sweet little friends

We had a wonderful visit from some old Wheaton friends, the Taylor family this past weekend. It was so lovely to see them again - it had been about 14 months or so since we had spent time together.

Meredith was very excited to have friends both younger and older than her! Here she is in a blur of action with Lucy Taylor who is 9 months.

Meredith was very impressed with whatever Maggie did. Big girls are so cool. (Maggie is 2 1/2)

What are they playing with, you ask? Definitely not toys - just random 'useful' items that have turned up with this move....some how those kinds of toys always become the favorites. ;)

What a cutie!

Apples to applesauce!

This weekend we made and canned applesauce with dear friends. It was a Saturday afternoon event with two canners boiling away on the stove for 4 hours while we chopped, cooked and pressed the applesauce.

We used cortland apples from our favorite farm a bit north of us - Ray's. His 20 lb bags of organic cortland apples are $9! We went through close to 60 lbs of apples between us, and used nearly all the jars we owned!

Adam and Jenny have an AMAZING new gadget that sped up the process and lightened the work load incredibly!

I love how pink it is!!

The stove worked hard that afternoon too!

Cooling and sealing jars - we were so pleased that all of our jars sealed - hooray!!

bicycling!

This autumn I got the itch to bike again. I haven't been biking since before MJ was born, and I had a hunch that she would love it. So...after a few weeks of getting some needed supplies (bike helmet for MJ, bike seat - awesome find at my favorite consignment shop!) and fixing up my old/new-to-me bike, we took our first bike ride this week. :)

Cool dude helmet buddies...now Mama needs to get some flashy headgear.

As you can see by her expression in these photos, MJ takes bicycling very seriously. :) She kept her hands on her handle bars the whole ride, and watched the front wheel most of the time. When we got back home after our spin around the neighborhood, she didn't want to get down from her special seat. YAY!

blurry action shot :)

We've been biking a few times this week and now whenever I say, "Hey Meredith, let's go outside and ride our bike." She nods vigorously and toddles over to get her helmet.

Hooray! Happy autumn!! :)

marshmallow shooters...

This weekend we held Calvary's first youth group event - an afternoon at the park with your very own marshmallow shooter. No kidding - check out this youtube link (Erik's inspiration).

Erik bought all the supplies at Home Depot ($2 a pop plus ammo), cut the pieces to correct size and instructed the students in the assembly process. Then, they were armed with their shooters (and a bag of mini marshmallows) to play two competitive rounds of Capture the Flag. It was a huge hit! :)

Later, over dinner someone suggested a new take on eating oreos - slide the icing side of the oreo from your forehead to your mouth only using your facial muscles. Too funny!! I couldn't stop taking photos (don't you love MJ's expression in this one?!)

Household happenings

We've been staying busy around here - having fun, settling into our new home and enjoying our toddler's antics. :)

This is one of MJ's favorite poses recently! :D

We had Madeleine's folks over for dinner this weekend. Madeleine made a scrumptious soup, and her famous "one-hour yeast rolls" and Betsy brought a delicious salad. Fine food and fun fellowship. We topped off the evening with pumpkin ice cream and a rousing game of Boggle. :)

18 months. Can you believe it?!

Today, Meredith is 18 months old. Time has flown, as it usually does, and we have a independent, mischievous and sweet-spirited toddler, Meredith Jane. :)

Good bye baby days - hello, miss personality!

I can't get enough of these bouncing piggy-tails.

Here she is just after sneaking up on me to find my belly and give me a tickle!

30 day beard.

At the beginning of September, Erik forgot to shave for several days. Then, we moved and his razor was temporarily "lost" in the shuffle between homes. Once he began nearing the 2-week mark of not having shaved, someone (maybe himself?) said..."how long can you go? will you grow a beard?" So - the race was on! Itching and all, he kept it up for 30 long days. I'd say he grew quite a good looking beard, don't you think? :)