Leaf Pile Fun!

Did I mention that Fall is finally here?! Chilly weather, red yellow orange leaves falling, "rainbow" trees (you know- the kind of tree, and moment in time, where all three colors show up at once- Annabel loves these!). The kids had been waiting for the leaves to finally fall off the tree in our front yard. One Sunday a couple weeks ago, they declared enough leaves had fallen off and it was time to rake 'em up and jump in! Daniel got right to work with his rake. Annabel tried her rake out a bit, but ended up just scooping them up with her hands which worked just fine for her! She also tried to use the large brush, too, but that proved a tad challenging. I helped out with my rake, too, of course. And when the pile was big enough for them, they had a ball jumping in, over and over again! Such fun! The following Saturday, we were back out and at it again before Daniel's gymnastics class that morning, with even more leaves for our pile this time. And now the leaves are all gone, all the rain, wind, and Daddy's mowing made them all disappear! We sure enjoyed the leaves while we could!

Sunday Leaf Fun: 

Both kids had a blast and I got some great action shots!

Saturday Leaf Fun: 

Annabel thoroughly enjoyed having all the leaves to herself, covering herself up and just having a great time, while Daniel helped Daddy with chores in the yard. Daniel joined in at the end, you'll see!

Videos of our fun!!

An Interesting, Bittersweet Milestone Met...

So it occurred to me, around mid-October, that Annabel was getting to be exactly the age Daniel was when we brought her home...I had counted it out and that exact date was October 30th. I realize that's come and gone now (I was just too busy to actually post this thought for the day on that date!)...in any case, this thought gave me some pause, a soft "wow," a deep breath...it's strange to think of Annabel being as old as Daniel was when she was born. I think of where we were at this point with Daniel then- what he liked, what he played with, who he was to us then, how young he looked then- and where we were in our life with a new baby in the house, how life had newly stretched out in front of us then with a new road in front of us, so many unknowns again, another little person to meet and get to know, and I think of where we are now with two wonderful busy amazing children and just "wow," I soak it all in! My heart gushes with joy and love every minute of the day...and I simply cannot believe how lucky we are to have two wonderful children that complete our family in ways I could not have imagined! And sweet little Annabel made a heart for me for just this occasion, you'll see...as if she knew what was on my mind. My babies, my life...simply wonderful, my heart is quite content.

That was then...

This is now...

My Little Artist!

Annabel is definitely the artist of my two kids. Give her paper and a writing utensil anytime and she'll draw for the longest time! She loves to draw. She mostly draws circles, tries to make A's, "writes" with scribbles, "accidentally" makes other shapes such as triangles, and other such random pictures, with the occasional naming of her drawing- "it's a house" or whatever she deemed it.

Well, on the day we carved our pumpkins, you'll recall we had the kids draw how they wanted their jack-o-lantern face to look, which Annabel loved doing and really did quite well, too...and then Annabel proceeded to draw her first person ever on the next sheet of paper! And then again seventeen!!! (I kid you not) times, yes, that's seventeen pieces of paper with a person drawing on them! I love my little collection of Annabel's first people drawings. It was so cute to watch her "person" evolve over the next 20 minutes or so (she even drew a few of these people literally sideways, with her paper horizontal- that's pretty good spatial stuff there, I think!)- first her person was a head with stick legs, then on the next paper or so she added stick shoes at the bottom of the stick legs, then she changed the shoes to be circles at the bottom of the legs on the next sheet, then she added circles for toes and then circles for shoes (Annabel even told us what color the shoes were- pink, black, whatever color came to mind), and of course the face was done with smiles eyes nose and ears, and finally on her last person she kept scribbling all over narrating "face, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, chin, neck, scarf, shirt, legs, toes, shoes" and so on naming all the parts she could quickly think of that needed to be on a person. It was the cutest thing ever! Annabel even started naming her people- Bella, Kaleb, Brian, Dilah (Delilah), Asher, Daniel, Mommy, Grandma, and so on. Best 20 minutes ever! I was such a proud and delighted momma!

My cute little artist hard at work!

Annabel's first face!

Annabel's first person!

She was even drawing people sideways!

I scanned a few of Annabel's drawings for you- click them if you want to see them bigger!

This one was drawn sideways...pretty good!

Annabel's super complete person with the chin, scarf, shirt, etc. etc.!!

I even have a video for you!!