Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween! It was the first Halloween that Jackson really understood and got into it. He was all over telling everyone that he was "BATMAN!" and saying "trick or treat!" We had dinner with friends and then all went downtown trick or treating at all the merchants and to a carnival at the library.

Checking out Papa's tree stand . . .

MMM . . . Apples!

Yesterday afternoon, I heard Kinsey in the kitchen, but it took me a few minutes to get in there to see what she was up to. When I found her, she had helped herself to some of the apples in a bucket from Grammy and Papa's apple tree. I preceded to watch her eat about 1/4 of the apple. . . I couldn't believe she was just chomping away on it.

Kinsey Update

Kinsey is walking as much as crawling now! It is so cute watching her toddle around. Here she is at Aunt Hilma's funeral dinner last night.

And on Sunday morning, she started saying "UH OH!" Jackson loves trying to get her to repeat him and then they both giggle at each other. (WARNING: Sorry Aunt Jenny, hope you are able to watch this video, but Kinsey is holding Jackson's "play" snake).

Swim Lessons

Jackson is taking "big kid" swim lessons with his friend Nathan. He goes every Tuesday and Thursday for a month. It started last week. The first lesson Jackson didn't know what to do or what was expected of him so he was pretty much all over the place. But on Thursday he did much better, and tonight was a complete turn around. He stayed with his class and followed instructions much better and only got out of the pool once. At least he is having fun : )

Welcome Ella Grace!

My cousin, Traci, and her husband Chadd welcomed Ella Grace into the world just before 5 pm this evening. She was born on my sister's birthday! Ella was 7 lbs, 1/2 oz and 20 inches long. Look at all that dark hair! : ) Congratulations!

Carving the Pumpkin

We finally had a free night to carve the pumpkin! Jackson and Kinsey were both very interested in the whole thing. David did most of the work of course, but Jackson did want to help scoop it out. Well, until he realized that it was a messy job and then he handed it back over to Daddy. David decided he was going to carve it with his power tools, which actually worked really well.

Birthday Weekend

I had a GREAT birthday weekend! David arranged for some good friends of ours to watch our children on Friday afternoon and evening so that we could go to Fairview. So we had a great time shopping and ate at Olive Garden . . . yum : ) Then on Saturday, my dad had gotten tickets for us all to go to an Illini Football game. We met up with everyone (my sister's family and my parents) at Famous Dave's (again YUM) and then to the game. The marching bands (both Illinois and Indiana) were fantastic!!! Illini scored several touchdowns which meant lots of fireworks (which Jackson loved). And two guys parachuted onto the field during the pregame show, which was also very cool! Kinsey fell asleep during the 3rd quarter, Illini WON and both kids slept all the way home, WOO HOO!

Things kids say . . .

We were in Walmart yesterday morning and we turned down an isle where a Mennonite family was shopping. Jackson says out loud for all to hear, "Why are those kids wearing costumes?" I tried to ignore him until they passed, but he was rather insistent on an explanation. I don't know if it is because I told him he can't wear his halloween costume for a few more weeks, and thought they shouldn't either or what. So after they had passed, I told him those were their regular clothes. And he then wanted to know their names, so I quietly told him to say, "Hi my name is Jackson, what is your name?" Which he preceded to holler down the isle at them! And then he was smiling and waving at them everytime we passed them through the rest of the store. I am sure they were ready to get home after my son was stalking them all morning! HA!

Jarretts in IL

We had a great time visiting with David's brother and sister-in-law this past week. They live in CO and due to various circumstances we haven't gotten to see them in a long time. So we were VERY happy to get to know the kids a little more and catch up with Brian & Jenny. All the kids loved holding and playing with Kinsey : ) And they especially liked playing outside! Jackson was very sad when they had to leave on Monday afternoon. He said, "I don't want all my friends to go!" Hopefully we'll get to see them again soon!

Kinsey Grace-11 months

Kinsey Grace is 11 months old today! I was able to catch this picture of her this morning in the backyard.

I also captured this little video of her standing up all by herself in the grass this morning. She has never actually stood up without pulling up on something before, so it was very exciting. I know one of these days she is just going to take off. She did take 3-4 steps in the church nursery on 9/21 and got her 5th tooth that same day.

Plans are underway for her 1st birthday celebration which will be November 15th at 10:30 am.

Little Egypt Parade

Our town holds an annual Little Egypt Festival and so we went to the parade this afternoon. We sat right near the beginning of the parade route with some of our friends. It was actually a pretty long parade (2 hours) and the kids got SO much candy!! You know you got too much candy when about 2/3 of the way through the parade the kids are tired of picking it up and it is just laying in front of you on the road! There were tons of firetrucks (which are one of Jackson's favorites) and several marching bands (which as you will see below were both of their favs). It was fun, but they both missed afternoon naps so that wasn't so fun later this evening! Oh well, they are both sleeping VERY peacefully now : )

Marlow's Pumpkin Patch

We went to Marlow's Pumpkin Patch this morning. Jackson has been waiting ALL week to pick out a pumpkin to bring home! It was a really cute place with tons of pumpkins to choose from in every shape and size, lots of cute character cut outs (Sesame Street, Dora, Pooh), Corn Maze, playground, small petting zoo, haunted barn and Hayride. It was all a lot of fun!
















And of course, we had to pick out a pumpkin to bring home. This is the one he picked out. We told him that later this week or next that we would carve a face on the pumpkin. When we got home, he wanted to put the pumpkin in the bay window sill and said, "we are going to cut its face off!" HMMM, somehow I don't think we explained that quite right!

Say Cheese!

I took this picture of Kinsey at the soccer game last night. I love to see her toothy smile!

We are going to a pumpkin patch on Friday, so I hope to have some very fun fall pictures to post then : )