Kyle's 7th Bday, Stella's 1st Snow

Finally starting to feel like myself again. For the past 3 weeks I had the worst flu!!! I'm all better now :-)
We've been getting Stella ready for the cold weather by trying on some clothes a friend brought over for her.

I was in a funk earlier when I originally wrote this entry...I do like pink, and Stella does look cute in pink...just a boy Mom getting used to having a little girl :-)

Purple is okay...Here is Stella wearing purple in her very first snow!!! It snowed really big flakes, but they all melted before hitting the ground.

Look at how HUGE Stella has grown! Our chunky monkey is now proudly sporting size 12-24 month sized clothing.

Kyle turned SEVEN on Sunday!!!!!!!

Again I made a HOT birthday item and LEARNED NOT to put birthday candles into HOT pumpkin pie...you know why???? THEY MELT! And then birthday boy does not get to blow them out, and husband gets upset because NO ONE likes to eat wax and no one understands why Mom has to learn this lesson EVERY year!!! I was able to scoop out the melted wax and Kyle happily blew out a single candle for his birthday.
Now at the EXACT moment poor Tom took this picture the midwest experienced a MASSIVE earthquake, totally off the richter scale...

Just kidding...
Kyle was just thrilled I made two pumpkin pies and they looked edible. He actually said he was confident they tasted good because they were not carrot cake and he knows I can make pumpkin pie.

We had a low-key birthday. Tom took them to the movies Saturday night and Tom ended up liking the movie more than Kyle and Reeve (they saw "Where the Wild Things Are." Reeve thought it was horrible! Kyle thought it was okay, but definitely wasn't what he was expecting. The boys take after their Papa and had NOTHING to eat at the movies. Lately, if it's not organic Reeve will refuse to eat it.
Kyle loves books and received 6 different books and magazines. He was THRILLED with his no batteries needed rocket launcher.






This weekend we picked all the apples from our trees. YUMMY!!!

The first weekend in October we were in Madison for the MadiSUN Solar Street Fair. We were met there by our good friend Christine!

New Pics finally!!!!

No excuses...just feel like I've been in a time warp since Stella has been born! She'll be 5 months in a couple of days...soooo hard to believe! I'm still amazed I have 3 kids! Yikes! We've all been well. Tom stays busy with his business. He'll be on the local Fox News (La Crosse/Eau Claire) Thursday at 9pm for the Thinking Green News Minute. I can't get the video uploaded here, but if I didn't send it to you in an email and you'd like to see it just email me. Next weekend we have a booth at the Madison Solar Street Fair. The kids are excited to help out. Reeve and Kyle are involved in an awesome home school cooperative. We meet each Tuesday and they have music and 4 classes.

This first pic of Stella was taken about a month ago...it was pretty chilly that day! We've had some beautiful weather since and now we're starting to have some classic Fall days. The leaves are changing colors and we're going to try to harvest the pears today. We've been enjoying the apples...I'll have to take a pic of them on the trees before we harvest them all.

Up on our ridge we have some amazing clouds that roll through...I tried to take some pics of them. The pictures don't do the scene we saw justice...it was surreal.




Kyle was inspired by my cloud pictures and asked to take several sunset pictures. He's getting better with the camera...he took these pics all on his own.


The kids and I set out a blanket on the grass last week and had fun watching Stella crawl. We tried to take a picture of all four of us, but it was hard to keep everyone still...





The rest is just all Stella. What a fun little baby girl!!! Tim please note the permanent mohawk Stella is sporting...her sticks straight up right in the center of her head...all the time. When we go out that's usually the first thing people notice about her..."Wow, get a load of that hair!"

Stella...almost 4 months!

I can hardly believe Stella will be 4 months old in a couple of days! She sure has changed a lot. She doesn't have the nighttime crying fits anymore, she can roll from her back to her tummy.

She can push up with her arms when she's on her tummy. She loves to smile.

She loves to giggle. She tries really hard to talk. She can go days without crying at all...as long as someone is nearby she's a happy little baby.

Reeve and Kyle are super wonderful at taking care of her and giving her lots of positive attention and tons of love.

She's very interested in picture books now, and Kyle is great at reading to her.

She really enjoys it now...he's been reading to her since she was in my belly!

So sweet!

Usually we see a lot of rainbows in May & June...this year we've caught some beauties in August. It was really amazing to see the rainbow go right through the cloud.

Tom is such a great, attentive, and loving Dad!

He likes to carry her on his front...I like to carry her on my back. Kyle took the picture that is below...

We set up a booth for our business at the Local Energy Excellence Fair that was in Mauston...it was our first booth for the business. Reeve and Kyle were excellent salesmen! They really got into it...handing out brochures, coupons, and calendars.

August Visitors

My folks came up in the beginning of August for a visit to meet Stella for the first time. They also brought us many beautiful house plants, and some much needed furniture...desks and book cases :-)
It's always fun when we have visitors to go downtown to Elroy and eat at the Pizzeria Viking and then go to the movies at the historic Elroy Theatre.


My Mom got to test out our new baby/toddler back carrier. Stella LOVES it, my Mom loved it...I love it! We can get so much done and Stella is happy to be involved or she can go to sleep very easily in it.

We played our new favorite board game...Harry Potter Clue.


Some family pics by our apple tree and weed garden:


The outfit that Stella is wearing is one that I wore!!! My Mom brought me some of my very own baby clothes!!!
Now here is a picture of Stella in the outfit (from Hawaii...my parents used to live there)

and a picture of me in the outfit...I'm a little older than Stella wearing this outfit...she's 3 months and I was about 20 months...good to know she will grow into it! Guess I was getting ready to board a train?

Some precious pictures of Reeve holding Stella


Some pictures of our solar hot water panels and flowers in front of our house:



My cousin Racheal and her husband Aaron visited us on there cross-country move from Vancouver to Halifax!!!

Short but sweet visit :-)