Jumping rope

One time Elijah and Lizzie borrowed my camera.

 and this is what happened.  (This happened when we visited VA last month and my sisters and I were in the church gym at an exercise class)

Sing a long

Zoozy

 So we made quite a few zoo visits this summer, but I havent posted much about it.  Here, there is the Como zoo (free!) and the MN Zoo (not free, not even close, except when you are a savvy library go-er and find out you can 'check out' two free admissions cha-ching!).  Hereare some pictures from both.
One of Elijah's favorite animals to see are the flamingos.  Or rather, 'ah-meen-ohs'.

 He high fived a beaver

 And we chilled with the gorillas.

 Morphed into polar bears (who give thumbs-up apparently).

 And grazed amongst buffalo.

 The Amur leopard was particularly interested in Elijah...

 Tiger, not so much.

But overall we love the zoos.  As far as I know they are open all year round, but dont expect to see many pictures of us posing in front of monkeys with booger icicles hanging from our noses.  I think we will move on to the aquarium for some indoor animal fun this winter.

Pumpkin Patch

 After I finally came to terms with it being October and the weather cooling down, I realized we needed to get to the pumpkin patch before halloween!  Time has been going by so fast, I have so much fall baking to do. Anyways, we started off with a slightly chilly hay ride!

 This is the closest we came to a family picture, so it will have to do.

 Elijah found a tiny wagon that never left his hands the entire time at the pumpkin patch.

 Evie wasnt too fond of our putting her on the pumpkins.

 Elijah couldnt get enough.

 And when we got home from picking our pumpkins, Tammy was finally home from her three week stint in Omaha.  The kids took full advantage of her.  It is so nice having her back!  Elijah had a rough night last night and woke up at 4am kicking and crying.  After half an hour or so he calmed down with some cartoons and a bowl of cheerios and eventually we went back to bed at 6am.  Little did I know, around 630, Elijah apparently crept out of bed and went upstairs, and proceeded to snuggle with Tammy until I woke up around 830 and found him watching cartoons with some breakfast on the couch.  Thanks Tammy!

Tammy's home to save the day!

Thomas and Friends only comes on at 8am on saturday mornings.

Febtober

So far, October is shaping up nicely.  The kids and I have been making the most of our time, hitting up every storytime in the area and starting to spend more time at the gym, weasling our way back in to Tony's life.  He has been so busy at the gym these past few weeks, and while we are VERY grateful that he is getting the business, it also means he is usually gone from 5am to almost 9pm.  He has a break for a few hours at a time between classes during the day, but he uses that time for more business stuff; improving the gym, sending emails, running errands, etc. 

Now I am trying to get more family time in by finding things that I can do to ease up Tony's load a bit, helping with some time consuming tasks that mostly have to do with finances.  At least that way we all spend time together.  Evie cant get enough of Daddy.  Elijah mostly just really likes watching his Thomas movie at the gym.

So this next month will mostly consist of getting more involved at the gym (for me, at least), baking (lets face it), and anticipating the arrival of baby Taylor, and also praying for the health of my Sis in law and her little bun in the oven as well, which will come after the new year.  Maybe a little house hunting as well?  We will just list that under tasks that have to do with finances.

Fun stories: 
Evie loves to walk around now!  But only if you are holding her hand(s).  I catch her making little attempts at walking occasionally, but not much effort is exerted.  She sure does like to take her sweet time.

Last night, Elijah woke up and climbed into bed with us (a normal occurance).  We giggled for a little bit and then I told him that I loved him.  Elijah responded by turning the other way and telling Tony, "I love you, Daddy."  Burn.

They do it to earn treats