welcome precious

For the past 9 1/2 months I have looked something like this - growing rounder by the week.

And finally 12 days ago, this squirming, screaming precious little girl came out to meet the world.

World meet Abigail Jean Robbins.

She was born December 5th, 2012 weighing 8 lbs. 10.6 ounces

and 21 inches long

On December 6th (super late at night) we got to take her home.

And this is what life looks like around our house now:

Big sister adores her.

Big brother is fascinated by her.

Daddy (and mommy) love snuggling her and are getting a little bit of sleep.

There are some moments of screaming.

More adoring.
(Hannah says the best part of having a baby sister is getting to hold her.)

Kisses from grammy.

Visits from dear friends.

 

Staring into grandma's glasses.

More and more awake time each day.

and even some cuddles with cousins.

Now there are five of us,

I wonder what adventures await us!

fall art

Today is a sick day for mommy.
Which means we stay around the house and do quiet activities.


I'd been wanting to try these Fall tree painting projects I saw on Pinterest
and today was the perfect opportunity!

Peter used wine corks (perfect for chubby little fingers)



and stamped leaves all over his tree.

Hannah used Q-Tips and gently dotted her leaves on the tree.

My two artists at work.

the color palette

 

Peter's finished project

Hannah's finished project

apples

Yesterday our family took a trip up to Apple Hill.

I love going to that place.

And I love fresh, crisp apples!

So does my family.

 

We had a lovely picnic, looking out at the apple orchards and in the distant,

 we could even see the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains.

 

 There were a few a pumpkin patch decorations still up and the kids had a lot of fun with them!

Peter was loving climbing on top of the gigantic pumpkins.
And we were trying to get him to say "I'm the king of the world!"

Then Hannah announced, "it's my turn to be the princess of the earth!"

We watched this industrial strength apple peeler & corer machine in action.

 

 

There were some gorgeous fall colors around us.

And we explored until we found a tiny orchard that claimed to have award-winning pies.
And oh my, were they good.  If you happen to be up there go to "Bodhaine Apple Ranch" -
absolutely delicious and all handmade!!!

 

They said their favorite apple to use was the Rome Beauty.

Another picnic, this time under the apple trees.
In fact, as we were enjoying our treats a huge apple fell out of a tree
and missed hitting Peter's head by mere inches!
The kids thought that was pretty awesome (and we got to take the apple home).

 

What a refreshing, lovely place to spend the afternoon!

This morning the kids and I set to work making our first ever batch of applesauce.

All ready to cook in the crockpot.

It was easy and came out pretty yummy,
but I think the kids had the most fun with the long, curly strings of apple skin.

 

 

halloween fun

Today was a fun day.

I took superman shopping with me at Trader Joe's this morning.



He put his strong muscles to work pushing the cart around the store and garnering lots of attention!

Then, superman, daddy & I headed to Hannah's school for the Halloween parade.

little miss Rapunzel!

hanging out at closing circle, Peter sat through the whole thing!

"Hannah, Hannah it's your turn, show us your costume and then return!"

After rest time we picked pumpkins from our own backyard.

 

It was pretty exciting to plant seeds, water them and watch them grow.
And then get to pick them!

Great idea daddy!

 

We also did some harvesting of other produce in our backyard.

some serious bounty for the end of October

carving our pumpkins

 

Mommy was skeptical, but our mini pumpkins made great jack-o-lanterns

 

Time for dinner,
a costume change

and Nemo & a ballerina

are ready for some trick or treating

The only problem - it started raining.

 

But that didn't dissuade us from going out and having some fun knocking on our neighbor's doors!