Trick or Treat

Last night was beggar's night in De Soto and time for the ghost and goblins to go out and play.

Like always last minute mom (that would be me) didn’t get the costumes until the day of. Actually thanks to Aunt Tiffany for Ty’s costume. It fit perfect!

Getting ready to go!







Ty trying to figure out what this is all about with his light stick that Debbie gave him.



Look Mom



The scary Ninja







Come on mom! Let’s go!





The first 15-20 houses Ty just walked up to the people, smiled and then turned to go to the next house. About ½ way through I finally got him to take some candy & put it in his bag. By the time we were almost done he had things figured out and wanted to go again.

Here is his small stash.



And this is what happens when you eat too much candy

This & That

I have some random pictures that I wanted to post.

This is Chase & Ty playing with Ty's new truck/trailer combo that dad bought him.



I sure hope it's not in their stars to be behind bars!



Psycho Kitty! This is a nightly occurance between my dog and cat. The cat (Bang) ususally starts it and the dog (Cy Cy) usually gets the brunt of it.

Clover Buds

Shari & Chase are Clover Buds (young 4-H'ers).

This month at their meeting they started off by feeling inside of a bag. The bag contained items you would use to take care of a specific pet. They were then asked at the end what pet they thought the items in the bag were for.



The bag contained a bowl, a leash, treats and a bone. All of the kids picked a dog and were correct.

Then they colored pictures for their record books.



After that they got to make dirt cups to eat! They all thought that was pretty cool!



Chase is going to try to show a bottle calf next year and I think Shari is going to try to show her bunny.

Fall Party

Grandma Candy & Papa Bob had their annual fall party and the kids had a blast!

They got their faces painted!



Doesn’t Chase looked thrilled?



They rode the hay rack ride!







They ate good food (smoors)



They played games!

Needle in a haystack (Chase was helping Ty)



Who can shell the corn the fastest?



And they got to see good friends!
From L-R
Val, Grandma Candy, Phyllis


A zebra and Cat hide in the grass.

It's Birthday Time

Chase is 8! Can you believe it? Time sure does fly.

Chase was able to celebrate his birthday with his family. Aunt Heather made him a wonderful monster truck cake with a ring of fire just like he wanted.







He received lots of gifts!





And had lots of fun with his cousins.

The Pacifier Addict

I’m still in the process of trying to keep the pacifier away from Ty at night. For the most part as long as he’s busy he’s ok without it during the day. Monday night I was able to get him to sleep without it but then around 2:30 am he woke up and started crying. I tried to leave him alone figuring he’d go back to sleep soon enough but he woke Chase up so I moved him into my room where he quickly fell back asleep.

I didn’t want this to become a habit (go to sleep, wake up crying, go to bed with mom) so last night I decided if he woke up crying I would move Chase out of the room instead. To my amazement he went to sleep and slept the entire night without the Nuk. Woo hoo!

This morning when he woke up I let him out of the crib to play while I was getting ready for work. As I walked into his room I almost fell to the floor laughing. His diaper bag was in his room (there are always Nuks in his diaper bag) and he was feverishly trying to get to the bottom of it to find a Nuk. He reminded me of a smoker who hadn’t smoked in days looking for a cigarette in the bottom of their purse. Needless to say I removed the bag from his room so he didn’t feel the “urge” again.

Dad is coming home on Friday so we’ll see if he sticks with the program or if I have to start it all over again once he leaves.

The Villages of Van Buren

This past weekend was our annual “girls weekend”. Mom, Heather, Tiffany and I headed out to see the Villages of Van Buren County. Our first stop was in Agency, Iowa where we visited The Chief Wapello memorial.



Cheif Wapello


After that we headed to Eldon, Iowa where we visited the American Gothic House.



Unfortunately the museum was closed so we didn’t get a chance to go inside and look around.



Our next stop was in Selma-Douds where Tiffany & Heather proceeded to go on a wine tasting adventure. Mom and I decided to buy some home made goodies instead. Then we stopped for lunch at what appeared to be a very popular place called “The Lunch Box”. It wasn’t exactly fast food but the food was very good.

After lunch we headed to Lebanon where we bought some home baked goodies from the Amish. I bought an Amish made Lazy Susan from Yoder’s furniture. They had the most beautiful grandfather’s clock I’ve seen.

From Lebanon we headed to Cantril and to the Dutchman’s store. What a zoo! It was a neat store but it was packed.

Then we went to visit the Historic Wickfield Sales Pavillion. It wasn’t open so Tiffany and I just glanced through the lower level windows. I’d like to go back once the renovations are done and walk through it.



“While it is informally called the "round barn" at Cantril, the Wickfield Sales Pavilion was not built as a barn but as an auction and lodging facility. Built in 1918 at an original cost of $20,000 the restoration of the roof alone was expected to run $30,000 with the overall restoration expected to exceed $200,000 in costs.”



After that we decided it was time to find our cottage so we headed to Bonaparte. Tiffany and Heather walked some of the stores while mom and I tried to fill up the car with gas at the very busy gas station (gas $2.77/gal).
Once we found the girls we headed to the Kountry Kottage, unpacked our bags and then headed into Farmington for supper. After supper and back at the “cottage” Tiffany and mom decided to watch a movie while Heather and I decided to play cards. Needless to say neither plan happened without a hitch. Mom and Tiffany couldn’t get the TV to play a DVD and once they did it hummed so much that you couldn’t hear the movie. They finally resorted to watching it on mom’s portable DVD player.

The Kountry Kottage


The kitchen


Nook


Living Room


Spiral Staircase leading upstairs


Upstairs


Heather and I sat down to play a game of rummy and noticed we had 8 queens in the deck. As we started to sort cards Heather realized she’d purchased a pack of pinochle cards so we drove to town and purchased a pack of regular cards.
The following morning mom took us on the “scenic” drive to Bentonsport. Is say scenic because she refused to believe the road signs so we took the “long” way. Bentonsport was full of some very neat historical buildings.



Our final stop was in Keosauqua.



That town was booming. There was a carnival, lots of vendors and even a cars show. We split up to browse the vendors. Panic set through the town when it was announced a little 8 yr. old boy was missing. He had been missing for 4 hours along with his sister. His sister had been found playing with friends but he had not been found. There were over 25 rescue workers searching near the river. Before we left we learned they had found him asleep in the family van. Thank god.

We all met back up for lunch at the local small town restaurant called Misty’s Malt Shop. The food was excellent.

After lunch we headed to Grandma's house for a very quick visit. It was long enough to use the loo and snap a few pics but it was very nice seeing Grandma.

Then we headed back home.

Hello All

Since it seems to be hard to keep in touch with everyone I thought I'd start a blog.

For those who know me, you know how bad I am about writing down important stuff. Hopefully with this blog I can kill two birds with one stone (let everyone know what's going on and keep track of stuff for myself).

Brandon left for the farm Wednesday morning. He'll be up there until Nov. 3rd harvesting. The boys and I are slowly adjusting into a routine but it is amazing how quite the house it (in a nice, calming way).

I told Chase he was the “man of the house” now that his dad is gone and he’s taking his responsibilities very seriously. Ty on the other hand isn’t so thrilled that dad is gone. Last night was his first night without his nuk and he was not a happy camper. I had to bring him into my room so Chase could sleep but he finally managed to fall asleep (after 2.5 hrs. of crying) without his pacifier. He woke up a few times in the middle of the night and I could feel him searching for it but all in all it wasn’t too bad.

Last weekend Grandma Janet took the boys to Carroll’s Pumpkin Farm (http://www.carrollspumpkinfarm.com/) in Grinnell and the boys had a blast! Of course we both forgot our cameras but I did manage to take a few photos with my phone (thank god for technology).

Ty loved the goats & the poor man’s trampoline (old tractor inner tubes). We rode the hay rack out into the field to pick pumpkins. Chase picked out a 25lb. pumpkin. I told him he couldn’t get it unless he could carry it (it’s amazing how much they can carry when they want to).



Grandma helped Ty select his pumpkin.