Well, except ole Lydia! All 4 of us girls were on antibiotics and Lydia is now on her second round. Maggie and I also had 2 rounds. Seems to be an icky winter season around here.
We had playgroup here this week... Hicks, Himstedts, Baumgardners, Knotts, Jennings.
Probably sharing lots of germs with everyone! Such fun times with all those kids. One day soon we'll turn around and wonder why we let them drive all over town together. They'll be causing trouble for sure!
It's been a beautiful fall around here. The leaves are starting to look bare but the
colors were brilliant this year and seemed to last longer than normal. The kids have made (with my leaf blowing help) a HUGE leaf pile to jump, run, kick, lay, and play in. It's been fun to watch them explore the changing seasons. Bennett even drives his 4-wheeler through it and watches the leaves fly all over. (one of these pictures is Maggie and Ruth picking leaves off Amelia. It was cute at the moment!)
Maggie had her first official sleep over at Carsen's house this week. Curtis and I laughed at the "Christmas morning" attitude they portrayed. Carsen's van drove in to pick her up and she went running. Then Carsen jumps out and runs to hug and jump up and down together with great anticipation. They giggled hilariously, talked about their plans, decided where to sleep and promised to be good ("I think" - Carsen's actual words). No pictures were taken because there was too much fun going on and the camera was not thought about. Next time we'll have photos.
OH... Halloween. I almost forgot! 
We have a fall festival at church and dressed up the kids. Ruth decided to be a fire fighter, 
despite having a beautiful Snow White dress hanging in her closet. Maggie had to be a princess, of course! 
And Bennett wanted to be a dinosaur. Last minute... "go to Wal-Mart??", he asks. I explained that the morning of October 31st isn't a good time to go to Wal-Mart in search of a dinosaur costume and that I would make one while he was at school. So, I spent the day spray-painting, cutting, hot gluing and came up with a sort of dinosaur looking outfit that he was proud of by night's end. It did take some coaxing! 
We didn't do a very good job getting "good" photos of their dressed up selves... so there's not a quality shot of Ruth. This one is of Bennett and his good friend Matthew (the ninja). 
They had a little train ride that was speedy fast and being in the last car felt like a roller coaster! The kids loved it. This was us and the Himstedt's. A good time was had by all and the bag full of candy still rests (forgotton??) in the back of the suburban!
