A Wedding and an Apple Festival

This month has been so busy and I've had limited overlapping naps with the girls so blogging just hasn't happened. I thought I'd try and do a little catching up before things get even busier. 

My cousin Kelly had her wedding at the end of September and it was such a fun time. It was fun seeing all our family members dressed up and celebrating together. I didn't get a ton of pictures from the evening (and I don't even have the kid excuse since they stayed with the grandparents). 

We have a picture like this from Janell's wedding and someone took one like it at my wedding (if it was you send it my way!). We are so happy for Kelly and Graham. 

Cousins

It was also great having a date night. These are few and far between so we try to enjoy them as much as possible. 

To kick off October we traveled to Weston, MO for an Apple Festival.

Waiting for the parade to start.

After the parade we ran into my cousin and her family so we spent some time with them in the kid's play area. They had a hay bale maze and a pumpkin painting area that the kids really enjoyed.

Jane wasn't quite ready to be handed a paint brush (she ended up with paint all over her shirt) but Anna was very into it. 

Anna had her eye on the ponies and really wanted to ride one. There was a long line so Kevin ended up waiting with her while I walked around the festival with my cousin and a sleeping Jane.

Anna's pony was named Spanish and she had such a fantastic time. She did an awesome job holding on and loved it. She still talks about Spanish sometimes and that was several weeks ago. 

We left the festival and went over to my cousin's house in Leavenworth. They are living there for a year and it's been great having opportunities to see her and her family.

Janell reading to the girls

 Kevin had fun wrestling around with two of the boys.

Gavin showing Jane how to squeeze a ball. 

 Jacob is such a sweetie and even let me take a picture with him.

September Fun

I thought I'd do a quick update with some of the things we've been up to this month. 

We went to a "preschool dance party" at the library and the girls have been even more into dancing together than they were before. One afternoon when neither of them were napping we pulled out the tutus to get our dance on!

Anna was doing some fancy moves. She even tried to dip Jane a few times which didn't really work out that well. 

Love these two. 

Daddy came home to get in on the fun!

We went to a Story Walk and enjoyed a walk and throwing rocks in the pond afterward. Scored a couple free books and the girls had a blast. 

We had fun making play dough one afternoon. To celebrate fall we went with pumpkin spice. It smells amazing! Anna loved adding all the ingredients and especially the spices.

Jane did try to taste it a few times but I liked not having to worry about her actually eating some. 

We had a work weekend outside getting the yard ready for planting grass and the girls enjoyed getting a little dirty. 

We were in Topeka when the eclipse started but we stopped at the service station to watch it for a little bit. We've been talking a lot about the moon over the last couple months and Anna was so excited about seeing "the red moon". 

The best picture I got of it was towards the end after we got home and got the girls to bed. Pretty amazing!

Apple Picking

Last weekend we went to Cider Hill Family Orchard to do a little apple picking. It was a beautiful day and this was something I wanted to do last year but never got around to. We packed a lunch and had a nice picnic before we went out to the orchards. The girls had so much fun!

Anna really wanted to carry her own bag and we had to convince her to let us take it when it started getting heavy.

When I ask Anna to smile she either gives me a blank stare or gives me this cheesy smile. 

Jane is following suit. 

Makes my heart happy to see these two holding hands and hugging and kissing. 

Anna has been into telling Jane what she needs to be doing. She needed her to look at this apple.

And take a bite. 

Jane would find a good apple and then carry it around with her until she found one she thought was better. 

Going for a high one!

Heavvvvy!

Anna really wanted to ride in the wagon so Kevin went ahead with Jane in the stroller and we waited for it to come around. 

She loved it and didn't want the ride to end. 

While we were waiting for Daddy to pay for the apples we picked Anna climbed into the stroller with Jane. It made for some cute pictures until Jane got annoyed with Anna being there. 

Love them!

Touch-a-Truck

The last post from August and then I'll be in the current month. Hooray! 

I took Anna last month to Touch-a-Truck. We'd heard awesome things about it and we've always had conflicts in the past so I was excited that we were able to go. Kevin wasn't really up for it so he stayed home with Jane. I was glad we didn't try and take her. There was a lot of waiting in line (it was PACKED) and I think it would have been more trouble than anything else. 

I had trouble getting Anna to smile for me but it seemed like she was having a good time. It was a little overwhelming with how many people were there but overall she enjoyed exploring the different vehicles. 

She particularly enjoyed the old stagecoach they had there. She would have stayed in it climbing around for a lot longer if we didn't have to get out because of the line. 

We ran into some good friends of ours and they had been holding a place in line for the huge combine they had and said we could join them. The kids were going up two at a time and he would have been going up on his own so we excited.  Amanda told me she was in line for over an hour with the baby and there is no way I would have done that with Anna so we were incredibly grateful. 

The kids LOVED it and enjoyed looking around the convention center for a great view of all the other trucks. They didn't want to leave!

We hit up a few more areas (including a cardboard bus the kids could color on) before leaving to grab some lunch. It was so nice having a day to spend with just Anna. 

This was from earlier in the weekend. Anna had spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa so Kevin and I had some time with just Jane. We went out to eat and while Kevin ran into work for a little bit (we were eating very close to his work) Jane and I went for a little walk. I love watching her explore everything around her!

Rocks rock!

It was a great month but I'm happy it's September. I love fall!!!!

Anna firsts

There were several "firsts" for Anna this month. My baby girl is growing up so fast. We were in town for my cousin Kelly's bridal shower (I didn't get ANY pictures at the shower) and afterward we met up out at the farm for dinner. My cousin Janell and her family have recently moved back to Kansas for a year and we were excited to see them and finally meet her four beautiful boys!

Uncle Wayne took us out to watch the buffalo being fed. Despite the frown in the picture Anna loved it and has already asked to go out and see them again. 

I love this one of the kids looking out. It was difficult to get any of them to turn around for a good picture. 

This was the best smile I could get. Such a fun evening!

We stayed in Topeka that evening and the next day we took Anna to her first movie. We were planning on going to see Inside Out but somehow I mixed up the times we ended up watching Minions. I didn't enjoy it that much (I actually dozed off for a little bit) but Anna had fun eating popcorn and eating candy with her cousin Adell. 

We finally got around to turning Anna's crib into a toddler bed. I wasn't sure how it was going to go but it went surprisingly well. She slept all night and didn't try to climb out at all. I think she was ready and I'm glad that we didn't rush it.  She has since figured out she can get out and bring toys or books into bed with her but she always comes back to bed. It's funny to see how much stuff she accumulates after naps sometimes. 

Jane also likes climbing in and the two bounce and giggle. Jane may have had a couple falls out of the bed but has since figured out how to be careful and get out safely. 

Love this little lady!