Family Fun Day

Our little family had a great day this past weekend. After Chess's first nap we headed to our local fall festival.


Chess is ready to ride to the fall festival.






Here we are enjoying some delicious festival food. Notice Chess's facial expression. She can't wait until next year's festival when she will be able to eat some of the goodies herself.

Upon returning home, Chess had her second nap of the day. Then we made our way to the bowling alley.


Chess enjoyed sitting in her stroller, watching her parents bowl in all the cosmic lights.


Although I look like a serious bowler here, Jared still won both games. Looks aren't everything when it comes to bowling.




Cosmic Chess

Chess Likes to Jump

This is just a tiny tidbit of Chess's jumping skills. She cracks us up in this thing!

*UPDATED* Calling All English Majors

First of all, thanks for all your comments. Most people seemed to like Chess' better than Chess's, but through a little research, I think I am going to start using Chess's for two reasons.

1. Although both ways are correct, I found this semi-rule:

A singular noun ending in "s" takes either an apostrophe or the full 's depending on whether we pronounce the word with an added syllable or not.

For example, we say Chris-es house (Chris's house). We pronounce the extra syllable, so we write the full 's.
But, we say Achilles- heel (Achilles' heel). We do not pronounce the extra syllable, so we write only an apostrophe.

2. I saw this book cover:



I love Dr. Seuss, and if a triple S isn't too crazy for him, then it's not too crazy for me.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________


Since before Chess was born, I anticipated a problem using the possessive form of her name. I'm pretty sure the rule allows you to choose whether or not to add only an apostrophe, or an apostrophe and an s to make a singular noun ending in s possessive.

I have been using "Chess' toys" (for example) because her name ends in a double s making "Chess's toys" if I did it the other way and that looks a little crazy to me. But I am starting to rethink it because it looks like you should pronounce it just "Chess" instead of "Chess-es."

So what do you think? Chess' or Chess's

6 Months Old

My baby has officially been on this earth for half a year! As everyone said it would, it truly has flown by. She is such a joy to me and Jared. I cannot imagine my life without her. To celebrate 6 months of life, I will share 6 fun facts about Chess.

1. She loves the wind blowing on her and being outside anytime. It is her favorite place.



2. She loves to eat. She is very much like her daddy because she loves fruits and vegetables and has eaten every food we've given her so far.



3. She is a grabber. She loves to grab your face (especially nose and mouth), ears, hair, and whatever else she can reach. And it hurts, too!



4. She is rolling all over the place now - right across the room, and can sit up by herself for quite a while before tipping over.



5. She has the sweetest smelling breath ever. I just can't get enough of it.



6. She is one loved little girl. She has parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. that love to hold, hug, kiss, and play with her.

Pumpkin Carving

Evening Outside

Burt's Pumpkin Farm

Warning: This was my baby's first trip to the pumpkin patch, so we took A LOT of pictures and I posted quite a few as well.


greeting everyone upon arrival




Chess and Stacy waiting in line for the hayride


Chess was not quite sure what to think about it all.




listening intently to Gordy and Autumn


The other kids are also listening intently.




first encounter with hay












They looked so cute standing over there.




the whole gang minus Dad, Amy, Emma, and Ellie


how Jared ate lunch