Pumpkins Everywhere

I just love going to the pumpkin patch. I’m not sure why, but I do. I think it might be the ushering in of fall, the colors, and the appeal of a warm drink afterwards, so long as the temperature is cooler. I think the kids had lots of fun. The pumpkin patch we went to this year was a little different than ones we have been to in the past. The field where the pumpkins were laid out was not where they were grown. So everything was nice and neat, in pretty rows that were very well organized. That makes it easy to find the pumpkin you want. Bear had lots of fun trying to pick up the pumpkins, some were a little big but other he could do pretty well. Isabelle just wanted to pick them up by their handles, which is never a good idea. And to top off our pumpkin visit, it rained. Fortunately we made it out before the big rain hit. The rain did not seem to damper the kids’ spirit at all, they were ready. And probably would have looked for a pumpkin in the rain had I not suggested we wait it out.

We rode a hayride, the kids bounced on the numerous bounce houses that were available, took pictures by the character cutouts and got lost in the hay bale maze. Bear was not so keen on the maze, Isabelle left him behind and he got lost. When I sent her back in to find him, she comes back out. . . “Oh he’s crying!” The next thing I know he is climbing on the hay bales and finds his way back out by going over the maze. Which of course is not recommended but hey what are you going to do when they don’t let adults enter the maze. At least he was resourceful enough to climb his way out. Over all it was pretty fun, even with the little bit of rain that got us. Of course my kids want to climb on the one bounce house that does not have a cover and proceed to get all wet. Bear was already wet on his knees and below from climbing in and out of the wagon as well as trying to pick up pumpkins but hey what’s a little more moisture.

I really wanted to get some good pictures of the kids at the pumpkin patch so that I could frame them and put them in the powder room, for our fall decorations every year, but they were not as cooperative as I would have liked. I’m sure some will work or I can pick from other years, after all I’ll have them for a while so I’m sure we can get a good picture sometime. They did have fun sitting in the pumpkins and trying to look cute. Bear liked to push the pumpkins off the hay bale they were sitting on so we moved away from there. I would have hated for him to bust a pumpkin and they we would have to take it home. I will encourage everyone to take their kids to the pumpkin patch even just for pictures, they always have fun, especially when they are young.

I've Been Tagged

I made the tag list, yes! Or maybe no.

This Picture Tag involves taking the 4th file of photos on your computer and posting the 4th picture from that file. Now my forth picture file only had three pictures so I will post the third and the forth from the proceeding file. I hope you all enjoy!

I tag Vicki!



So this first picture is on Isabelle while we lived in California. Yes I let her feed herself yogurt. She is about 15 months old. (I had to actually count that out.)



I have the best car sleepers ever. It took Bear a little longer to sleep well in the car but not Isabelle. She takes after her Mommy there.

Color is so amazing! You never realize it until you have it up on a wall and see the difference from the start to the end. This leads me to tell you guys that we have painted the baby’s room. With help from my Mom we put up the squares, and painted the room. It is mostly ready for baby, I just have to wash some clothes and blankets and put them away and we will be ready. Isabelle is a little jealous that the baby’s room was painted before hers, but she is next on the list. I hope you all enjoy our room from afar or come by to see it in person. We are very please with how well it turned out. I’m really glad that I was able to reuse Isabelle’s decorations for this baby as well. After all my Mom did a great job of sewing everything and making it look great.

Breastfeeding

As many of you probably know I have breastfed both of my children and plan to continue with any other children we have. Obviously we have one on the way so you can guess how baby will be nourished upon arrival. I am always please to see celebrities sporting their babies in slings or carriers that are not mainstream, but I am really please to see celbs who breastfed in public. Angelina Jolie has recently had some pictures taken of her nursing her newest arrival. And I was happy to see that she was not completely covered. Not that I have anything wrong with a mom covering her and baby while nursing, I just feel a little more free to not feel pressured to cover. I think that it is important for mom's to nurse in public and not hide the fact that they are providing nourishment for their infant or toddler.

Yes that's right I said toddler. I know that many people feel it becomes inappropriate to nurse their child once they reach a certain age but I do not. I wanted to nurse Isabelle longer but we only made it to 13 months. Bear and I had a little longer run to 18 months. I really hope to make it to at least two with the new baby. And I will not be pushed away in public nursing my child at any age. I hope that all women feel comfortable enough with themselves and their ability to feed their baby whenever possible. For those people in the world who happen to disagree with me that nursing in public is wrong, I feel bad for you, you must not have been nursed as a child.

I hope that more celebrities will feel the need to show off their nursing skills on the front of a magazine or while they are out and about. It can only help to increase public awareness that breastfeeding is natural and convenient.

Colorful Ponies

These are the most colorful ponies I have ever seen. Each pony on this pony ride was all ready “dressed” up for the Halloween month. Pretty crazy! The kids had fun picking out the color of their pony though. You can’t really tell but Bear’s pony has gold glitter everywhere. Where do you think I could get one? I’m sure I would rather have a pony over a dog any day.

The growing belly

Ok so I think I’m a little late on getting this picture out but here it is my five month belly. Or at least as close to in the five month mark as possible. I wore this shirt when I was prego with Bear and of course that was more at the end of my time than the middle and so my belly really pushed the shirt out, not so much this time. Give me a couple more months and you might wonder where I went, because it will be just belly.

Soccer

Everyone is playing soccer but me! That’s right both kids and Ben. Isabelle finally got to start in her soccer league last weekend and had so much fun. I really like it because it is not all about playing the game but also learning skills to help the kids down the road. The first half of the program is working the ball or skill work, while the second half is a short 3 on 3 scrimmage. Each team is made up of five players and one coach. The field also includes a special staff coach on site to help with any issues that might come up. Isabelle did really great for her first week. She seemed a little confused at first then got the hang of things and was on her way. She just went out on the field and did her thing. The same can not be said for all the kids.




When they did their scrimmage game, she was the first one to score a goal.(sorry no picture, the computer, pictures and I are not having a good day, plus you can't really tell because there is a person standing in the way). She was so excited, especially when everyone cheered for her. I did not get a very good picture of it because there were too many people on the field, but you should have seen her face after her goal. I think she is really going to like her soccer team.

Garden Box

The continuing saga of the winter garden is slowly coming to a close. We finally have the structure built and filled in with soil. Now we just need to plant our seeds. Yes that’s right seeds! One day while Ben and the kids were playing outside Bear decided that it would be a good idea to destroy all the hard work we had done on getting ready for our garden and empty out our starter kits. Now we have to start from scratch. Hopefully everything will grow and produce some good stuff but there is no guarantee. The kids did have lots of fun helping Dad get everything ready. They were great little helpers in building the forms and using the drill. We have a slight slope in the back yard as well so we had to dig out our plot a little before filling it in. Bear and Isabelle really enjoyed playing in the dirt. Now the trick will be keep them out of the soil once we get everything planted.

Computer Challenged

Normally I am not computer challenged, but for whatever reason I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out how to change my background to ones offered from the cutest blog. Today I finally figured it out. I felt pretty dumb afterwards but I guess that is what happens sometimes. I really like their pages, since they remind me of scrapbook pages. I have been trying for months to change to one of their designs and just now figured it all out. So I hope you like it and since I figured it out I might just change it often depending on my mood.

Glass Bottom Boat

The real reason for our visit down to San Antonio was originally to go to the coast but Hurricane Ike put an end to that dream. And of course we would not want to forget about Oma and Grandpa, they are after all reason enough. Since we could not make it down to the coast we thought about going to Sea World and I was having a cheap moment and we decided not to do that. Instead we took a glass bottom boat tour. We checked out the small native Texas fish aquarium first and then got on the boat. Both of the kids were fascinated that they could see under the boat at the turtles, fish and plant life. The area we visited was a fresh water lake, fed by a fresh water spring that travels hundreds of miles across Texas to reach San Marcos. Many of those miles are actually underground. Pretty cool when you think about it, we could even see the spring water bubbling up from the bottom of the lake. Both kids really wanted to take pictures of what they saw, so with a little help from Mom and Oma they did get some good shots off. (I really liked the part when Bear was licking Grandpa’s head and Grandpa did not even notice. I tried so hard to get a picture but was too slow.)

Anyway, the fish were pretty cool and were all different sizes, and so were the turtles. Our guide informed us that the little white flowers on the vegetation growing under that water meant that the water was very healthy. Over all the water was pretty clear and the depth varied from I would say 2 feet to about 27 feet. While not the ocean, it was still pretty fun for the kids, to check out water life in a natural habitat.

Grape Stomp

How would you like to put your feet into a vat of purple grapes and stomp up and down to produce the largest amount of grape juice for a competition? Sounds like fun huh. Well we did not do exactly that but the kids did get to step into some grape juice and make their feet prints on a t-shirt, and then try their “feet” out at stomping a few grapes. I would think it might hurt your feet with the stems still in there but who knows. Not having tried I could not say. For those of you who would like to try, you can go to a grape stomp and see how good you are at making juice. No I don’t think they will make you drink it but who knows. This was the first annual grape stomp at a new housing development down in San Antonio; I can only hope that it will get better with time. The one good thing was that your taste of wine was like a whole glass. That’s right no little bit, that you are swishing around and possibly swallowing, but a whole glass. Pretty cool; except for the prego woman who wanted to try as many as possible but could not because of the size of the “samples.” What I did try was very yummy. Now normally I would not want to ruin a good wine by adding things to it, but the Sangria they had was nice. You could drink a lot of that and not really know that you would be messed up later. I had to pass my cup away after one sip, bummer. I think the kids had the most fun, running around in the pool “trying” not to get too wet. Isabelle really likes her t-shirt and wears it to bed every night she can.

Jumping Off . . .

While we were down at Oma’s and Grandpa’s house, we took the kids for the train ride and to feed the ducks. Now the one set of ducks were not very smart and did not come down to get any food, so we had to a wait a little while for another set. That was hard for the kids, but they got a chance to feed some fish. Anyway, while we were waiting on the ducks I went to take a picture of Bear sitting down looking at all the fish, then he got up. Never one to hold still in a spot for long, I just happened to click the button right as he was getting up and it looks like he is about ready to jump in. The water was not very deep but he did not go swimming in the little river.

Baby room help

Here is the first baby poll. No nothing so exciting as what the sex, weight and date will be but instead, a poll for how we should decorate the room. Since I did not really get a chance to use Isabelle’s bedding and window treatments for either her or Bear I am determined to use them for this baby. I have included pictures of the bedding so you know what it looks like. The curtains are a green toile, with a nursery rhyme theme. The skirt is green and light pink plaid while the bumper is the toile and a cream diamond pattern.



I will put up five different options of what we are thinking about, and by we I mean me. You will have to use your imagination, since I will not use the colors in the pictures. I am looking to use shades of green; a darker green and a lighter green, to match the fabric that we already have. So you will have to picture those colors on the walls. Now I will even need some help possibly in choosing a second color not in the green family based on what you guys like. Help us (read me) out to pick a wonderful design for the baby’s room. He/she should be able to enjoy the room for a while, and that is what we are looking for, longevity.

All of the room design pictures are courtesy of HGTV and people who have posted their pictures on the web site therefore I am not responsible for the quality of the picture.

High School Football

Last night was a big night for the small East Texas town of Sulphur Springs, they had the pleasure of being the featured High School football team on ESPN. Each week an ESPN crew travels to a different city in possibly another state. Sulphur Springs High School played host to a team from Wichita Falls, TX called Rider High School. Now this may not seem like a big deal to anyone who lives in a big city, but this was the BIG TIME for Sulphur Springs. The town went all out, with window decoration contests, t-shirts for the day and much more. They will be talking about this day for years, that’s right, years to come.

The main purpose of these featured games is to highlight the up and coming talent for next years college season. Both teams had players of interest, mostly the two quarterbacks. I believe the student from Rider, has already selected a college to play for but the player from Sulphur Springs, has many doors open to him. I am happy to say that Sulphur Springs pulled through with a win of 22 to 16. Go Wildcats!

Now you might wonder as to why I am writing this post, well, I finished High School in Sulphur Springs, Texas. Not really much to write home about there, but they are very serious about high school football; as are most cities in Texas. After all Sulphur Springs, only has about 15,000 people who reside there, and about 7,000 were out to show their support for the high school football team. I know crazy, but it is what it is.

Our baby is . . .

healthy. That’s right we are going against convention and not learning early on what the sex of our baby will be. Isabelle really thinks it is a girl, so we are just trying to prepare her just in case the baby is a boy. Right now we have a very wiggly 8 inch, 11 oz baby moving around. You would think the baby is so much bigger based on the size of my belly but who knows. I think we might be on our downhill run, coming to the finish line, but I’m not really sure, I have only been keeping track in months, not weeks. I think that later on we’ll see about a little poll or contest to pick the date, weight and sex. Start thinking about what your guess might be. And for those of you who think well maybe she’ll share name ideas, nope, that’s a secret too.

"Free" Sports

The kids are “trying” out a couple of different activities over the next two weeks at three different places; gymnastics at two different locations and soccer tots at another. Now of course Isabelle is all ready for gymnastics, and Bear I think might go along with what ever Isabelle wants to do. We are going to try to let them choose what they want and go from there, but it will be interesting to see what they choose. If all else fails they will have lots of fun and get out and meet some different kids. Ben really wants them to do soccer; he has issues with sports that are judged instead of based on goals. Either one I think will be good for Bear so that he can learn to follow directions better. I’ll let you know later what they decide to do.

Paint, Paint, Paint

My Labor Day weekend included some interesting items. My goal of the weekend was to be able to park my car in the garage. Well Ben had other plans. Needless to say my car is still in the drive way. But we are getting closer to organizing the chaos. I will say that he did work on the garage for a little while then came in and said I want to paint the kitchen. Well ok! So on Sunday after Ben went to work and I took Isabelle to Instant Care, we were one our way to Home Depot.

Instant Care, what, you say. Early on Sunday she was complaining that her head and neck hurt on her left side a lot. Now Isabelle has a pretty high pain tolerance and does not complain all that much, but this time she was really whiny. And would just not stop, it seemed that if she moved her head she would complain. I did not want to take two kids into the store to get Tylenol so I called Ben, and left a message for him to pick some up. Well he did not get home soon enough. Instead of taking two kids to the store I went to Instant Care, (Ben did come and pick up Bear) only to find out that the doctor had no clue what could be wrong, and to give her some Tylenol or Motrin. Long story short that’s what we did and she seems to be doing better were just watching her.

Back to my home improvement project, now painting our kitchen is an undertaking because of what we do to the walls. Essentially, the process is three coats of paint; the base color, top coat and the lines. As you can imagine the base coat does not take too long, just the taping does so nobody makes too big of a mistake. We got the base coat done on Sunday and waited until it had dried to start on the top coat. Early on Monday we got started on the top coat. This takes a little longer only because you do not roll on this layer you brush it on. I would say a couple of hours, because it does not have to be covered completely. Then we start the lines, after Ben has drawn them on. This all together is very tedious and takes forever, at least one full day, working with two people. Finally after dinner on Tuesday we were able to complete the lines. Yea! Our kitchen is now complete.

Ben says now it feels like home. He was so funny, like a kid in a candy store, he was so excited to start and complete this project. At last it is now completed and I can slowly put stuff away. This paint treatment is by far our favorite. We always get tons of compliments and Ben’s oldest sister even copied it and put it in her house, not once but twice. How’s that for a compliment? Anyway, I hope you enjoy our “new” kitchen be sure to check it out in person.

The House

At last pictures of the new house, please don’t judge the mess. I am really trying hard to put everything in it’s place but there is just so much stuff. Two of my favorite features are the bonus room upstairs and the eat in kitchen. No more having to worry about food getting stuck in the carpet. Don’t get me wrong, we have a formal dining area that is on carpet but we don’t eat there. I can easily sweep or mop up any messes. The bonus room is of course our playroom. The kids love it. So much space I’m sure they don’t know what to do with themselves. A coat of paint and some bean bag chairs and we will be on our way. Now none of the rooms have any paint at all, but the factory installed standard flat wall paint that comes with most new homes. Our first project will most likely be the kitchen. I will do before, after and during pics once we get started. And then the baby’s room, since we just put everything in there it will hopefully be “easier” to paint since nothing is set up. I might do a poll for that one. And look that big blue splotch on my “patio” is my bounce house. I would have put it up for dramatic affect but it might rain. So I really should try to move it to the garage but I don’t think that will happen. Now that you have seen the photos when do you want to come for a visit? Just let me know, we have plenty of room.

The belly

Here is my growing belly, I think it is getting harder to take pictures by myself so the next one will be of my whole person. I hope you enjoy!

House

We have a house! Much more to come later, but we are pretty excited. Isabelle no longer is sad to come home, and is already asking when she can have some friends over. It will be a work in progress for a while since we have so much stuff to open. But we have a house, with a yard!