Matching girls

Erika is not easy to hold!

Alexa does a great job with her. 

Alexa is 8

My beautiful girl on her eighth birthday. 

She picked an underwater-themed birthday party and invited her entire Girl Scout troop. 

Her birthday present, a beta fish. She named him Mooney. 

May all your wishes come true, Alexa

Then we went on a Girl Scout night hike at a nearby arboretum. 

The girls all enjoyed this and we learned a lot. 

The night ended with a bonfire and roasting marshmallows. The girls sang "Happy Birthday" to Alexa. 

The next morning, our family ran a 5K race. This was Gavin's first 5K and he did really good. The race was called "When I Grow Up" and kids were encouraged to dress up in costume to show what they want to be as adults. Alexa wants to be a farmer engineer and Gavin wants to be a soccer player. 

The final stretch of the race- almost there!

Gavin was upset that Alexa beat him, but finishing in 35 minutes is pretty impressive for a six year old. 

Alexa ran the whole race in that long lab jacket. She had to remove her safety goggles because they kept fogging up on her. 

My grocery helper

These mini carts are the cutest!

Fall leaves

The kids had to borrow some leaves from the neighbor's yard because we didn't have enough. 

Everyone getting ready- they wanted to throw them up in the air at the same time. 

They thought this was great fun!

Oh my sweet, blue-eyed baby girl...you are so cute!

Enjoying a beautiful fall day at the park

Erika thinks she's a big kid and wants to do everything like her brothers. 

Cub Scouts Popcorn

Thank you to all that bought Boy Scout popcorn from Gavin this year. We appreciate your support. 

Destructive Erika

This is how most kids play with this toy, right?

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Mound City, Missouri this year at my sisters house. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins. 

Alexa was happy to see her baby cousins, Amelia and Vayda. 

Erika and Amelia wanted to play on the stairs. 

Hanging out with Daddy and watching OSU football. 

Time to eat!

Great-Grandpa giving her the good stuff (cranberry salad)

All the babies are looking sleepy here!

We always try to get a sisters picture when we are all together because it doesn't happen very often 

I love this 4 generations picture!

Alexa is a big helper. 

With my mom, sisters, and grandparents

We were able to attend church at St. John's Parish in Omaha. It's always special for us. 

Girl Scouts!

Our Brownie troop had a very important meeting this month. The girls discussed ideas and topics for their big project this year where the goal is to change and improve the lives of others. We heard lots of great ideas, but in the end all the girls voted for the Smile Train project. 

We plan to sponsor some children so that they can receive life changing cleft lip/palate surgery.  With the help of the charity Smile Train, it only costs $250 for the surgery and hospitalization. Hopefully the girls will work together to fundraise enough to sponsor several children. 

The girls enjoyed working on the craft project while we talked about our project. 

This is a really great group of girls and I am so proud to be their troop leader. They are going to do amazing things.