Fall'n for Fall

This fall, I have scaled back on photo sessions.  I am working at Little Leaf 4 days a week so things are still busy, but I have evenings to enjoy the beautiful fall weather with my people.  We are all savoring short sleeves and crunchy leaves.  

Buddy Walk

Every year that we do the Buddy Walk is more fun than the year before, which might have something to do with a certain little lady!  This year, we chased the girls around while trying to carry on conversations with our friends.  It felt a little crazy, but nobody got lost so I'm calling it a win!  I love that we have Indie, Down Syndrome, and an activity to celebrate it all.  

Indie's picture selected to kick-off the NYC Buddy Walk again this year!  Can't wait until she's old enough to benefit from a visit to NYC!  

My B-Day

Another year with my birthday smack dab in the middle of Dave's midterms and another wonderful celebration with Dave and the girls.  I am so lucky that Dave goes out of his way to make my birthday special despite his crazy schedule.  This year, he bought me flowers, made homemade cheesecake, and took us on a fun little Iowa adventure.  We got to check out Red Oak's town square and new playground then spend some time in an empty state park.  It was the perfect combination of beautiful weather and happy attitudes.  The best way to start a new year! 

Indie- 22 Months

I don't know how I have missed updating about Miss Indie because she is doing so great!  She is TALKING!!  She has some great little words like book, ball, out, high-five, up, stop, all-done and has said tons of other words less consistently.  I am seriously sooooo excited about her desire to talk and the effort she is making to get it done!  She also loves to dance around the living room (spin in circles until she gets dizzy and falls over), sing "If You're Happy and You Know It," bang the cabinets, take clothes out of dressers,  play catch, give people high-fives, and keep us on our toes every minute that she's awake.  And, did I mention that she's talking??!   

Fall?

I am loving fall so far.  We missed the deadline for most of our fall activities and I don't miss racing around town throwing pb&js at the backseat.  Instead, we are hanging out at home after school and enjoying beautiful evening weather outside.  

We went to the hot air balloon festival last week and I planned on taking a ton of pictures, but we ran into a lot of acquaintances and spent the entire evening visiting.   I wished that Dave could join us (he was fixing a structural issue on our house), but had a great time with the girls.  Last year, we left early so we didn't get to experience the balloons glowing in the darkness.  The girls LOVED watching that part and running around afterwards collecting cards from the balloon operators.  Cora sprinted from balloon to balloon and shouted that it was her favorite thing!  

We took a family walk through a wildlife refuge in Iowa, where we saw 0 wildlife, but the kids were dying to check out this corn field!  Apparently, they have always wanted to pick "wild corn" so I'm glad their dreams were realized haha.  

Grandpa Bob sent us a remote control plane, but it took me forever to get it all figured out and charged up.  (So long that Granpa Bob sent us a second plane.)  Well, tonight was the night, and they were so much fun!  The girls can totally fly them better than me and we stayed outside until those batteries were completely wiped out!  Now, they're all charged up and ready for tomorrow!