I need to work on getting back to doing this more. So, since last post I mentioned a wedding. It went beautifully and I wish them a successful marriage. The only small issue with the wedding is, who holds an outdoor, sunset wedding, one mile away from the Wisconsin border, in NOVEMBER? Yeah, it was a little cold but at least is was short, sweet, and to the point. We sat next to several of Nick's pledge brothers and had a good time. Cory's poor girlfriend was not used to this weather, born and raised in Arizona. So the open bar was a friend.

For Thanksgiving, we drove out to my parents again. This time with two kids and both dogs. Simba and Myra had their beds in the back of the truck since Nick got another canopy/topper thing. They handled it very well and didn't take too long to settle in. Ben and Ayla did sleep a decent amount, but we also had Nick's old laptop with several DVDs to help occupy their time. I think I listened through Cars 2 at least 4 times before I actually saw it. Nick didn't get a deer this year, but it'll happen soon enough. It is kind of interesting on which parts of deer hunting are the most anxiety inducing for us. Nick is ok up to the part where you have to handle the deer because he's not sure how/what to do when field dressing and processing the deer. Me, it's the part before it so I tell him we've got it covered. We had a nice visit with my parents and my sister and her family. Ben really liked playing with his cousins.

I have joined the smart phone populace. Now all I have to do is try to smarter than it. On a side note here I should mention that the night before a trip is not a good time to get new toys. Nick got them the night before we left for my parents' house and still had some packing to do. We were up a little late. Also on the funny side, Nick tried surprising me. I say tried because I figured out that my phone wasn't working. I called ready to yell at someone and the CSR realized that I was talking about a different phone than his screen showed I had. There are some quirks and what not to figure out but in general I'm liking it. Outside of the games and apps, although I'm having fun with the dog teaser one (Alex hates it), it is nice to have a phone that actually works. By the time I got my smart phone, my old one was randomly turning off. A little bit of a pain especially when your using it at the time. So anyone know of any cool apps I may have missed?

Christmas is upon us in force, we're almost done with our shopping. We bought the gifts for my sister's children while we were out visiting and left them with Grandma. So we save on shipping and get out of wrapping.

The children are letting me know that I've had enough time on the computer.

OY, that's all I can say right now. Halloween was fun and the kids got their candy, pictures will follow. The next event for us is a wedding in a little under 2 weeks that will give Nick and I a night away since Grammie is coming out to watch the kids and dogs.

The dogs, now that's one I'm grumbling about a little bit right now. I waited a little too long in scheduling Myra's surgery to take out the puppy factory, so yeah she went into heat Halloween also. Thank God we kept the bigger size diapers from Ben and the fact that Myra doesn't have a tail. She is currently running around with an honest to God baby diaper on. Apparently Ayla has something against Myra wearing one because the two doggie diapers I bought the first night she has taken off her and I haven't found them yet. I also learned that while vets will fix a cat in heat most will not do a dog in heat because of increased risk. So we get to deal with her first (and ONLY) heat then wait 30 days after the bleeding stops before we can get her fixed. If I ever get another female, their first stop will be the vets to get the factory taken out.

I feel like I'm almost ready to take the first of the written exams for my certification and it looks like I may be able to do them at Purdue. I still have to make contact to make sure I'm ready it right, but that makes one more thing taken care of. I still don't know which route would be best for the practicals, since doing the school and timing it right would put me in South Carolina in the summer.

Onto the pictures--------

Ben's preschool had a little party on Halloween. This face was just too funny not to share. Yes, Ben decided he wanted to be a policeman for Halloween.

Having his snacks.

Ayla got to go since I didn't want to take time from my amount at daycare. She did really good and got some treats. I was so impressed that she had a Capri-Sun and didn't make a mess!

Our little lamb...........

Who wanted nothing to do with the head thing. So she got pigtails instead.

He loved his walkie talkie. Ayla wasn't too sure of what was going on.

Off we go. I'm going to have to talk to Nick about shooting angles.

A successful night. The funny part was we came home because Ben was done, Ayla wanted to keep going!

It's been a while but like usual it's been busy around here.

We are preparing to go to my parents' house on Thanksgiving for a little over a week. Nick will be staying home this time because he doesn't have enough vacation days for the trip and his ear surgery so he's having it while we're gone, his mother is going to be staying with him, so he can recover without the demands of two young children who wouldn't understand outside of "Daddy's got a boo boo."

We're going to be sending our stuff ahead of time so we don't have to bother with the baggage fees and it'll be one less thing for me to deal with. But that means that we're a week away from leaving and I'm packing. Having to keep in mind that we will be here for another week.

In checking that the camera is good to go, because packing has put me in the "travel mode", I've found some pictures that I haven't put up yet.

I was cleaning the entry way and Ben decided he wanted to help Mommy mop the floor.

I do wish he would leave his shirt on, but he doesn't want the sleeves to get wet.

We started giving Ayla the little puff things to she can get the hang of feeding herself.

See? She's getting it.

Some Halloween pictures.

Our little pit crew



Not my best picture but it works.

This past weekend we took the kids to a pumpkin patch to pick out out pumpkins.

They had all sorts of things for the kids to do.

Chickville, baby chickens.

This one came right up to him.

Duck races with a old fashioned water pump

Ayla avidly watching the duck races. Yes, they had one of those huge slides there (you can see it behind me) but we didn't take Ben on it and he didn't ask.

And they're off

Toy tractors to ride on. I can't remember who it is, but someone we know is all about Farmalls.

A crooked house to play in. I love these things.


Ayla and Mommy

Ben and Daddy on the tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch

Ayla and Mommy on the ride.

Finding the first pumpkin

Back to the tractor

Pumpkin flower, pretty.

Minus one pumpkin, but we got one for everybody and the big one is almost as big as Ayla.

Last night, we were playing and the kids were loving it.

I think we can say that the potty training is finally over for the most part and our lives can find a new balance. I say new because well we've never had to think about where the bathrooms are in most places and we will now.

We spent the weekend with Grammie and Nick's Grandparents, since they hadn't gotten to meet the baby yet. The drive out wasn't unusual except we did stop when Ben fell asleep and put a pull up on him. There were a couple of accidents because he was too busy playing outside to bother, but it's only been a week. He stayed dry the whole way home (and during nap time today).

Ayla was a big hit with everyone and everyone commenting on all that hair. Nick's Aunt, Uncle, and one of his cousins came over to see her and a couple of his old friends. She's not as easy as Ben was since she was awake at least half the ride home. We did have to stop once so I could feed her but once her belly was full she was perfectly happy.

The most interesting one this weekend though was Simba. We take him with us if it's going to be overnight because we couldn't afford to board him every time. He caught a bird! I'm not sure how he originally caught it. I looked over when it got out of his mouth the first time. Yes, he is a retriever but I guess I figured he was too lazy to bother, but I was wrong.

Hoping to get some pictures up soon.

Christmas

Ok, I tried to post these on Facebook, but apparently the site has something against me putting pictures up because I'm almost never able to. So here are some of the Christmas pictures from Grammie's house and ours.

Ben had to help Daddy put up our tree. He also made it the first priority in the mornings to turn on every holiday we have.

Just had to include this one of the stockings. I managed to find the blank one Nanny made so even though the baby isn't here yet, we still have it's stocking. Gotta remember to send it to my Mom sometime between now and next Christmas so she can put the name on it.

Since I mentioned baby, here's a belly picture. I'm about 5 months now and I'll be finding out on Monday what it is, as long as the baby cooperates.

Ben really likes the Christmas trees. He was pretty good about leaving the ornaments on the tree, but not perfect.

Ben and Grammy, he didn't take too long to warm up to everyone.

I've just decided I don't take good pictures anymore.


Didn't take him too long to figure out what to do.

Some more

His new inch worm.

He got a vet kit. He's been having fun figuring out which keys open which doors, there's 6 keys and 6 doors. And the puppy and kitty it comes with have gotten a very good look over.

That's it for now, I think I'll see if Facebook is feeling any more like cooperating.

Thanksgiving in Virginia

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents house in Virginia, we're still here so it's only a partial story.

We left our house Wednesday after I got off work and drove through the night. Surprisingly Ben and Simba did ok in the back seat together. The only problem came when it was my turn I was having trouble staying awake, so I only drove about 200 miles. Then Nick, who decided trying his gps thing on his phone without printed directions was a good idea, ended up taking us on a detour of downtown Richmond.

We had Thanksgiving dinner on Friday since Thursday we were a little out of it. My Dad and Nick have been out hunting most days. They haven't gotten anything yet but your not allowed to take a doe yet so that rather limits things.

Ben has started saying Grandma and Grandpa, much to my parents' delight. He's keeping everyone on their toes. My Mom gets a real kick out of his thing about saying Hi and Bye whenever he leaves or enters a room.

Simba is doing great off leash. I was a little apprehensive about it since at home one squirrel and he's gone. But he's been staying with us, even running after me on the ATV, if he wanders a little too far he'll come when called.

That's the update for now. There's still a few more hunting days left and then the drive home.

Halloween

Our Halloween has come and gone and Ben seemed to enjoy it. He only wanted to trick or treat three houses before he decided it was time to come back home.

Ben was an Ewok this year, though he wasn't too fond of the hood.

See?

Trying to get a better angle of the Ewok.

See, isn't he a cute little Ewok?

But this is how it was most of the evening, but he did let me put it up for the three houses we went to.

Of course he thought that all the candy should go in his bucket.

The official candy person.

Don't worry, the firemen just went around passing out candy with the lights on. Ben was so fascinated by the lights.

Some new pictures of the little one.

We had to get a Ben sized pumpkin. Unfortunately, he thinks it's a ball so it has to live outside or who knows what it'll get thrown into.

While Daddy carved the big pumpkins Ben got to paint his.

A cute picture of the two of us. It took a few pictures before both of us were looking in the same direction, but we got it.


From the same group of pics.

That's about it for now. Ben and I are planning a trip to Grammy's this weekend so I'll hopefully have more soon.