Fall Activities!

We did several "fall" activities with the girls again this year. At the beginning of October, we went to Center Grove Orchard again. Bella had a blast there last year, and she did again this year! Plus it was perfect fall weather.

Feeding the goats- Bella is still a little unsure of them eating out of her hand, but she gets a little braver each time!
Checking out the chickens!
And the ducks!
Visiting the three little pigs houses. Bella loved this as she has this story in one of our books, and it is also a favorite game to play at home! Of course Mommy had to visit all of the little houses as well, even though I'm a little too big!
Posing with one of the little pigs. :)
Bella enjoyed sticking her head in all of these!
I believe she kept singing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" while standing by this picture. :)
Naturally, posing as Alice in Wonderland was another favorite as that is one of Bella's favorite movies!
Enjoying a tea party with the Mad Hatter! :)
Riding on the tractors with Daddy! Bella is still a little too short to push the wheels on her own.
Jumping on the giant pillow! Bella LOVED it this year. She wiped out about every 2 seconds but had so much fun. :)
And there goes one wipe out. :)
Going through the corn maze with Mommy. And there is Miss Grace! She slept the morning away in the sling. :) Apparently not too impressed with the orchard.
Bella all excited to go on a little train ride... However, this did not end well. This was not a smooth train ride by any means. It was VERY bumpy, and this poor girl kept falling out of her seat right away. And one fall resulted in her cutting her lip, crying loudly, which had to end the train ride. :( Bella was a little distraught after that experience.
Thankfully she did have the giant slide to go down afterwards to cheer her up!
Always a favorite. :)
Checking out the GIANT corn pit with Daddy. Bella wasn't a big fan of this- she's kinda girly and doesn't like to get too dirty. :)
Visiting the jumping pillow with Mommy again!
Daddy and Bella posing as farmers.
And here we all are at the end of the day- tuckered out and ready for naps!
Bella had to investigate some apples from the orchard before we left however. :)
Our next fall outing took place at the Fall Fest in Pella in mid October. Another beautiful day! We started out by painting some pumpkins.
Then we got to pet some baby kitties- naturally Bella loved this. :)
Posing with Mommy for a picture while waiting in line....
To ride on a horse! She upgraded from her last ride on a pony. Bella didn't love this horse ride quite as much as last time. Since this horse was much bigger than the pony, it was also quite a bit bumpier. Thankfully, I walked around with her so she didn't freak out and feel like she was going to fall off.
Riding on some tricycles with Daddy. Poor Daddy always gets stuck with the yucky jobs of pushing her around. :)
And here we tried out another train ride. At first, I was going to have her go by herself...
But, as I remembered our last disastrous train ride, I then pulled out my over protective mommy hat and decided to ride with her. It was a good decision as well, as this train ride was ALSO a little bumpy and Bella was panicking about falling again.
Being pushed by Daddy in a wheelbarrow!
Posing as a scarecrow!
We went on a hayride out into the cornfields. Bella enjoyed this, although she started to freak out any time we hit a bump. She really was scarred by her bumpy train ride experience!
And Bella's favorite thing of the day- going down the hay pile slide! She did this a couple times with Mommy...
And a couple times with Grandma Sheri! I've just noticed that Miss Grace is missing in all these pictures. Again, she wasn't thrilled with our fall activity and chose to sleep through it all- this time in Grandma Sheri's arms. :) Bella had lots of fun though!

Halloween!

We did several different Halloween activities this year with Bella as she definitely understood the whole concept much more than last year.

Our first activity was decorating a pumpkin with stickers! Mommy may have helped guide this a little bit as a pumpkin face designed by Bella would probably not look as "correct." :) She had fun nonetheless!
We also carved a pumpkin kitty this year. We carved pumpkins with Bella last year as well, but she was totally freaked out by the ickiness inside the pumpkin and wasn't impressed at all. This time, however, she was very eager to help! Still not a big fan of the slime, but she was very excited to help carve. Although she did get a little mad when we wouldn't let her have the knife. "I wanna do it!" Ahh, how we love two year old independence. :)
Thankfully we appeased her with pulling the pieces out after Daddy cut them.
Posing with our beautiful kitty Jack-O-Lantern! We chose to carve a kitty face this year since both our girls were dressed up as- what else!- kitties! We let Bella decide what she wanted to be this year. She had considered being a princess, but ultimately decided on being a kitty. She then chose between two costumes- a black kitty and a white Marie kitty costume, from the movie the Aristocats. It took much agonizing for her to decide, but she chose the Marie costume in the end. :) So Miss Bella has now been a kitty for 2 out of her 3 Halloweens!
On the Saturday before Halloween, we took Bella to her first trick or treat outing at Night Eyes at the Zoo. She got to pose with some favorite characters- although she doesn't seem to be too thrilled about it!
With Clifford the Big Red Dog!
And Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and Glenda the Good Witch. Again, we were having a little difficulty getting her to look at the camera... :)
We took a "haunted" train ride at the zoo. Here is our miniature Marie kitty with Daddy!
And the big kitty with Mommy!
This was the best we could get Bella to smile for us. :) She's not too into picture taking right now! However, she did have a very fun time trick or treating at Night Eyes and loved getting so much candy.
We went trick or treating to Sully on the day before Halloween, and Bella and Grace got some presents from Grandpa Doug and Grandma Sheri! Part of Bella's present was a princess doll set- and her comment about it was "this is a really good present!" It was sweet. :) Miss Bella loves her princesses right now!
Opening her present from Mommy and Daddy on Halloween- and yes, that is a little stuffed Marie Kitty. Bella really does love that movie!
We couldn't get Bella to sit with Grace to take a picture, so Mommy had to jump in. Black kitty shirts with Chester the kitty! Wow, we might have had kitty overkill this Halloween. :) Poor Daddy; he'll have no choice but to be a cat lover with all of his cat loving girls!
And here are the white Marie kitty's- again with Chester the cat. :) I'm surprised she didn't want to take him along trick or treating!
We stopped at Grandpa Ralph and Grandma LuAnn's house before heading out, where Bella received another present!
Our whole family!
We went to trunk or treat again this year, which worked out very well. However, every time Bella got a piece of candy, she wanted to open it and eat it, which of course doesn't work there since we are in a big long line. I think we managed to hold her off by giving her a sucker. :)
She loved picking out what she wanted from the baskets!
We went to a a few of our neighbor's houses as well, and then headed home! Bella definitely likes candy more than she did last year, but thankfully she still doesn't eat very much of it. In fact, what she usually does is takes one bite of it and then gives it to me, saying "you can have it mommy." Thanks Bella. :)
This little miss slept through her first trick or treating experience in a sling on Mommy!
Grace looked quite adorable in her mini costume. :) When we first ordered the costume, it looked so huge to both Derek and I. But she actually fit in it perfectly! She is getting so big!
Enjoying one of her favorites- a sucker. :) Give Bella some suckers and M&M's and she'll be set!

A Few of Our Many Visitors!

We obviously have had a variety of visitors since Grace was born, and I decided to just post all the pictures together. :)

Grandpa Doug and Grandma Sheri were the first visitors (after Bella of course) to meet Miss Grace.
Grandma Sheri with both the little ladies!
And Grandpa Doug with the youngest.
Grandpa Ralph and Grandma LuAnn were next to meet Gracie!
Great-Grandma Carla and Great-Grandpa Zeke visited the hospital later in the afternoon.
Along with Great-Grandma Bernice!
Great-Grandma Lucy and Great-Grandpa Vernon also visited that night!
Shawn, ChyAnne, and the kids also came to the hospital, but the kids weren't allowed in our room to hold Grace- only siblings are allowed into the OB. So they came to our house after we came home to see her again! Here is Dylann with her newest little girl to take care of. :)
And Tatum!
Aunt ChyAnne snuggling with Grace-
And Uncle Shawn sleeping like Grace. :)

We've had other visitors as well, but I didn't get pictures of everybody- oops!