HALLOWEEN NIGHT

We had a really fun Halloween. Here are the kids in their costumes. They had a great time at school and trick or treating. After they got their candy haul they decided they wanted to watch Harry Potter. That is their new favorite thing to watch. Megan is a pirate. This was her first year that she got to go by herself with her friends. She had a great time and thought that trick or treating is better with friends.

Parker is Jengo Fett. I don't love masks but I gave in this year. He was still cute mask and all.

Hailey is a vampire girl. She came up with her make up job all by herself. She even kept her vampire teeth the whole night.

Jake was a cute little Yoda. This was his first Halloween. He went with the kids and loved every minute of it.

I was lucky enough to stay home and pass out candy. I sat on the front porch and read the news paper while I waited for the kids to come.

Pumpkin Patch

After the fun Halloween party at Grams, we went to Jon and Carries for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. The pumpkin patch we went to was great. First, we went on a hay ride to find the perfect pumpkin. There were so many pumpkins to chose from, of course every one wanted to pick the biggest one. I think Jon or Erin were the ones to find the biggest pumpkins. When we each found the perfect pumpkin we got back on the tractor put our pumpkins in the car and went to play on some very big slides. I think almost everyone went down a huge slide that was made by stacking hay bales and then putting some kind of sliding plastic on it. It was a lot of fun! There was also a huge tube slide that only the daring went on. I had a couple of kids that were too afraid to try that one out. It was so fun to get together with the Hendricks family. Thanks Jon and Carrie for the great time, we love you guys!

Halloween Preview

We had a party at Grams house with some cousins on Saturday. We were able to dress up and play Halloween games. We had a yummy lunch, frosted cupcakes and then played a few games. The kids had a blast! It is always fun to dress up and give the costume a trial run. Both Megan and Hailey want to make some minor adjustments to their costumes. The kids all looked darling, we had a great time. Thanks Grams for the fun!

Pinewood Derby

Parker was so excited for the Derby this year. Bill and Parker worked very hard on Parker's nice looking car. Parker designed it and chose the colors. Both of them cut out the car. Bill helped our neighbor Carter with his car. He loves to help people with their cars that is one of his favorite things to do. All of the cars were so cute. It is so much fun to watch the boys get so excited about their cars. It was a fun race, even though Parker's car didn't place. Way to go Parker we are proud of you.

Corn Belly Fun

One of our favorite things to do is go to Corn Bellys. Heather and Chad went with us this year. We also took Kaden with us. The kids had a blast. We went into the corn maze. The kids shot some corn cob guns. They had a duck race with Bill. They jumped, played on the slides and sat on a huge rocking chair. All of us had a lot of fun, even Jake did great in the back pack. The last time we went to Corn Bellys Rylee came with us, needless to say she hated every minute of it. It was a fun time to spend together as a family and a great Halloween activity to do.

Being Domestic

I have always loved the corn that Bill's mom Sylvia freezes. We have wanted to do this for years but we never did until this year. The corn we used was a little out of season, but it still worked. We got several dozen of corn, husked the corn then blanched it. We then cut off the corn and put it in freezer bags. It is such a simple process but now we have yummy sweet corn for the year.

Here we are working on the corn.

I have always loved my Aunt Claudia's rolls. For years I have wanted to learn how to make them. I have learned that there are tricks to making rolls and if you don't make them with the person that has the recipe and learn the tricks they just don't turn out the way the should. I had some cousins that wanted to learn as well. This week we got together to learn how to make my favorite rolls. Aunt C would have us make the dough and she would instruct us. Now I know why my rolls never turn out. I never fluffed the flour. I would always pack the flour in the measuring cup. My water for my yeast has been too hot. The list goes on and on. We had a fun time learning the correct roll making technique. Of course there were plenty of rolls to take home and eat. I was able to teach some of my cousins how to digital scrapbook. It was great to get together and have a great time, thanks Aunt Claudia for the fun.

After we made the rolls we went past an old house that belong to my mom's grandma's family. Then on the way home Megan wanted to see Devil's Slide. So, we stopped by there and Megan finally got to see it. Last year she did her county report on Morgan County so she knew that it is one of the main attractions in Morgan.

Here I am helping Steph with Photoshop and Heather and Aunt Claudia are mixing up some yummy rolls.

Happy Birthday Rylee

Today is Rylee's Birthday, she would have been four years old. Last night we went to visit her grave. We took her some flowers and then we cleaned up her head stone and the grass around it. We got a little grave cleaning kit from Rick. The kids love to make it look all nice and shiny. It is nice to be able to do something for Rylee by making her grave look nice. We were talking about our favorite memories of Rylee last night and we all agreed that when she would coo that was the best. She would say ah goo, when she liked something. The kids said that they would have given her a princess dress for her birthday this year. It seems so strange that it has been four years. So much has happened in those past four years. I am so grateful to have had two and a half years with that little angel in our home. I am glad that she will be ours forever. We love you Rylee and miss you. Happy Birthday Dolly!!

(I love the picture of Rylee sleeping with her little braces on her fingers. She looks so peaceful. That was the day she went home from the hospital. I found her asleep looking so cute and ready to come home.)Rylee had the longest feet I have ever seen on a baby. We called them her "jack rabbit feet."

We are celebrating her B-Day at her Grave.