Great family, great friends...

Could it REALLY be October??!! We have been very busy since our last blog but we have had such a great time! The last weekend in August we headed over to Dallas for our niece Whitney's birthday party. We stayed there Friday night and went out to dinner with the family. The next morning we got to join in the surprise for Whitney's new trampoline. Carly was definitely a fan (but it will be a while before we get one) and enjoyed jumping around with Whitney several times that weekend. This year Whitney and her friend Cameron teamed up for a joint country- themed party at Whitney's gymnastics place. The kids jumped on the trampolines, swung on a rope, ran and jumped into a foam pit and even circled around the big round parachute. After that was eating time, which all the kids eagerly joined in for. Carly dug into her cupcake that looked like a horse and didn't stop until the clean up crew was literally waiting to take the tablecloth off the table. We were laughing so hard since all the other kids had gradually left the tables to go play but she was still sitting there 10 minutes later. She has a sweet tooth like me! Daniel went to our friend Matt's bachelor party and the girls and I went to church with Josh and summer that night before heading home Sunday morning.

Labor Day weekend we headed to Kansas City for a visit. Daniel had to head back Monday to get back to work but the girls and I stayed until Friday. We hung out, played with toys, went swimming, went to the park, the children's farmstead and went to a shopping area where we rode a miniature train and played in the fountain while it was raining! The farmstead was a great time- We said hello to the cows, fed the goats and the sheep, watched the hens, played in the Native Indian tepees and finishes up with a popsicle! We saw Grandpa, played in the bead curtain, looked at some of my old toys, talked, took pictures, went out to dinner and topped it off with ice cream too. We spent some time with Grammy and Grandaddy, walked around their place, saw the swans and talked with some friends. And we saw my friend Heidi and with two of her three kids around to play, Carly was a happy camper. It was a busy week but we had a great time.

The next weekend we enjoyed 'baby Jake's' 1st birthday party on Saturday. Sunday our friends Paula and Karina from Alice Springs were stopping through Dallas in transit between Alaska and London, so we got to spend the day with them. They were weary from flying all night but they did well with the chaos of our family, going to church, eating lunch out and heading back to the airport.

Monday morning the girls and I headed off to Austin to see more friends from Alice! Our fab friends June, Craig, Sawyer and Grayson were doing their yearly trip back to the USA (which they say they won't do again with 2 kids...c'mon!) and had some time in Austin. We stayed in the hotel with them from Monday through Thursday and, despite the constant rain, had a great time. Carly was soooooooooooooooo excited to see Sawyer, her best little buddy ever, and it was pretty cute when they saw each other. They just giggled and hugged and kissed and picked back up where they left off. The boys have changed even since we left in May and it was so good to catch up with June and Craig. We hung out at the hotel, with Craig's brother's family and went to the jumping place twice. We enjoyed the Austin Children's Museum- the kids could have played there for a couple more hours but we had to drag them off so we could eat. We went to Chuck E Cheese, the kids had so much fun. And the morning we left, we went and fed the ducks/ tried to avoid having all the turkey- ducks (I know there is probably no such thing but that's what they looked like!) attack us for bread. The girls did very well with the drive but I was very glad to get to our destination both ways. =)

I thought that after returning from Austin, which mostly concluded our crazy month of September, that things would be a bit more cruisy. I should NEVER think that things will slow down, 'cause they never will! On Saturday 26th, we got one of the automated emails from our realtor about a property that fit some of our search criteria. It was in our desired area with our desired features so we took a look on Tuesday then again Thursday and made an offer on Friday! It took until the following Tuesday to hear back for sure but we reached a deal and signed on to buy a house! We had our inspection last Friday and it looks like we are going ahead with buying our first house. We close on November 6th! So full steam ahead...

The girls are doing great, though recovering from colds. Carly started going to Mothers Day Out on Thursdays from 9-2. She just went for the third time and truly loves it. They play, do crafts, have a snack, either play outside or in the gym, learn about letters, etc, eat lunch and have a rest/nap time. She jumps up and down every time we tell her she's going to school and always wants to go NOW. She's cracking us up all the time. The phrases 'say yes' and 'two minutes' are very common around our house. As in 'Mommy, I want ice cream and then a treat, say yes'. There is no pause between the rest of the sentence and 'say yes'. Either that or she asks for something and while I'm thinking she says 'say yes'! Ha ha. And the other is saying she wants to play for 'two minutes' or watch tv 'two minutes' when we're asking her to do something else. She will grow up to be a professional negotiator someday.

Kate is growing like a weed and is just so annoyed that she can't move as fast at Carly. She is 'crusing' along furniture and when you try to hold her up, she wants to walk...when you try to help her walk, she starts pushing your hands away like she can totally do it herself, thank you very much. THAT reminds us of Carly! She has a great appetite and was 18 pounds at last weigh in. Her last two teeth have come in during the last week or so, making her pretty fussy, but I would be too! She started saying 'mama' in September. My mom heard her say it a couple of times when we were in KC the first week of September but she started saying it more regularly just after we came back from there. 'Mama' is usually said while getting fussy or crying! Neither child is particularly great at sleeping at the moment but they have been sick or teething for a few weeks now.

Daniel and I were laughing the other day about 2009, saying 'who's idea was it to have a baby, move overseas, then move again in a 9 month period?' But it will be very nice to finally be settled in our own place. And hopefully Carly can really know that's home, we're not moving again and she can relax a bit!

Thanks again for sticking with the 'book' I have written. I would love to do more frequent, shorter blogs but it never happens that way! Love to you all! Check out our pics!