More fall adventures

 We were blessed with wonderful weather this weekend and some time off for Andy. 

On Friday we played in the leaves for awhile and crunched them up as small as possible so it was really difficult to get them cleaned up...sorry Dad.

 

Bennett loved watching Marie jump in the leaves and throw them as high as she could.

He tried to jump but his jump is more like a fall...still he enjoyed it all.

 

We also made time for playing with our pumpkins. 

Marie and Bennett painted while Mom and Dad worked on their masterpieces. 

 We spent some time in Spencer with Papa & Grammy, too.

Andy took Gus hunting for the first time, Marie went on her first hunting trip, we watched football, and played as much as possible. 

 Marie was so tired from all her walking in the field. 

She even found a stick and pretended it was her gun for the trip.

 Gus had a good first trip with many more to come!

 Bennett and Marie love spinning in the chair at Papa and Grammy's house.

 

Bennett took me for a ride in the mall Tonka truck many times!

We had such a great weekend it's hard to see it end-but we are looking forward to Trick-or-Treating this week!

Brother vs. Sister

It's happening...

wrestling, rivalry, fighting over the same toy.

Then, the next minute they are hugging, reading books together, and giggling like crazy.

 It's so much fun to watch these 2 play together. 

Bennett loves to greet Marie in the morning with a big hug. 

Marie loves to pick Bennett up from his classroom in the afternoon to say how much she missed him.

Time with Grandma

 

Since Andy was going to be away for the weekend at a residency retreat, I knew it was the perfect time for these kiddos to spend some quality time with Grandma Nel. 

 We spent Saturday shopping, going for lunch, playing at the park, making cookies, and watching movies...fun, fun, fun!

 On Sunday afternoon, Andy returned from his retreat and Aunt Jean stopped in for a short visit as she traveled from Nebraska back to Minnesota.  

Although we miss Dad when he is away, it is fun to have visitors and so much time to play with them!

Pumpkin Patch-2nd Trip

 We couldn't resist another trip to the pumpkin patch!  So when Grandma Nel, Mind, and the girls mentioned that they were going to go we decided to tag along. 

Marie loved playing with the girls and doing all the activities with them. 

Once again the corn pool and jumping pillow were the big hits.

 Bennett and Anneke spent quite a bit of time together exploring. 

They loved feeding and petting the animals.

 We love living closer to these girls so the kids can play together more often.

Marie loves her cousins so much and it's fun to watch Bennett and Anneke play together as the get older.

 

Marie has one more trip to the patch with her preschool class this Friday. 

She is so excited to pack her lunch for the picnic and do all the activities one more time!

Coyote Reunion

 

On Saturday we were able to go to a Coyote football game at the Dome with Eddie & Jess.

It has been quite awhile since these 2 have seen each other and they didn't spend more than 2 minutes apart the entire day.  

 One minute they were hugging, the next they were wrestling.

We enjoyed dinner at one of our favorite places from college, went to the game, and walked around campus.

The kids loved running through the leaves and all through the campus. 

Although Marie and Hudson were usually far ahead, Bennett did his best trying to keep up...sometimes getting some help from Dad.

    

The kiddos ran through the student center finding anything they could to play with including the piano. They provided some beautiful music for the students eating their supper. 

 

Jess will be induced and having a scheduled c-section for their new baby boy on Nov. 1st!

We are so anxious to welcome another boy to the bunch although Marie is starting to notice that she is outnumbered.

 We had such a great day and look forward to meeting the Dickes family for a basketball game in Vermillion this winter!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Andy is back on night for 2 weeks which means a change in schedules again. This is not our favorite rotation in residency and we are excited that this will be the last for nights (except for call) until this spring.  It's amazing how quickly the kids react to this schedule change...and by "react" I mean "decide to throw fits and be as naughty as possible right before dad needs to leave for work at 6."

Uggh residency. 

Anyway, we are "adjusting" which is just a nice way of saying "getting through it and counting the days until the rotation ends."

After Andy left for work on Friday night he called me to tell me to get into the basement - we were under a tornado warning. I quickly got the kids and Gus downstairs. 

We ended up having to stay in the basement for about 2 hrs until it was past us. Thankfully we only had a bit of wind and rain. 

The kids handled it well and now Marie knows our safety plans for fire and tornado by heart.  While I was explaining it all to her she interrupted me and asked, "do we have a snow plan too?"  I assured her we did - go to the store to get milk, bread, and rush home to watch movies and drink hot chocolate!

After a few hours of sleep for Andy on Saturday, we went out for lunch so we could watch part of the Husker game.  The kids love sporting events and Marie was disappointed we were watching it on TV and not at the stadium. 

Randomly while eating pizza and coloring on the menu she would yell "Go Big Red - Get 'em!"

We were given a bit of relief this weekend when Grammy & Papa came to spend the afternoon and evening with the kiddos.  

Andy & I made the most with our time away by getting haircuts, running errands, going to a movie, and even grabbing dinner & drinks. 

It was a great night and we are so thankful our parents are always willing to help out when we need it.

Sunday was very relaxed as we tried to rest up after a busy Saturday while enjoying family time- something we never seem to have enough of during these busy weeks. 

 The boys slept quite a bit while the girls baked brownies and colored. 

We are having a week of beautiful fall weather so we hope to get outside as much as we can while it lasts!