Raini's Family

We had such a nice time with Raini's family here! It's so fun to have Levi running around with his cousins, and it was wonderful to have Kayla here with us, too! The kids just love her to pieces! Oct. 18, 2008.

More Harvest Party Pics

It was really fun to string up some lights between the trees, tied together corn stalkes from our garden, and put out pretty little gourds on the tables! I made potato/corn chowder, and we had pumpkin cupcakes and pumpkin and apple cider donuts, and homemade wheat rolls to go with the soup. I had a crockpot for hot apple cider, and a thermos of hot water for hot chocolate, and of course, chocolate chip cookies. We also had little treat bags for the kiddos that Kayla had painted with spiders and pumpkins - they were so cute!! Oct. 18, 2008.

Harvest Party and Hayride

We had a really fun time last weekend with a campfire, good harvesty food and a hayride! Travis and Raini came up with Kayla and Levi, and another family from church came to join us! I'd like to add more pictures of the fun, but I don't want to post pictures of someone else's kids on the internet. The kids were all dressed up and Kayla brought face paints and painted their faces. Emmy's face got all done up to match her butterfly costume, and she LOVED sitting there while Kayla painted away! At dusk we hopped onto the trailer loaded up with haybales, and went for a ride around the field and back. Oct. 18, 2008.

Emmy's First Haircut

Emmy got a hold of a pair of haircutting scissors from Colby's beard-trimming kit and cut off half of her half-pulled-back ponytail on top of her head. She cut a good three snips before I caught her, and once I stuck her in the bath and combed and dried her new 'do, this is what it looked like. You can see she's missing her bangs on one side, and has a longer chunk back a bit further. What's worse is that since she did this haircut, she also got into my desk drawer and got my paper scissors out and cut a couple of chunks off the back of her head, too. I told Colby that if she does it again I'm cutting the rest of it off too!!! Crazy girl! Oct. 17, 2008.

The New Horse

Here is the horse we are boarding this winter for some friends of ours who moved to Montana. Her name is Rayne. Oct. 17, 2008.

Fall Colors

I think the colors peak most of the time in our area the second week of October. It's amazing how the landscape just glows with light when the leaves are all these beautiful colors of red, orange, and yellow. It's like a gift from God before the trees go to sleep for the winter. Oct. 15, 2008.

More Fall Fun

I love the picture of the three kids walking down the dirt road. I think I need to have that one framed! Oct. 14, 2008.

Fall Fun in the Leaves

Okay, I'm now going to overload you with beautiful fall pictures of the kids playing in the leaves down a dirt road in the country.

Some Fall Colors

Some of the prettiest places to find color in our area are the cemeteries. Especially the old ones, where the Maple trees are big and mature, and evenly spaced. The second week of October is when you should come for a visit! October 13, 2008.

The Big Tater

We did get some nice big potatoes from gleaning the fields a couple of weeks ago! Oct. 8, 2008.

The Joy of Shredded Wheat

...all over the kitchen floor. Doesn't take long for milky shredded wheat to be spread all over the kitchen! Fun to clean up, too, let me tell you! Oct. 8, 2008.

Potatoes and House Work

This is how we spent Sunday, Oct. 5, 2008! In the morning we went out to the potato fields and gleaned potatoes before they were disced under. We picked up SO many potatoes!!! What's in the picture is about half of what we brought home! I do love this part of fall, gathering in the foods! LOL! Afterward we went to Trout Town for breakfast, then home to work some more on the front room! All of the drywall is off now and Colby has put up about half of the new insulation so far.

Front Room Work

We've decided to switch some bedroom arrangements around and turn our front room into our bedroom so each of the kids will have their own bedroom upstairs. But first we needed to do a little work to it to make it a little warmer! Keep in mind this is a VERY old house! We emptied the bedroom and ripped up the carpet and pad, then Colby cut out a strip along the windows to see what the insulation looked like in the floor. Well, there just wasn't any, at least not in the foot of space between the old rock foundation wall and the newer concrete brick wall. Just dirt, as you can see in the pics! It's stuffed full of insulation now, and the difference it has made just doing that has been amazing! The house holds heat better now! I would have never imagined it could make that much of a difference, but it has! He also took down the drywall from the outside walls and is putting up new insulation in those, too, and the next step is foam insulation around the windows. Looks like we'll have a nice snuggy room this winter! Oct. 3, 2008.

Beanie's Growing Up!

She has learned to push the stool around to where she wants it and climb up on top to get to virtually any place in the kitchen she wants. As if it weren't bad enough that she is constantly climbing up on the table and standing on it. She loves playing in the sink, kind of like a little raccoon, here she's washing her dried peach in the dish water! Aack! LOL! She loved the bubbles and kept laughing about them, and I had to add a picture of the perfect little curl on the back of her head, too. Oct. 3, 2008.

Toad at Supper

Just thought this was a cute picture of Josh, taken while his mouth was full of a biscuit at supper time, Sabbath, Sept. 27, 2008.

Colby and His Girls

I love this picture of Colby, Emmy and Elayna! I took this on our Sabbath walk Sept. 27, 2008.

Poor Little Beanie

This is what happens when the big kids make mud and she gets into it, then wanders around all muddy trying to get me to pick her up! I did pick her up, I just had to get a picture first!

Josh's One Year Anniversary

On Sept. 26th we marked one year since Josh's heart surgery. Josh and I went out for a special breakfast while Grandma J. watched the girls. It was interesting to hear what Josh remembered about that time and those days in the hospital. I'm glad to be past the one year mark. One whole year of health, one year that the surgery has helped him grow stronger and one year closer to a normal life. It's a relief, and we praise God for His mercy and His healing touch!!

I'm working on a montage but I'll have to add it later, after I get caught up a little! I'm way behind on my posts!