Memories

Thomas the Tank Engine

When we were putting Jaden's costume on I thought.....Hmmm....what was he for Halloween LAST year? Then I remembered.....

Do you?

What a difference a year makes!

Halloween...

= Reformation

We had a special Reformation service yesterday with the Missionary Institute and all the Lutheran churches in town. Here is a shot of all of the pastors walking in
And the full church!
The mariachi and various church choirs added special music.
Then, it was on to Halloween activities.

Here is "Thomas the Train"
We went first to a carnival and a church/elementary school. Jaden instantly was interested in the playground equipment and not the games but, he had a good time!
Here he saw some pumpkins and TOOK OFF! He LOVES pumpkins these days!
They had this cool game that was WAY too hard for Jaden...but with Daddy's help Jaden LOVED putting the balls into place.
You put the ball on the pipes and tried to roll it into place
Then you pulled the pipes apart aiming to get the ball into one of the buckets.

Like I said...way to hard - but Jaden loved putting the ball in place!
With Daddy's help he shot a few hoops

We met up with Mia (our goddaughter) there. She was a pumpkin fairy. TOO cute!
Then Jaden ditched the costume for the brinca brina (jumping balloon)
This was the best activity of the evening.
I took a lot of shots trying to get him actually looking at the camera....but at least you can see he was having fun!
Then we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. We put the kiddos in their cars since they were getting kind of tired. Turns out it just looked like Jaden was RIDING Thomas the Train!
After a LOT of walking (not many houses in our neighborhood were into giving out candy) we all came back to our house to relax.
And eat some candy
Mia and her aunt.
Like Jaden's green spider ring and black bat ring (see index fingers). I thought it was funny that he actually kept these on!


Before heading to bed....Mr Duck and the dog had to be lined up to watch Jaden eat his bedtime snack along with Halloween Elmo (one of Jaden's NEW best friends)!

Pumpkin Patch - Southwest Style

For the sake of the grandparents that live up north and have already seen the pictures of our recent trip to visit them, I'm skipping over a few weeks (to be posted later) in order to quickly get them pictures of our recent Haloween/Fall activites!

This is the "mommy, are you done working yet?" face...
On Friday we went to the pumpkin patch. I've seen other pictures of friends taking their kids to pumpkin patches up north. Apparently we didn't visit one of the patches that has HUGE-O pumpkins but, we had fun anyway!
On a hayride. Can you call it a hayride if there is no hay in sight? Well, it was riding on carts pulled by a tractor - which makes it COOL in Jaden's book.
Grandma and Grandpa H went with us.
Really - he's having WAY more fun than it looks like! He's just intently watching the "da-doh" (tractor)
Bet your pumpkin patch doesn't have a backdrop of mountains!
"Mommy, look, I got one!"
"Look, I can carry TWO!"
"Hey! Where did all the pumpkins go?"
" Ah...here are some more!"
Grandma and Grandpa looking for the perfect one.
"Look, this one is different!"


"Look at our loot!"
It's a LONG way back to the tractor when you have to walk to the back of the pumpkin patch to find the good ones!
Mommy - being silly
Stephen liked this face....As you can see...I'm REALLY strong! I can lift 4 lb pumpkins!
Grandpa back on the trailer
WIth all of our pumpkins stashed beneath our feet.
Awww....


Riding the "cow train"
Jaden had a LOT of fun on this ride. It looks pretty tame, I know. But, once we headed out to the pumpkin patch the driver got a little nuts. Let me tell you - oil barrels set on wheels are NOT very comfortable driving over tractor tire ruts!
I got off and told Stephen that I thought I had "Shaken Mommy Syndrome"
Checking out the farm animals - rabbits

goats

and the pretty view

ducks
and a GORGEOUS sunset to head home with!

A Boy and His Box

This box is one of Jaden's new favorite toys! I had asked Grandma H to save me some milk cartons for some projects (we drink out of gallons) and she sent them to me in this box. Jaden has been having so much fun with just the box and the cartons that I haven't started any of the projects yet!

Trip to CO

At the end of last month we were able to travel to CO for a Pastor/Church worker conference and visit a wonderful church - Peace with Christ in Fort Collins - that has helped us tremendously by providing scholarship money for Stephen's seminary study.

Here are a few details of our adventure!

We have found lots of great travel toys after all of the trips we have been on. One of the best and most recent ones is a little sheet of stickers, a clipboard, and a pad of paper. Jaden has a GREAT time with these....

This day, the main attraction was putting the stickers on daddy's nose!
As you can see...it was VERY funny

Ooo..Daddy got one on Jaden's nose too!


After arriving in CO we got a rental car and spent the night with friends in Denver. The next morning Jaden was still sleepy when it was time to head out but, after a short spurt in the car he woke up happy as can be!
Stephen happy to be with family and on the road.
Heading toward the mountains
the LONGEST tunnel I have ever been in. TRUST me....there is no trying to hold your breath through this one. Stephen (who has an AMAZING ability to hold his breath for a LONG time --- all that singing and trumpeting breath control you know--- barely made it halfway!)

The outside of our hotel (sorry for the reflection in the window) situation right in the middle of the mountains.
Out our room window toward the conference center. Note - no snow....
Jaden had to explore the hotel room. I think this is the first time he has been aware of a phone that had a cord. We had to unplug since the buttons were really fun and there was an emergency button that looked really fun with a cross above it! Jaden spent a lot of time "talking" on the phone while playing in the room.

Sitting with Daddy by the balcony.

We woke up the second day to SNOW! See the difference on the mountain!
After the conference toward Fort Collins and were able to stop and visit one of my college friends on the way. Jaden had fun playing with their daughter....

...although he kept running away when she would try to give him a nice hug!
In Fort Collins we got to visit this GREAT park. LOTS of fun toys!






And, at our host home we got to have some fun outside in the crisp fall weather. The home across the street had some animals that Jaden was eager to meet. They must be used to people giving them food because they came right over to the fence and looked expectant.



Returning to the airport we had to pause to watch all of the buses before going in.

A fun, relaxing, beautiful trip.

Men with Hammers

Well, man and boy anyway!




We've been needing a toy storage solution for some time. After weeks of wondering what would work best, looking up plans for making our own shelf, and considering our complete lack of power tools....I found a shelf on sale at Target that pretty much met my wishes EXACTLY. I'm already thinking that maybe I should have bought TWO!

I realized that I didn't really have any pictures of the "before" but, you can see our old shelf in the background. It really didn't work because Jaden could only get the things that were on the bottom two shelves, things got stuck on the wires and he would get frustrated, and when I got down on the floor toddler level I realized how SCARY that tower on the top shelf must have seemed.

Daddy started the assembly and Jaden quickly joined in. You see the bookshelf relocated under the window.

"See my hammer mommy?"
"Woah - this thing is the BEST to climb in!"

Making sure everything is tight

Taking a break

Pounding hard

Make a Smilebox slideshow

All assembled and organized

Upon discovering that he could reach his colors and coloring book Jaden decided to use the top as a table.

Of course, later that day we had to have a lesson about NOT coloring on the shelf or the puzzle or things other than paper and the coloring books!

Ahh....finally a PRETTY solution. Balls in the corner, nice looking shelf with stored toys...

a reading corner with a beanbag chair and the books close at hand...

Jaden really likes being able to get at his favorite toys by himself. We still have a ways to go on getting everything put back away every day...but we'll get there.

Oh...and we have our very own parking lot!

Fun at Home

Well, it seems like I can't seem to stay caught up with this blog. I'll have a major posting day to catch up and before I know it, I'm almost a month behind again. Oh well....you'll just have to bear with me!

Jaden has been having a lot of fun rediscovering all of his toys again. Of course, sometimes, you just have to hang out in the laundry basket! This is a classic. I have to look around my mom's house to find the pics of ME sitting in the laundry basket!


It also has finally cooled off enough to spend more time outside during the day. This particular afternoon Jaden discovered the flower pot (that nothing has grown in for quite some time) as an excellent "sandbox."

Of course, the best part was carrying the "sand" over to the dog's water dish and making "soup"

and seeing if Jack wanted some to eat

What about you mommy?