a fall afternoon at the Frontier Culture Museum

Last Friday evening we headed to the Frontier Museum, hoping to walk around before going to the mall for some trick-or-treating.  They were having an event, Creepy Tales, going on that night and I thought they'd be open through the evening.  But no, they closed at 5:00 and then reopened later that night.  So we ended up with only 20 minutes to run through the farms...well, we took a little longer and no one kicked us out.  But I made the kids stop for a minute for a minute and take a picture by this pretty pond.  Doesn't this area look like it could be a postcard?  As usual, Nathan refused to stay still and be part of the picture.  So here are the kids with Nathan crying about having to take a picture.  The little stinker.

Nathan laughed and laughed as Dan ran and pushed the stroller all crazy-like.  I think they like it when he pushes the stroller a lot more than me.

And as we left the museum we attempted once more to get a pic with the three of them.  Again, a failed attempt.  Nathan would not stand still...here they are  holding on to him.

Hopefully one day soon I'll get Halloween pictures posted!

Happy Fall Ya'll!

Apples!

On Saturday we got to do something really fun...one of Kyle's friends from school has a farm outside of Staunton and they have a apple party every fall.  They invite everyone to come (they are all the nicest people), and they make apple butter and cider and let everyone help out.  Kyle got to grind the apples for cider and then drink some.  It's so neat to see that process and to taste immediate results!

Nathan had fun playing in the water and apples!

Yum, drinking some fresh apple cider.

Then we all took turns stirring the apple butter.  The apples cook all day in these big pots over a fire.

Here's what it looks like:

We tasted some of the apple butter that was already done and it was DELICIOUS!

Then we also took some hay rides.  Here's Kyle with his friend Daniel...they're in the same kindergarten class and they had so much fun playing together.  We could only stay for 1.5 hours that day, but next year we'll plan for longer.  It was so nice to be out there, in such a gorgeous area and the kids could have played for a lot longer.  Pictures (at least my pictures) really don't do the landscape justice.  The colors have been so pretty.  I drove to Charlottesville twice over the weekend (once for shopping and once for stake conference), so two times over the mountains and I just couldn't believe how beautiful it was.

And a fun tire swing.

Thanks G. family for inviting us to your wonderful farm, home, and party!

Marie's pumpkin patch field trip

Marie had her first field trip with her preschool.  They went out to a pumpkin patch in Churchville, just outside of Staunton.  The preschool has the parents provide rides, so Nathan and I went along too.  Marie really wanted to ride with her teacher, Miss Sally, so her teacher even sat in the very back with Marie.  So Marie isn't too keen on farm animals (she seems to be pretty much scared of all animals) but we sort of got a few pictures with the animals in the background.

She wouldn't get any closer than this.

We took a pretty long hay ride out to the pumpkin patch.  I think this picture is great...Marie surrounded by all her preschool friends--and she's so happy.

She very quickly found her perfect pumpkin and was ready to leave!  I took much longer to find mine (well, Nathan's).  She really liked the nice long "handle".

And then she wanted to take a picture of me with her pumpkin.

Nathan didn't want to walk around on his own...I think there was too much for him to trip on and so, like usual, he didn't want me to take a picture of him either.  But, here's proof that he was there!

Back on the wagon, ready to go home.

Finally, Nathan had some fun and enjoyed playing with the hay on the wagon.

He wouldn't look at me, but I love the smile you can still see on his face.

And here we are, me holding on to my little ones so they don't fall off!

It was a fun morning...perfect weather, even a little hot.

the pumpkin patch

{I thought I'd better get some of our recent fall pictures on here before all the Halloween ones start this week!   I'm sure there will be lots of those ones.}

Last Thursday we went to a pumpkin patch called Lohr's (north of Harrisonburg) and we had a great time...we had so many perfect fall-weather days last week that I thought we'd better go while we could.  These pedal cars were a favorite with Kyle and Dan...they got to ride through part of the corn maze on them.  And of course it was a race and of course Kyle won! :)  Oh, and for the record, later Dan and Kyle really did get lost in the corn maze and it took them a while to get out!  But they had a good time while Marie, Nathan, and I began to look for pumpkins.

They had a bunch of different things for the kids to play on.

Nathan loved all the wagons and tried very hard to pull Marie.

Marie liked the wheelbarrow even though she fell out once!

Kyle picked out this big pumpkin (well, big for us...we weren't going to pay for anything bigger!)

I tried to take pictures of each of the kids sitting in this pile of pumpkins but Nathan absolutely refused.  Really, what's so bad about a bunch of pumpkins?

This was so fun...a sandbox full of soy beans.  Of course I was worried that Kyle would choke on one or get one stuck in his nose, but he didn't.  He had a great time getting buried.

Yep, Marie being silly and filling up her goggles with soy beans (um, yeah, why does she have goggles with her? ... she found them in the car)

and a little family picture...it's supposed to be a spider

Marie took some pictures of us

And as we left through the Castle entrance, Marie insisted on a picture here... our little princess.

(By the way, the dress Marie is wearing is Marie's favorite dress and she wears it every time it's clean, which means she wears it at least once a week!)

Happy Fall!

Fall is definitely here.  Actually, maybe this week we're skipping straight to winter since it's going to be in the low 40s.  BRRRR!  Way too cold for October!  But on Monday Kyle had a day off school and it was fun to take him and Nathan to the park while Marie went to preschool.  Kyle was so excited to go to the park with me while Marie was at school since usually it's the other way around.  I let him ride his bike around the whole park (I know, he needs a helmet-we couldn't find it!) and that was great to do without Marie since she has a much harder time riding her bike long distances.  It was so pretty.

And Nathan got to hang out in the stroller...

Nathan loves to dig.  I think I've mentioned that before.  I love seeing him play out in front of our house...now if we just had a good back yard for him to play in!

Pretty fall colors.

And pretty little girl.  With a lot of attitude - she's kinda been a pill lately but she is sure is a cute one.

Nathan's big hair cut

Nathan's hair was getting long once again. So rather than take him somewhere to get it cut and have him scream, we decided to do it at home...which sadly meant he got buzzed. That's all we really know how to do. Oh boy, it was terrible. He was screaming so hard, he was shaking. It truly felt like we were torturing him. But it was the kind of thing where you had to finish what you started. Once we finished and he had a bath, he was happy enough again, so I don't think we permanently scarred him.

So now these two look even more alike!

Later Sunday night, Nathan was walking around in my shoes. He's so funny.

And just so you can see what we see so often....Nathan crying. I guess he didn't want me to take his picture. Yes, even at almost 18 months, Nathan still cries a lot. I keep waiting for him to grow out of this 17-month-long phase! Of course, we're also trying to help him learn words and talk more, so hopefully that will help lessen his frustrations. Really, I try to be as patient as I can! (But I think it is the hardest thing I've ever done...to have this little guy in my life...but I do love him like crazy.)

Oh, and in case you forgot what his hair looked like before, here's a pic.  Yeah, he looks totally different now.

This was at FHE last week; we made spiders out of marshmallows, pretzels, m&ms, icing...they loved it!  It was a great lesson on not getting caught in Satan's web, found here.

Kyle's first lost tooth (of natural causes)

Kyle had his first (naturally) loose tooth and was so anxious for it to come out. You may remember that he lost a tooth a long time ago due to a bike accident. Like last time, he begged Dan to take it out and we kept telling him to just wait till it was ready. So the other night he came downstairs at about 10:00 pm and said his tooth was ready! He just couldn't go to sleep till it came out. So Dan pulled a little and out it came. Here he is very proud of his tooth:

So now there's a space on top and bottom!

He wanted a picture of just the tooth: (can you find it?)

So he said he wanted to keep his tooth for a little while before leaving it for the tooth fairy to pick up. So he left his bag on the kitchen table. Then the next morning he came down with his bag and wondered, "Why didn't the tooth fairy come pick up my tooth?" At some point he had changed his mind, come downstairs to get his tooth, and put it under his pillow (and of course we had no idea!). I told him he must have put it under the pillow too late and he missed the tooth fairy. She, of course, came the next night!

what I've been up to...

So for the last several weeks, during naps or at night, you could usually find me here in this little room working away. To see some of my latest projects, check here.

A week ago Saturday I had a booth at the Dayton Autumn Celebration, which is up by my parent's about a half hour from here. This was my second year to do this craft show and it went very well. I had a great spot right on Main Street and lots of people stopped by. I sold a bit more than last year and I have lots of orders to work on. Plus I handed out a ton of business cards, so I am getting lots of e-mails with inquiries also. Yeah, it's probably all a bit too much right now, but I think once I get these inital craft show orders finished, then it will be about right. I'd like to always have a couple orders to work on each week. And everyone is starting to gear up for Christmas, so this is just a busy time of year for crafts (both craft-making and craft-buying!).

A big, Big THANK-YOU to Dan, my mom and my dad for all helping so much! Dan cut LOTS of wood again, as well as my dad, and everyone helped me set up and my mom stayed all day -- which was a very good thing cause we were so busy. People even had to wait in line to talk to me/my mom. It's certainly fun to see others interested in something that I love doing (well, love most of the time except when I'm so tired!).
Here are my little munchkins that came to visit:

Oh yeah Nathan was everywhere!

It was pretty funny to me cause the kids showed up in all the exact same clothes they had worn the day before.  My dad had dressed them.  Never mind that clean clothes were in the suitcase.  Oh well, thanks Dad for taking care of them in the morning!
The only sad thing about the day was that my friend Erin had sent out  a box of hair bows and headbands and baby items to sell, but the box didn't make it in time.  She sent it priority mail, which is supposed to be 2-3 days, and instead it took 8 days!  (We don't have any trust in the USPS anymore!  And since they apparently don't guarantee their priority mail, there was nothing we could do about it.)  It was very disappointing!  So if any of you live close and want to see some of her beautiful things, let me know!  I hope to post pictures soon of what she's made.

the rest of September

a few random pictures from September...I know I've said this before, but I'm so impressed with what a good sleeper Marie is.  She's very funny cause she likes to sleep somewhere different all the time...she has a perfectly nice bed of her own, but she often picks the Wiggles couch, Kyle's bed, or my bed instead.  So here she is on Kyle's bed.

Two weeks ago the kids had their primary music program at church.  I thought they looked extra cute this day.  They did a GREAT job.  Kyle especially knew all the songs and sang them loudly.  Well, Marie sang loudly when she knew the words-- and she said her speaking part VERY loudly. :)  Kyle had his part memorized, but the older girls helping still told him the words...maybe next year he'll finally get to say it all on his own.

Dan thinks Kyle looks funny...like he's a little hillbilly boy.  This brand new shirt was too small.

Marie loves to wave good-bye out the window at preschool and every time she asks, "Did you bring your camera?"  For the most part, she's enjoying preschool.  She has a few moments when she gets sad, but each time she goes to school, she tells me, "I'm going to try not to cry today."

Here's Nathan running errands with me...trying to pick out a few flowers to brighten up our house.  (No, we didn't get those really big, beautiful ones.  I got two hanging pots of petunias that were on clearance for $2 and one smaller mum that has TONS of blooms.  One day when I have a real yard of my own, I can't wait to plant lots of flowers!)

The next two pictures are of Marie and Nathan hanging out with me in the morning while Kyle is off to school.  Marie loves doing these beads...the ones you make a shape out of and then iron to fuse them together.  I'm so glad we discovered them while on vacation in Utah.

And Nathan loves to play with play dough now...just look at all that excitement!  He also loves climbing up on the chairs (and table) all the time...not so exciting for me.  He is a real monkey and seems to be climbing a lot more than I remember Kyle and Marie doing.

He also loves slides...

And Dan got his bike and the trailer from my parent's house, so they've taken a few rides.  But oh boy, I don't know how he manages to ride and pull these guys up the hills around here.  It is a huge workout just to go around the block!

Nathan likes it as long as he's moving.