Cute Little Avery on Sunday

I had to post these pictures of little Avery all dressed up for church. She only let us take a few before she was reaching out like, "Okay enough! Get me off here!" These were on October 20, 2013, so she is about 15 months old.

Family Pictures Fall 2013

So this year, the girl who took our family pictures last year raised her prices from $100 to $150 and gave you 25 pictures on a cd instead of 50, so we decided to not use her again. Instead, we had our friend, Stacey, come out to the same place we went last year and snap some pictures of us! :) Here are some of my favorites!

Autumn (or Winter?) is Here!

So I swear, it has gone from Summer to Winter here in Idaho. it has gotten down to freezing at night lately and it has been really windy during the day. I wish it would just stay in the 60s for the next two months! Then it could be in the 40s and 50s in December and snow for about a week around Christmas time, then go back up to the 50s in January and be 70s to 80s from March to August. Is that too much to ask?!?!

Since I wrote last - the boys started school at the end of August. Gabe is loving the social aspect of it and my neighbors will comment on how they passed by the playground and saw Gabe surrounded by girls.... uh oh.... haha. He lost his first front tooth right at the end of Summer and he just barely lost his other front tooth! He wasn't ever missing two completely at once though because the first one is already mostly grown in. He loves playing outside with friends and being the one to make everyone laugh. It's a bummer its getting colder now, so less fun time playing outside. He is also a great helper when I need someone to entertain Avery for short times here and there.

Little Miss Avery is finally proving that she can, in fact, walk! For the past month or so, we have known that she could, because she took her first steps with - CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS - the BABYSITTER!!! My friend, Stacey, was watching her and got the first steps on video on her phone as proof. But then she came home and it was like, she was perfectly content to pretend it had never happened! I think she just still needs to build up the confidence. But the past couple of days she has actually walked from one end of a room to the other all by herself. She just has to be in the mood to do it. Otherwise we will try and get her too and she just smiles and sits down like, "No thanks, I don't feel like it today." Her hair is getting sooo long! I love it. It curls in the back so I don't even realize how long it really is until I am giving her a bath and it covers about an inch down her back! She is like the little baby on Breaking Dawn that ages at lightening speed and looks about 3 when she is 6 months old! haha She is also really tall and has four teeth on the top and bottom, so she is really looking like a little girl now - which is really why she should be walking!!! Haha I think it is confusing to people! :)

Caleb is our little emotional man. He is so funny without even trying to be funny. I was telling someone the other day "Gabe tries to be funny and knows when he has people's attention and milks it.... Caleb is just funny, especially to adults, without even realizing he is saying anything funny." Then he sometimes even gets mad when we laugh at him because he thinks we are teasing him! But he really is just such a funny kid. He is also a BIG little kids. I am hoping he likes football someday because I think he will dominate. I also should say that he is doing really well in kindergarten. Things seem to come pretty naturally for him, so I am pretty relieved about that!

So, not much else new to report! The kids have been off from school all week for Spud Harvest break. (Idaho's break for the farmers to be able to hire local kids to harvest potatoes!) I am thinking in the future we should really use this time every year to plan a family vacation!

I have been super-busy with my Etsy shop! September was my best month so far and I thinking it will start to finally plateau hopefully. Maybe I sound crazy but I think there is a point where I say, "I am busy enough... I don't want to sell any more...." and I think I hit that point in September. I am torn too because I keep getting ideas for things to create, but then I am like, "But I don't want to get busier!!!" so I think I should just focus on the easy things. However, the wedding things have been the biggest seller for me lately! I kind of fell into doing these wedding programs, which started at the request of a previous customer, and then I just posted what we had created (with her permission of course) and these programs have been selling like crazy! I should really thank her for getting me into it! :) It is nice to finally be starting to feel like we have some room to breathe with our monthly budget. I feel so lucky to be doing something I have always LOVED, but haven't really pursued since college. Now I not only am doing what I love, but I can do it from home, when my kids are at school or napping and make more than I would working at a normal eight hour a day job! It's amazing. I love you Etsy! :)

That's all for now! Here is a cute picture of the kids at Grandma Rhodes' pumpkin patch!