Half a year is better than none

Bright, wide-eyed little baby Goldie! She can't be awake for five minutes without someone picking her up and hugging her. We can hardly believe it's been six months since she joined us---but then, we can also hardly believe there ever wasn't a little Goldielocks to cuddle and love. We made a cake for her half-birthday (Angel Food for our little angel, not that she got any of it) and the other kids insisted that we should dim the lights, sing, blow out a candle, the whole works. They love, love, love their Marigoldie and she loves them too!

 

This is such a typical look for her---wide eyes, raised eyebrows, an expression of great interest. She smiles the instant you make eye contact, but it's hard to make her laugh---a nearly silent, open-mouthed *erk* is the most we can usually get from her, even with our most hilarious tricks. Not that that stops us from trying!

She most dearly loves to eat her own feet. I love it when babies do that.

We love this girl!

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Abe gives the Gettysburg Address

Abe and I both memorized the Gettysburg Address this summer, and in honor of its 150th Anniversary today, I'm posting this video. I love the Gettysburg Address! The two younger boys know large chunks of it, but they can't get through the whole thing without help.

I think I had memorized this before, at least partially, sometime in the distant past, and of course it's all really familiar to me, but it was surprisingly hard to move from there to actually having it truly memorized. It's that last section---with all its "rather for us" and "for us the living, rather" and "to be dedicated here" and "to be here dedicated"---that really gets me. Abe and I were in gales of laughter as he tried to help me get it. And I finally did, and so did he. I think he does such a great job reciting this; he really gives the sense of the words as well as the words themselves. Which is good, because I feel like my Abraham ought to have a special bond with the words of Abraham Lincoln.

Here he is, wearing his Abe Lincoln beard and Daisy's magician hat from last year---which doesn't quite fit his head---but it adds a nice touch. :)

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Bunny Mama and Bunny Baby

Marigold is the right size for this bunny suit. And she's SO cute in it! You know how I am about bunnies.

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Halloween Costumes

This year Daisy wore the bunny suit my mom made for ME when I was her age! I loved this bunny suit and wore it many times (not just on Halloween). It was so cute to see little Daisy in it! It has lasted very well (it only lacks one paw).

The cutest thing was watching Daisy with her little "Baby Bunny" Marigold. Daisy once wore this little bunny suit herself, as did Junie. Now it's Marigold's turn.

Such a happy bunny!

Malachi was the Big Panda bear again, only this time his baby was Junie instead of Daisy.

Seb was an ape (because he had no tail). Since everyone else had a baby, he wanted one too.

I tried to talk Abe into being Abraham Lincoln, but he said "I prefer to be a furry animal." So, the elephant it was. I think he pulls it off with aplomb. He did quite enjoy his flexible trunk.

Here they all are with their babies.

And their jack-o-lanterns were very good this year, too!

You can't really see Junie's in the other picture---the stem is a nose.

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Pumpkin Patch 2013

We didn't know it would become a tradition when we started going to this Pumpkin Patch, but now we wouldn't miss it for the world! We've been doing this for 7 years, if you can believe it! Here are installments 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 in this series. This was baby Marigold's first time! Luckily it was a beautiful warm day for her.

Excited wagon riders

I like Junie's face as she goes down the slide. It's so . . calm. She's happy, but not euphoric about it. "Whee."

These little pedal-tractors were new this year. Fun.

A baby navigates a maze.

I never think the pumpkins look that great (maybe we go too late in the month), but we always manage to find some that we like. Ones that we can't believe no one else picked because they're so perfect! :)

I sure love the mountains down in this area!

Daisy was so cute and careful with her pumpkin---she wrapped it in Marigold's blanket to keep it safe :)

We took advantage of the nice weather to have a picnic afterwards (and eat our apples and apple cider donuts!). What a great day!

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Sunday Leaves

Not this cold and wintry Sunday! No, I speak of two Sundays previous, thirty degrees and forty million snowflakes ago. 

I just . . . don't even know what to say about these facial expressions. We were eating cookies earlier; can you tell?

Happy Goldie!

Shy

Gleeful

I love this cross-cutting orange stripe

Such lovely weather and scenery; long may it linger in our memories. :)

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