Sorry that it's been a while since I've posted anything. Every day I gain more respect for moms who have gone before me and survived. It's so hard to get everything done. My house stays a lot dirtier than I can believe sometimes and we don't eat as many vegetables as we should, but we're making it. The world will continue, even if Jackson eats an apple that is covered in dirt or Kate refuses to put pants on while she plays inside.

Kate likes to write the letter "F." It starts off pretty well, like this:But ends up like this. I guess once you get going, it's just hard to stop sometimes!The fall leaves have been so beautiful this year. Here are some shots from a trail at a park nearby. The lake is in the background and it's so pretty with all of the oranges, reds and yellows reflecting off of it! Kate loves hunting for acorns and searching for the next log to sit on. Jackson likes to chew on most things he finds.

We're working on managing Kate's 2-year-old mood swings, when she doesn't have the blue plate that she wants or doesn't want my help in washing her face or brushing her teeth. I have noticed that she is getting polite in her tantrums and tears, screaming "No, Thank You!" when she doesn't want me to help her. I'm learning more and more about patience, something that I once thought I was pretty good at but these days seem to fall short. When she is happy, she is so much fun. Her newest game is pretending to color with crayons--she does this when she has the option to actually use real crayons. She loves reading her Rhyming Bible; I can hear her repeating the impressively long rhymes as she sits down and "reads" to herself.Jackson is no longer my little baby boy. I really love this age, when he's really starting to do so much more on his own, but it's a bittersweet realization that he is growing up, harder to accept this time around than it was with Kate. (Perhaps because I was already 4 months pregnant when Kate was this age, so I knew I would soon be going through it all again). Jackson is starting to drop one of his daily naps. He's starting more imaginative play. He'll take one of Kate's teacups and spoons and pretend to be stirring. He puts her Little People dolls inside the airport or inside a car before he takes it back out to chew on it! I think Kate has noticed this change in Jackson too and is a little more eager to play with him these days. She coaches him and tries to get him to say words': "Can you say momma, Jackson? Momma?" Jackson, can you say ice cream store? Momma, can you get Jackson to say ice cream store?" (By the way, Jackson hasn't started talking any yet.)