yep....

goodbye dillene...hello dylan!

it was time....
when Dylan was 1 i said that i would cut his curls off when he was 2. when he turned 2, the plan was to cut it at the end of summer.... well then it was absolutely, most definately going to happen after the baby was born.....well, as the "baby" is on the cusp of 9 months old, i finally did it!

it all started with a trim of the bangs, and then a little off the sides, then a little off the back... and then before i realized it, i'd created a very sweet bob cut- at which point it all had to go.

i'm good with it though. as much as i loved those curls, it had to go for dylans sake.
it was getting to the point that whenever we were out in public he was referred to as " young lady, big sister, little girl" etc. way more often than he was referred to as a boy.

as he so firmly told the nice man that gave him a penny to ride the pony at meijer
"i'm not a grill, i'm a boy!" unfortunately, this was becoming common lingo for him. he was having to defend his "boyness" way more often than any little boy should have to.

so we say goodbye to our precious "dillene" .... and hello to our spunky, still full of sas, little boy Dylan!

duck, duck....goose!

The day i've been waiting for has finally arrived! Tim took both boys duckhunting together for the first time this past weekend......while the girls headed to the mall :) Dylan had a blast sitting on a bucket blowing his goose call and saying "dad, there goes one!" Austin enjoyed it for the first 45 minutes, and then got a little bored.....but everytime a duck flew over he would perk up again, blow his call, and point his cap gun in the air.

stella's crawling

stella's 8 months old and crawling..... where has the time gone? It makes me smile to watch her crawl, and see that look of glee on her face when she reaches her destination-- it just makes me sad how quickly time flies by! it almost makes me want to have another (gasp!)

i must say, this crawling thing with 3 older siblings is interesting. our first 3 were born pretty close to each other, so when dylan was a baby the others were 2 and 3. they did not play with little legos yet, or tiny beads, or google eyes, or make paperclip necklaces etc. (can you guess all of the things i've fished out of stellas mouth today? :)

anyhow here's a little video mom. dana, do you remember this sweet little outfit?

yearbook yourself

alright, my curiosity got the best of me......thanks michelle :)

1952

1960

1976

1982

1990

random soccer, static and stella

fall soccer season is officially done......sigh. what beautiful weather we have had! i have such mixed emotions about soccer. it's such great exercise, and the kids love running around playing with their friends. it's also fun to watch them grow and learn teamwork ..... however it makes for more busyness right when you're trying to figure out the school thing again. don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to complain- i realize i only have 2 kids playing .....i'm just happy it's done until spring!

austin loved to play "right defender"

Sydney and her bff Emma

dylan and the trampoline....not good for his hair :)

cowgirl stella

fall fun

this past weekend we made our fall visit to klackles orchard. the weather was absolutely gorgeous, and once again good times were had by all.




austin petting the snake

sliding on the inflatables

shooting apples

picking apples

riding the apple wagon

stella didn't like the inflatables

austin riding the bmx track

syd wants a bunny :)