In the dark of the night!

Every night before I go to bed, I check on the girls. I tuck all their blankets back on, kiss their little heads and head off to my bedroom to go to bed. Last night, after I finished my bedtime routine, I heard the toilet running in the girls bathroom. I walked back down the hall....no one was there. I looked back into their rooms...no one had moved...AT ALL...not even an inch. They were EXACTLY as I had left them! So naturally...I completely freak out! Who flushed the toilet??? I know it wasn't Kev because 1. He isn't a quiet person and 2. He was also dead asleep. So I ran back to my bedroom and woke him up..."Kev, go check the house. Someone flushed the toilet and it wasn't the girls!!!" (Please tell me I'm not the only wife to make her husband go check out freaky noises in the middle of the night !). Now, Kev IS THE WORST person to wake up. He is completely incoherent and has no idea what is going on! He starts complaining that I'm waking him up! Somehow he manages to get up, stumbles down to the bathroom, and looks INSIDE the toilet and exclaims, "There's no one here"! No kidding! So I make HIM look behind the shower curtain (because there's no way I'm looking there) and then I proceed to make him look in every closet, room, crevasse of the house! I even made him look in the garage and in the cars (just in case)! Unfortunately, once he "came to" he just laughed at me the entire time he was checking for the mysterious toilet flusher! So in the end, I still have no idea who flushed the toilet. It's just another night of many where I make him check out the freaky noises!

Where do I put all the leaves?!?!?!

(BTW, I can't even tell you how impossible it is to take a decent picture of our 4 little ones...seriously!)

There is something so warm, cozy and nostalgic about the fall time. I love turning on the fire place for the first time and I love running to Starbucks (for hot chocolate of course) on those first really cold mornings! One of Michigan's fall traditions is to have apple cider and donuts. And it's a tradition I am loving! I also love going to the apple orchards and pumpkin patches. We went to the patch on Saturday and had so much fun! It was so funny to watch the girls pick out their pumpkins. The smallest ones were obviously for Laicee---and the largest ones were for Kev. While we were there, we went on a hay ride, the girls rode ponies, and they also went on a cow train that they LOVED!

They loved the hay ride...although we all ended up covered in hay (which I'm still finding in their hair). We were the only ones who thought throwing hay on a hay ride was funny!
(The little boy in the pics is my sister's little boy, Jackson)

Amberlee was THE MOST excited little girl to ride the ponies. This was by far her favorite thing!

In addition to our fall fun, Kev took the girls camping in the backyard! They loved it, of course, and learned that the moon is a natural nightlight. They were so amazed! Emma kept saying (over and over and over) "Emma (3rd person speech) camping outside with Daddy"...adding a cute little cheesy grin each time she'd say it!

Another great thing about the fall...the scenery! It is so amazing around here with all the different colors of the leaves. Our neighborhood is gorgeous at this time!

...But then it all falls! It takes us a couple hours every Saturday to rake up all of our leaves. It's probably quite funny to drive by our house and see Kev with his crutches trying to rake up leaves, me doing the majority of the work, and the girls "helping" and then jumping in the HUGE piles when we're finished. It's all part of fall...and I love it!

I have to give you an aerial shot...so many leaves and I don't know what to do with them!!!

Laicee -- 0 to 60 in 10 minutes!

This is mostly for the grandmas...Laicee is finally walking! Yeah! She has been cruising for about a month. She hasn't even been standing on her own...until tonight. All of the sudden, I found her standing...and then walking. It Happened just like that!! She was so proud of herself, as were we, but not nearly as much as her squealy sisters in the background!

New Neighbors

Our house is on the right, theirs is on the left

I realize that you probably could care less about who our neighbors might be...unless it's someone interesting...

Last May, Steph's parents were visiting and saw the house next door to us was for sale. They had been thinking about making our town their "home base" so they put in an offer and bought the house! Just last week, Steph's sister called and told us that she is now moving into the house next door! So now, Kristin, her husband, and her little man will be our new neighbors!

We know what you're thinking..."I don't know if I could live THAT close to family"! It will be interesting...and ground rules have been set, of course :), But we are overall excited. We have never lived close to any family so this will be a new experience for us.

So, we love polls! Our question is...could you do it? Could you live Raymond style by your family???