Pickles!

Well, Papa has had the great honor of giving each of our children their first pickle. Eli reacted with shock but went back for more.
I guess it's safe to say that all of our children love pickles!

Emily's Basketball

Emily has been playing basketball these last few months. She has really improved this year. And more than that - she has had a blast. Like Alyssa smiles the entire time she plays soccer...Emily smiles the entire time she plays basketball. Here are some snapshots from some of her games.

Here she is taking a shot. Although the ball didn't go in this time...she did make several baskets this year.

Anna turned 4!

Anna turned 4 on the 16th. After the party, we ran some errands and told the girls to get on shoes and coats....
This is how Anna dressed...in her new clothes Grandma Pat gave her and her new froggie rainboots, coat and umbrella from Grandad.

And yes, we let her go dressed like that. :-)

Happy Birthday little Anna! You have been a blessing to our lives and we love you so much!

All Dressed Up

Emily was Queen Elizabeth.













Alyssa was a cheerleader.







Anna was a princess.

And Eli was a sock monkey.

Our neighbors had this little fall arrangement in their yard. We borrowed it for their pictures.

Trick-or-Treat

We had a great time trick-or-treating this year. I think this was our first time since Emily was 1 year old. We've always gone to Fall Festivals. Anyway, the girls really enjoyed it. Emily was a speed trick-or-treater. Alyssa just tried hard to keep up with Emily and Anna moved slowly checking every thing, person, and candy out.

Here is Eli's one and only trick-or-treat. He was real fascinated with this sweet woman. And he was content to ride in the front of the stroller for the rest of our journey. He's a sweetheart.

Candy!

Emily and her loot.

Alyssa, a.k.a. the candy queen!

Anna is all smiles!

Eli just got his one piece and he we still so happy!

The girls were so excited to hand out candy after we got home...unfortunately, we didn't have but maybe 4 little trick-or-treaters before we had to call in a night.

Carving Pumpkins!

The Rader Pumpkins

Emily giving Casey instructions....eating a cookie. :-)

Emily dug out all the guts by herself.

All done - with some of that cookie still on her chin.

Miss Sally helped Alyssa, who also has a cookie shoved in her mouth.

playing with the seeds

Alyssa with her perfect pumpkin

PaPa helped Anna carve her pumpkin.

Want a bite?

All finished!

Eli liked the pumkin guts.

Mom helped Eli and here's the finished product.

All the Rader pumpkins!

Pumpkin Patch

We headed to the Pumpkin Patch on Wednesday. It was pretty picked over but we still found some great pumpkins.

Anna helped Eli pick his.

Everyone is happy with their pumpkins...We'll carve them tomorrow.

My cousin's Wedding

All ready for the wedding to begin. Eli looks excited. :-)
G and S and I think it's Uncle Shane's head. :-)

The girls found the chocolate!

Emily really wanted to catch the flowers. She tried hard but didn't catch them. Alyssa and Anna didn't really care. And Eli slept on Grandad's lap. He's a trooper.

We traveled home the next day. It was quite a whirlwind of a weekend but I'm glad we went. Thanks, dad, for all the help. Love you!

OU / Texas

Well, we were down in Austin for the big game. So we watched it with one of my Texas fan cousins-the one I've rivaled with for some...15 years? Wow, I'm (we're) getting old. Anyway, we all know the outcome. Thankfully I didn't make a bet with him this year. :-) Here is the Texas JD holding OU Eli just after we lost the game.

Back to Texas

Well, we headed to Texas once again. Another cousin of mine was tying his knot. :-) I'll post pictures from that in a day or two. Casey wasn't able to go but my dad bravely took the journey with us. I have no idea how many stops we made. I think the first one was about 35 minutes into the trip. Anyhow... the girls are trained to stop at the border and they wanted a picture with Grandad.

The hotel is always lots of fun. One of the fun parts is riding on the luggage cart. Does it have an official name?

















Eli didn't sleep well on the trip. As a result, neither did I. And neither did Emily. And even Alyssa found herself awake at 3 o'clock in the morning. Anna, however, slept like a rock. An upside down rock that is.

Field Trip to the Fire Department

We have been talking about communities, so we took a field trip to the Muskogee Fire Department.

The firemen were great to host...only us. They gave the girls the complete tour of the facilities and all the trucks. Anna didn't want to sit in the truck but Emily and Alyssa enjoyed it. One of the firemen even suited up in his complete gear to show the girls what they would look like if they cam to our house because of a fire. The finished the tour with a quiz of safety precautions, as well as, crayons, coloring books and fire badge stickers.