Weekend in St. Louis

In the middle of November, Abe, Audrey and I traveled to St. Louis for a weekend. Jonah and Riley spent the weekend with Nanny and Poppop and had so much fun! We went to St. Louis so Abe and I could attend the Mighty Oakes Heart Foundation Gala. MOHF is a charity started by Abe's boss and his wife after their second child was born with a congenital heart defect. Their story is amazing - you can read more about it here. I'm in awe of people who can take a situation that is so devastating and turn it into a way to do good in the world.

We had a little bit of time before the event so we headed to the Arch for Abe and Audrey's first visit.

Little Audrey crawled all around our hotel room while Abe and I were getting ready for the party. The Ortyl Family set us up with a great babysitter for the evening (we stayed in the same hotel as the event).

All ready for the evening!

There was this fantastic photobooth at the event that was taking fish eye photos, and Becky provided some very cute heart-themed props. What a clever idea!

We got Audrey a bear at the gala... he's wearing a Mighty Oakes tshirt. 

9 months old!

On November 15, Audrey turned 9 months old!

Halloween Day

Jonah's class had their Halloween parade on October 31. Jonah was excited about it until he got there and then refused to participate. So I got one picture of him...

Afterwards Riley, Audrey and I headed over to the library to see Miss Erin who was also dressed up as Tinnkerbell!

Trick or Treat

We love going to Nanny & Poppop's house to trick or treat every year!

They always have to ring her doorbell first for an extra special treat.

WSE Halloween Parade

Riley's school had a Halloween parade on a Friday afternoon just before the class parties. Since Riley had picked out Audrey's costume for her to coordinate with his, she came in her Tinkerbell costume.

Trunk or Treat

Our playgroup hosted a Trunk-or-Treat this year instead of a traditional Halloween party. We gathered at a local park and let the kids visit each car for a special treat.

Pumpkin Patch with Riley

The day after Jonah's field trip I went with the WSE kindergarten to Seiple Farm! It was clear that Riley's teacher had put in a lot of work before the trip about how to behave because this was the best behaved group of 5 year olds I had ever seen.

Mr. Somishka (on the far right) with both the morning and afternoon kindergarten classes.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip with Jonah

Riley, Audrey and I joined Jonah for his class field trip to Byler's Farm. I love going there... they have a lot of really fun activities for the kids to participate in and everyone has a good time.

Runner's World 10K

I don't talk about running much here, let alone posting photos (since I'm always the one taking them!), but in October I ran my first 10k (6.2 miles). I had registered for this same race in 2012 not knowing that I would end up being 6 months pregnant on race day. So I was SO excited when race day came around this year because I had been looking forward to it for 18 months. This was the longest distance I have run to date. I saw Abe and the kids a few times during the race - this was about 4.5 miles into the race and the sound of my boys yelling, "Go Mommy!" literally brought me to tears. I was pretty proud of myself but it's a whole other feeling to know that my family is proud of me too.

8 months old!

On October 15, Audrey turned 8 months old!

Aunt TT's visit

Theresa came to visit us again at the beginning of October and Steve joined us for a few days also!

For the record, Jonah has been really hard to talk into getting his picture taken lately. :(

Silly picture!!

Day trip to Longwood Gardens

In late September we took a day trip down to Longwood Gardens... we hadn't been there since Riley was very young and we knew the kids would love it. Because who doesn't love a garden railway?

I brought both of my cameras and both boys took turns using my point & shoot during the day.

We loved that these leaves were huge!