Fall is here!

I'm a big lover of summer, but if this is what our fall will be like, I could definitely get used to it! This morning I came downstairs and looked out the window and this is what I saw- it just beamed fall to me.

Like I said, if this is what our fall will be like (or even most of it!) I will be happy. It really is a beautiful morning with the dew on the ground and some fog in the air... and oh, don't want to forget about the sunshine that is coming through!

Happy Fall everyone! :)

1st Day of SCHOOL!!

Yes, it's official, my little boy is all grown up! Okay, well I guess he's not all grown up, but I swear over night he became a really big boy! :) I do have to say, I didn't cry, but did have some mixed emotions of some sadness and also so much excitement for him and his new adventure! I try to remember just to be happy that he's a healthy, growing little boy who is thrilled to be going to school. So enough about ME, here's Ryan this morning, checking out how his new John Deere back-pack looked on him... he was one proud little boy!

Jordan's daddy (Jeff's brother) was at our farm this morning so Melinda brought Jordan by to see Steve and also so we could get a few pictures of the boys together on their 1st day of school.

Ryan & Jordan... little buddies!

Look at those adorable faces! Do they look like happy little boys or what?!!
A family shot- of course, Ryan was over the picture thing at this point so it's not the best of him as he decided to act silly. Oh well!
Ryan apparently had to get all pumped up for school because he asked me to put in "John Deere Green", one of his favorite songs, so he jammed out to that on his way to school! :)

I told Jeff that I wasn't sure who was more emotional when Melinda and I dropped off the boys this morning- us two or their teacher! I've known his teacher most of my life and Jeff and his brother, Steve, and her two sons were good friends in high school and played football together. I think it just hit her how her kids' friends have kids now and that she got to have both Steve & Jeff's boys in her class. It was really sweet. I know Ryan will have a great school year!

Today and yesterday they only had half of the class there to sort of ease the kids into the whole idea of school and classmates, but tomorrow all the kids will be there so that will be fun. Ryan had a GREAT time at school today and asked if he could go back! I said, "Sure, how about tomorrow?!". :)

AWANAS!

Tonight Ryan went to AWANAS, a program through our church for kids, for the first time! He's in the "Cubbies" group which is a combination of 3 and 4 year olds. He had a great time and didn't want to leave when it was time to go so I guess that's a good sign! The only problem is, he starts pre-school tomorrow morning and he had a hard time winding down after such a fun night at AWANAS and then getting home and getting to see his Daddy for awhile.

Here he is with the starter booklet for his Cubbies group. Tonight he needed to say two verses: "Jesus Loves Me" and "God loved us and sent His Son". He said them both to me a few times before he got there and apparently he said them for his leader because she signed off that he did. It's so precious to hear him talking about bible verses.

Instead of "cheese" he thought it would be a better idea to say "bananas" and apparently it really cracked him up! Such a silly boy!
More pictures to come tomorrow of the big boy at his FIRST day of school!!

"Workin' with Grandpa!"

This past Thursday night, Jeff's parents came over to spend a couple days here. Last month we FINALLY got our rec. room/ apartment area remodeling project finished and is fully furnished and ready for guests! We mainly did the apartment area so that Jeff's parents could come and go and have a place of their own to stay over here. It's worked our really well and we're all loving the new space! I'll have to post more pictures later of the rec. room as it was quite the transformation! Anyhow, Jeff's dad spent a good chunk of Sat. morning putting together a new wardrobe piece that we got from Ikea recently. Ryan was thrilled to get to "help Grandpa" and his grandpa was great for letting him help so much! It was really cute to watch them work together and their conversations- he actually did help him quite a bit! Here's Ryan handing Grandpa the nails as he used the hammer to put them in.

Their temporary tool area with a lovely tool set for them to use!
And here's the finished product! It looks really beautiful and I give kudos to my father-in-law for putting it together as I'm not sure I would have even had the patience to do it, but he did and even with the help of his 3 1/2 yr. old grandson! :)

That time again!

Last week it was time to chop grass again and Ryan was very anxious to get to go out and help his Daddy in the chopper. I dropped Ryan off to ride with Jeff for awhile, while I went home and took a little siesta! Pretty soon they'll be chopping corn... hopefully we have a warm, sunny September!

Our newest furry friends...

So what might that be behind the gate that Ryan is visiting....?

Our 2 new pigs!
Jeff & his brother decided we should raise a couple of pigs so here they are! Ryan, Jordan, Caleb & Megan decided to call them "Sausage" and "Bacon"... affectionetley, of course! :) I know, not very creative, but oh well. At first Ryan thought one of them should be called "Ryan", but we were able to persuade him to pick something else! Jeff used to raise a few pigs on their family farm when he was younger, but they are a first for me! They are actually pretty friendly and funny to watch. I've also found that they'll eat just about anything so now our fruit and vegetable scraps don't go to waste anymore! The other day Ryan and I fed them some baby carrots and today they got some watermelon! Everyone who comes over now has to be shown the pigs by Ryan- it's pretty cute.
And just around the pen from them are these cute little calves! Do they look content or what basking in the warm sunshine!

Whole lot of shakin' goin' on!

Or I guess I should say, a whole lot of kickin' goin' on! This little guy is extremely active and I love every minute of his movements... even if they do create a tiny bit of momentary pain! :) I was able to catch some of his movements the other night on my camera. I had an appt. today and everything was good. I'm measuring a little big (no big surprise since Ryan was 9lbs. 7oz.!) so we'll look to have my c-section around 5 days before my due date. The time is flying by!!! Now I'll go back in two weeks and then weekly after that!

Fun times at the river!

Some friends of ours have property out by the river just minutes from our house. This weekend some of our friends camped out there in their trailers, but we live too close to justify packing up and moving our trailer 5 minutes from home! We did go out there a visit a couple different days over the weekend and bbq'd one night. Our friends whose property this is, have a 2 year old little girl and the mom got this neat portable sandox and brought it there. Ryan had SO much fun in it- it kept him occupied for a LONG time! Here's him and his friend, Emma, playing in it.

Some of the older kids were riding their bikes over this little dirt jump and Ryan didn't want to miss a second of it. You can barely see him in his little black hat towards the bottom of the picture. He definitely slept very well that night!

Fun with the babysitter!

Last Saturday night my cousin came over to babysit Ryan for us while we went out for the evening. We actually had two different parties to go to (I know, don't we just sound important! :)) and so in between we ran home to change our clothes. When we came home, him and Kari were making some popcorn and getting ready to watch a DVD. She mentioned that he liked taking pictures which I definitely agreed with! Well, the next day I looked through the pictures on my camera and he had taken some by himself and then I found these of the 2 of them and I had to chuckle to myself. I thought they were very cute.
Here he is trying on her glasses- they actually go very well with his green jammies!

Happy faces!
Silly faces!
Sad faces!
And silly Mr. Ryan. Now I know why he told us we didn't have to "come home until tomorrow" when we were leaving... he was just having too much fun with his babysitter! :)

My helper...

The other morning we got up and it was raining outside. I told Ryan I needed to go outside to feed the kitties and he said, "It's okay Mommy, I'll do it for you." My heart melted that he wanted to do something for me! I guess it was the way he said it, so genuine and sweet. So, we got him some flip flops on, his sweatshirt and off he went out to feed the kitties for me...

... and boy were they happy to bed fed!