Saturday, October 22, 2016

Gaver Farm

I think we have found our new favorite pumpkin patch.  Last Saturday, my mom and I took the boys to Gaver Farm to get our pumpkins.  Wow, it was amazing!  When we arrived, just 20 minutes after opening, there were already tons of cars in the parking lot.  I was worried that on a beautiful Saturday it would be crowded and crazy.  Luckily they are very organized and they have about 50 different activities you can rotate between in addition to the pumpkin patch.  Everything is spread out so it doesn't feel crowded.  There were slides, animals, tractors, mini race tracks, corn mazes, hay rides, etc.

We took our time going around to all of the activities.  The corn maze was a highlight, since it turns out it was a legit corn maze.  Thank goodness you can use your GPS to track where you are in the maze on a special website, because otherwise we would have never made it out.  As it was, even with the GPS and no mistakes, it took us 30 minutes to make it all the way through!  Then, of course, as we exit we see the little kids corn maze that we could have done instead!  However, I'm glad we did the big one.  It was an adventure.  My mom had never done one before, and the boys said it was their favorite part of the day.

After the corn maze, we went over to the hayride and got on very quickly without a wait.  My mom and I loved that they had actual seats, instead of just hay bales.  After the pumpkin picking we bought some homemade cider donuts and pumpkin donut holes, lemonade for Miles, and a gallon of really expensive cider.  Then we ate at the picnic tables before heading home.  Some families brought their own coolers with lunch and others bought their grill food, which actually looked pretty yummy!

We will definitely be going back!





James loving being in the train of course



Fast slide!



This is a picture of the maze from above.  You are forced to go through all the little parts to be able to get to the exit at the end.  No shortcuts!



The boys had a blast in the maze.  They kept running up ahead of us while we tried not to lose them.



We finished!






At first, James just held the cup for the goats, but then he actually held the food in his hands!  He was so proud of himself!  That boy is our animal lover.

















Decorating for Halloween

Miles helped me decorate for Halloween this year while James napped.  He was such a big helper, especially with the window stickers!  I love that he gets excited to help me.  He loves holidays just like his Mommy!  However, when James woke up he was not happy with the decorations and wanted me to put all of them away.  I don't think he likes change.  Of course now he likes them, but initially definitely not!









Some of Miles work with the window stickers


Webster, the friendly spider!

Monday, September 26, 2016

First Day of Kindergarten!

Off to school!














Waiting for the bus to bring him back home.














Miles did a great job and a had a very good day at school.

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Rio Olympics Dinner

Andrew and Abby, who both lived in Brazil for missions, made Brazilian food for us to celebrate the Rio Olympics.










































Sunday, July 31, 2016

Starting to blog again

After a year of feeling paralyzed by the best way to store and backup all of my photos, we have decided to return to the good 'ol trusty blog.  Storing and organizing photos is complicated with multiple phones, cameras, cloud storage, hard drives, etc.  I was worried about putting a lot of time into the blog to just have to re-do all of the work again when I later created a blog book out of the blog.  So for the last year I have just uploaded photos to Instagram.  I will probably just create an Instagram book to print with all of those photos.  However I miss our blog, where I wouldn't worry about posting too many of the same picture and could give long explanations and details for history's sake.  I also realized that I went back to reference the blog much more than I ever looked at any books I printed.

Richard has convinced me to just start with the present and then maybe catch-up with the past later.  So here it goes....

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Lemonade Stand

Miles wanted to earn some money to save up for a toy (a motorcycle, I think), so we set up a lemonade stand.  Diane brought over Arthur and Emmy who played with James.  Miles, however, stayed by his stand trying to make sales.  As luck* would have it, he was able to make just enough to buy his motorcycle.











*I may have helped out a little.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was very special this year, since it was our first year waking up in our own house.  Miles was very patient in the morning.  We actually let him come down a little before James, since he was still sleeping.  We had a relaxing morning opening presents and eating our sausage egg casserole.  Then things got a little busy!  First we went to the Burtons to open presents, then we went to the Gibneys, put James down for a nap, opened presents, and had a yummy dinner.  Three rounds of presents left us feeling tired and very very blessed!  Christmas is the best day of the year!


Running down the stairs


Excitement from Miles as he checks out his presents from Santa




Richard is very happy with his surprise present of a tablet


James really loved Daddy's mug from Santa












Round 2- opening presents at the Burtons (not pictured)

Round 3- opening presents at the Gibneys




Miles playing with his new toys quietly


The aftermath


Yummy dinner at my parents


Chicken cordon bleu


Twice baked potatoes




Video of Miles coming down the stairs on Christmas morning


Miles and James opening presents