Merry Christmas!

I'm impressed ~ Santa has his gifts all wrapped and ready for the big night. Mike did nearly ALL the wrapping!! Thanks hon. Well I did all the shopping, so fair is fair, right?! I baked cookies and candy while he was busy wrapping the gifts on Sunday. I do have a couple gifts to put together and wrap tonight and need to pick up a few things for dishes to make and take to each of our parents for each family's get together, but I'm feeling pretty good that we're pretty much ready for Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone! :)

Picture Time

My little girl ~ Abigaile, age 8, and little boy ~ Jacob, age 2. I got the kids outside last night and took a few pictures of them with the fall colors in the background. It seems my lens needs to be cleaned or maybe I need a new camera, as the pics have a fuzzy appearance to them.

Yes, I made my picture smaller on purpose! LOL . . I'm huge enough as it is, so there is no need to emphasize the fact. So anyways, thought I'd share a photo of pregnant me as a few people have wanted to see how big I am - LOL. Abbie took this one for me.

Happy Birthday Abbie!!

My little girl turned 8 this week! Time sure flies.

~* Autumn Decor & Hustlerfest Fun *~

So I've begun my fall/halloween decorating. I should have moved my truck so it wasn't in the background before taking this photo - oh well . . . notice two of our kittens are peeking in through the window ~ hee hee.

Mike is always complaining that my decor is just too "cluttered" . . but ya know what? I don't care. I like how it comes together. Until I get a larger house, I want to have my favorite things on display, and since we don't have a lot of room to display my things right now, they'll have to be together as they are. If we had more space, I either would have things more spread out or . . just maybe . . who knows . . . I just might be compelled to buy more to fill up the space. LOL I love my prim goodies and I feel the more the merrier, the more homey the feel.

A couple of weeks ago was our local fest. Abbie was in the pie eating contest for the second year in a row, this year coming in third. She's in red in these photos. Next to her in the green top is her cousin, my niece, Kate. Good thing the pie is pumpkin; otherwise, Abbie would not have been in it, as that's the ONLY kind of pie she will eat.

And she also competed in the kids pedal pull. Last year she won her age group. This year, she couldn't really pedal the small tractor as she was too big for it. Imagine an adult trying to pedal a baby tricycle - it's pretty hard to do when it's simply too small for you. Sure enough, for the next age group they brought out a larger tractor that would have worked much better for her. I told her she'll have to try again next year and will probably have better luck.

My Favorite Places

We visited my parents farm yesterday, and took the kids for a walk to explore and pick berries. I always LOVE to do this, as I love the beauty of the outdoors on their farm and pastures. Abbie, Jacob, & Taylor. Looking for tadpoles - found some too!

A view of my parents farm.

Neat old barn and the interior view of it.

Bath Time, the Ol' Ford, a Runaway, & Our Veggie Garden

Bubbles at bath time! Jacob's almost 2 . . He's 23 months now!
Abbie posing with her dad's Antique Ford that is in pristine condition. I'm trying to convince her to let me get her bangs cut, but she wants to let them grow out . . yet she won't always keep a barrette in and it drives me nuts, but oh who am I to tell my 7-year old know it all daughter? I'm just her mom, come on . . she's got to be "cool" and all now. LOL, I swear she acts like she's 13 at least already.

And here are Mike and Jacob busy removing stumps from land Mike cleared to increase the size of our garden. Jacob loves being on anything noisy that moves . . he was safe, with a seat belt strapped around him. Mike was very busy, as he cut down and removed close to 30 trees!

And here's a shot of just a portion of our now much bigger, newly planted veggie garden. Just wait to see it later in the season! The plants will be huge.

Uh-oh! We have a run away! LOL. Jacob ran off out of the house. He can get out on his own even if the door is locked, so we have to watch closely as he LOVES to get outside all the time.

And here he is once Mommy caught up with him still in his pajamas with a dirt streak on his forehead . . lol. Sitting on one of Abbie's li'l old bike's, but he still is too little and can't reach the pedals, so will sit on and can barely reach to the ground to stand on his tiptoes and push it along. :)

Zoo Fun!

We had a family day yesterday - off to the zoo! The weather was perfect for getting outside and taking a stroll through the zoo. Jacob was smiles all day long :)