Pumpkin Patch

I took Henry, Margaret, and Alice to a local pumpkin patch on Monday.

It was pretty difficult to get the kids to look at the camera, but they had fun running around.

Brother and Sister

Big Henry

Little Margaret

Cousin Alice

Shreveport, again.

Last week, the kids and I took a quick trip to Shreveport to see my aunt who was in town from Oregon.

We got into town in time to make it to Madeline's school's Fall Festival.

Madeline goes to the same elementary school that my siblings and I went to, so it was fun to return to my old stomping grounds.

Margaret and Sarah Grace

Margaret hates to be in the stroller.

We basically ate and played on the playground most of the time.



On Friday, we met up with Sarah for lunch. Since she works downtown, we brought food her way. Elizabeth picked up a pizza and we met up by the river.

Friday night, we had dinner with my grandmother, my great aunt, and Aunt Libby at another playground.

(All this eating outside made for a happy Henry, but I'm not sure he ate more than chips the whole time we were there )

Madeline said "Hey Aunt Boo! Which side weighs more?"

Me: That's a hard call.

Elizabeth: What?!?
Chris wanted to make sure I took the pic while he was in the air.

(Elizabeth will be induced Nov. 1st!)

Margaret was very serious about her playing.

At one point my aunt said she saw MG put an acorn in her mouth. I went to fish it out and the "acorn" was a Hershey's kiss. This girl can sniff out chocolate already!

Love this pic!

And here's my Aunt Libby with her great nieces and nephews.

Saturday morning, we drove back.

It was kinda crazy, but worth seeing my aunt... she's a pretty special lady.

9 months

Miss Margaret Gray turned 9 months (2 weeks ago).

I currently can't think of any major developmental milestone she hit this month.

She continues to crawl and cruise- really fast.

She might wave bye, but its more of a 2 handed arm wave, so she might just be excited.

Oh, a big thing is that she's enjoying books more- she'll sit still and look at the pictures... makes me happy.

My mom calls her a "tall drink of water".

She's 30 inches. 19 lbs 8 ounces

(really, I just made up the ounces cause I can't remember what it was)

She's cutting her 5th tooth and it hasn't been a pleasant experience.

I wish more teeth would come at the same time to get it over with.

Loves to copy Henry's elephant noise

MG's extremely determined.
She'll move mountains to get what she wants.
Don't try to take anything from her.... oooo wee, she'll squeal!

Found her bow

Tried several new foods this month.
Loves mozzarella cheese, cottage cheese, and yogurt.
Will eat broccoli.
Really liked red beans and rice, tilapia, and pasta.
Itty bitty grape pieces are a favorite snack.

Drinks well from a sippy cup.

Down to 2 naps.
She's a pretty good sleeper.
Margaret's started to do this squinty eye smile. I love it.




In 2 weeks, I'll do her 10 month post.... stay tuned. Margaret may or may not have taken 8 steps tonight :)

Jack and Leigh's Wedding

On October 8th, the Louis gang met up in Birmingham, AL to celebrate the wedding of Jack and Leigh.

The rehearsal dinner was at a Mexican food restaurant and was the perfect evening.
This picture accurately depicts how Margaret and Henry were feeling.
Margaret- a little under the weather,a cold and teething, and Henry- crazy from having too much fun with his cousins.

Gabe told Henry to say cheese and this was the pose he struck. Odd.


Loving on cousin Addie.

Hugs for Evie, too.



Jackson and Margaret hit the hay.


I love that she'll fall asleep on me... Henry would have never done this- just whined.

A churro cheers... "To Jack and Leigh!"

PawPaw and the brothers always put on some kind of "act" at the rehearsal dinner.

This year, it was to Chicago's "Just You 'n Me"... a bit 80s...

... So they made sure they dressed the part.
Complete with mustaches.

Part of the choreography was for them to post like 80s mannequins... Every time I see this pic of Tom, it makes me laugh. He was so serious. :)

Ross, Tom, and Walter working their moves.

Tom played the "saxophone".

Grand Finale.

Then before the brothers took their turns dancing with Leigh, they made Jack one of them.

Henry was very confused about Tom's 'stache. Kept asking "what's that?"

Day of the wedding

A shuttle picked up the family from the hotel at 3 to take us to the country club for pictures.


Such a beautiful venue!

PawPaw wanted this documented.

So I had REALLY wanted to take advantage of our family being all cleaned up and get a good family picture.

Somehow we only took 4, and this one was the best of all of them.

Bad lighting.

Unhappy children.

Margaret's fashion faux pas white sandals showing.

Fail.

I tried to doctor these photos using Picasa.

Maybe I should have used Microsoft Paint to draw Mary Janes on Margaret's feet.

All the Louis grandkids.

Another fail.

The smudge on my lens didn't help.

(can you tell I was disappointed about the pictures I took... can't wait to see the professional pics)

Gabe and Henry.

Henry thanks God for Gabe (along with Isabelle, Arden, Aunt Jenny, and Uncle Ross. Amen.) every night. His own parents don't get a shout out.

Margaret Gray was a trooper. She enjoyed (can't you tell by the expression on her face? ha) stretching her legs- she had to be held for a good 2 1/2 hours.

Another cousin pic

Tom's Siblings

L-R

Tom, Walter, Ross, Jack, Alex, Kate, and Mary Pat


So I had been really anxious about keeping the kids quiet during the ceremony by myself.

After we were seated, a string quartet started playing Great is thy Faithfulness and Henry started singing aloud. I was thinking "what in the world is he singing and can he PLEASE be quiet?!?!" Then I heard him sing "Holy, Holy, Holy..." (The version of Holy, Holy, Holy that they sing in Bible study is played by strings.) I gave thanks to God for my sweet son, and hoped that this special moment would keep me from pinching him during the ceremony.

After 20 mins of being pseudo-quiet/ still, Henry decided he was done.

Luckily Tom's aunt (Thanks again, Laura!) was there to escort him out.

Margaret and I made our exit during the silent moment of prayer.

I kicked over her cup of Cheerios.

For what I did get to experience/ pay attention to, it was a beautiful ceremony.

How could it not be when Leigh was preceded down the aisle by a bag piper?!?!

Ah, finally able to relax at the reception.

Leigh's parents provided child care for all the grandkids.

We all REALLY appreciated this kind gesture and really enjoyed our child free evening!

Such a beautiful couple!

Ross and Jenny found the "photo booth" and took advantage of the props.

We somehow were able to round up all 16 Louis gang members and got a group pic- can't wait to see it!

Jenny and I enjoyed cutting a rug to the music of a great band.

They played Bon Jovi and Journey :)

Mary Pat and I lived it up without our 2 year olds.

Megan and I got some quality time together.

So, Jack and Leigh are off to Paris... no, not for their honeymoon. To live there.

Jack is a manager of a touring company there.

They have bicycle and segway tours.

So here they are leaving on their segways... complete with signs and cans rattling behind.

They provided buses back to the hotels.

Before picking up our kids, our family had a pull up contest... don't know how or why this got started, but we all found it quite funny.

It was a wonderful evening spent with our family!

Can't wait till we're all back together, again... could be years

:(

The next morning, we went to a brunch for Jack and Leigh.

It was at another beautiful country club. (Birmingham is gorgeous!)

PatPat with some Herndons and Babbs.

Margaret didn't really eat much the whole time we were there... but she did make sure to gobble down this delish brunch.

Henry took full advantage of a second breakfast.

Sweet hugs before we had to say goodbye.

I'll say it again, it was a wonderful weekend!

Stressful, hectic, tiring... yes.

But I am so blessed to have such amazing inlaws, and we are super excited to complete the family with Leigh!