Little photographers

We recently did our final post-placement report for Sadie's adoption. One of the requirements was to submit 10 photos to send to China, one of which had to include both of us with Sadie. Since 99% of the pictures on my camera are of Sam or Sadie or the two of them together, we had to take one to fit the requirement.

However, the social worker was coming soon and the only available photographer was Sam.

I think he did pretty well.
And then, of course, Sadie felt she needed to take a picture with Mommy's camera too. (She did have a little help from me, though.)

You can teach an old dog new tricks

We got our dog a few months before Sam was born.

Not the wisest decision in the world, since there were a more than a couple days having a newborn and a new puppy just about sent me over the edge.

We eventually settled in to a routine, but the dog's training was severely neglected as a result of being de-throned so quickly from being the center of attention. (Anyone who has come to visit and been the recipient of lots of jumping and barking can attest to the fact that he could have used a bit more instruction in the behavior department.)

Anyway - the kids and Joe decided to teach the Gus-man to fetch.

They went outside armed with a frisbie and bits of dog food to offer as a reward (since I am too cheap to buy dog treats).

I expected a less-than-successful outcome.

Here is Joe, explaining the process to all the parties involved. Doesn't Gus look like he is really paying attention?
The throw.
The return! (I couldn't believe it!)
One treat from Daddy....
One from Sam....
And one from Sadie.
Quite an impressive trick when your only reward is three pieces of dog food (especially when there is a bowlful inside available for consumption at any time)!

Ready for winter

Or maybe her ears were just cold while eating breakfast.



I know. A lovely breakfast of mixed-berry applesauce and a chocolate chip cookie. That classifies as a serving of fruit (or maybe 2 servings - 1 for the berries and 1 for the apples in the 'sauce) and a serving of bread, right? And I'm sure there part of an egg and some small bit of dairy in the cookie, too.

The (second) annual pumpkin farm trip

When my mom was here (something like 6 weeks or so or more ago....) we took the kids to the pumpkin farm nearby. Sam and I visited there last year on his last day at home as an only child.

This year it was quite chilly. We didn't stay too long and didn't even get any pumpkins because I figured I'd come back with the kids again when it was nicer sometime later in October - something that never materialized. So - the pictures are a bit limited.


Sliding out of the barn.
Climbing out of the church.
Sadie atop the pirate ship.
Look at how tall they are!
Despite her pained look, she really was having a good time.
Sam couldn't be troubled to leave the pirate ship to take a picture with the pumpkins.

On a short leash

What to do when life gets a little boring?

Put a leash on your little sister and take her for a walk.

And in case you can't tell, she was loving every second of it. She may even have put the leash on herself.

Catching up

I just realized I had a lot of pictures on the camera card from October that I still hadn't blogged about, so some of the posts below are a little dated. I still have a few more to do tomorrow, and then (hopefully) I will keep up with current events around here!

The last leaf

Sam noticed the last leaf on our little tree in the backyard a couple weeks ago. I think he wanted to get it down in hopes that it would make the snow come sooner....
Gonna get it...
....getting closer....
...got it! (Thanks to a tall mommy!)