Happy 2nd Birthday Hannah!

Happy Birthday, my big girl! It's hard to believe that she's 2 already! She invited her grandparents over for her favorite dinner, spaghetti, and had fun telling them she was 2. She likes being the life of the party, so I'm sure she loved all the attention too!

Lynnae & her Great-Grandmas

Lynnae is blessed to have 3 of her great-grandmas to love her... and to fight over who gets to hold her!

First Snowfall = Excitement

We love the snow around here! Call us crazy, but that's just us. Hannah woke up in the middle of the night and needed a diaper change, so Jon let her look out the window. She could hardly get back to sleep because it was "flaking" out! :) Dylan ran into our room a little TOO early for my liking, just to tell me it had snowed! Good thing Dylan had a snow day on Friday so they could play outside with Jon while I got ready for Hannah's birthday party. (I was thinking that snow was enough of a birthday present... but I don't think Hannah would have agreed!) Here are a few shots of the kids enjoying the snow. I love winter!!!

Lynnae's Eyes

Here are a few shots of Lynnae... with her eyes open! Both Grandpa's have been complaining that they haven't seen them very much. Now you two can just look here next time you want to see our big blue-eyed sweetheart!

Trick-Or-Treating

Dylan and Hannah really enjoyed this past week... probably because our kids love candy! On Tuesday night, we carved the pumpkins. Dylan has never liked the mushy insides of the pumpkin, but Hannah didn't seem to mind the goop! You go girl! Dylan was proud of his design and wanted it to stay lit all night and day...On Thursday, we went to Grandpa Westra's office for the annual Kids Halloween Party. They sure had fun decorating pumpkins then walking around the office collecting some GREAT candy (much of which Jon and I are enjoying!). Thanks for inviting us Grandpa! We had fun with you!

On Saturday, Hannah had some candy for breakfast then we went to the Meengs' and Westra's to show off their costumes. The kids loved eating their candy... and have been on a sugar buzz ever since. I don't know why I kept their candy buckets on the counter for them to see all the time... now that they are hidden, much less candy has been consumed!

Here are a few stories from this past week---

Hannah makes the silliest faces right now... while trying to sneak some candy Saturday night, she would only peek at us. If she can't see us, we can't see her, right?!? :)

Dylan picked up a few Snickers bars for Jon at Grandpa's office. When he came home, he gave them to Jon and said the rest of the candy was for kids who didn't have any candy at home. Sweetheart!

Lynnae Teresa Meengs is Here!

We are very happy to introduce little Lynnae Teresa to our family! She was born yesterday, Oct. 15 at 8:27am. She is 8 pounds 1 ounce, 20 inches long, has a little dark hair, 10 long fingers, 10 cute toes, and is totally perfect! She is named after her mom, Sara Lynne, and Jon's Grandma Theresea Meengs. We can't wait to bring her home on Sunday. Dylan and Hannah are excited! Here are some pictures to enjoy!

Clara Caterpillar

During the first week of September, Grandma Westra brought Dylan and Hannah a monarch caterpillar she found in a field of milkweed. Since we've read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" over and over again, they seemed to know the life cycle of a butterfly. However, it is a whole other thing to SEE it! The kids loved watching Clara munch away on her leaves. I must say that I enjoyed it too! :) It was amazing to see how quickly she could eat one leaf.

Two weeks later, Clara stopped eating and seemed ready to turn into her chrysalis. We were on pins and needles watching her every move, which we couldn't predict. During the first 2 weeks, she stayed on her milkweed plant the whole time. Now she was crawling all over her box and onto the table. Finally one evening, she started to hang upside down! We were so excited to see her in the morning!

Unfortunately, Clara did not turn into a chrysalis. Dylan thought if we put her outside by the flowers she would start moving again, so we did... Fortunately, Grandma Westra had another caterpillar named Fred who did turn into a chrysalis. We lived vicariously through Fred. Last Saturday, she said Fred's chrysalis was starting to turn color. Dylan was pretty excited about this, as he knew eventually he could see the colors of the wings through the chrysalis. We went over to see and sure enough, the once green chrysalis was becoming translucent. Late Saturday afternoon, Grandma called to tell us Fred was now a butterfly! How exciting! Here are some pictures from Tuesday, right before we let Fred (aka Clara) fly away to Mexico.

We'll have to look for another caterpillar next fall. It is quite a miracle to see this transformation! God is an amazing Creator!

Fall Apples

Last week, Dylan had his first field trip to Wells' Orchard. He was really looking forward to October 1 since he loves to go apple picking and it was his first field trip. It was a cold, clear morning and the kids loved walking through the orchard while eating their apples.

Here they are walking by the 4 year old trees, just like most of the preschoolers. (Dylan has his green hood up.)

Mrs. Wells showed the kids Mr. Jughead, their scarecrow, near the 23 year old trees (just like Uncle Eric).

Dylan with his first preschool friend, Megan.

Since they couldn't pick the apples on their field trip, we headed to DK Orchards on Monday to pick some for eating and applesauce. Both kids were looking forward to it, especially Hannah since she's heard Dylan talk about it over and over. Both of them did great and we picked 4 1/2 bushels in record time! :)

Getting ready for our wagon ride

We'll see when the applesauce gets made, but the applesauce and apples with caramel dip are awesome!

Oh, and to answer a few questions... the reasons for the multiple posts... I LOVE FALL and all the fun it brings, and I'm sure I won't get around to posting these fun things once little Meengs arrives. Hope you're enjoying!