The calm before the storm . . .

Why not do a photo shoot on a unseasonably warm October day? It was eerily calm today, surprising for what is in store for the next few days.  Hurricane Sandy is on her way and, from what the weather channel is showing, it's a once-in-a-lifetime storm.  We'll see what happens in these next few days.  In the meantime, we got outside for a little photo shoot.  Evan was loving the leaves, which Brian was throwing on him:

 I love the colors in this photo:

Pure joy:

My happy model:

Blue eyes . . . and a little pink as we are in round 2 of pink eye for Eric.  So far, Brian has been the only one to avoid it while Eric has doubled up:

A baby in a basket:

My favorite photo of the shoot:

Wondering how he may get out of here:

This is the same basket we took his newborn photos in.  Look how much he's grown and how totally different his face is:

Exploring the leaves for the first time:

This may be the last time we get outside for a few days so we'll take it while we can.  Hope Sandy doesn't hit us too hard!

We've got ourselves a crawler

It appears that life will never be the same again because Eric is now on the move!  He is crawling about 2 months before Evan did . . . and so the differences begin.  His first few "crawling steps" were on Friday (10/19) and here is a video we got earlier this week.  He's also started clapping his hands when he sees us clap.  I have a feeling he is going to keep our hands full for the next few years!

Fall Festival

West Goshen Park has a fall festival every year, including hay ride, pumpkin patch and treats for the kids.  I took a million pictures and I am putting half of them here.  Here are the boys on the hayride - Evan only had eyes for the tractor that was pulling us:

Evan first excited to pick two pumpkins, but then they seemed to be a bit heavy:

Looking up at his daddy:

Now three to choose from:

And he's off:

Eric enjoyed himself too:

Trying to get both boys to pose for a photo at the same time - this was the best we could get:

Close up on Evan:

Eric making his way towards a pumpkin:

Playing with hay: 

Evan coloring his pumpkin afterwards:

Happy boy:

Me with my boys:

We headed to the playground afterwards.  Evan currently loves the swings.  He can't pump the swing himself but his dad is happy to push him high (too high, in my opinion):

Pretending to get punched when swinging up.  Love this: 

Eric just taking it all in:

All in all, it was one busy weekend.  Brian took Evan to the zoo on Saturday and then to another fall festival in the afternoon.  I was in NJ for the first part of the weekend at my cousin's baby shower.  Then today was this fall festival and then out to dinner.  It's a great time of the year to enjoy the outdoors so we'll take it before it's too cold to do much of anything outside. 

Apple Picking

A few weeks ago, we decided to venture back to Highland Orchards for our 2nd annual tradition of apple picking.  Evan was willing to stand in front of the pumpkins for a few seconds and Eric is always happy to pose for photos at this age:

I love the look on Eric's face in this picture - he's not quite too sure of this apple picking thing:

My three guys:

Evan enjoyed apple picking.  He would pick an apple, take 2-3 bites, pick the next apple and drop his first one on the ground . . . and repeat . . . and repeat.  We left probably 7-8 partially eaten apples in our path:

 He was excited to pick the apples that were at his level:

Pulling extra hard to get this one out:

 

Taking a rest on a pumpkin:

With my little man:

Mr Happy as usual:

I look forward to this tradition every year.  Upon returning home, we cooked up a huge batch of apple sauce which we froze and can give to Eric in the coming months. 



If you want to see how much Evan has changed in a year, here is a link to last year's apple picking trip: http://www.felttales.blogspot.com/2011/09/apple-day.html

7 months old

Time continues to fly and now we have a 7 month old on our hands.  Not too much to report in the last month.  Eric continues to be an easy baby who loves to sleep and loves his solid foods.  He likes to be entertained by his older brother and he's getting more and more anxious to move.  He can get his way to whatever toy is just out of his reach and he's starting to get up on his hands and knees.  He is motivated to crawl but I still think we're at least a month away. He was happy to pose for his frog picture this month:

And I can't help myself doing these comparisons each month.  Check out the difference in the thickness of their legs :)

Just like his brother, Eric loves his bath time.  We've started taking him to the pool too and are putting him under water to get him used to it at an early age:

 A favorite activity of his includes eating his toes:

 His adorable shark towel and wanting to crawl:

 More in the towel:

 Deedee came for a visit to help out after my kidney stone surgery:

These next few months are going to fly much faster than this one, I'm sure.