Catching up . . . yet again!

It seems like the past few weeks have been busy, but really I can't think why. Jim has been working a lot, starting very early in the mornings, which has meant he's more tired than usual, but we are very thankful that he's had (mostly) good weather and is getting really close to putting up the barn that he's been building all summer. He has really been enjoying this job and has learned a lot in the process!

Our weather has been getting to feel more fall-like, and we are loving it. We've even had several fires in the wood stove already! I still need to get out my fall decorations and beautify the house a little bit. :) It's the time of year when I start wanting to burn candles a lot, especially the ones that smell like fall. A friend of mine recently gave me an apple pie scented candle that smells very yummy indeed. I also read somewhere that Yankee Candle has a scent called Cider Donut and I REALLY want to get some tarts for my tart warmer with that scent! I love fall . . . it just doesn't last long enough, in my opinion. :)

Julia has started saying a few new words lately. So now her basic vocabulary consists of "Uh-oh," "Thank-you," "Ball," "Bear," "Da-Da," "Car," "Mama," and "Love you." (Not all pronounced exactly as they're written, of course! :)) She and Sam have started playing together more, and Sam is slowly becoming better at sharing his toys. He just received his replacement Thomas toys in the mail last week (we had sent in several things due to the lead paint recall earlier this summer) so they have both been spending a lot of time playing with the tracks and engines.

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks. One day it was pretty hot, so I gave the kids one of the "popsicles" that I had made with leftover kefir smoothies. As you can see, they had a great time sharing it! :)
Julia thought that one of the Thomas boxes would make a good place to sit.
Tired baby . . . she's fallen asleep in her highchair several times in the past week! I love how she looks when she's sleeping.
I had brought a few bags of clothes into our local children's consignment store last week, and ended up with about $16+ worth of store credit--yay! So on Monday I had fun picking out some cute fall/winter clothes for Julia. She doesn't need much, thanks to the hand-me-downs we got last month, but she did need some more dressy things for church. I was tickled to death to find these two sweater/skirt outfits . . .
And this adorable fall sweater!

Well, I need to wind down and head for bed soon! Hopefully I'll have time to post a bit more in the coming week.