Pumpkin Carving

Tonight we carved our pumpkins. Since Bradley is in South Dakota pheasant hunting, Grandma and Grandpa came over to lend a hand. Lauren enjoyed the experience and picked what designs we were going to carve. I think they turned out pretty well! We choose a moon and star design and the tin man in honor of our Wizard of Oz theme this year!

Halloween is Here!

Lauren had her preschool Halloween party today at school. She enjoyed dressing up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. She can't wait until tomorrow when she gets to go trick or treating. Blake will debut as the tin man. He's obviously not as excited as his big sister!

Here are a couple pics of Lauren and her friend Kaylee as Snow White. Aren't they adorable?

Planting Trees

Over the weekend we selected and planted trees for our home. Lauren helped by deciding which trees had the prettiest leaves when we were at the nursery. Blake assisted by eating grass as we were planting them! We decided on oak, maples, and pecan trees. We will add a red bud and crab apple in the spring. I can't wait for the trees to get big! Now we just need fence and landscaping in the front and we'll have the outside of our home nearly complete!

Our First Hay Ride and Wiener Roast

On Sunday we had some friends and family over for a hay ride and wiener roast. It was lots of fun! I hope we can make it an annual event. Thanks to everyone who came out!

Kitty, where are you?

Well I managed to lose the cat. Tiger seemed to think he was a dog and everytime I took a walk with Blake in the stroller, he came along too. He was always pretty good about getting off the road whenever a car came, etc. Well we went on a walk last Thursday and he went with me. He got over to the side of the road to get out of the way of a car, and when I called him to tell him it was safe, he wouldn't come. I went on home because I had other things to do and thought he would show up later. He was just in the corn field across from our house so I thought. Well, he hasn't come back and it's been almost a week now. I feel bad I lost our cat! My father in law is not happy with me at all. I guess it wasn't meant to be. Lucky for me, Lauren isn't upset so that is a very good thing!

One year pics

I finally got Blake's 1 year pics taken. Only a month late. They didn't go nearly as well as I had hoped. It's a long story but we got thrown in a training session when I specifically asked not to be. Anyways, Blake wasn't impressed by all the people trying to get him to smile. He's much better with a calm, one photographer approach. We finally did manage to get some decent ones though.

He's got it now!

Blake is officially walking! He officially decided to take the leap on October 22! He walks with very deliberate steps and with his arms straight up for balance. It's pretty cute, I must say. He's so delighted with himself. Now the real destruction begins. I just hope he takes a while before he starts running!

The little man

I am blogging this because I know I'm going to forget if I don't write it somewhere! Here are Blake's latest achievements

- Walked 10 steps today across the kitchen - it won't be long! Now if I could just catch it on video. Everytime the camera comes out we'd rather tackle it than perform.

- What does a cow say Blake? Moo! What does a sheep say? Moo All animals say moo!!!

- He has figured out how to open doors. Now if I can only make the stupid door locks made for french door handles actually work!

- He dearly loves his sister! His favorite thing to play is anything with Lauren! I hope their love lasts a lifetime (I know it won't though).

- Climbing stairs - he is a speed demon going up the stairs. Now the trick is getting him to come down correctly!

- He can finally get on and off his ride on tractor correctly! Now he just needs to figure out how to make his feet make him go forward instead of backwards.

It's the little things in life you know!

Stitches

Lauren had a field trip today to Eckert's in Millstadt to visit their pumpkin patch. Grandpa Floyd took the day off to attend the field trip with her. They had a wonderful day together. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of it but I'll post one of her pumpkin after she paints it or decorates it this weekend.

After the field trip, Lauren went to the park with Grandma and Grandpa and her friends Kaylee and Makenna. All the girls were having a great time on the monkey bars. Lauren decided to drop off the bars and instead of landing on her feet, she landed on her knees and fell face forward into the pea gravel. Her chin was banged up pretty good. I was in Fairview Heights at the time getting Blake's 1 yr. pics taken (we're behind at this house). I rushed back when they called (thankfully we were in the car driving towards home when they called). After looking at her chin we decided to take her to the ER and have them take a look. As I suspected, she needed stitches. Of course this freaked her out but after a little numbing and then some local anesthetic she was all stitched up. She was very brave and handled it all extremely well for a four year old. The ER staff was awesome and had us out of there in an hour. They gave Lauren and Blake both big stuffed animals which thrilled them.

This was our first time to the ER for stitches so it was a new experience for us all! I'm so thankful it was not worse.

He's got teeth!

While we were in Punta Cana, Blake brought in three more teeth! I can't believe how fast they are all coming in. He finally popped another top molar through, a top incisor, and the lone bottom one we've been waiting on. The poor boy doesn't get a break either. He's got a few more that I can see are coming fast and furious too. Not that that doesn't make him crabby enough, he has to go get the second half of his flu shot tomorrow. Poor boy! Why does teething have to be so hard on little ones???

Punta Cana

Bradley and I just returned from a five day trip to the Dominican Republic. Bradley was asked to give a talk at a conference in Punta Cana so I tagged along and we made a mini vacation out of it. It was a wonderful trip and exactly what our marriage needed! We have not taken a trip for more than two nights since Lauren was 18 months so we were overdue. We had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed just relaxing! I actually read a book which I haven't done in four years (except for child rearing ones of course). We went on a side trip to Cap Cana which was the most amazing place I've been too! Donald Trump owns part of Cap Cana so you can only imagine what this place was like. I'm hoping to travel back to the DR soon with the kids! Lauren would have been heaven with the ocean and the pools. The kids stayed back with our parents and did great without us. God bless wonderful grandparents who allowed us to have this time together!

Touch a Truck

My friend Melissa is a member of the Jr. Women's Club in Breese. Each year they host an event called Touch a Truck. It's an opporunity for kids to get hands on with things like firetrucks, semi's, hummers, bulldozers, race cars, tractors, busses, street sweepers, boats, ambulances, airplanes......etc, etc. I took the kids and they loved it! Lauren couldn't get enough of the litte mini bus that is a converted golf cart. Blake of course loved all the farm machinery. It was a great event! Kudos to Melissa for organizing it!

I love fall!

Fall is probably my favorite season. I love watching the trees change colors, the crops be harvested, decorating the house and pumpkins, having wiener roasts and eating smores, and most imporantly not sweating when outside! The kids and I have been enjoying the beautiful days so much. I took a picture of our fall display to share. We had lots of fun creating it as a family.

Tiger The Cat

I promised to upload a picture of the cat so here he is. My mom thinks he has worms so I guess I need to take this darn thing to the vet and get shots. I really didn't ask for this cat so I hate having to spend real money on it but I don't want my kids to get sick from it. So I guess I'll make an appointment! Grrrr.....

A few more steps

Blake took about five steps tonight on his own! He's getting closer to walking but still doesn't seem overly motivated to do it. I'm wondering if I'm going to have to take the push toys away to really get him to do it. I'm honestly in no hurry for him to walk. But it's so cute to watch him toddle on his own. Lauren is a big motivator to him and he seems most interested in trying to walk to her.

Just this past week he decided to start giving her big hugs each morning. She'll stand still and he'll throw his arms around her legs and bear hug her. I just hope their love lasts when he starts really getting into her stuff. I just wish I had my camera on me to catch these moments!

Kitty, kitty, kitty

Blake's new favorite word! He is in love with our new pet, Tiger. This cat is something else. He has figured out how to get out of the barn now so he joins us whenever we are outside. He has no problem with Lauren carrying him all over the place and Blake swatting at him. I'm trying to teach Blake to be gentle but it's hard for a 12 monther to know what gentle means! Blake just giggles and gets so excited around the cat. I'm hoping the cat decides to stay around.

Today Blake and I took a walk in the stroller while Lauren was at school. The cat went with us. He's like a dog, he just heals and stays right new to me the whole time. Whoever brought this cat too us has to be missing it. It's a great cat! Thank you kind person!

I'll post a picture soon. I left my camera at a friends house last week and just got it back tonight. I'll grab a pic in the morning.

Goodnight Gorilla

Blake's new favorite night time book is Good night Gorilla. If you aren't familiar with the story it's about a zookeeper who tells all the animals goodnight and the gorilla steels his keys and lets all the animals out of their cages. They animals follow the zookeeper home and end up in his bedroom and say good night. The zookeepers wife then has to take them all back to the zoo. The gorilla still doesn't stay and ends up sleeping in the zookeepers bed. Anyway, it doesn't have many words, mainly just pictures that I explain to Blake. He starts giggling the minute I open the first page on this book! It's so adorable and precious. He gets so tickled by me explaining the pictures. He is such a book lover right now. He just can't get me to read enough. I've even started putting books in his crib and he'll wake up early and "read" them putting himself back to sleep, which is very nice! These are the little moments I want to last forever, the innocence of a child is so precious. Why do they have to grow up so fast!!!!

A new addition....

No, not what you're thinking but a kitty! Last Saturday Bradley walked into the barn and discovered a young cat in the barn. It was super friendly and was looking for food. We ignored the cat for a few days to see if it would go home. I know it was mean of us to not feed it or water it but honestly if its going to be a barn cat, it has to learn to hunt mice. On Monday it still had not gone home so I caved and decided to feed it. On Tuesday I went to Target and purchased cat food and litter. I still haven't gotten the cat to use the litter box though! I hope that just means its doing its duty outside the barn and not in our hay! Lauren and Blake are enjoying having a cat thus far. He's very friendly and it's a tom cat so that is a good thing! We're working on a name. If you have any great ideas, send me a note!