A roll in the leaves!

I LOVE fall! Not because of Halloween, or football...but because of the beauty of the trees and the crisp cool air. It is so welcomed after a long Texas summer! Last week we were dropping off Alec at school and I said "wow kids, look at the pretty colorful trees" Alec replied in a super goofy voice that he uses quite often "It makes me feel like my heart is full of love!" I laughed and said "where did you get that from". He giggled and said "just made it up." He's my funny little guy these days. Anyway...I love the Oak trees in our front yard...they are so beautuful in the fall, and are the first on our street to start turning color. I didn't take a picture of it early enough this year to capture the multiple colors when it's super bright, by the time I got around to photographing it, it was all red, but still pretty. Anyway...the kids had tons of fun last week raking up piles and playing in the leaves. It was a chilly day too...ahhhh fall!

One week before the leaves fell.

Alec and Eriik raked most of the pile, but Ava had to have a turn too!

I just love that smile!

Leaf fight!

Uh oh....they turned on me!

Halloween Fun!

Well, our Halloween celebtations stretched out over five days this year! We had Ava's halloween parade at Prep School on Wednesday, her party the next day, Alec wore his costume to school on Friday, we had his school fall festival on Saturday, and the Farm Fair at our church and trick or treating on Sunday! It was a lot of dressing up for one week! But the kids had a blast, and so did Eriik and I. Here are tons of pics from last week...if you are wondering why there are more pics of Ava at the farm fair it's because Alec was running around with his bud Carson and his dad most of the time, so we didn't see as much of him there. He and Ava both got their faces painted towards the end of the Farm Fair and I didn't get a pic of it, but they looked really cute before heading out to do a quick round of trick or treating in our neighborhood before bed!

Sir Alec...Knight of the Rowland clan and his princess Ava :)

Ava at the annual Prep School parade...She's holding hands with the preschool director. The parade made it on the 6:00 news this year!

Ava with some of her little preschool friends.

Alec at his school cafeteria, I brought him some chick fil a so I could see him dressed up with all his friends. All the boys are sitting on the other side of him, but that pic wasn't as good.

Alec and Ava at Alec's school carnival. Love their poses...I think Alec is doing some kind of Karate/ Ninja thing.

Ava really wanted to hold her pumpkin in the pictures she's such a little poser!

Here she is at our churches Farm Fair. She had no intention of holding this chicken, it freaked her out a little.

Ava with some of her church girlfriends.

Luciana with Ava...our small group worked the games in the preschool area at the Farm Fair.

It's official! Her name is.....

Well...Eriik and I have been 99% sure of what we were going to name our baby girl for a few months now...and I have been telling anyone who asked what I thought we might name her. It feels so weird for me to tell people her name before she is born because with Alec and Ava we kept it a secret, but I don't like keeping exciting things like this a secret! Besides that, it's now "written" on her nursery wall, and it took quite some time to put up, so I would call that official! Here it is:

We just love the name Addison...our baby name book has the meaning listed as "Awesome". So her name means Awesome Faith! I love that! I am so excited to meet Addison...to see what she looks like, and see what her little personality is like. She is moving all the time, but they are mostly pretty calm "flowy" movements...nothing too crazy. I am praying for a peaceful, sweet natured little girl with a joyful spirit, who grows to love the Lord with all her heart, soul, and mind.

Alec and Ava are really getting excited too. I've noticed Ava playing with her baby's a lot lately and feeding them, and putting them in Addison's crib to take naps. She keeps telling me that she is going to take care of Addison (she always sounds like she's saying Allison) , that she wants to feed her, and hold her. She kisses my belly and hugs it...really sweet. Alec isn't quite as talkative about it, but when we ask he says that he is really excited and is even excited that her birthday will be so close to his (she will be born Jan 6th, just 3 days after his 6th birthday)! He said "Oh, cool that means we can have birthday party's together!" I won't do that do them!!! I don't think it would be too fun for a 7 year old boy to share his birthday with a 1 year old baby girl! Anyway...it was sweet that he offered!

Here is a picture of the crib and bedding with the name above it. I love how it turned out.

Punkin Pickin...

Well...we did our annual trip to the pumpkin patch last weekend. It was a really warm day (upper 80's), but that's just fall in Texas! We went to a different patch because Eriik had off on that Friday, and Moore Farm isn't open to the general public on Friday's. So, we went to Pappy's Pumpkin Patch which was a little closer, and I think we may have liked it better! It didn't have all the farm animals like Moore Farm, but it had plenty of things to do and the kids had a great time. There was a barrel train, fish feeding at the pond, a huge playground with playhouse, a hayride, and my favorite part...plenty of photo ops :) So, here are the pics:

Ava the ham..and Alec at the zoo!

Well...some of these pics were taken last month, so I wanted to post them before putting the pumpkin patch pics up. I went with Alec on his field trip to the zoo with his school. It was a fun and exhausting day! I also wanted to post a few pics with Ava...she really loves to pose for pictures, although she almost never does what you want her to do..oh well...shows her personality! When she got her school pics taken last week the photographer had trouble keeping her from holding out her tunic top like a princess. When she get's something in her head it's not easy to sway her.

I just thought this was a sweet pic of Alec and Ava together...it's very rare that both of them are cooperating on the first try! Normaly it takes about three pics to get them both looking and smiling. (You might notice that Ava has a spider man watch around her ankle...funny girl!)

Before school one day I decided to grab a picture of her and so here are a few of them...she couldn't hold still...just wanted to show me all her poses. This one is the mid jump pose.

The princess pose.


The "Ta Da" pose.
She also does the "muscle man pose" in alot of pics but didn't do it this morning.

Alec went to "Touch a Truck Feed a Family" with his daddy and came home a tiger! Scary!

Here's the group that I got to spend a day at the zoo with...they were a very lively group of boys!

We ran into Mrs. Ferrill and grabbed a quick pic!

Alec imitating the Cheetah!

Yes...that's a bird on my shoulder...

Got one!

Crazy September..

Well...it has been a busy, crazy, fun few weeks since I last blogged! I've just been trying to keep my head above water with all the responsibilities and running kids here and there. Alec has soccer and karate, Ava started gymanstics, they both have Awanas, I have BSF, small group and MOPS and Eriik has been working extra late at work because of his new position as a plant supervisor. So, it's been a little crazy, but fun too. And to think we will be adding another baby into the mix soon! So...here are tons of pics with captions on some of the things we've been up to.



Alec finally talked me into letting him take the bus home from school, and it has been great for him and for me! This pic was taken the first day he came home on the bus, and he was all smiles. He sits by his friend who lives nearby, and I feel good about it since it's only Kindergarten through 2nd grade on the bus with him.

We have had a couple nice cool nights and so we got to enjoy a family night of mini golf which was a ton of fun!


Labor Day at Caddo Lake

Hangin at the "swamp"

Soccer games every saturday...and man has it been hot! I can't wait for the cooler weather to come and stay!

Ava makes a good little cheerleader for Alec's team.

Always dressing up! Our little princess.

This is a sponge bob halloween bucket she got from a preschool friend last year. She thought it made a great hat.

Eriik has started letting Alec steer the lawn mower by himself some...scary!

6 months pregnant! Can't wait to meet her!

Ava started gymnastics this month and loves it!