Thanksgiving/Trip to Madison Wisconsin

For Thanksgiving we went to visit Craig's brother and his family in Madison, Wisconsin (they have recently moved there, and are the closest family, which is super exciting.  We actually have relatives within driving distance!).   We have been planning this trip for awhile, with the knowledge that it might not happen.  Since we were attempting to drive to Madison, Wisconsin in November, weather was definitely a factor.  As time grew closer, so did our anticipation that we might actually be spending Thanksgiving with family.  Success!  We made it to Madison and back in one piece.  Though there was a complication with the rental car.  It had some issues, (lights turning on during the night and draining the battery, so when we got into the car in the morning it didn't start) and trying to exchange it ended up being an unsuccessful hassle.  All in all fun, fun, fun!!!  The car ride was supposed to be about 12 hours, but ended up being about 15 hours when you add in the time when we were stuck in Chicago commute, oops!!!  (Note to self, don't try to drive through the 3rd largest city in the US during rush hour traffic).)  However, I did get Giordano's pizza out of the deal, and it was super yummy (not as good as the pizza in Brooklyn though, wow it is just amazing!).

Since this was our first time visiting Wisconsin, we were sure to stock up on cheese.  The grocery store we went to had four aisles of cheese, wow!  It was pretty incredible, so I had to take a picture, which was about the time that Craig decided mother nature was calling (whatever, i guess he was a little embarrassed of his wife taking pictures of cheese. I love cheese!!!)  We also stopped off at Sprechers Brewery, which I guess are pretty big in Wisconsin.  Had cream soda and root beer, best cream soda I have ever had!!!  It was a German themed brewery, so they had some pretty good brats.  Took a tour of Alan's work (Craig's brother) wow!!!  Pretty amazing!!!  There are several buildings, A through K, each named after some astronomical object, and each building has a theme; dungeons and dragons, New York City, country/garden, technology, jungle, etc.  It was pretty crazy, one of the tunnels looked like a subway train, another was Indiana Jones, had a golden idol and when you touched it you heard the sound of the boulder coming towards you.  Another building had one of the foyer areas look like a castle, inside the conference room was a huge dragon.  It was pretty exciting place!  The buildings are all connected by tunnels or indoor walkways.

One of the MANY themed conference rooms. 

Who needs stairs to go from the 2nd to 1st floor?

"Subway" going from the 'garden' themed building to the 'city' themed building.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious.  We had tons of food that we ate for several days after!  Sarah made the best turkey I have ever tasted!!!  I am a dark meat person, all the way, not a big fan of the white meat, but wow!  The white meat was fantastic!!!  She went all out on this turkey, first time she has every cooked a turkey!  She brined it for 24 hours, injected it, stuffed it with fresh herbs, apples, celery, and rubbed it with sage and butter!  A lot of work, which totally paid off.  Simply amazing!!!  With that being said I have to toot my own horn and say that I made a pretty dang good pumpkin pie, chocolate pudding torte (with my own homemade Creme Fraiche), and some pretty awesome sweet potatoes, next to the turkey those sweet potatoes were my favorite! Oops!  Almost forgot to mention the cranberry sauce stuff that Sarah made that was supper yummy too!  Of course we had pie, four kinds of pie, which ended up being dessert the next several nights (after the kids went to bed!). Thanksgiving dinner was very successful!!!

The family the texts together stays together!  (Grandma just texted all of us, we aren't actually this obsessed with our phones)

 We had lots and lots of fun!!!  Lucas loved playing with Elsie and they got along so well together!  Once again THANKS for having us Alan and Sarah, we had so much fun!  We slept in, took naps, read books, it was the perfect vacation!  It was worth the drive to and from.

The trip home was very long, but not as rainy as the trip there.  We made some detours along the way.  A stop right outside Chicago on the border of Wisconsin, at the Jelly Belly Warehouse.  Took a ride on the train and learned all about Jelly Belly's.  Lucas thought this was so much fun!  He is really into trains right now, so he thought it was pretty cool to ride one!!!  Next stop was at the Temple in Chicago, beautiful!  Of course my trips always involve food!  We stopped at Sweet Baby Rays (they have a bbq sauce you can buy at the grocery stores).  It was way dang good!!!  So good that I didn't have time to take a picture of it or us eating it, as it was devoured within a matter of minutes!!!  Lucas thoroughly enjoyed his Mac n' Cheese!

Our last pit stop was in South Bend, Indiana at Notre Dame, to see "Touch Down Jesus" (Craig will tell you that we went because I wanted to go, but lets be honest here, the only reason I know about this is because of Craig, so honestly I am not the only that wanted to make this stop!)  It was pretty cool.  The campus was beautiful, even in the winter!  They have a gorgeous basilica, that is absolutely magnificent!  Vaulted ceilings with murals, beautiful stained glass windows and lots of ornate and beautiful decorations!  (Out of respect we didn't take any pictures, but you should go see it if you get a chance.)  Ironically enough we ran into the missionaries in the basilica, who would have thought!  Of course they knew we were Mormons  Craig walking around with his BYU sweatshirt kind of gave it away!  Awesome trip!  Now back to reality!

   

Packages

Thank you Grandmas for the packages you send!  Lucas loves them!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just a note Grandma Les, the blanket you sent is now the blanket that Lucas has to sleep with!

Dinosaur!

For the past couple of weeks Lucas has been talking about dinosaurs.  When we're at the table it's, "The dinosaur's going to eat my food."  On Car ride home from dropping off Craig I heard Lucas say, "no dinosaur, we don't eat the window."  At nap time he talks about the dinosaur taking a nap.  Our conclusion: Lucas has an imaginary dinosaur that hangs out with him.  We have no yet been told his name, color, or even if it is a boy dinosaur.  More details to come.....

One step closer!

Last week Craig passed his comprehensive exam.  Success!  We are now one step closer to a Ph.D.  Now the only thing he needs to do is write a dissertation!  No big deal, right?

Spin Class

As evident with Saturday's weather, it is getting colder and I am going to have to move my workouts indoors, which means going to the gym on a regular basis, which I don't like!  So to mix things up a little bit and make it a little more fun to go to the gym, I signed up for a spin class.  Yes, I know, talk about getting outside the box.  Monday was my first class, and it wasn't bad, exhausting and definitely gives you a workout, but it seemed to be  doable, intense, but doable.  So Friday I will be heading back to do it again!  Wish me Luck!

Snow!

"I looked out the window and what did I see?......snow, and it's still snowing!"  This is not what I wanted to wake up to.  It is too early to be snowing, I am not done enjoying the fall, I haven't bake enough pumpkin sweets!  However, Lucas thought that it was pretty neat!  We dressed him up and let him play out on the deck, and he was quick to tell us that he likes the snow!  Luckily it was wet snow and there wasn't too much, so thankfully it didn't stick around long!

Ode to the Microwave!

Just this past week, as I was trying to get dinner ready and was heating some broccoli in the microwave, I discovered after 10 minutes that they were still frozen.  Thinking that I had not set the time right, because previously I had started the time without putting them in the microwave, I put them back in for another 10 minutes.  They were still frozen, after this we quickly realized that our microwave was not heating up.  So for the past few days we have not had a microwave and can I just tell you what a pain it is.  I never realized how much I use the microwave, it is one of those appliances that you don't really appreciate until you don't have it.  I just don't think I could have survived back in the days when they didn't have microwaves, or kitchen aids, I don't think I could bake or cook without my kitchen aid.  Unfortunately I think that is why they don't make these appliances to last, because they know you will buy another one when you microwave breaks.  We have only had this microwave for a year and a half and it is already dead.  Our previous microwave that we got from Craig's apartment before we got married, lasted for more than 3 years of us using it, plus however long it was in the apartment before that.

The funny things Lucas says!

The most common thing Lucas says is, "That's silly".  You will tell him something and he will look at you and say, "no, that's silly" and then give his funny little fake laugh, that Craig says reminds him of the Vicini the Sicilian off of "The Princess Bride."

Awhile ago I asked Lucas if he wanted to help me bake, he said yes, and so I said, "alright, Lucas, let's do it."  So now when I tell Lucas we're going to go do something, he will look at me and say, "Let's do it mommy."  There will even be times when he will look at me and say something completely random and end with, "let do it mom."  I have to admit it is pretty cute!

Lucas likes to take his backpack with him when we take Craig to work.  This is mainly due to Craig taking his backpack to work.  The other day we had just dropped Craig off at work and were on our way home when Lucas (holding his backpack) looks at me and says, "I want to go to work mom".  I tried to tell him that he is too little to go to work and he gets to play and do fun things instead, but he was adamant about wanting to go to work.  I told him he could wash the dishes with me, that is work, suddenly he was not convinced he wanted to go to work.

He is also obsessed with the school bus.  I think this is because his friend, Cooper, rides the school bus.  There has been a couple of times when Lucas is saying his prayers he will pray for Cooper to be safe on the school bus.

Last week I was in the kitchen washing the dishes, Lucas found his roller backpack that he takes on the plane with him.  He comes into the kitchen and tells me he is going to the airport to get on an airplane.  I asked him where on the plane he was going, he said to the airport to get on an airplane.  It was pretty cute!

A new thing Lucas can do!

Lucas can put on his own shoes.  I know what your thinking and yes he puts his shoes on the right feet, amazing!!!  The other day Lucas said he wanted to put his own shoes on so I said okay, knowing I would have to help or take them off and put them on the right feet.  To my surprise he put them on the right feet.  Thinking this was fluke, a day later I let him put them on again and sure enough he did it again.  We're pretty sure that he is doing this by knowing what way the Velcro goes on his shoes, not that it matters because it is really nice, I just tell Lucas to "go get your shoes and put them on," and sure enough he does it.

Grilling in November!

We had a couple beautiful fall days last week!  Since we wanted to take advantage of this wonderful weather and we know these beautiful fall days are numbered, we pulled out the grill for dinner.  I had everything we needed for one of our favorite meals Tikka Masala, so yummy!  We were grilling in November and it was well worth it!  Lucas also had an opportunity to run around in the leaves that had fallen in the front of our house.

Lying = rrroar!

The other day I asked Lucas, "Are you stinky?"  Lucas, "No, no stinky",  Me, "Lucas are lying? You smell stinky"  Lucas, "Rrrrrrroar" as he runs around in a circle.  This also lead to Lucas being a monkey and elephant.  And just for the record yes, he was stinky!

All Things Halloween!

We had a pretty crazy week full of Halloween events and activities!  Our child is still high on the sugar!  We had a Halloween lunch, with hot dog mummies, scary mouth apple slices, creepy string cheese fingers, and bread stick bones, with pumpkin soup!  We also decorate sugar cookies!  It was work, but way fun and Lucas seemed to enjoy himself (can't you tell by the pictures).

Our first trick or treating experience for this year was at the athlete museum on campus.  Lucas was a maniac!  We finished on the lower level, trick or treating and he wanted to turn around and do it again, until we told him that there was candy upstairs, and then he was willing to go upstairs, saying the whole time, "candy, candy, candy...", I gave Craig the look of, "what have we created".  Needless to say Lucas had fun and learned about Halloween (complete strangers giving me candy!) all too quickly.  They also had games and it was fun to be able to watch Lucas play them, because last year he didn't really know what was going on or how to play the games.  We had his picture taken with the Nittany Lion, as you can see dad is holding him, as Lucas kept his eye on the lion.

Trick or treating at the museum was only the beginning, we also had Trunk-or-Treat with our church, so more candy for Lucas.  At first he didn't want to go, but as soon as we told him we were going trick or treating he was more than willing, but disappointed when we got there and found out we were having dinner first, which was not what he wanted to do.

We didn't just trick or treat to celebrate Halloween, we also had our traditional Halloween meal (on the Sunday before Halloween).  I just have to say after four years of baking our pumpkin carmel cheesecake, I have finally nailed it.  The one we had on Sunday was hands down the best one I have ever made!  I found that the key is the homemade gingersnaps, the store bought ones just don't cut it!  The whole meal was yummy, our dinner in a pumpkin was really good, we added a few extra ingredients this year and cooked it for a longer period of time.  The only issue were the rolls, that I have baked half a dozen times, but for some reason beyond me I cooked them at a higher temperature and burnt the bottoms, if I only knew what that one mistake would lead to I would have checked the recipe.  Later that evening as I was cutting the black bottoms off the rolls I ended cutting my fingers.  Stupid!  Can I just tell you it has been a long time since I have really cut myself and boy did that hurt!
We also did some pumpkin carving, Lucas wanted a scary face!  Lucas also opened up the package from Grandma, thanks Grandma and Grandpa!  Lucas was thrilled, he loved the candy, of course, and we had a hard time getting him to pay attention to everything else that was in the bag.

Lucas was a shark this year, it was pretty cute.  I taught him the theme music to "Jaws", so when you asked him what a shark said Lucas would do the theme music to "Jaws".   While we were out trick or treating on Monday a lady looked at him and said, "are you a crocodile, no you're an alligator...."  Lucas looked at her and said, "no, shark."  Like duh lady.  The lady didn't hear or more likely didn't understand what Lucas was saying.  But for those of us that knew what Lucas was saying it was pretty funny!

Lucas once again out did all the older kids, he just kept going, till the end, he started and was off, we even had to slow him down a couple of times to stay with the group, Lucas was not interested in this at all he wanted candy and knew what he had to do to get!

A day off! Yeah!

I have this list.  You could call it a "bucket list" of sorts.  It is a list of all of things I want to do while we are living here, back east.  We have managed in the last three and half years to put a check mark next to several things.  One of things that has been on this list since the first year we moved here is the Hershey's Amusement Park, though I have been to Hershey numerous times, never to the park.  When we first moved here I got pregnant with Lucas, and then we had Lucas and he would make it difficult to ride the rides.  Then the biggest factor is money, it is really expensive (especially on a grad student income!!!).  The stars finally aligned and the heavens smiled down on us and Craig and I were able to go in October!  I am still amazed at how perfect it all worked out!  I just want to say, "Thank you!", "Thank you soooo much" to those who watched Lucas and made it so Craig and I could go!  We are so grateful!

On the way to Hershey there is this car hop place, the "Red Rabbit", that I have always wanted to try, but they have odd hours, and we are usually on our way home from the temple when we drive by it and it is late and we are very tired and don't want to stop.  And yes, it too it on my "list".  On the way to Hershey we stopped for lunch, and it was pretty good.  We had the "Bunny Burger".

Pay no attention to the lady in the car who was probably wondering what the heck Katie was doing.

As we were driving to Hershey we were a little worried about the weather, especially since the weather forecasts here are not always accurate.  Though it said it would be in the high 50's and sunny, it was not.  It was overcast, but still fairly warm.  I was determined to go, I felt that if we didn't do it now, it would never happen!  We made it to the park right when it opened, dressed warm, and (having just taken dramamine) we were set and ready to go.  Craig had a list of all of the ride we wanted to hit first, just in case they were shut down due to the weather.  I was a little nervous, roll coasters are not my favorite, but Craig was excited and it was something I wanted to experience so we did it.  Can I just say, Wow!  That was so much fun!  They had some pretty neat roller coaster rides, on one you went forwards and backwards, on another you went from zero to 72 mph in about 2 seconds, which was crazy!  Our favorite one, was the one where your hanging and the track is above you head.  The first couple of hours there were no lines we walked right up the rides. Unfortunately this didn't last the entire night, but we were able to go on most of the roller coasters without waiting too long.  The other ride I enjoyed was the tram that went through the park and outside the park around Hershey the Factory, it was interesting!  We ended the night having dinner at the "Outback".  We have never been here, but had a coupon so we went, it was way better than I was expecting, I loved there baked sweet potato, oh so yummy!  And their bread was amazing!   I would be willing to go again, if only for the bread!  Check and Check off the list.

Fire Station!

For playgroup we recently went on a field trip to the local fire station.  This was pretty fun.  Because we live in a small town, the fireman are all volunteers.  The fireman talked about fire safety, let the kids roam in and out of a fire truck (they even turned on the lights), let them put out a fire with the fire hose, and they dressed up in their fireman gear!  It was exciting!  What would have made it even better would have been a better behaved little boy, but we managed!  While we were taking a group picture Lucas was sitting next to his friend, and right when I was taking the picture they started to smack each other, so I have it on camera these two taking and giving each smacks!  These two are a perfect match, they are so alike it is scary!

Rain = Soup!

I am not a big fan of the cold wet weather we have been getting and they fact that we are headed into that season!  But I am not really sad that it is raining right now, because there are a bunch of soup recipes I have been looking at and can't wait to try.  So the Swensons are having soup tonight!

Books!

This past week Lucas has wanted to read a book 24/7.  The other night I wanted to sit down and turn on the t.v for five minutes, but Lucas had other plans, he turned off the t.v looked at me and said, "read book".  What do you say to that?  Lucas and I read the book, and have been reading books nonstop since then.  This is not a bad thing, I just feel guilty that I can't read to him 24/7.  Right now we're obsessed with a book call, "The Doghouse."  We went to the library today so hopefully we can branch out a little bit!  Side note, we were able to find another Dora DVD, thank heavens, I have basically memorized the previous Dora Halloween episode.

Caramel Apples

On Monday for FHE we had our friends over (the James Family) for Caramel Apples.  I have never made caramel apples it just sounded and looked good, and it is the season!  Honestly can you go wrong with apples dipped in caramel then smothered in a topping of your choice and drizzled with chocolate (white and milk)?  By the end we were wondering where the apple was!  This was very successful, almost too successful!  Lucas seemed to like it, he basically licked his apple clean.

Pumpkin Picking!

Saturday afternoon we went pumpkin picking!  There was a fun festival going on at a fruit farm that we go to.  We took a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch and picked a pumpkin.  That is what we planned on doing, honestly, but really Craig picked the pumpkin while Lucas and I were busy stepping in a huge pile of pumpkin goo!  Yuck!  It smelled awful, thus we smelled pretty bad until we got home to wash our shoes! (I think Craig was relieved that I was so willing to leave so quickly, he thinks I take to long picking the pumpkin, but it takes time to pick the perfect pumpkin for our dinner.) So not our funnest trip to the pumpkin patch, but the most memorable trip so far!  And we did end up with a beautiful pumpkin for our traditional dinner in a pumpkin!  Thanks to Craig!  Lucas also rode on this train car ride.  I thought he wouldn't like it, because he had to go all by himself and during part of it we wouldn't be in view.  This was not a problem at all he liked it so much I think he would have gone again!  Instead of riding it again we went and saw the bunnies, which Lucas seemed to enjoy!  He spent most the time trying to pick one up, much to the dismay of the people running the bunny petting booth (Lucas has not learned the concept of being gentle yet.)

 

Football!

Friday night we went to a Penns Valley High Football game.  A young man in our ward is the quarter back, defensive end, and the long snapper.  Basically he is the team!  (He also is also a starting forward on the Basketball team and plays P/1B/SS on the baseball team.)  It was way fun!  The weather was wonderful!  Unfortunately they lost, but our wardie did awesome!  We went with our friends which made it way more fun!  Lucas seemed to enjoy it!  He left the game on a sugar high, at one point he was carrying around a bag of pretzel M&M's.  Yeah that's responsible parenting for ya.  Oh well, isn't that one of the reasons to go to sporting events; to eat junk food!

Penns Valley is the Blue and White

A newspaper shot of Sam

Dora

Lately Sesame Street just hasn't been holding Lucas' attention and he gets bored easily with it, not that this is a bad thing.  We started checking out the old Disney movies, "Robin Hood", "The Jungle Book," etc...  We let him watch them in the evening while were making dinner.  He has really been enjoying them.  Last week when we went to the library, Lucas picked Dora the Explorer.  We haven't ever really watched Dora before, but WOW!  Lucas is a Dora addict.  He loves it, he is so captivated by it.  He has watched the same Dora DVD over a dozen times this past week.  He is even to the point where he starts to interact and respond to her questions.  We have also heard him saying, "oh man," at random times, or when he drops something (A phrase said by one of the characters on the show).  I have also heard him said, "oh man", "Swiper, no swiping".  As a matter of fact while I am typing this he is watching Dora.

The begining of potty training

A couple of weeks ago I decided I wasn't going to push Lucas into potty training until he was ready.  I have not been looking forward to this milestone and I didn't want it to be completely miserable for the both of us.  However, we have been trying to teach him the concept by putting him on the toilet in the mornings and at night.  This was less than successful, after a few seconds he would look at us, and say, "mommie broken, it's broken."  To say I was surprised Monday morning when Lucas said, "mommie potty" is an understatement.  I will admit I did not want to put him on the potty, it was early and I had not even put my glasses on yet.  In the end I figured I better, because what if he actually went.  Sure enough he went, and we praised him a lot.  I have never been so excited, which is pretty sad, and goes to show that our world revolves around Lucas and his small successes.  That night Craig put him on the potty and sure enough he went pee and poop.  At this point I figured we should probably follow through and make an effort to potty train Lucas.  So it began, and we are still working on it.  Lucas will go in the morning and at night, when we put him on the potty, but during the day is hit or miss.  If I put him on the potty he will usually go, however, he has yet to tell us he needs to go, which is evident by the pile of wet underwear and jeans on the dyer.  To give Lucas some credit, we have been kind of busy, and though we have been doing the best we can at the moment, we just haven't been able to hunker down at home and get it done.  Will see how it goes.  We are proud though that doesn't seem to have a problem with going poop and pee in the potty, though I worry that he thinks every time he goes potty he has to go poop.  (Editor's Note:  Katie actually took pictures of this momentous occasion, which shows how sad our lives can be sometimes.  Unfortunately the pictures are not rated for public distribution.)

Punxsutawney!

My friend Alyssa and I decided that though we have thought about it and even attempted once to go experience the groundhog festivities, we finally realized that it is not worth it, to wake up at the crack of dawn, trek up a hill, and stand in the cold with our children for hours (it is really cold in February), just to find out that there will be six more weeks of winter!  However, Punxstawney was still something we wanted to see. So on Monday we packed up the kids and headed to Punxstawney.  Other than Groundhog Phil and Gobbler's Knob there is not much to see in Punxstawney, so this was a quick day trip!  It was fun and the weather was pretty good!  We went to Groundhog Phil's burrow and saw him sleeping, he did briefly wake up to eat and Lucas was able to see him.  We drove up to Gobbler's knob took pictures and called it good!  They did have several of these Groundhog statutes around town, they were pretty cute.  Lucas seemed to enjoy it!

 

Fall

The other day I was driving home and I looked around and realized that the leaves where changing and we are in the fall season.  It has been raining so much, and I have been busy I haven't been able to appreciate the fall season.  I haven't even baked one pumpkin thing yet!  Wait, I did make creamy pumpkin soup the other day! But other than that nothing, I have to fix this, and since this week the weather is looking warmer and better, I think Lucas and I will start enjoying the fall!  We're going to need to bake something with pumpkin in it and take a walk to look at the leaves changing colors!  Were also going together as a family to a high school football game and picking our pumpkin this week, what is more fall-ish than that!

Conference Weekend!

We didn't do too much the weekend before last, because it was conference weekend!  We did have brunch with some friends, it was pretty fun, and we had plenty of yummy muffins!  I bought M&M's for our conference bingo, which has been tradition, but we never got around to getting the cards out and didn't even open up the M&M's till the last session.  Though I still felt like we had plenty of sweets this past weekend!  We watched all four sessions of conference, though I am not sure I could tell you what they said, Lucas was not terrible, he just wanted to be right in your face and talk the entire time.  The only couple of hours that we got to really listen was while he was taking nap.  I am just going to have to read them instead!

Fall Festival!

 This past weekend we took Lucas to the fall festival they have down town!  I was really looking forward to this and was bummed when the weather didn't hold out for us!  It was really cold, but didn't really rain, so I guess that is a plus, and it could have been worse!  Lucas picked out and decorated a pumpkin!  Rode the carousel, loved it, and was quick to find where the places where people we handing out candy! Since the festival he has been obsessed with pumpkins anytime we see pumpkins he is quick to point them out!  Every time we take Craig to work, we drive past bins of pumpkins Lucas is sure to let us know when we pass them!  I am excited to take him to the pumpkin patch this week to pick out our pumpkin for dinner!

 

All dressed up and ready to go, but wait where is the snow!

As were heading into fall I quickly realized that my child doesn't have shoes to wear, not one pair!  It has been raining a lot lately so I have been able to get away with letting him wear his rain boots, but I knew this would last too much longer, but on second thought we are in Pennsylvania, where I feel like it is always raining!  Lucas also doesn't have any snow gear, and I know when it snows (if it snows this year) Lucas is going to want to go play!  So I went to a consignment sale last week, right when they opened, because things can get pretty crazy.  I was on a mission!  And I am happy to report I had great success!  Lucas now has a nice winter coat, snow pants (three pairs to be exact, because I wasn't sure which would fit him best, because size means nothing, every brand varies), gloves, and boots!  I also found him some shoes, two pair of shoes, in really good condition!  Anyway I dressed Lucas all up in his winter gear to make sure it would fit!  He looked like an Eskimo!  I  felt bad dressing him all up and then there wasn't any snow for him to play in!  Oh well! He was a very good sport about it all!  (I don't know why he looks so tired, I must have just taken the picture at the wrong time.)

mmmmmmmm.... Apple Season!

The trip to the Apple Orchard was a prelude to a week of apples!  At the beginning of the week I learned how to can apple pie filling.  It was very yummy pie filling, though my friend uses it for apple crisp, clever idea.  I don't think Craig would mind having apple pie filling in crisp form!  My friend said her husband called it, "liquid gold".  After having a taste I would have to agree, it was darn good!
Later, during the week after our field trip, we load up on apples, and canned applesauce!  Lots of jars of applesauce!  Alyssa and I are now in such a groove when were canning that by the afternoon we had canned my bushel of apples and her bushel of apples!  We now have several jars of applesauce to eat and bake with this year!  I still need to finish out apple season with the making of apple crisp, this might be done a few times before were out of the season.  I think I am going to try caramel apples, which I haven't been a big fan of in the past, but I think Lucas would enjoy it and the apples we get are sooooo good that adding caramel, you just can't you go wrong!

Apple Orchard!

A couple of weeks ago Lucas and I went with playgroup on our annual field trip to the Apple Orchard!  Before we went to the apple orchard, I took Lucas to story time at the library and ironically enough the theme for story time was apples!  It was really neat and made for a very themed day!  Unfortunately, it had been pretty rainy (surprise, surprise!) so it was very muddy.  The rain did hold off briefly, so we could take our wagon trip through the apple orchard.  Lucas didn't want to sit by me, he wanted to sit by his friend, which is the reason why there are no pictures of Lucas on the wagon ride, hold on... now that I think of it there might be one picture.  After the wagon ride they took us on a tour of how they clean the apples and store them, which includes a trip into the refrigerator!  Of course the best part of the whole experience is that they give us a bag of apples and some apple cider!  Which makes this trip pretty fun and yummy!

Annual BBQ!

Our little group that lives in our apartment complex gets together every year in the fall for a BBQ, to eat, have fun, and get to know those that have recently moved in.  This past summer we had quite a few families move in.  So much so, that I had not met everyone previously and we had to recruit our friends to bring there BBQ since one was not going to cut it.   We weren't sure we were going to have good weather, but luckily it ended up being a nice day!  We had a good time!  As of next year we will have been living here the longest, so the planning of this event is being passed to us.  I don't know if that is a good or bad thing, I guess will find out this time next year!

Stalling

Lucas has recently learned the concept of stalling!  He applies this knowledge when were getting ready for bed or nap time.  What typically happens is we get him already for bed/nap time, and right before or as were laying him down, he says, "book", you read him a quick book, the same book we having been reading him for the past week, next it is "drink" we quickly get him something to drink, then he wants me to sing the Winnie the Pooh song, lately singing it just once is not enough, so after two songs, we close the door while he is still trying to tell us what else he wants!  Bed time/ nap time is getting longer and longer!

Not the diaper!

The past week Lucas has started to take his diaper off (again)!  I will go get Lucas after his nap, and he will be standing in his crib without pants and no diaper, but of course his shirt is still on!  The other day I caught him standing in front of the T.V. with no diaper, just hanging out!  Luckily we have not had any accidents, but I can't help but ask myself where he comes up with this stuff?  And of course the question I am constantly asking myself "seriously?"  If this continues I might have to pull out the duck tape!

One year older!

We celebrated Craig's Birthday this past week, he is now one year older (next stop is the big 30!).  Unfortunately, Craig's birthday always seems to land on the day when so much is going on!  He did get two cakes, on two different days, and steak for dinner, however.  We tried cakes in the Crockpot, this was somewhat successful.  We are so grateful for Craig and all that he does!!!  We love him!  Hope he had a wonderful birthday!