Shenanigans with the Stephens Cousins

So, I'm a month behind the times. A lot of things of been happening in our lives. . .

Brendan recently spent a month away from home. First, preparing with some of his unit in Kentucky, and then went on to Egypt to document US training of Egyptian soliders. He got jump out of airplanes and heliocopters. Brendan also got to see the pyramids! He got a little sick, but is all better now. All and all, it was a good trip. Garrett and I missed him very much.

When Brendan got back in town, we spent the weekend in Knightdale, NC and stayed with Tim and Hannah. Garrett loves spending time with his cousins, Mia and Vincent (Cousin Vinny). They played really well with each other, minus normal little people toy stealing, occasionally.

We went to Marbles, the Children's Museum in Raliegh. It's a really sweet kid's museum. Aunt Amanda joined us (check out her karaoke in the "cousins playing" video :) ).We all had a blast, but no one enjoyed themselves as much as Garrett. Garrett was in rare form. He loved having all the free rein to explore and perfect his walking skills. He played until he dropped; when he got tired from walking, he crawled. Check out all the great video from the weekend: "cousins playing". One of my favorite exerpts is Vinny in a blue tutu!

When Garrett and I were in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving, Brendan spent more time at Tim and Hannah's. Brendan and Tim took Vinny and Mia on a little swap adventure. Mia found a great cattail. Later she had fun spreading all the cattail fluffies around the yard.

Happy Halloween!

Garrett was an adorable alien! I didn't take him trick-or-treating. We stayed home so he could enjoy all the trick-or-treaters.

Our house was on the neighborhood trick-or-treat trail; we had a sign in our yard. Unfortunately, our dead-end street is a little too dark and scary. We didn't get many trick-or-treaters.

Garrett is starting to get a hang of the walking thing, but if he wants to go fast he crawls. I can tell he's going to be a handful-- wait, he already is :).

Fall Fun

Exciting news: Garrett has taken his first steps! Every day since his first steps, he's taken more and more. I'm sure he'll be running within the month :). Garrett is becoming quite the toddler-- walking, climbing, saying new words. He can now say balloon and duck. In addition, he recognizes lots of objects and words.

Garrett is so darn adorable. Brendan and I are blown away by his cuteness; just when you think he can't get any cuter, it happens. He's quite rambunctious, also. This kid can romp like nobody's business, and climb and throw things. Welcome to toddlerhood!

This weekend we went to a pumpkin patch at Hidden Horse Farm. Garrett loves pumpkins! Before we went to the patch, I bought a pie pumpkin, which Garrett played with every day for long stretches of time-- 10 to 15 minutes or a very long time in toddler minutes.

At the farm, Garrett saw horses and ponies. He was very interested in the horses and even put out his hand to pat the noses of a few. Garrett loved watching the other kiddos at the pumpkin patch, and loved bowling with pumpkins. Many of the pumpkins were on a slight hillside, and Garrett would roll pumpkins, one at a time, down the hill. He watched each intently to see what would happen, then would go for another. Our own baby Issac Newton.

After the farm, we went to Stone Mountain State Park, near the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was gorgeous; there were bursts of beautiful foliage and lots of deer. We had a great time!

Family Reunion

We met little Evelyn Lily de Jong for the first time! Brendan's sister, Katie, and our brother-in-law, Peter recently came to visit North Carolina; they live in Toronto. We met them on the North Carolina coast, and enjoyed a mini- beach trip.

Little Eve is beautiful blend of her parents. Garrett enjoyed hanging out with his baby cousin. He was surprisingly gentle, with a few expected rough moments.

Garrett looked like such an adorable little surfer boy in his swim suit.

We had a great time at the beach!











We got a second treat-- Brendan's brother, Tim came home safely from Iraq! There was a fun and chaotic family dinner with all the Stephens siblings, except Isabelle, who was at the Emmy's!









The delightful chaos was largely created by all the little cousins-- Garrett, Mia, Vincent, and Evelyn. It's so much fun to watch the sweet little rugrats romp around together.










Everyone was excited to have Tim back home. It was great to
see him interact with all the kiddos.









It was a loud and fun evening!

































On their way out of town, the de Jongs spent the night with us. We had great cookout! Our mutual friend Garrick chilled with us. He's a natural with the little ones :).