Jack-O-Lanterning

So, yes, this was two weeks ago, but that's how I've felt lately - 10 steps behind on everything.  We have had busy lives lately - from going to a football game, to adoption meetings, to parent teacher conferences (& report cards to get done), a sick child (who is getting better - just a junky cough that hopefully is a "breaking up" cough), house projects, yard work - it's sad to pack up all those leaves and haul them away, and I also spent all day in class on a Saturday - and plan on doing the same next Saturday.

Jacob had so much fun prepping our pumpkins to turn into Jack-o-lanterns!  He was determined to have a lion one...so mom pulled through on that one!  But he wouldn't stick his hand inside to clean out the pulp.  Nate and I also got in on the carving opportunity.  

We look forward to Thanksgiving, spending time with family and some relaxation - possibly some Christmas shopping tossed in there as well - Oh - and the great Christmas tree hunt.  Blessings in your preparation for Thanksgiving. 

 

a shared first

Jacob and I went for a combine ride late this afternoon!  Neither of us had been for a ride before (he had sat in one before though).  We had a fun time and he had lots to say about it all. 

We saw several animals in the field - chased a couple raccoons, bunnies and birds.

 See, can you tell he liked it?! 

 It was fun to watch the corn fill up in the bin of the combine, then have the auger spew it out into the wagon.  It's quite the process and I totally get why farmers work together to keep things rolling and moving along faster.  Jacob was intrigued at the tractor driving along side the combine and didn't want the tractor to leave, but understood that the tractor was going to transfer the corn to the semi-truck.  It will be interesting as the days pass to see what he recalls from our ride in the combine.  

I definitely learned something new today! 

Jacob's first field trip

 Last Tuesday Jacob went on his first field trip with his nursery school class!  He had a lot of fun and the best part was that dad was able to go along with him!  This also happened to be his first time on a school bus. 

They were learning about fall and took a trip to a park in town.  They had a lot of fun.  There were a few other pictures, but figured I shouldn't blog and post pictures about other kids - I don't even know their names!  Tomorrow, his class will be visited by a firefighter as they talk about fire safety.  

2 things I have to brag about that someone else said about Jacob the past two days...

**After Sunday School yesterday his teacher said that Jacob knows the Bible stories very well.  I'm glad to know that he is retaining information/devotions/bible stories that we read with him and it carries over.  

**When I picked Jacob up from daycare today some of the teachers were talking about the firefighters coming tomorrow.  Jacob responded some thing like, yeah, I know, no big deal.  One of the gals said to him that he could ask the firefighter questions....another teacher said, yeah, he'll probably be the only one to ask questions.  I apologized - figuring my kid is the one that talks all the time and has all the stories to share.  I shouldn't have apologized really, I didn't need to be sorry for that!  I'm glad he's not shy (not that shy kids are bad!) but that he feels comfortable and his language skills are developed to where he can ask and understand what he asks and what the response is.  

So, I'm hoping my child asks questions, but is not overbearing to his teachers!  (I may or may not know what that is like from the teacher stand point!)

Also, as I write about Jacob's first field trip, I took my students on a field trip today - we headed to a pumpkin patch and despite the damp conditions, we had a great time!  They were very excited and very well behaved (phew!).  This momma/teacher is tired and ready for a night of volleyball tonight - HOORAY!  I think I'll have a hurtin' sore body tonight/tomorrow, looking forward to that though too!

at the apple orchard

Last Saturday we headed to an orchard near Sioux Falls.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day.  We had gone to this orchard last year as well.  There were a variety of things to do here - bouncy houses, animals & port-a-pots...our son has an obsession with those...he sees one and immediately has to go to the bathroom.  So unfortunately, we spent more time in line for the toilet than doing some of the more fun things (from a parents perspectives) because some of us had football games to get home to and watch - not to name any names...

 Jacob and Nate on a horse drawn wagon ride around the orchard.  The purpose of the wagon rides was to take people out to the pumpkin patches - well, we just went for the ride as we had previously been to a real pumpkin patch - the ones around the orchard seemed like they were fields full of thistles with pumpkins placed in the field.

Yeah for hooded sweatshirts :)

 Jacob liked watching the apple sorter.  Tonight he randomly started talking about this machine and all the steps that the apples went through, down to the lady putting the apples in a bag.  Amazing what he randomly spits out from time to time from his memory.

 Trying to make sad faces - the apple trees were all picked out for the season - would have been nice to know BEFORE we got there, but we still had a good time and bought some bags of apples.  An apple pie is just begging to be made - unfortunately cleaning and other things took precedence.  Hopefully soon!

Now to watch the end of the Husker game....let's go blackshirts!

Pumpkins

Last week, on a glorious evening, we took a trip to a local pumpkin patch.  It's a fabulous place for a 3 year old to run around, burn some energy and explore God's wonderful creation! 

Here is Jacob headed out to the patch to pick our own pumpkins!

We found some!  A perfect "daddy" sized pumpkin, a perfect "mommy" size pumpkin and a perfect "Jacob" size pumpkin.  I love how proud he was of picking "HIS" - to him it didn't matter that it wasn't orange.  It was his!

And then he got to find a pumpkin for his baby.  He's saying in the picture - get here soon baby!

:)

Having fun playing in the kid corn maze.

Fun in the corn maze!

Awe! 
...little do you know what the picture taken before this one looked like!

 Jacob crawled up here on his own, too sweet! 

Happy Harvest - and STAY SAFE.  There have been a lot of field fires around here because of such dry conditions - we haven't seen rain for a long time and when partnered with strong winds - it's been quite dangerous.

Marathon day

This woman is amazing.  Her hearts desire was to run a marathon and be able to use it as a fundraiser for someone.  She chose us, her dear brothers family, so help raise funds so we can adopt a baby.  We are so honored and blessed by her act of love that was displayed not just a week ago, but through the entire training process!  She ran nearly 700 miles in training, gave up many other things because she had to train.  Here is a glimpse of our Sunday last week.  So as not to bored you, I'll put captions under each picture - they are the same pics as on fb - so some of you may have seen them there already.

bright and early - pre-race

 

 Just off the start line!

Jacob being a trooper on the chilly morning - up way early, but bright smiles!

Nate coming in to the finish line of the 10K

Sarah - only 20 to go!

Jacob proud of his daddy.

Jacob was attached to his daddy after his race!

Sarah near mile 13 - nearly halfway!

Caught up to Sarah around mile 16 - surprised her!

Jacob burning some energy - the kids loves sticks

near 20 - just 6.2 to go - feeling the pain

A proud boy waiting for his auntie to cross the finish line!

She made it!!!!!!  Time clock not her exact time, but close, she was about 25 seconds faster.

Nate ran roughly the last mile and half in with her!

Friends and their cute shirts they made - the back had two little feet prints

 Post-Race photo!

 

Thank you to all of you who prayed for Sarah, gave financially, and were there to help cheer her on!  An amazing display of love.

 Cute cake Sarah had made - we're hoping soon too, but it's all unknown and we wait :)

a few things to document

 The past month or so Jacob has done some fun things.  On Labor Day we headed to the airport to eat some pancakes, support of firefighters and check out lots of airplanes.  For a little boy who LOVES airplanes, you just can't pass this up!  He really expected to get in a plane and take flight and was bummed when we wouldn't let him.  There were rides, but we just reminded him of when he road in a jumbo jet to Florida and that seemed to be enough to suffice him.

 We headed to a county fair mid-September and of course checked out the combines.  This child (and probably most 3 year old boys) enjoy large pieces of equipment.  Planes, trains, tractors, combines...you name it.  He enjoyed sitting up in the tractor, beeping the horn and pretending to be Frank from Cars.

Monarchs were all over the place, we were able to catch one.  We only held it captive for only a day, the weather was going to be turning colder (it froze a few days after this!) So we wanted the butterfly to have a chance at surviving.  I got him to hold it and he set him free.  It was so sweet.  After he let go, the butterfly took off and we watched him fly higher and higher - I look over to Jacob and he's waving good bye.  

And then Jacob was being a big helper!  One of his cousins came over to play for a little bit, they went to play in the basement - which happens to be where the cat food is.  After coming upstairs not too long later Jacob had mentioned something about feeding the cats and making a mess.  I wasn't going to worry about it right away, figuring it couldn't be too bad.  So after they left, we went to clean up toys, of course I took the camera a long figuring it would be picture worthy.  So, here's Jacob cleaning up his mess.  He has a responsibility chart that we put reward magnets on every once in a while - he got a magnet for taking care of the pets!  

There's a few more things we've done in the past couple weeks, but I feel they deserve posts of their own.  We'll see how far I get. 

P.S.  No news on the adoption front - other than waiting to hear from adoption grants - October seems to be a big month for a couple grants - praying that our applications prove that we are worthy people truly in need of financial assistance with our adoption.  Because honestly, there is no way we can pay for this ourselves and we're so thankful at the opportunity to be able to apply for the grant assistance programs out there.  July and August was when we sent out the grant applications and we're hoping to hear from them in Oct/Nov.  So, please join us in praying our baby home.