Halloween 2014

The Sunday before Halloween our church hosted Trunk or Treat. It was an amazing event. The kids had a blast.

Grace, DJ and Julie trick or treated with our family. Grandma and Grandpa were in town that weekend as well. We all went trick or treating in our neighborhood. Then as tradition goes, the kids set up shop and had a blast passing out the candy they collected!!! They kept some for themselves, but everything else was handed out!

Touch-A-Truck

We had the opportunity to take the kids to an event called Touch-A-Truck. There were all kinds of vehicles that the kids could explore (climb in, "drive," push the horn). dump trucks, water truck, bus, recycle truck, ambulance, fire truck, police vehicles, sherrif, helicopter, Herbie (the love bug), diggers, skid steer, grader. It was very fun!!

working the levers on a flatbed tow truck

 inside the bucket part of the digger

 coming out the hatch of the Sherrif's 

(with the huge ladder raised up in the background from the fire truck)

Making Root Beer

With Matt's new Kegerator, he decided to make root beer with the kids. They are always watching him make beer that they don't get to taste, but this time they got to make something for themselves. They had a great time. Homemade root beer definitely tastes different then store bought root beer and is a lot less carbonated, but nevertheless, its delicious. We are excited to have a homemade ice cream and root beer float party!

Sweet Siblings

Its been a while since I've posted anything but pictures. It seems like these days are moving at the speed of light and there is little time to sit and write all the thoughts I want to remember about this stage of life that pass through my head. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE being a mom and I am BEYOND grateful for my 2 kiddos. I never thought I'd love them as much as I do. I am especially thankful to have a boy and a girl. It is so neat to have them be so different. I LOVE watching them play together, talk to each other, share with each other, hug, wrestle and work things out. They are such great friends...and each week their friendship continues to develop. Derek is the coolest older brother. He knows all about the princesses. He will play princesses and dolls with Rylie. Rylie is the coolest little sister. She knows all about super heros, Star Wars and Legos and will play them with Derek. They play amazing imaginative games too...sometimes Queen Elsa, sometimes Star Wars and storm troopers.

A few moments to remember:

At our neighbor's party. The kids were playing outside with beach balls. An older boy took the beach ball Derek was playing with. Rylie got upset. She walked right up to the boy (about 12 years old) and said "That is my brother's ball." Another time someone had taken Rylie's beach ball and Derek said "You can't take that ball. It's Rylie's." I LOVE how they watch out for each other.

After arguing about who got to play with the "Mommy" Anna doll. I told the kids they needed to leave the doll and go find something else to play with in the play room. They walked away and I could overhear them in the playroom discussing things.
D - "That wasn't very good. We should do something nice for Mommy."
R - "Yes."
D - "Let's try it again Rylie."
They 2 of them come back into the kitchen.
D - "Mommy, we talked about it and we are going to try it again."
Me - "What a great choice. I am so proud of your decision to give sharing another try."
R - "Mommy, we had a conference and are going to try it again."

What a difference a year makes!

Freeman Farms

We went to Freeman Farms to enjoy their fall festival and pick pumpkins in a REAL pumpkin patch. It was so nice to drive 2 hours and go north. We all had a fantastic time at the farm. The farm was not busy at all, so the kids got to really experience things at their pace. We watched a horse show, rode the carousel (2x), experienced the corn maze, pet the animals, went on a hayride, watched a dog show, picked pumpkins, went on a kid train ride, and learned about farming. It was a great adventure.

 

 Hayride!

 riding the kid's train - all by himself!

 CORN MAZE - so fun - it was my first time in a corn maze too!

 We found HUGE grasshoppers!