A quick update on our sweet little kiddos.  Every day is just a fun adventure with them.  Here is a typical bath scene for Colin.  He is usually very insistent on having every single toy in our bag go in the tub even if he only plays with one or two of them.  Kind of how he hoards toys in his bed too.  Although this is nothing compared to what his bed looks like now.

I don't know what it is about boys and transportation but Colin loves anything to do with machines that move.  Here he is riding in a digger!

Here we are playing at a park down in Champaign, IL.  The kids were hard at work picking what few dandelions were left from the end of the season.  We had fun showing the kids where Mommy went to school although they weren't as excited as I was.  : )

Here are a few sneak previews from our professional photo shoot.  Kayla had fun chasing squirrels with sticks.  Unfortunately, Colin we later realized, had a fever and was sick for the rest of the day, so we were lucky he was even participating.  The best of the photos should be arriving in your mailbox just in time for Christmas!

Now that it feels like winter around here, let's look at some more end-of-summer updates.

Colin is your typical boy and LOVES tractors, trains, diggers, cars, you name it.  One weekend while we were visiting Jordan's parents, we took them to the John Deere center and Colin was in tractor and digger heaven.  He just wanted to sit and drive everything.

It seems like ages ago, but  here is Kayla on her first day of 4k!  She loves her new teacher and is glad to still be able to play with her best friends in the afternoon Rainbow class.  Can you tell she's just a little excited?

Go dino, go!  These two can be inseperable sometimes.  Colin's always copying Kayla, which Kayla just feeds off of.

Is Colin going to be a rock climber when he grows up??  He did a pretty good job getting up to the top without too much help!

Peek!  Colin's become such a chatterbox!  Jordan and I both agree that he's talking more than Kayla was at this age, but he's harder to understand.  His major sentence recently after he saw Bucky Badger on my pants was, "Remember when we saw Bucky Badger on the helicopter?"  And that was like two months ago when he saw that!

Daddy and his kiddos

Streeeetch!   Here was Colin's tent that got him through many naps.  Notice, he still likes to sleep with as many friends and trains as possible.

We went to Schuester's Farm for a cold visit, but we couldn't leave without riding the train.  That was definitely Colin's favorite thing to do.  Kayla enjoyed it too, but her favorite was the corn maze.

For the first time (and Jordan's first time too!), we took the kids trick-or-treating in town.  We went with some friends and had a blast!  Kayla dressed up as a fairy while Colin was a toasty monkey.  Colin rode in the wagon with his friend Bella most of the way and hopped out to get candy.  Bella was too little to have a basket, so she kept trying to take candy from Colin's.  He wasn't having any of it, so he held on to his basket outside the wagon whenever possible.

Kayla also had a halloween party at her school where the highlight was riding the pony!  Kayla loved Tootsie, but Colin wasn't too happy riding on her.

Pumpkin carving time with Daddy!  The kids picked out the biggest pumpkin possible and insisted on a scarrrry face for it.

Happy Halloween!!

Northwoods Vacation, Part 2

And...almost a month later, here's part 2 of our vacation from two months ago.  Can you tell we've been a little busy?  I've been busy putting our house up for sale on forsalebyowner.com.  We'll see how that goes.

Here's Daddy and Kayla on a quiet morning playing a matching game.  That girl can match.  If you're not watching what you're doing (or kindly letting her win), she could probably beat just about anyone she plays.

Colin's shirt says it all, "Happy Little Camper."

Later that day, we went to the beach to throw some rocks and sand in the lake.

It was a small stretch of beach and we were the only ones, so it was quite relaxing.

After the sun and beach, we took a small hike to a picnic area and everyone insisted on eating in the shade.

More hiking and more waterfalls.  Luckily the kids were pretty good about all the hiking we did.

As usual, the kids had to have silly pictures taken for any attempt at a normal picture.  Love those sillies!

I didn't even know Colin had that much cheek to pinch!

We were going for a nice family photo...Christmas card material??

And....silly faces!!

Nice puppy.  This nice lady let the kids pet her dog.  I'm always surprised at how the kids are going to act around dogs.  Sometimes, they love them, othertimes, they can be terrified.  We're working on teaching them to ask the owner before they just start petting a random dog.  We'll see if the day ever comes that we get one.  Kayla and Colin are quite happy now chasing the bunny and head-butting the cats.  Although Kayla might be getting a surprise for her birthday...

Onto the last campsite.  We're quite lucky with our campsites in that they were all fairly large and private.  Allowed for lots of fun playtime.

Kayla bug and the sunset.  I don't think the upload of this picture is of as good of quality as what it should be.  It's an amazing photo.

After another hike and waterfall, it was more beach time!

Find the kids!  Actually, they were both being a little pouty in this photo cause they had to be separated.  Probably for sharing, but I can't remember the details.

We took the kids to Duluth for a train ride.  Colin was in pure heaven since trains are his absolute favorite thing in the world.  Here they are waiting for the train and watching it come in.

We picked the sunny but scenic side of the train.  The kids had a blast riding and waving to all the people we rode by.

Although, towards the end, Colin was getting a little tired, so he quietly watching from Daddy's arms.

When we got back, Daddy really wanted to go see the big boats again.  While we waited, Colin chased the seagulls and made friends with a boy who kept asking him all these questions.  Colin just listened and every now and then I heard him say something or point to me and say, "Colin's mommy."  It was so adorable.

Watching the big boats!

One last family shot and then we hit the road to head home the next day.