September

September seems to have passed very quickly, yet at the same time, Lydia's birthday and the beginning of the school year seem like a very long time ago! I know I just wrote a post about what Lydia is up to now that she is two, but within the last month she has already changed so much! My job has changed; Kyle is continually up to new adventures with work and Haleigh and Annaliese are learning how to navigate school. Since the goal of this blog was to help me be able to look back and remember where we are and the things that we are doing, this "September in review" post is going to capture some of our daily life and the recent changes. It might be kind of a boring read, but later in life, I think I will appreciate it!

Lydia: At two years old, she is full of spunk! The majority of the time she is happy and agreeable, but her vocabulary has rapidly developed and with that has come the ability to scream "no." She likes to pull hair and bite when she doesn't get her way, but can be easily distracted with a snack or her blankie. She likes to play with her sisters, go outside and pick out her own clothes. She's all about layers...lots of layers. I think she had 4 shirts on the other day. She also likes sandals. It's amazing how particular she is about her shoes...if I pick out the wrong pair, she simply won't wear them. I've learned to just let her pick out her own and go with it! She hates having her diaper changed or getting buckled into her carseat.

Haleigh: Haleigh is officially 4 1/2! She is also usually pretty happy but when she's not happy, she is hard to deal with! When she is hungry she gets a bit irrational and will start crying and will just sort of mumble and not make sense. She usually ends up in her room for some alone time and then things resolve. She loves to play with the Noah's Ark set and her magnet tiles. She loves to build and is super creative! There are lots of days where she tells me she doesn't want to play with me and just wants to play by herself. She loves going to school, wearing dresses, and helping me make dinner. Now that the nice weather has gone away, she's also decided it's time to learn how to ride her bike...it's hard to learn in the rain!

Annaliese: Annaliese is in 1st grade, loves school, reading, and playing the piano. She loves to be crafty and is constantly drawing pictures for her friends. She likes wearing dresses and tennis shoes, taking pictures and videos to document what she's doing and 'doing gymnastics.' She still sucks her thumb on occasion, her two front teeth are finally growing in and she is constantly thinking of her friends and wondering what they are doing at any given moment.

Kyle has been working for himself since March and his business, Gillette Solutions, continues to be something he is super passionate about. He fills his days with networking, coaching sessions, and helping people to learn more about who they are and how they can grow. It's fun to watch him brainstorm and develop new ideas and figure out exactly what he wants this business to look like. In his spare time, he does things like take care of the yard, play with the girls and read lots of books.

I decided to switch things up at work and spent the month of September working day shift (7am-7:30pm) orienting in the ICU. I'm going to be working as a Critical Care Float now, which means that I will eventually be working ICU, ED, and PACU...which are all completely new and a huge learning curve! I will also be working night shift, which will be an adjustment for everyone. However, I really didn't enjoy day shift, so I think it will all work out nicely! 

Bellewood Acres Apple Orchard

This past week both of the girls' classes had their fall field trips. Haleigh's class went to the apple orchard at Bellewood Acres and Annaliese's class went to Don Cramer's Western Town Pumpkin Patch. They were on the same day and since I had to work that night, I was only able to go with Haleigh. But it sounds like Annaliese had a good time:)

At Bellewood Acres, they took us on a tour through the orchard, talking about the different varieties of trees (they have 12,000+ apple trees!) the irrigation system, and the wind machines and methods to 'keep the apples warm' when the temperatures drop. We then moved into the area where they wash and sort the apples, dividing them into the ones that go to the stores and the ones that get made into apple cider. Next, we walked over to the juicing parlor and watched them make delicious apple cider. They also make dried apple chips and apple pies (the ladies there can make up to 84 pies a day!) 

We ended our time by picking a few apples, sampling a few different varieties of apples and sipping on some apple cider! It's always a fun field trip! 

Fall festivities have begun!

Bellingham has lots of fall festivals and activities to celebrate this time of year. We started the season off by heading to The Green Barn, a little store in Lynden that sells local produce and health-food types of items. They had pumpkin painting, caramel apples, pumpkin bowling and a candy hunt set up for the kids. I took Annaliese and Haleigh and we met up with Kim, Elias, and Malachi. Besides all of the bees flying around, everyone had a good time. We headed to Berthusen Park once we were done so that they could eat their caramel apples, but nobody ended up wanting to eat them and instead they ran around and played for a bit!

Auntie Kim was helping Haleigh. There were lots of toppings to dip the caramel apples in!

Bowling! A little pumpkin was the bowl and the gourds were the pins!