Is Santa Here?

This morning, Chad woke up to a fresh blanket of snow. He was so excited. The first thing he did was tell dad that he needed to check downstairs where our tree is. When he got to the tree, he simply said, "Nope!" Dave asked what he had expected to find and he cooly replied, "I thought Santa might have come." We decided that today was as good a day as any to begin an advent calander. 13 days to go!!!

Homespun Christmas

Christmas is my favorite time of the year! I love the feeling in the air and the way people act and treat each other. Chad decided to get in on the fun this year by making his own gifts to give. Together, we made some Christmas ornaments. He did all the work and he even chose who he would give them to and wrapped them. I think he is really beginning to understand how Christmas works and looking forward to Christmas morning.

Chad was just so proud of his gifts.

Halloween!!!

For Halloween, Chad wanted to be Buzz Lightyear. I opted for a compromise. He got to be Woody. He looked so good!

Of course, we all had to match, so Tyler was Mr. Potato Head (he looked like a brown sack with a face), Dave was Woody with Chad and I opted for Bo Peep. We had a great time.

We went up to Boise for the weekend and got there in time to do trick-or-treating. We all went out together. Chad had a great time!!! He and his cousin, Ryan, went door to door. Chad would not say anything, and Ryan was so excited, he said it for himself and for Chad. When we got back, Chad had to dump his candy on the ground and look at it all. First he asked if he could eat it all. I told him he needed to eat some dinner and then he could have some candy. So . . . off he went. A few minutes later, he came and told me, "I ate all my dinner. Now can I eat all my candy?" I guess next time I'll have to be a little more clear.

This picture is a little blurry, but this was the last stop. The bags are full and the noses are cold. We had a great Halloween!

Pumpkins! Pumpkins!

I love this season! All the leaves changing and the feel of the holidays approaching. From now until Christmas - time just seems to disappear.

This year, our pumpkins in our own pumpkin patch grew mostly vines, so we headed off to a pumpkin patch to get pumpkins to carve. We enjoyed the corn maze, which took forever. I quit halfway through, but Chad kept on running. He just loved it!!!

Next, we picked some pumpkins to take home. Chad always describes the size of items by referring to them as compared to the size of each of us in the family. For example, we had to get a daddy pumpkin (the biggest), a mommy pumpkin (middle size), a Chadder Box pumpkin (small) and a Tyler pumpkin ("little tiny").

It has become our tradition to have my parents come and help us to carve our pumpkins each year. This year, Chad chose a face design from the comics I had used to cover the table.

They're done! Chad and my dad hold their pumpkins to display. Chad was so proud. I needed to put in a picture of them all lit up on the porch. Maybe next year!

A weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's

This last weekend, we were able to spend the weekend in Boise, Idaho with Dave's family. We just don't get to see them enough. On Friday, the day we were planning to leave, Chad woke up at 6:30 so see if it was time to go yet. I told him that when the small hand got to the 5 on the clock, it would be time to go to Boise. Then before leaving for work, Dave told Chad that when he got home, it would be time to go. Chad watched that clock all day!!! It was a crazy busy day getting things ready and I had a ton of MK appointments. Then out of the blue, Dave showed up at 1pm. He usually does not come home for lunch on Fridays and the minute he walked in the door, Chad was jumping up and down saying, "Horray! Let's go to Boise!" The bad part was that it wasn't time yet, because Dave still had to go back to work. Oh, the look on Chad's face said it all!!!


Chad is a "grandpa kid." He loves both his grandpa's and would prefer to spend all his time with them if he could. Chad is on the left, and his cousin is the one on the right.

At Grandma and Grandpa's, there was a HUGE pile of leaves. I set Tyler in it thinking that he would protest. Boy, was I wrong!! He loved it! I think he ate about half of the leaves. He was just so happy.

This pumpkin is HUGE! It weighs 15o lbs. The picture just does not do it justice. And finally, our whole family. We had such a great time with family. And I always feel so rejunivated after a trip like that. Now I am ready to tackle the mommy thing again.

Read me nother one

I (Dave, yes I have been assigned the task of writing about this picture that I took) was reading the Comics and as he usually does Chad wanted me to tell him about them. Well I told him about the good ones but he wanted more. So he decided to read them on his own. Afterward he crumpled them into a big ball. I was in the kitchen making brownies and he brought the crumpled comics in and I asked why he had crumpled them. He kind of got that sad am I in trouble look and said he was done reading and so he crumpled them. I told him that was fine and then we laughed at the crumpled ball of comics.

SNOW!!!

Ya, it snowed!!! In October!!! On Saturday at about 4pm, it started to snow, and it just kept snowing. It really does feel like Christmas. Today after church, Chad wanted to go out and play in the snow. He has sure grown up since last year, when he refused to put on a coat or warm clothes and so never really got to play outside much. He had a blast today and both Dave and I came in before he did. Because of the snow, we also had to finish harvesting our garden. Not exactly what I had in mind-brushing off the snow before we could dig the carrots.
Here, Chad and Dave are beginning the snowman. Chad told us before he went outside that he wanted to put the carrot on.

Chad putting the carrot on.
A very proud Chad and dad. Chad has since checked outside several times to make sure that his snowman has not melted. Unfortunately, I don't think that it is going anywhere!