Summer into Fall

We've had a BUSY couple months transitioning to a family of FIVE! 

It's been pretty intense having a newborn, toddler, and 5 year old, and continuing to work (I was on maternity leave for 6 weeks) while Matt works long hours at Ft. Lee. So my mom came out again for a week to help, which has been amazing! It's the only reason I've been able to put together this blog post. :) 

Our summer ended when Lydia started KINDERGARTEN! She was a little nervous but did really well - and now she loves it! She takes the bus which is new to me, but really wonderful (when it's on time).  After figuring out the bus we now drop her off in the morning and she takes the bus home. 

Lydia's sweet Kindergarten teacher, Miss Dalton

Pajama day

Lyd's self portrait

We also met Baby Cousin Cameron over FaceTime!! Ellen and Corey's baby was born October 7 and we couldn't love him more! Cannot wait to snuggle him!

Baby Elise is growing SO fast. She is a great sleeper, and sleeps through the night almost every night. She nurses before bed and first thing in the morning (and at any night wake ups) but has bottles during the day. She's is a super easy, pleasant baby! 

She turns 3 months old this week. We made it through the fourth trimester!

8 weeks

8 weeks

7 weeks

6 weeks

One of her very first smiles

Birthday party at the splash pad

Seven weeks

Luke is adorable following Matt around and 'helping' with
the yard work every weekend

We visited a couple pumpkin patches/apple orchards! One was with friends between sessions of General Conference, and one was when Matt took Lydia and Luke apple picking in Charlottesville. 

Matt turned 32! We celebrated him with an Oreo ice cream cake and Lowe's gift cards. :) 

When we used to pick up Lydia from K in the car, it would take an hour+. It's a huge problem in our school district. Luke would crawl all over the car and swing from the sun roof! It was a lot. So we switched back to the bus even though it's late at least once/week. 

Went to the zoo with friends

Grandma Trudy is here now and it's been great! She is amazing and we're so grateful for her. There's been lots of shopping, cooking, talking, morning walks and baby cuddles. She even got Elise to laugh for the first time! The highlight for Lydia was going shopping at the big mall one night with Grandma and Mom. :)

When Elise was 2 weeks old, Matt had his Change of Command Ceremony to mark the end of his time as Commander! He received an award and gave a great speech. Luke even charmed the crowd by joining him on stage for a minute. :) The ceremony was supposed to be a couple weeks before, but had to be postponed because Elise came so early! Congratulations to Matt! (And to me for driving both kids and the newborn 40 minutes each way and sitting with them through the ceremony. Some of Matt's friendly coworkers helped me manage them during the ceremony since I was obviously struggling!) Now Matt has less than a year left in the military.