Previously, when the house would suddenly grow quiet, I knew Gracen was up to something… The kind of something that left Mama or Papa with a significant clean-up project (a value pack of Q-tips emptied in the bedroom, an entire roll of toilet paper unravelled onto the floor, and a pouch of 500 straws shaken all over the kitchen all come to mind). However, recently things have changed. Now when the house grows silent, I almost always find our little girl cozied up with a book. There she’ll be, nestled on top of a giant pillow or buried in a pile of laundry fresh out of the dryer, book in hand and flipping through the pages while pointing at the pictures… I love this kind of quiet.

This little monkey now loves bananas more than ever. But don’t try to give her just a piece of banana. Nuh uh. That simply won’t do. She wants the entire banana so that she can peel it by herself and break off a chunk as she sees fit.

Apparently Gracen’s heard of the new planking fad, because I came into the living room tonight to find her like this.

Today we were mailing some things to Grandma Sue and decided that she needed some artwork to accompany the boring paperwork she’d soon be receiving. Gracen went about drawing like a pro. In fact, I think she may grow up to be an artist, just like her Baba.

Today we were thrilled to catch up with our old friends from Kuwait, Sue and Ava. The girls had fun playing together and at the end of the visit, I attempted to get a photo of the two of them. Ava sat perfectly still while holding her puppy dog and smiling, and our child did this – rolled around on the ground. Silly little goose.

Plop her down in a pile of dirt and she’s as happy as a piggy in mud.

This morning I headed out to Langley to visit a friend, and Gracen stayed home with the boys.

Gracen has loved these pillows since the moment we picked them out at the store. As soon as I put them in the cart, she scooped one up and started squeezing it and smushing her face into it. And the excitement hasn’t worn off now that we have them at home… Throughout the day, she randomly snuggles up on them and each time, a sweet little smile comes across her face. :)

‘Com’on, Bubba. You have to open your mouth!’

It was a gorgeous morning, and although it started off fairly chilly, the sun came out and warmed us up by the end.

Today we had lunch with the Cochrane crew before heading out to the airport. Lucky for us, the flight wasn’t full and the Westjet associate gave us our own row of seats – yippee! Inevitably, a man came and asked if he could sit with us. After convincing the first guy to sit in the empty row behind us, another guy came along and asked if he could join our row. Seriously – who wants to sit next to a baby on a plane? Ugh. Oh well. We made it home safely and Bradley was at the airport waiting for us when we arrived. Unfortunately, when we arrived home with an extremely tired little girl, we were locked out of our house – but that’s another story…

Then moved on to the quad for a little ride…

This afternoon Rozi and I headed out to the Edge farm to let the kiddos play in the leaves while us mamas snapped a few (okay, more like 300) photos. After four years of scorching Septembers in Kuwait, the crisp fall air and bright yellow leaves have never seemed more wonderful.

Today Gracen got this strand of beads when we got off the merry-go-round we rode at Chinook. She pretty much loves them. She takes them on and off once and a while, but she’s had them on for the majority of the afternoon/evening. I can’t help but think that she looks a bit like a mardi gras girl in this photo – topless with beads on. This may be cute at one, but let’s hope this is as far as it ever goes…

Tonight Kinslee climbed into this basket and guess who climbed in right on top of her? Yup, that would be our Grae. Luckily her cousin is so patient with her. :)