and his cousin Madison had a great time at a local pumpkin patch!! What a busy afternoon!

First up? Pony rides!
Driving the "Cool Bus"Bike racing!
Hay fights!
Then onto face painting! This was Calder's first-ever face painting. To my amazement, he sat completely still! He ended up choosing a ghost and a bat.
And, a ghost and a witch for Madison!
Last, but not least, a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to choose their own pumpkins.
Even Tessa got in on the pumpkin action. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of baby Olivia since she was snoozing almost the whole time!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween this year! Calder & Tessa's school had a party on Friday that I was able to attend. Here's Calder's class during the school parade. They came out singing -- it was too cute! Unfortunately, I didn't even think to take a video until they were done singing. :(

We finally carved our pumpkin this morning! I told Calder it was his job to come up with the design for the face -- he was so excited.

Posing with the finished product. He name him Jackal the Jack-o-Lantern!

6 Halloween Cuties!! Our friends Alex and Aubrey stopped by to say "hi" before trick-or-treating.

My fireman and my little strawberry!Strawberry Shortcake plucking a sweet strawberry!
Here's the whole trick-or-treating crew. Calder happily took candy from each house, but when we got to the house that was handing out raisins -- his eyes completely lit up and he looked at me and said "Can I eat them??" That's my boy!!

Tessa Crawls!

Tessa started crawling on Monday. It's sort of an army crawl, so thankfully she doesn't move too fast quite yet. She can get up on all fours, but then when she tries to move she can't keep her bottom half raised up.

Tessa Crawls! from courtney on Vimeo.

First Word

Who gets the honor of Tessa's first word? Yep, Daddy. She first said "dada" about a month ago, but then we never heard her say it again until about last week. Now, she says it all the time, and even seems to be looking in his direction when she says it!