Family Pictures

As I alluded previously we headed out this past weekend to get some family pictures.  I like to take pictures in the fall, the colors are great, the clothing options are great, and we cross our fingers for great weather.

This year was a little difficult in that we had extra people along, so the “photo session” if you will was longer.  Oliver wasn’t too thrilled with being in the park and having to take pictures.  He wanted to run around and explore.  But overall he did a really great job.

Bella wasn’t too thrilled to get her picture taken either.  I would say she put up with it, but in general we only got a couple shots of her smiling, and maybe only a few more than that were she was looking towards the camera.

So here are the best shots of our family picture outing.

Long Weekend

It was a long weekend of family activities and questionable children.

With questionable children I just mean children that seemed to be more tired than usual, more tantrum throwing than usual, more fussy than usual.  Although it seems on the surface that nothing is wrong, maybe it was one of those weekends they would have rather just hung out at home the whole time.

But regardless we had activities planned, activities that we hoped they would enjoy.

On Saturday we had family pictures.  We took them with Jesse’s extended family.  Here is a quick sneak peak.  Will post more later, we did take some of just our family.

I’m just noticing that even in heels, I am definitely the “short one”.

On Sunday we headed up to Weston, MO to “Red Barn Farm” a pumpkin patch/farm. 

I told Jesse to drop Bella and myself off at the local winery, while he and Oliver headed on to the pumpkin patch.  He thought I was joking….I wasn’t.  But Bella and I were good sports and went along with everyone to the farm….but next time!

It really was pretty countryside near the river in the hills up there.

Some funny moments:

Oliver’s pony had to stop and take a potty break.

Jesse and Jon wore matching jackets. 

Trying to make a two old smile at the camera for shot after shot, means you start making funny faces yourself and you don’t realize he can’t see you.

And sometimes it was too funny for him!

Hope you all had a wonderful fall weekend!

Field Trip–Pumpkin Patch

I joined Bella’s class for a filed trip last week.  We headed to a local pumpkin patch.  At the pumpkin patch there really isn’t much that Bella can do.  I did carry her on the wagon ride so she could experience that, and then had to carry her around for about 20 minutes while all the kids picked out pumpkins.  One of Bella’s kindergarten friends picked a pumpkin for her.  And I even got a couple offers from teachers, parents, who would carry Bella for me if she was getting to heavy.

After our ride back on the wagon, Bella got back into her wheelchair.  I wanted to take her to the giant bouncing pumpkin, as I thought that was the activity she could do and would enjoy the most.  As Bella and I wondered over to the bouncing pumpkin, many little kids would pop out of whatever activity they were doing to say “Hi Bella”.  If a parent was around they would usually say “Oh, this is the Bella we have been hearing so much about”.  One mother even said they had prayed for Bella one week when Bella was out sick for a couple of days.  These were kids/parents that are not even in Bella’s actual Kindergarten class they were in the morning class, or full day class.  Bella is pretty well known around the school.  And I can’t say enough how grateful we are to be in this great community.

Bella and all her girl classmates at the Pumpkin patch.

Bella’s afternoon Kindergarten class and teacher at the Pumpkin patch.

I think Bella had a good time and it was a gorgeous day.  She did in fact enjoy bouncing on the giant pumpkin, lots of smiles!  The next day my arms were super sore and I couldn’t figure out why, until I remembered I carried her around for 20-30 minutes.

Bella Bella Bella

I got yelled at the other day.  Well I didn’t really get yelled out, but I felt like a little kid getting a lecture.  I wasn’t making Bella wear her orthotics as often as I should.  She is supposed to wear them every day all day long.  Yeah, I wasn’t even coming close.  Now with her back brace, she should also be wearing that every minute that she is awake.  Again I fail.  It just looks so uncomfortable.

I do realize that having messed up muscles/bones, is way worse than wearing the braces.  But I’m not sure Bella understands that.

On most morning I do make her wear her brace to school.  Except when she looks sick and decides to have coughing attacks while wearing it.  Then I go ahead and let her off the hook. 

And every day for school I send her in her shoe orthotics. 

Since she should be wearing them everyday, this year Bella and I went shopping with the orthotics on and finally found some shoes she can wear over them.

I’m excited the weather is getting colder and we can break out the new boots.  You can’t even see she is wearing the orthotics under her boots.

Do you notice how it looks like her head is slumped into her shoulders?  That’s because she has the back brace on, which does a great job of holding her upper body upright, but then her little neck just disappears because she refuses to use it.  So Bella pretty much looks like she is wearing football pads under her clothes.

I think she would grow 3 inches or so if she would just use her neck.

She does her best to not look at me while I am trying to take pictures.

She is actually wearing the white tunic I made for her a couple of weeks ago.  As you can see, I ended up pairing it with some leopard skinny jeans.  Love the skinny jeans on the little girl with no legs…only skin and bone on this kid. 

I have a baker on my hands

I have been meaning to bake for awhile.  I keep telling myself I shouldn’t bake because then the goodies will be around the house and I will eat them all.  So instead I keep eating a bunch of other crackers and cookies that are store bought, and still not good for me.

So the other night I broke down….the can of pumpkin was calling to me.  I asked Oliver if he wanted to help me make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.  He very quickly, and I mean very quickly, stopped what he was doing and scooted the kitchen chair over to the island so he could help me.  I hadn’t even gotten any ingredients out yet, so he was very impatiently waiting until I could give him a task that he could help with.

I usually measure out the ingredients and let him dump them into the bowl.  I even let him break open the egg into the bowl (one of his favorite tasks).

He was also very excited to stir the cookies.  I had to tell him to be gentle so he didn’t cause everything to spill out of the bowl, about every other minute.  It helped when I had a hold of the spoon.

Then we came to the end where we added the chocolate chips.  I lost my helper at that point.

He was only interested in eating the chocolate chips.

With as much as he loves helping me bake, I think this is something we will be doing quite often.  Well until he gets too old to hang out with his mom.