A Pumpkin Picking Good Time

On Sunday, October 14th, we went to Rhodes Family Farm in Worden to pick some pumpkins and have a good time.  Nolan's sitter told me about this farm and we decided to check it out instead of going to Eckert's this year.  The Rhodes Family Farm had a lot more activities for the kiddos to do.  Nolan's favorite things were the maze, the slide, and the water pumps.  The weather was perfect up until we were on our way back from the pumpkin patch and it started to sprinkle.  We made it back to the car without getting too wet.  All in all it was a great day with only a few meltdowns; Nolan has three new teeth coming in and Carter was hungry.

When we arrived the first thing Nolan wanted to do was have his picture taken, actually mommy want him to have his picture taken, but he was a good sport.  Then he took off into the maze with Bill hot on his trail.  Nolan was having a blast being able to run at free range.  Bill was a little nervous he was going to lose him because he was turning corners so fast.  There were a couple of look out towers we climbed as well.

 A view of the maze from the corner tower

 Daddy and Nolan

 Mommy and Carter

 Nolan found some scrap wood and was trying to "repair" part of the maze.

Dead end

 He was moving so fast I couldn't take a good picture of him exploring the maze

After Nolan found his way out of the maze he made his way over to a corn bin.  He thought it was okay, but not too fun especially since he can play in a corn bin anytime at papa's.  Bill took Nolan out of the corn and Nolan took off to climb a hill or so he thought.  On the other side of the hill was a slide!! Yay!!  Nolan and Bill went down the slide about 10 different times.  Towards the end Nolan was getting cocky and raising his arms up in the arm.  :)

 Smiles all the way down!!

 Love this picture

Arms Up!!

It took a little convincing to have Nolan leave the slide, but when he saw the water pumps he quickly forgot about the slide.  Nolan thought it was "cool" when daddy put the duck in the gutter. When Nolan pumped the water it made the duck go down the gutter to the other side.  Surprisingly, Nolan didn't get wet!

 Blue Duck

One thing Nolan did not like at all was the wagon ride.  The barrels were pulled by a lawn mower and I think it scared him because Bill couldn't ride with him.  Bill walked alongside Nolan half of the way and the other half Nolan yelled, "mama and dada" the whole time.  Thank goodness the ride was only one small loop.

Meanwhile Carter was hanging out in my Baby K'Tan wrap, which I highly recommend.  As soon as I put Carter in the wrap he falls asleep and will stay asleep for hours.  It's the only way I can get anything done around the house!!  It was a little windy, so I put Carter's new hat on his bald little head.  We walked over to watch people shoot the pumpkin cannon, pet the animals, and see the bees. 

After visiting the animals, we met up with the Keller family.  Madison wanted to see the animals, so we went ahead and made our way over to the tractor going out to the pumpkin patch.  A lady offered to take a family picture for us, which was very nice!

 Obsessed with stacking things....

 LOL!

Family Picture

We had been at the farm for a couple of hours by this point and Carter was starting to root around, but took his paci.  I told Bill we would be okay to go ahead and go to the pumpkin patch, so we jumped on the wagon and only made it halfway.  Carter started screaming his head off because he was hungry, so we asked the driver if we could jump on the wagon coming back from the pumpkin patch.  We apologized to everyone on our wagon as we unloaded and boarded the other wagon.  Everyone smiled and said not to apologize they've been there and had the same experience numerous times.  I thought Bill was going to have a nervous breakdown!

First attempt 

We made our way back to the farm and ran into the Kellers waiting in line to go to the pumpkin patch.  I ran to the car to feed Carter and everyone waited so we could all go to the pumpkin patch together.  Round two on our way to the pumpkin patch, Nolan and Grant were screaming and crying almost the entire way.  Bill and Mark were discussing plans for after the pumpkin patch that did not include the kids!! The daddy's were just a little stressed out.  Tiffany and I couldn't stop laughing!  As soon as we made it to the pumpkin patch, Nolan fell asleep on Bill.  Bill picked out a pumpkin for Nolan and I picked out a small pumpkin for Carter.

 Second Attempt

 Daddy picked out Poot's pumpkin for him

Another family picture

All in all we had a good day at Rhodes Family Farm.  Considering we have a teeth toddler and a newborn, we could of had a lot more go wrong!  Thanks again to Stacy for telling us about the fun farm!

Fireman Nolan

Today the G.C.F.D. had an open house with lots of stuff to do.  Since Nolan loves "big trucks" we decided to take him to the open house.  There was a bounce house, food, fire engine rides, spraying the hose at a fake house on fire, and goodie bags to name a few.  Of course, the first the Nolan did was take a ride in the "big green truck."  As Nolan and Bill were getting ready to climb into the back of the truck, a firefighter asked Bill if he wanted to ride in the front!

Waiting patiently in line

Shotgun!!

Coming back from their ride

I asked Bill if Nolan was excited, but Bill said no he just sat back and took everything in.  Bill said he could see the wheels turning in Nolan's head because of all the buttons and knobs in the cab.  After the ride, Nolan wanted to spray the fire hose.  There was also a place to take a picture and Nolan was hamming it up for the camera.  He has gotten to were he says, "cheese" and smiles at the camera sometimes.  In Nolan's goodie back he received two fireman badges, a firefighter hat, a flashlight, and lots of other goodies.

Spraying the hose

 Sitting on the bumper of the old Dodge firetruck

Fireman Nolan

Daddy's Newest Purchase

The same day Bill was working on the bathroom, he decided to make another type of purchase.  A four wheeler!  Bill was no where to be found for 30 minutes and when he did show back up he came into the house with a huge grin on his face.  He laughingly said, "Jenna come and look at what I just bought."  I cringed and walked outside.  There in our driveway was a four wheeler.  Thanks to our neighbor Andrew, the four wheeler sat in his backyard untouched for a year, who sold it to Bill for a steal!!

The thing didn't even run, Bill had to push it across the street into our driveway.  By that night Bill had the thing torn apart and was working on it.  He was so excited.  This is Bill's very first four wheeler he has ever called his own!!  Nolan loved helping Bill work on it and was as excited about it as Bill was.

Boys will be boys....

 Oh boy! This is pretty cool.

 Proud daddy with his new purchase!

Big boy!

Around 10 o'clock Bill came in the house and said he was going to ride the four wheeler down to Casey's and fill it up with gas.  I had to remind him we weren't in Coffeen anymore and he would most likely get ticketed.  Instead, he miraculously found gas in the garage and used that.  Bill was riding it up and down the street in front of our house like a crazy man.

Any spare minute Bill has, he and Nolan are out working on the four wheeler.  This gives Nolan something to do because he loves being outside tinkering on things.  Bill even opened the two gates to our fence and drove a few laps around the house with Nolan.  We look like a bunch of hoosiers.  Before you know it, Bill will have a nice dirt track around the house, a really nice selling point! :)

The purchase of this four wheeler has increased Bill's desire to live in the country, so we will hopefully be selling our house sometime soon and moving to the country.

Carter's First Real Bath

Today Mr. Carter was given his first real bath in his baby bathtub.  His umbilical cord fell off about 5 days ago and his belly button is healed, so I gave him a good scrubbing.  I tried out Burt's Beeswax bathwash and lotion because it is supposed to be hypoallergenic. Carter smelt like a little ball of honey, yummy!!

Carter did great during his bath.  He didn't cry one time!  I pulled out all the tricks; steam, warm towel and outfit.  These sure do help baths for newborns.

 I found washcloths in the baby aisle at Target which are extra large and designed to keep baby covered and warm during a bath.  It worked great!

 Dried off, dressed, fed, now a nap....

 Life is good

This will only take a few hours....

Last Sunday, my lovely husband decided he wanted to overhaul our ONLY bathroom in the house.  The project started as replacing the exhaust fan, which needed to be done.  Bill and Nolan went to Home Depot and returned home two hours and $500 later.  Bill thought the sink faucet needed replacing, along with the fixtures and towel racks.

One thing about my husband is he always decides to start projections on Sunday afternoon.  The bad thing about this is the project has to be completed the same night because he has to go to work Monday.  From cars to the house, a project is always started with the saying, "this will only take a few hours..." which ends up being at least ten hours and even stalled, if it can wait, until after Bill returns home from work on Monday.

Back to the bathroom.  First thing Bill didn't do was turn the water off, so we had a lovely waterfall from upstairs to the basement when the valve broke and water shot out of the faucet like a fire hydrant.  I love my husband and am teasing him with this post.  The house always returns back to working order and in the exact shape I left it, if not better.  I cannot complain too much because he is handy and knows how to fix things even if it takes 8 hours longer than planned.

Nolan had fun helping Bill and kept Bill smiling through the whole ordeal.

Bill ended up taking work off on Monday because our water was turned off and we only have one bathroom, so he had to fix the problem.  Thank goodness Grandpa Bill came down Monday morning and stayed ALL day to help fix the solution.  Our bathroom is 90% back to normal.  As long as I can take a shower and go to the restroom I'm content!  Thanks boo for being Mr. Fix It.