Since October

I'm terrible at keeping up. Never knowing what day of the week it is anymore, I surely cannot tell you the date. The weeks are flying by with Jeremy at his new clinic, working 5 days a week instead of having Wednesdays off. But we are so thankful for this opportunity. The office is literally just over a mile away; I used to run right by it. 

I used to run right by it. I haven't run in over a month now, and the pain still comes and goes in my hip. The trainer is where the workouts are happening, and it is the exact same thing each day: 45 minutes when Daddy is home from work. The weekends are when the real action happens and I get to go outside to ride or get in the pool. I can still swim.

To catch up from October, I have dropped a bunch of pictures here; first there is Halloween, since the cutest pumpkin and "Bruder Man" went trick-or-treating with us. When we asked Hunter what he wanted to be for Halloween, it was a quick decision. If you don't have any Bruder trucks, you might not know that the Bruder Man drives all these trucks, and that is code for contruction worker. This is the first year that trick-or-treating has been an attractive option to the smallish one, so we set out before pitch dark with his tool box in hand for collecting the goods. Hunter silently went about holding his toolbox toward the neighbors after they answered the door, as I was behind him saying "trick or treat!" and "happy Halloween!" A couple of times he just stood there still holding the box after getting his loot, and they gave him more! What a revelation! Mommy ate a bit too much of his candy, but I just cannot resist while nursing all the time. I'm so hungry!

Josie loooooved the whole Halloween event. She has become our little family extrovert. The rest of us will just let her do all the talking in the future. She wants to go places and do things and meet people. And after all the excitement, she became the tiredest little pumpkin. 

   

And then November happened. Everyone is so excited about fall and cool weather and I'm not sure what else, but I'm over here thankful to have unseasonably warm weather so we can still play outside with short sleeves on. Listen all you fall lovers, you are not allowed to complain about rain and cloudy skies because that defines fall! Around here at least. Thankfully, we are prepared for winter, because Hunter keeps asking when it will snow, I don't do much outdoor exercise these days, and Josie is still at the age where she can't pull a hat off. 

Though she may be complaining to me about it here. Hunter and I went around calling her our baby polar bear while she wore this.

 

And then I get this look. The eyebrows! I get the eyebrows a lot. I'm sure she won't outgrow this until well after her teenage years. 

 

Or selfies. She loves selfies and trying to eat that delicious baby in there. Actually she is fascinated with my phone from all angles, and I can usually get her to smile for the camera. This must be a girl thing.

  

Our garden is actually still growing, another benefit of the warmer weather, and the cherry tomato crop is really bountiful. Only one of us actually gets many of them to eat, straight off the vine. And we finally got some okra out of nowhere. With the beautiful fall foliage in the background, we go every day to pick

    

And then our chef makes something in the kitchen. His real-life cooking skills are really quite good, and he is a very eager helper. Now if I could just leave him alone to fix supper while I nap or something. 

 

We spend a lot of days out on the trampoline, which we have found Josie LOVES. Pretty much everything that Hunter would have hated as a baby gets this one giddy. It is hilarious when the big brother comes bounding up to us, jumping so high and barely missing a tackle. She loves the activities of the day so much that napping has become more and more difficult. Life is just too fun to sleep through. Which, now that I think about it, must've been Hunter's motto for his first 3 years. Maybe they aren't so different.

The trampoline may be affecting my bad hip. With the flips I'm constantly doing chasing the little guy for tag or seeing who can jump highest or double bouncing him, I have felt a fatigue in the one hip later, which tells me I'm doing good for it! Right?

 

We are doing our best to enjoy the nice days, as the preschooler counts down the days until snow comes. Out at the river on a nice weekend, Josie went strollering with Daddy while Hunter and I skipped rocks off the dock and rode scooters, his new favorite thing. This serene picture is quite a contrast to the events of the next few minutes which involved one of them slipping off into the one foot of cold water and mud lying just below the dock. It was really quite a scene for the family taking portraits behind us. We got him laughing about it pretty quickly afterward. 

 And lest you think Hunter's only duties involve gardening and cooking, I'll show you how my entertainer keeps my baby happy. Nobody comes close to matching the hilarity of Hunter's antics. That face of adoration!

And that is our highlight reel.