Jack-O-Lantern Cucumber

I cut into a cucumber last night and had a good laugh.  It totally looked like a face.  It even has two little front teeth!  It was so weird that I had to take a picture.  

THE PUMPKIN FARM

"I went to the Pumpkin Patch with my class.  We had so much fun!  We went on a train ride and we went to the pig show and we had apple cider and played on this little wood thing, and then we went on this little train car and we jumped in the hay and had lunch.  I went on a hay ride then got my pumpkin.   I got my pumpkin from the ground.  The best part of my day was going to pick my pumpkin."  - Jacob

REUNION WEEKEND

Saturday morning cartoons at the hotel...breakfast at Black Bear diner...a walk across the Sundial Bridge...reunion lunch at Simpson...catching up with old friends...bounce houses...showing the kids where we met and went to college...showing Jacob his first home...dinner at Chipotle (again)...Jacob and Micah running around a giant field waving glowsticks with all of our friends kids...a cozy family snuggle under the stars waiting for the fireworks to start....fireworks!?! (they couldn't have 4th of July fireworks this year because of the fires, so they did them this weekend instead)...watching the fireworks through the eyes of a 6 year old and a 2 year old...hanging out by the fire pit at Sea and Bannings house and making smores...laughing with friends...visiting our Redding church, Risen King, on Sunday morning...lunch at Discovery Village with lots of friends...definitely a weekend to remember!

celebrating the completion of Forest and Stacie's adoption paperwork...now they just have to wait to get a call to go get their sweet little baby in Ethiopia
the girls...best friends since freshmen year of college...Dana...Amy...Stacie...Me 
reunion lunch at Simpson...Stacie...Forest...Dana...Me...Tim
Amy (my roomate for 6 years)...Jill and her sweet little Abby
hanging out waiting for the fireworks show to start (so glad my mom came with us)
SeaJay...Dana...Me
Our little family...notice all the glow sticks (thanks so much Aims)
Family Pic with Sara, Ari, and Braden (we are so glad you found us in the dark Sara)
smores by the fire pit in SeaJay and Banning's amazing backyard 

10 YEARS

We are in Redding this weekend for our 10 year Simpson College (now University) reunion.   Last night we met our best friends at Chipotle (Yummy Yummy)!  It was so fun to see everyone and to watch all of our kids running around and playing together.  I love my friends and am so thankful that after 10 years we still have really close friendships.  After dinner we took my mom and the boys back to the hotel.  We are staying at the Red Lion, which holds special memories for me.  When I arrived at Simpson, my Junior Year, our dorm was not completed.  A ton of us were put up in the Red Lion hotel for over a month which was so much fun...maid service, room service, best friends to hang out with...what more could a college girl ask for!  Anyway, we got my mom and the boys settled in and headed over to Sea Jay's house to hang out with everyone.  First we had to make a quick stop at Discovery Village (our favorite hang out spot when we lived here).  Tim got a coffee and as we were leaving we ran into a bunch of other Simpson Alumni.  It was fun to catch up.  We made our way to Sea's house and while to girls chatted and caught up, our husbands did what all grown men love to do...played video games on the Wii.  It was getting late so we decided we should go back and go to bed, but we wanted to take a drive through Simpson on our way and reminisce about the good ol' days.  We saw that something was going on in the gym and thought we'd check it out.  We ended up staying until midnight and watching the current students put on an "Air Bands"  show.  We could not help feeling like it was just yesterday that we were the ones doing all of this crazy stuff.  The school has changed so much though!  Curfew is only effective for freshmen!!!  It  seem like the "no spaghetti strap" rule is no longer in place and some of the air band music was a litte questionable.  Interresting.  When Tim and I drove away we both agreed that our college experience was one of the most formidable and exciting times of our lives.  Ten years have flown by and it seems like just yesterday that this cute bleach blond transfer student walked up to me in the parking lot and said, "I've seen you all over the place, but I haven't met you yet."   Who would have known that 10 years and 2 kids later we would be back at the place we met, feeling like no time has passed.  I wonder what the next 10 years will hold.

Fire Station Playgroup

                                                        squirting water was the best part
                                          sitting on a giant boot in the firefighters "home"
                                                                    ring, ring, ring
                                                          Aaron's driving the truck
                                                                           Group Picture

Thursday was such an exciting day in Micah's little life.  Our playgroup got to take a tour of the Lincoln Fire Station and it was so so fun.   Micah and all of his little friends got to climb in fire trucks, squirt water out of the big hose and knock over cones, ring the bell on an old fashioned fire truck, and see where the fire fighters live when they are on duty.   The kids loved every minute of the morning!  I am so thankful that Micah has a group of friends from church that he gets to play with every week and that I have wonderful mommies to spend time with.  

MY HERO

Tim came home tonight and saved the day!!!  He dug into the yucky sink pipe and miraculously found Jacob's tiny tooth.  He is totally my hero!

Toothless

Tonight I was brushing Jacob's teeth and I heard a strange little noise.  I looked at Jacob and his mouth was bleeding.  All of a sudden I realized that the little sound I heard was Jacob's first tooth falling into the sink and that to my horror...it went down the drain.  I felt awful!!!  His first tooth and we lost it.  I think I was a little bit more bummed than Jacob.  He actually handled it pretty well.  We decided to just write a note to the tooth fairy and put it under his pillow.  He wrote a note that said, "Dear Tooth Fairy, My tooth fell out when I was brushing my teeth, but it went down the drain.  Love, Jacob."  He was so excited to finally have a missing tooth.  He has the cutest little smile with one gap on the bottom :)  I love my Jacob.  This is just a reminder of how quickly he is growing up.  He seems so big to me sometimes, but I am really thankful that he still loves to snuggle and is not embarrassed to give hugs and kisses to Tim and I.  It is a blessing to be Jacob's mommy.

The Latest...

I am really behind on blogging...so here is the latest with our family in no particular order...

• Jacob's tooth is so loose tonight that it is about to fall out (he is so excited about his first loose tooth)
• we went house hunting again today and are about to put offers on 2 more houses (we were denied on 2 out of 3 of the other ones we made offers on...we are still waiting to hear back about the 3rd)
• Micah and I went to the Pumpkin Farm this week with his little playgroup and had a wonderful time (he got a cute little metal school bus that he has been taking everywhere and even sleeping with)
• Micah learned how to pedal on his trike and is now riding all over the place on his own
• Tim is working like crazy to finish up two online courses that he is taking to maintain his pastoral license 
• My naturopathic dr said that I can retake the food allergy test and that she thinks my allergies may be gone by now or at least not as severe.  (I made the yummiest sugar and gluten free banana blueberry muffins this morning)
• My progesterone is low, so I have to take some herbs to help balance me out  ( I still don't feel like I have a ton of energy, but I am slowly getting better)
• Tim and I just finished watching season 1 or Heroes tonight (love that show!!!)
• Jacob loves playing soccer
• My mom comes to visit in 2 weeks and I can't wait to see her!

...Just a few little tid bits about our little family...