Nicholas and Claire had a great time carving pumpkins with Daddy.SS

Since Nicholas is not allowed to call his his little brother Billy, he decided that giving his pumpking that name was the next best thing.

 

Claire loves posing for the camera

And here is the final product.

 

Welcome Baby William!

 William Michael was born on October 5th at 7:10 a.m. 

He made such a fast entrance into this world that we were fortunate to make it to the hospital in time!

Nicholas was more than thrilled when he found out he had a little brother!

 Claire was just happy to have a real baby to hold.

 Here are big brother and sister taking a peak at William's full head of dark hair.

 Here is our new family of five.

 When we got home a few days later we discovered that William loved to sleep in his swing as long as it was NOT moving. 

 We spent lots of time holding William

 and cuddling him.

 Here are daddy and William having some guy time.

 I love spending quiet time in the evenings snuggling my little guy.

This is his favorite sleeping position.

Here's Nicholas on his first day of Kindergarten!  He loves school!

Thanks for the new bubbles, Miss Gretchen!

It's amazing how many shrieks and squeals of delight bubbles produce...

and how many hours of entertainment they provide.  I think we played outside all afternoon that day.

One hot afternoon the kids thought it would be fun to make their own forts.  Thankfully we kept all of our moving boxes, and here are the finished products. 

A Short Summer Get Away

 The kids and I took a last-minute trip to Michigan a few weeks ago.  We visited some friends who live close to the lake so that's where we spent the two days we were there.

They had lots of fun playing in the sand...

 but playing in the water was definitely their favorite thing to do.

 These four boys started hanging out when they were newborns and now they are all getting ready to start kindergarten!

 We ended our trip with a visit to my parent's before heading home.  Grandma got out the slip and slide, which was a big hit!

More Pictures

I can hardly believe my baby girl turned three a few weeks ago!  She took a nasty fall on the driveway and scratched her face just in time for birthday pictures.

She asked all day when it would be time for her "happy birthday", which was her way of asking when we would have cake.  She was very pleased as we sang to her and she blew out her candles without any help from big brother.

We thought another set of blocks (Nicholas already had one) would be a good gift.  Now we can build really big towers and lots of other fun things together.

My parents came for a visit last weekend and brought my niece along.  Nicholas and Claire always love to have their cousin visit.

Fun in the pool!

Silly Faces!

Saying Goodbye.

Here is the Aoun clan in front of our new house.

Lots of Random Pictures

Nicholas and Claire cuddling up on my HUGE body pillow.

I took lots of pictures on our latest trip to the zoo.  Unfortunately, I had the camera on the wrong setting so this was one of the few that turned out.

We sold our house about 5 weeks after it was listed.  We are very thankful for our new house where we have more room for our family, especially with our new arrival due in about 3 months.

There's nothing like putting your feet up in some cool water to relax at the end of the day.

Better yet, why not just get all the way in!

And what's even more fun is playing at the splash park on hot summer days.

I think this is a taste of what's to come in our future!

 Nicholas' preschool had a career month which ended in Career Day for the kids.  He has decided to be a rock star when he grows up so that's what he dressed up like for school! 

 Claire is just as sweet and loving (and sometimes ornery) as usual these days.

 She has really taken an interest in drawing lately and often asks mom or dad to draw her name while she dictates the letters.

Speaking of drawing, here's a picture my other little artist drew on his wall while Claire was having a bath one evening!  Thank God for Magic Erasers!!!