Yay...we're done with corn!

You may have to be a farmers wife to truly appreciate this, but it's one happy day when we're finished with corn season on our farm! This year, it couldn't have happened at a more perfect time with our baby coming Monday! Ryan and I took Jeff out lunch this afternoon so I snapped a couple quick pictures of him chopping the last field of the year! Ryan asked me "Why does Daddy have a John Deere header on the chopper"... seriously, he's a true farmer at heart, I think. I explained to him that it's a special header for "earlage" which basically is chopping the corn for just the kernels of corn, rather than the entire stock like we usually chop. This makes for corn feed for our cattle that we (and all other dairy farmers) have to usually buy. Jeff was just starting back up after a sensor alarm went off in the cab telling him there was metal in the header. He was able to find the piece of metal and get it out before it did any damage to the chopper (thank goodness!) and he was on his way! Gotta love technology sometimes!

It couldn't have been a more perfect day out to finish our season, either. The sun was shining and the sky was blue. We'll take this any year over it being cloudy and rainy.

Work shower!

The gals and doctors from the office I work at a day a week, threw me a baby shower last night! I can't believe I forgot to bring my camera along so this is what's left of the shower!

They had the whole place decked out in decorations, including balloons.

Besides a yummy dinner and cake, they put together a little party box for everyone with really cute blue baby bottle candies inside... obviously Ryan thought they were great! :)
They also gave me this HUGE baby bottle filled with chocolate candy! They were so thoughtful and gave me a gift certificate for a massage (definitely looking forward to that!), a big Costco box of baby wipes and a Costco box of diapers. I think we're set to go!

Choppin'

I had a baby shower to go to last night so Ryan got to ride and have dinner in the chopper with his Daddy! He was very much looking forward to it all day! Here he is getting ready to get on the chopper while Jeff was dumping a load of silage into the truck... notice Ryan not taking his eyes of it!

After the shower, I came back to get Ryan. It's always fun to watch them chop at night and Ryan LOVES riding when it's dark and Jeff has to turn the lights on and it's an even bigger bonus if he's side-blowing (chopping right into the truck driving next to him rather than the big wagon he pulls behind the chopper.) Jeff drove over and brought him to me and Ryan was on cloud nine from getting to help Jeff all evening. Times like this reminds me to be thankful that we do farm and have a lifestyle where Ryan can be with his dad, even when he's working late.

Little stud :)

Ryan's Auntie D.D. bought him this green vest (she thought he had to have it since it was John Deere green... his favorite color!) and so he wore it the next day to school. I told him how handsome he looked in it and that I wanted to take his picture so he posed for me... after he grabbed his sunglasses for the total look!

This one cracked me up!
Our little goofball! :)

Babies of a fuzzier kind...:)

We knew this out door cat of ours had kittens as one day she was pregnant and the next day not, but we hadn't see the kittens yet. We figured she had them safely hidden behind some shrubs next to our house as that's where her last kitten came out from. Sure enough, I was coming out the door this morning to get Ryan to school and there were kittens... 3 of them nursing on their mommy.

Two of them look alot like their mom, but this one caught my attention with it's only color being on it's left ear and tail- definitely interesting markings. Hopefully they'll become tame enough that we can pet them, but this is the first day they've come "out" that we've seen so it might take a little while.

Carving time!

We had our pumpkins in tow, now it was time to come back to Grandma's and carve them! Even Auntie Kim joined in on the goopy part of digging all the guts out... not exactly her favorite part! :) A little later, the 2 neighbor kids came over and carved their pumpkins with us, too, so it was a regular pumpkin carving factory... and very fun!

This year Ryan told me he wanted a "scary face" so this was the best I could do!
Looks scary enough to me!
We had a very fun and BUSY day, but was worth it. I was definitely a little achy this morning, but the more I moved around the better I felt. I'm not sure what I should have expected, though, I am basically 9 months pregnant! A week from tomorrow and we'll have our new baby boy!!!!

Pumpkin Patch!

After the Buddy Walk, Ryan and I met up with my niece, Shelby, and my mom at the pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins to carve!

Here they are looking for the perfect pumpkin!

After we found our pumpkins, paid for them and loaded them up, we took a little stroll around the rest of the farm... and got a picture of the kiddos with a bunch of pumpkins!
BOO! He's so scary! :)
Had to see how much they've grown since we were here last year! The tractor and wagon ride were coming our way when I took this which, obviously, distracted them a bit.
I have to say, this was so cute! My mom and Shelby went in the barn to pay for a couple things so Ryan and I stayed out and listened to the music this little band was playing and Ryan went over and stood right in front of them and started dancing to the music. It was older style music, but he enjoyed it and and the singers/players were equally thrilled that this young little man was enjoying their music!

Buddy Walk

Yesterday morning we went to a near by park for the annual Buddy Walk which supports kids with Down Syndrome. Ryan was told ahead of time there would be a bouncy house and that was all he could talk about! After we went to my niece, Megan's, soccer game which was in the same park, we had to head straight to the bouncy house! Here's Ryan, very intently, waiting in line for his turn.

Bouncin' around!
Next was the actual "walk" which was about 1 mile around the entire park. Melinda offered to take Ryan for me (along with Jordan) so I didn't have to walk, but I decided I might as well walk too, but I just did so at a slower pace with my other sister-in-law and niece, Kera.! :) I knew if I tried to walk at a normal pace, I'd pay for it, although I don't think I could have walked normally if I wanted to at this point with all the pressure I'm feeling.
As we walked back to where we started, we were greeted by Ronald McDonald! He was a hit, at least with Ryan. He kept asking all sorts of questions about him the rest of the day!
Before we left for our next adventure, we hit the bouncy house one last time!

The pit is full!

If you're not familiar with some of the farming terminology, the "pit" is the silage pit which is where we keep our feed to use all year long. This picture was taken earlier in the week when Ryan wanted to go out before bed and see how it was looking.

Around here, Uncle Steve, is the pit guy so this is usually his job during corn season while Jeff is on the chopper, chopping the corn to bring in for him to push and pack down.

This picture was taken yesterday morning and the size of the pit has definitely changed! Here is required one guy to push the loads up as they came off the truck and another guy way on top of the pit to compact it all down. It is a pretty neat view from the top... if you're not afraid of heights! :)
Two farms down, one to go! For a couple days this week, Jeff and his brother will be going down to their other brother's farm, about 15 mins. away to chop his corn for him. Once they are done with that, we still have corn to chop to put up at our farm at Steve & Melinda's and then we'll be.... dare I say it... DONE!!! This probably won't happen, though, before the baby comes so Jeff's dad is planning to come over and run the chopper for us while we have the baby. Again, thank God for family!!!

Getting ready for BABY!!

Well I think we could have this baby any day and we'd be ready... well, materially that is!! We got the Moses basket that we used with Ryan all washed and put back together so it's ready to go for the new baby! Ryan slept in this till he didn't fit in it anymore which was over 3mons. and I think close to 4 mons. It was so nice, especially when we moved to this house when he was 6 weeks old and we could just carry it from downstairs to upstairs without having to disturb him!

His crib is all ready to go when he's ready for it!
He has 2 dressers in his room and they are both totally full of clothes and blankets... mostly clothes! It's so nice being able to use Ryan's baby clothes as there is only 3 mons. between the months they were born which is really nice. However, I do like to shop so this little guy has also gotten plenty of new clothes just for him. It was really fun, though, going through all of Ryan's totes of baby clothes to pull out and wash for this new little guy and remembering how cute Ryan looked in each of them. Seems like yesterday...
We still have a couple little things to get done in his room which Jeff is planning to help with this weekend, like getting the curtains hung up and organizing the closet a little better as it was chalked full of of totes of Ryan's clothes which need to be rearranged so that we can get to the next age group of clothes when we're ready.
I have to say I feel way more relaxed about having this baby- I think mostly because we've already had a baby and there isn't quite as much of the unknown and the major life adjustment of me quitting my job and staying at home, moving 6 weeks after the baby is born like we had to with Ryan and the list goes on! I know it will still be a whirl wind, but I'm excited for it and even more excited for Ryan to have a brother!