Carving pumpkins

This year I went on an orange pumpkin hunt for Noah's first pumpkin carving but to no avail! After 4 fruit and veg shops, I came home with squatty green ones, but they still totally work! I fought being disappointed like I do every year at not finding these things, and this year I wasn't for the first time.

This was Autumn's first look at a pumpkin, and SHE was my orange pumpkin :)

Noah and I carved one of them this morning. This is him drawing the face. "Tri-ANGLE eyes momma" (he puts the emphasis on the wrong syllable on tri-ANGLE I love it!)

Scooping out the goo, what little kid doesn't love goo?

Carving the face

He wanted to hold the knife for a little :)

And our cute jack-o-lantern all done!

He liked putting in the candle sooo much. He'd say "can-le hot momma, oh its so hot!"

Got Milk?

8 months!

For Autumn's 8 month photo shoot I brought out my big flash, but my goal was to use it just as a "fill flash" so that it looked like natural light. I loved the result cause it brings an extra "pop" to the eyes, but still left a natural light look. It's the first time I figured out how to do this in daylight, cause I'm normally quite scared of the flash look. I love shooting my favorite subjects, my kiddos!

At 8 months Auty is crawling all over the place. She loves her stuffed lamb, and toys that make music. She can say "dadda" to her daddy, and smiles mostly for her brother. If mom's not in the room she'll look all over for me until I come in :) And she loves finger foods. Her smile is more captivating every day, and we love her to bits!

Man's best friend

Or boy's best friend in this case. Noah loves Spurgeon our dog, and Spurgeon loves Noah but for only one reason......he's got the ball, and he just might throw it!

We came back from the library today and Noah had a fun time just throwing the ball around our front yard with Spurg.

A big Spurg hug

Spurgeon's favorite thing in whole world, Noah throwing the ball.

Autumn sat on our front stoop and eyed the object of her affection, rocks on our walkway that she wanted to chew on, (yep, she's getting her top teeth now) and Noah kindly said "no rocks Nuh nuh, they are hhaa haa (dirty)"

Tobi came out to join the fun

This is Noah's affectionate "I just want to hug you tight" face, and Tobi's face is classic....slight annoyance with "I couldn't be bothered with this"

Only for the shoes

Autumn started crawling this week, but the ONLY thing she'll crawl for is shoes. She's fascinated by them.

She spots the object of her affection....

And makes her move

And later crawled for my shoes as well :) I wonder if she'll love shoes when shes a little girl

Moses

Every day I try and do something creative with Noah during Autumn's morning nap. This week it's been the life of Moses. I found several great websites to teach toddlers through the Bible and crafts to go with each one. These are from www.toddler-activities-at-home.com I couldn't believe how much he loved it and kept talking about Moses throughout the day.

This craft went with telling the story of baby Moses. I read with him from my Bible (he thought this was very cool) and colored the baby and made him a basket. Then we played hide and seek with baby Moses (cause remember Moses's mom hid him from Pharaoh?) and this he LOVED. He'd say "Hmmm, where did baby Moses go?"

He asked for a pillow and blanket for baby Moses, made from dryer sheets :)

The next day was Moses and the burning bush. He got to stick the fire on the bush, and he loved it!

Noah walked around the house saying "Let the people go!"

He also said that God's name is "I AM" very cute. Today we did the plagues of Egypt, and Moses telling Pharaoh to let the people go. I'd ask Noah, "did Pharaoh listen to God?" Noah....."NO!" Tomorrow will be Pharaoh letting the people go. It's been quite fun coming up with a small lesson every morning.

Nature walk

Noah has been asking almost every day this week to go to the beach, but its been so cloudy/windy so I told him we'd go see a waterfall and walk along a river. He didn't seem to know what it was, but he seemed excited, so off we went! There is a little nature reserve about 10 minutes from our home down the Kloof Gorge, and it turned out to be an amazing day.

"Fall" leaves in the river even though its Spring in SA. It's like the Lord placed them there just for me to enjoy since I miss the Fall season in the States.

The area we live in is so beautiful and lush, I love it! Noah discovering the waterfall, he kept saying "BIG one momma, BIG waterfall!"

He liked poking the leaves with a perfect Noah sized stick.

We made a quick potty break for Noah, since he's potty trained now I was so grateful there was a loo nearby, and these leaves were right outside the little hut, so pretty.

And back to the river we walked! I've been teaching him the song "Our God is so Great" for quite a while now, and he loves it. In the song it says "the rivers are His" so it was cool to show him an actual river.

This photo makes me think of Huck Finn

Amazing leaves in the river again.

Balancing on the rocks

We walked over a couple of bridges to a lake

Then back to the waterfall for some water fun

He wanted his shoes off, and the water wasn't actually that cold, so he had alot of fun splashing and playing with the leaves, and we left quite soaking wet!

It's so fun seeing God's creation through a toddlers eyes.

First time to the beach

Last Monday we went with Charl & Nina and their relatives to the beach. After lots of rain, it was a perfect beach day, and it was Autumn's first time to the beach! She loved it, and kicked her little legs and laughed into the wind.

Although she wasn't too sure about touching the water, and whats with this strange sand castle?

Noah always asks to wear his hat and sunglasses, he loves them

Autumn kept looking at the water, why is it so cold?

Playing in the water with daddy

I would have taken even more photos, but alas my little camera has died, but Autumn loved sitting on the towel playing with her sand toys, we had tons of fun in the waves, and Noah every day this week says "Suns out? More beach? Oh mommy its bright, so beach?" It's been raining this whole week, and he keeps looking for the sun in hopes we can go back.