October 26

What a busy day!

I worked the ACT this morning, so Chris was in charge of all three children by himself for almost seven hours. The amount of time only matters because someone (*ahem* Lily...) still won't take a bottle. But she did remarkably well, choosing to sleep most of the morning instead of being awake and fussing because she was hungry.  I got home just in time to nurse her, eat lunch, and pack things up for our next outing: a visit to a park to take family pictures for our friends Dan and Jen and their kids.

While I snapped photos, Chris entertained all three children. After I finished with Dan and Jen, I handed Chris the camera so I could feed Lily. While Lily ate, Chris took some pictures of our kiddos. He's a keeper, that husband of mine!

It was a beautiful day, and Daisy rocked those sunglasses of hers!

When I saw this picture, my heart melted. I love that Daisy and Hannah love each other!

You can't tell, but I'm pretty sure the girls were comparing shirts here. Hannah's had little pockets on the front, and Daisy's had polka-dots. I can just imagine their little conversation!

Caleb, playing the protective big brother. I love the look in Hannah's eyes!

These sweet girls! 

This time of year always gets me reminiscing... it was five years ago, almost to the day, that we found out that we were pregnant with Caleb.

Two years ago - again, almost to the day - we saw our house for the first time and met Dan, Jen, Caleb and Hannah. God has really blessed us with good friends and neighbors here!

The Calebs, racing down the slide while Dan supervises.

I love this one!

My husband is probably a better photographer than I am. It's a good thing he's so busy. Otherwise, he might take over photography duties and I'd be left twiddling my thumbs!

After we finished at the park, we headed over to Jen's parents' property nearby. They have an annual bonfire/hayride party (remember when we went last year?) and they were kind enough to invite us again this year.

Luckily, it wasn't as cold this year as it was last year. And yes, Caleb is eating a grilled cheese sandwich. That's just the way it goes sometimes.

Daisy spent the end of our evening snuggled up with our neighbor, Mary, who is also Jen's aunt, and Hannah's great aunt. Daisy just adores her!

And then, the fireworks grand finale!

Caleb informed us tonight that he is no longer afraid of fireworks, which was a huge relief. We were anticipating a minor meltdown when the fireworks began, but everything was fine.

Yay, Caleb!

Finally, it was time to go. Lily was getting fussy, and I was getting cold and smoky. I went to look for my boys, and stumbled across them here: 

Lying on the ground, looking at the stars. It was so sweet!

We gathered our stuff, headed to the car, and changed the kids into their jammies for the 45-minute drive home. 

But five minutes into the drive, Lily started crying. So we pulled off at a Target for me to feed her. 

Then Daisy announced that she was poopy. (Luckily, we had put her in a diaper since it was so late and the ride home was so long.) So Chris took the kids into Target to change Daisy's diaper while I nursed Lily.

 Then we got back into the car and drove five minutes more before Caleb announced that he had to poop. Unfortunately, there were no gas stations nearby. But Caleb insisted that he couldn't hold it, so we pulled off the highway and he pooped on the side of an on-ramp. 

Yep, we're that classy.

Then we got back in the car and finally headed home.

And now it's midnight and I took over 360 photos today and I'm dying to edit them all but I just need to go to bed. I am exhausted!