Vala's Pumpkin Patch 2013

Every year we take our children and all the Day Care kids to this HUGE pumpkin patch for a day of fall fun! It was a little chillier this time but that didn't seem to even faze the kids at all. We had quite a few parents and grandparents that joined us which was really helpful! 

By far the most anticipated activity is going to these GIGANTIC jumping pillows. They are like these huge thick plastic pillow things in the ground that everyone can jump on. I don't care what age you are, it is so much fun! A good leg work out too :)

Raylan just absolutely loved it!

Sawyer watching the 'Pumpkin Chunkin Cannon' shoot pumpkins really high in the air.

Lunch time! Praying for our food.....

All the kiddos got to pick a pumpkin to bring back to Day Care that we will be painting later on this week. Liz, our roommate for the past year has made the move back to Oregon and this was her last day with us....sad! She was practically Raylan's second mother for the past year and we are all going to miss her TONS!

Me and my Day Care kiddos!!!! What a group of goof balls! Every year I get them all matching shirts to wear to the pumpkin patch but this year was so cold they all had their coats on and you can't see them! Bummer!!!!!

Hot apple cider, chilly nights, turning trees, the scramble for Halloween costumes, snotty noses and pumpkins galore!

Fall is officially here and we are loving it! 

This, That and the Other Thing...

It's been forever, I know. But we've been busy, OK :) Here's what we've been up to:

Bill and two of his coworkers did a Triathlon! 

Swim, Bike, Run! Well done, Bill!

We were n a wedding! Bill's sister got married here in Omaha and we were all able to be apart of it and share in the special day! 

It was such a gorgeous wedding!

I ran my very first Marathon! 26.2 miles! (42+ Kilometers) Ran it in 4 hrs. 3 min and felt like I was gonna die! It felt so good to finish and something to cross off the bucket list!

My girlfriends and I threw a baby shower and had High Tea! Fancy, Fancy! 

Raylan's best friend, Jackson came to town for a visit!

Sawyer just gets more and more handsome every single day.

Mr. Naughty Pants decided to bring in some extra items into the bathtub while I wasn't watching....

Sawyer insists that they wear matching jammies at night time. They are soo rascally together and I love it!

I asked Sawyer to keep an eye on Raylan for me while I went to take a quick shower the other night and when I got out, I found Raylan in the cupboard trying to eat the ink out of a printer cartridge....

Bill and some friends from work ran the Market to Market run! 78 miles!

Thanks for all of you who prayed for Bill's 5th Actuarial Exam that he took a few weeks ago. Unfortunately he didn't make it this time, but he's back at the books and trying again in February.

So, as you can see life has been keeping us out late, up early, to school, at work, to cooking club, at Bible Study group and on the treadmill! (with a few naps here and there!) 

TTFN, Ta Ta for now!

Eight Watermelons Later...

Sunday night was our church's annual 'Baptism on the Green'! They combine a huge baptism event with an end of summer blowout! 

There were free hot dogs, chips, drinks and Raylan's favorite-watermelon! He practically ate a few watermelons all by himself. 

And he was a nice sticky mess afterwards to prove it!

Sawyer invited his buddy, Josh from across the street and the two of them had a ball running around together 

and getting into all sorts of mischief! 

There was this family that ran a ministry called 'Champions for Jesus'-they have ten kids and as a family, they do this whole basketball show and they are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. The things they did with basketballs were just jaw dropping. 

They also did a whole unicycle routine too and finished by all riding on these huge ten foot tall unicycles! 

These two cuties were the youngest and they came out and did a few laps on their unicycles 

and were like the most adorable things ever!

In the middle of the show, they had a fantastic gospel message that they shared. They have performed in over thirty five countries, with celebrities and most recently were on 'America's Got Talent' (Last Tuesday actually!) Sawyer and Josh sat through the whole thing going, "WOA!!!!!!!!"

There was also a live band, bouncy houses, train rides, trampolines and free ice cream from the Ding-Ding Man!

If anyone needs ideas of what to give Raylan for Christmas, your best bet is a plastic water bottle. He entertained himself for an hour with this thing.....oh the small joys in life......

It was such a special evening to watch over one hundred and fifty people get baptized! (Including a friends from our Journey Group!) They concluded the evening with a fireworks show!

  

First Grade, Here He Comes....

The first day of school kind of crept up on us! So yes, I was that mom at Walmart (yuck) at 5:30 a.m. in my pajama pants getting a pencil box and liquid glue....the two items that Target had run out of last weekend. Out of liquid glue....really Target? Shame. We put together a little gift for Mrs. Pederson for Sawyer to bring on his first day. It said, "I'm doing Flips that you're my teacher!"

Just like last year, we had a big first day of school breakfast! Scrambled eggs, strawberries and cinnamon rolls-Sawyer's favorites! 

Opening his 'Welcome to First Grade' gift.

The three of us......Raylan was being a sleepyhead.

Traditional first day of school photo shoot! (Mind you, all of his buddies were all walking up to their bus stop right as we went out to take pictures....so you can imagine how embarrassing that was for him!)

Can anyone spot the photo bomb??

Drop off for the first day of First Grade is a whole different ball game than the first day of Kindergarten. Last year, I sobbed my way through the school, into the office to pay his lunch bill and all the way out to the car and the entire ride home....but this year, I totally kept my cool! Way to go, me! He was so excited to see his friends and knew his way around the building. 

What a good looking group!

Sneak-a-Peak 2013

Can you believe the summer is almost over? Crazy! The other evening was Sneak-a-Peak Night at school! Just a time for the kiddos to come, see their friends, meet their new teacher and get all pumped up for the new school year to begin. 

Can you tell he's excited to see his friends? 

It's so cute-he has been sitting in bed looking through last year's year book every night for the past week!

The pancake man was there as always-serving up mounds of pancakes!

The proud parents. 

(Don't you just love when you have someone take a picture for you and they focus on the group behind you? Yeah, me too.)

We found our way down to Mrs. Pederson's First Grade class room and he spotted his desk right away!

I guess we have another little scholar who's ready to go! 

(Gessh Raylan, you just can't share the spot light with anyone else can you? lol)

We found his new classroom and it was so cute! Just chalked full of books and posters and all sorts of fun things. 

An environment that just inspires learning and creativity!

As any First Grade teacher is, Mrs. Pederson was vibrant, cheerful and welcoming! She scopped Sawyer up in a huge hug and told him all the wonderful things that his previous teacher had said about him and how excited she was to have him in class! I'm so excited to watch their relationship grown throughout the year!

We just had to sneak back into his Kindergarten class to pay Mrs. Johnson a quick visit. She was the absolute PERFECT first teacher for Sawyer last year. We love her SO much! 

First Grade. Phew....everyone let's just take a deep breath and contemplate this for a minute. My child is going into FIRST GRADE. Where has the time gone and how much cuter could he possibly get?!?

First Grade, here we come!

All Fun & Games Till Someone Pukes...

We loaded up the kids and headed to the Sarpy County Fair last weekend! Aaaahhh the sights and sounds and smells.....oh the smells.....kettle corn, turkey legs, brisket, cotton candy and of course everyone's favorite: Funnel Cake. 

Why is it that every game looks so darn easy until you pay your $10 and then what should be a mindless kid's game feels like an Olympic event? And you loose, like every time. Then your six year old looks up at you with a surprised disappointing look on his face and you feel like the biggest failure ever. Then you try and reason with him that the prizes suck but down deep inside you too are dying to win that god-awful ginormous  panda stuffed animal too.....sigh. 

But nothing brings everyone's spirits up like RIDES! This was the first year that Sawyer has been tall enough to go on the big rides that Bill loves. They went on every twirly, spinning, rotating contraption there was and Bill was looking pretty green at the gills by the end! 

Oh speaking of puke, Raylan and I were enjoying watching Bill and Sawyer whip around on the Hurricane when a sprinkle of puke began to rain down on us....yup, one of the little girls on their ride just couldn't stomach it....and it was gross.....like really gross.

Raylan had his eye on the carousel from the beginning. (Plus it was like the only ride that he was tall enough for.) I took him up and sat him on this horsie and he thought he was HOT STUFF. He smiled soooo big! Every time we would circle around to where Bill and Sawyer were, he would squeal! It was pretty adorable.

The Italian Stallion. 

We ventured through the 4-H barn and got to pet the horses. 

Sawyer loved the horses and Raylan hated them all except for the baby goats. 

Of course our wonderful friends were there too. We claimed a filthy, sticky picnic table and threw our diets to the wind. Foot long corn dogs, nachos, ice cream dots and funnel cakes all around!

What a perfect summer night!

....and maybe next year I won't chicken out and actually ride the mechanical bull.