Deep and Wide ~

The girls were singing this song as we drove to the forest on our first family hunting trip.

LOST: Whitetail Buck ~

If anyone has seen a massive (sarcastic) whitetail buck, please notify Brad and Madelyn ASAP.
When we sighted our guns in, the girls didn't like the loud bang, so they wore earmuffs. Below, Ruthie is simply being cute and silly.
I overheard Ruthie and Grandma's conversation while playing make-believe:

Ruthie: I will sin Grandma. No, no...I will pretend to sin.

Apparently they were playing "Adam and Eve" and the Fall of mankind in the garden.

Ever since Grandma Cheryl spoke at a ladies meeting, Ruthie's been wanting to pretend to preach. She has Nae and Grandma sit while she preaches through the Bible...then she'll do a special in which she closes her eyes and hums a beautiful melody (we're assuming a hymn of some sort).

The other day she was leading a ladies Bible study (she invited me, how sweet), and I asked her who was leading it and she said, "Me and Pastor Pretend."

Our girls sing about death a lot...they sing the song "I'll Fly Away." They love that song...Naomi will point to her eye during the "I'll" part, then they'll flap their wings for the flying part.

[Ruthie sits on Naomi's carseat]

"This carseat is much too hard!"

[Ruthie sits on her own carseat]

"Ah, this carseat is just right!"

[Scene taken from Goldilocks and the Three Bears, performed by Ruth Shilloy Fox before a trip to town]

Grandpa gave Ruthie and Nae $2 for chicken nuggets when we went to town. Brad was talking to Ruthie about how it's a sin to love money. Her response to loving money, "Daddy, that's silly to love money!"

Brad also mentioned how we need to be willing to give to the poor. He asked Ruthie who she wanted to give her $1 to who might be in need...her response, "The chicken nugget lady!"

Before Naomi takes her naps she demands that we pray over her (which I enjoy doing). After we pray over her she'll stand up and say, "Pray again!" This is repeated multiple times...we're suspecting this might be a ploy to postpone the nap.

Most of you probably don't know that Naomi was a twin. Lately I've been thinking about Nae's twin and wondering what she would be like...would she be funny like Naomi? And into everything like her? Or would she be more like Ruthie? It's weird to think that we could have three little ones right now, but we also know that God is in control...and we trust Him.

So we went hunting yesterday and I shot at a whitetail buck. He ran over a hill and we spent most of the morning looking for him. It was neat to see Brad try to track him down...he found blood spots I never would have seen. Eventually we lost the trail so I guess I'll have to try at a whitetail again.

It was fun taking the girls hunting last night. They did a great job spotting deer from their carseats. This whitetail I shot was perfect and I wish we could have found him.

Naomi's Bangs ~

Lately Nae has been boycotting naptimes. Whenever we mention naps she calmly says, "No sleep," and she means it! Isn't Nae cute with her new haircut? :)

Our Daughters Make Us Smile ~

We finally gave Ruthie a haircut. She got seven inches cut off! Now it's a lot easier to manage.
Setting--Grade school playground

Brad: Ruthie, I went here when I was little.

Ruthie: Can I please go here when I'm little too?

Cheryl took Naomi to the bank with her one morning. Her comment when she came back: If you're running errands make sure to allow a long amount of time with Naomi (she likes to smell the roses). Brad said Ruthie wanted to surprise me by cleaning up all her toys before I got to the house...she said, "Mama will be so happy. She'll say thank you to me. She'll be so happy."
We told Naomi multiple times to not touch her sucker (due to stickiness), and we heard Ruthie saying, "Nae, you know why suckers are sticky? Because God made them like that." Then she proceeded in touching her sucker saying, "Sticky, sticky, sticky!"
Ruthie's new game to play is called "Tommy and Matthew." We play this everyday, all day, all morning, right before bed, after breakfast, during dinner...you get the point. She likes to pretend we're driving to preschool to pick up Tommy and Matthew, then we go grocery shopping. But lately this game title has morphed into anything make-believe...Tommy and Matthew are the main characters though. Grandma Cheryl does a great job with this game and gives us breaks throughout the day by jumping in and picking up Tommy and Matthew from preschool (those boys go to school all day I tell you)!
We had some fun with wigs the other day.

Ruthie loves when Auntie comes to visit. By the way, she plays "Tommy and Matthew" too...but lately she's been driving too fast when picking them up from preschool...she might have received a ticket.

The girls like to "drink" their yogurt. Sometimes they use straws too.
The results are this...
...and this.

Smells Like Football Season ~

Whenever Fall comes around I always say "it smells like football season!" Our family enjoys going to football games, even if it's very cold out!
I'm not sure how I'll handle Alaska because I was freezing at this game...it wasn't even that cold!
Naomi got a huge smile on when they kicked off.

Grandma Cheryl helped me out a lot with the girls.
Ruthie likes climbing the bleachers.

My Favorite Season ~

WARNING: This post has a lot of pictures with yellow leaves...I just happen to love the Fall season so thanks for bearing with me. :)


Ruthie: Oh no! The sky is falling...we have to tell the king!

Naomi: Um....yep! (Nae's favorite thing to say)

Since we enjoy the Fall leaves we took the girls out hiking. We did one hike with all four of us walking, then another one with the stroller so Brad and I could get exercise.

Naomi's been speaking in sentences lately. Her first sentence was so fun to try to understand. Unfortunately the sentence went like this: [Tears and screaming involved] Woofie (Ruthie) take me silreal (cereal), dup (dump) out, mean!
Another story about our sweet Ruthiebelle. :) She was put in time out and I told her I would come back when she was "calm and quiet." When I left I could hear her loudly screaming in anger, "Mama! I'm calm and quiet! I'm calm and quiet!" Not exactly what I was looking for with either word.




Not sure what's going on in this picture?

Ruthie randomly said she thought we should write Auntie a thank you note. When I asked why she said, "Because she's nice."
The girls were retrieving leaves for Grandma Cheryl since she wasn't able to make this trip...but we ended up losing them along the hike.
Cute.





This was our second hike. We were running late on time so I took the stroller and ran the mile long hike while Brad ran back for the van and met us at the waterfall near the end.



I thought I was somewhat in shape until I ran with a stroller over rocks, etc. I was pretty exhausted afterwards.


Grandma Cheryl wanted to see the Fall leaves too, so we all went to the country after church on Sunday.