I realize that it has been several weeks since I said I'd post pictures. Since that posting though Damion has been on two trips. During one of those trips I was sick sick sick and the other trip the kids were sick sick sick, to the point we took them to the doctors. I'm finally better and so are the kids (thanks to antibiotics to get rid of their “major ear infections”. Anyways, I apologize for the delay but I'm now ready to take time to share with all of you!

The first set of pictures is from a trip to Rader Pumpkin Farm near our home. We went there with our friends Ben & Amy and Adam & Nicole. Jack loved the animals but then he got to play in the bouncy house and air pillow and that's all he wanted to do. Anna took everything in stride and seemed to enjoy everything there, but she too loved the air pillow. The following Thursday Anna went with her preschool class. They got to do a couple of activities that we did not do when we went but she made sure to tell me in her disappointed tone that they didn't get to play on the air pillow.

The second set of pictures is from a trip to Tanner's Orchard the following day. To put it nicely it was not a fun trip. But a valuable lesson was learned, we will only go there during the week. Before meeting up with Tiffany & Amelia though we stopped at Wheels O'Time Museum. It exactly what it's name says it is. The kids seemed to have a great time there.

The final set of new pictures is from tonight. (See I can put pictures of timely sometimes.) About a month ago Anna declared she was going to be a scary pumpkin for Halloween so she could scare Adam. The search was on. Apparently they don't make pumpkin costumes for anybody between the ages of 2 and 15, let alone a scary pumpkin. Because of everything laid out in the first paragraph it wasn't until Oct 22 that I was able to get to the fabric store to find & purchase a pattern and fabric. Oh, and it wasn't until the following Tuesday that I wasn't able to really work on it. BUT I was done with it by 10 pm on Wednesday night, which was good since she needed it for her preschool Halloween parade and party.

Now Jack's costume was a whole other story. Anna tried to convince him to be a pumpkin and he firmly said no. He kept saying he wanted to be a ghost, which I attribute to his watching Little Einsteins Halloween at least twice a day and the ghosts on it. Last night we attached a white sheet to a bucket hat and he refused to even put it one but we did and he screamed and threw it off. Later that night it was decided to make him a pumpkin costume from the left over material. After about 5 hours of work he was a pumpkin. Well, lets just say the pictures will show exactly how much he did not want to be a pumpkin. He wouldn't even wear the pumpkin hat either. At the first two sets of trick or treating locations he was just a cute boy wearing a baseball hat OR a little boy who thinks he was a vampire because he might bite OR a dressed like a teenage. At the next area we put Anna's Bears jersey on him to be a quick made football player/fan and when we were done he didn't want to take off the jersey.

As a random side note, after going trick or treating we decied to go do a bit of grocery shopping at Meijer.  I have never seen that store so quiet before, and I've gone several times after the kids have fallen asleep.  Anyways while there, Damion & Anna looked at a couple of items while Jack and I went to get the food.  I picked up a box of Kix (they sounded yummy) and moved kept shopping.  When we met up with Damion & Anna I saw Anna carying a box of cereal.  Yup.  They too picked out Kix.  Seriously, does anybody else go shopping with their significant other and end up picking out the same cereal while seperated?!?!  Oh, and we bought both boxes because we decided that since we both got the same thing we'd likely eat all of them.

Good evening.  I wanted to share with all of you that I had a goal of getting pictures and a write up from last weekend posted (pumpkins, apples, trains, musical instruments.....like the teaser?) here but as you may have guessed that didn't happen.  Part of it was because I wanted to watch "Grey's Anatomy" but then our internet/my computer (not sure which) started to act all silly.  And I decided it was best to take my not feeling well body to bed so I have energy to play with the kids this weekend & spend time this weekend with the bestest little sister ever!

Every Tuesday and Thursday Jack & I have the honor of taking Anna to preschool.  What’s precious about this task is listening to Anna & Jack talk to each other during the whole 5 minute commute.  Also enjoyable is the time listening to Jack go on and on once we drop Anna off.  Oh, and so it doesn’t feel left out there is that great time of picking Anna up when they both try to talk at the same time or Anna tries to talk about her time playing outside (Seriously if it wasn’t for the teacher summary at pick up I’d think they only play.) while Jack cries because he can’t play on the “road” in the church’s circle drive or throw rocks at whatever he sees.

Our drive to school, that was what started this post.  Lately Anna’s been trying to teach Jack how to pronounce new words, like cement truck.  The only problem is he already knows how to say most of them but that doesn’t stop her.  This is a snippet from todays conversation.

Anna:   Repeat after me.  Greeeeeee.
Jack:    Blue
Anna:   No, Jack.  Green.
Jack:    No.  Blue.  Dog.
Anna:   Where's the dog? (as I look around trying to find a dog amongst the cornfields)
Jack:    By the boat.  (as I look for a boat amongst the cornfields)
Anna:   Greeeee.
Jack:    CHURCH!

For the record, there wasn’t a dog or a boat.  Today’s trip highlights according to Jack were green light, school busses, railroad tracks, red light, imaginary dog, imaginary boat and a real church.

After we drop off Anna, Jack starts his line of question.  “Park?”  “Meijer?”  “Am ub?” (Sam’s Club for those not fluent in Jack.)  Can you guess what we have a tendency to do during our two hours?  Today though, we went to Starbucks (it wasn’t even 9 and I had been up since 6:30 am) before going home to meet the furnace maintenance guy (aka Brad).  In the Starbucks parking lot Jack was told he would be allowed to get a kid’s hot chocolate and he said “Ho-tay Mommy” and ran to the door.  Once inside he started to say a bit loudly “My coffee! My coffee!”  He impatiently waited for his drink to come out and happily took his drink to the van.

At home we relaxed and enjoyed our drinks while waiting.  Brad showed up and quickly went to work and Jack went to play on the main level.  At one point Brad started to take off a panel and Jack came running to the stairs asking "That noise?" (hand cupped around ear of course).  I asked him "What do you think that noise was?"  Jack answered "Crew driver", he turned to look at Brad who was laughing and he showed Jack the power screwdriver he had just used.  Jack was apparently pleased with himself and left to go back to playing.

Off we go eventually to get Anna.  Jack was all excited about the landscaping rocks and pondered which of the four doors we would go through today (yes, weird, but its what we do).  He ran inside to play with the train that is usually in the hall but it was gone and he didn’t know what to do so he decided to start taking things off the wall.  Fast forward to going into the room to get Anna and then have to leave a different way, which happened to be through the playground that was new to Jack and he couldn’t play on it.  So I held Anna’s hand while holding a flailing and crying hysterical Jack.  Once in the van I tried to ask about Anna’s day and Jack just wanted to cry over her.  All I got before giving up was the photographer, it was picture day, had a duck on top of his camera and she kept laughing at the duck.

So, how does one stop a hystrically crying Jack?  “Easy peasy lemon squeasy.”  We went down the dead end road by church to watch two combines, or as Anna called them “composters”, harvest a soybean field.  They even got to watch one of them unload while picking.  They were so in awe over these big tractors and the four guys working were so sweet and waved. 

Soooooo, how was your 8:20 to 11:20 today?!?!?!?!?!

Important things first……our baby girl started preschool last Thursday!!!!  And boy was she excited about it.  So excited in fact she was still up at 1:15 Thursday morning (might have been later, but Damion & I went to bed at 1:15) and she only woke up at 7:30 am because Damion told her I was getting donuts.  Anna’s first day was only an hour (normal day is a bit over 2 hours) so the kids could get familiar with the room with a parent at their side.  Damion took Anna and did the activities with her and when they came home, Anna came into the house and yelled “I’m home!”  When I asked her how her day was she got all sorts of excited and said, “It was GREAT!”  And she gave me some minor details but the best was when I asked her the teachers’ names.  The lead teacher’s name she struggles with, as I’m sure most of the kids do.  That teacher is Mrs. Lykkeback.  According to Anna, the assistant’s name is, “Mrs. Bakery!”  Minor correction for those that might meet her, her name is actually Mrs. Baker. 

Anna had her first full day yesterday.  Jack & I completed the wonderfully ever so easy task of dropping her off (pull up to the door and a teacher is there to help the kids out of the vehicle, wonderfulness all around because she can’t see I’m still in my jammies J) and oh my gosh I had a whole different Jack.  He talked and talked and talked and then talked some more.  We went home and watched some of his favorite shows while he played and played.  Then we went back to pick up Anna and run off energy at the park before lunch.  In the van on the way home the following dialogue took place –

Anna:  Did Jack bite anybody when I was at preschool?
Jess:  No.
A:  Did Jack hit anybody?
J:  No.
A:  Did Jack throw anything?
J:  No.
A:  (pause)  So, what did Jack do when I was a preschool?

Anybody able to guess what a normal morning in our household has involved this summer?!  Poor Anna seemed confused when I told her that he just watched Einsteins and Oso and played with his toys.  In fact I told her this again she was still confused.

In other news, Joe & Lori (aka my brother & new sister in law) got married last Saturday.  We left our house Thursday (aka Anna’s first day of preschool) after lunch to head to Galena.  We took the scenic route and determined we will go that way again sometime. 

On Friday we went to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium with the kids.  It was a much better time than I thought it was going to be.  Of course any place with sharks (Jack is going through a shark phase) and animals (Anna loves animals & the water play area) and real boats (Damion is entering year 30 of his boat phase) can’t be too bad, right?!  Unfortunately there are not many pictures from this visit because we wanted to spend time with the kids and not worry about getting just the right pictures.  Friday night we had Wedding Rehearsal Part One and then back to the motel for swimming.  The kids super duperly loved their arm floats and rings and the attention of four adults (THANK YOU DAWN & PETE!!!)  From there we went to the rehearsal dinner and Wedding Rehearsal Part Two. 

Saturday was the big day that started around midnight with getting Lori jammies for Friday night/Saturday morning and snacks/breakfast for her, Laura & I.  We started the day though with manicures, pedicures and getting our hairs done up pretty at a local spa, where Anna joined us to get her hairs made pretty too.  From there is was get beautiful, pictures, get comfy, travel, get beautiful again, get a sister in law, pictures, tweak toast while traveling, pictures, finish toast while traveling, enter reception, give the most awesomemest toast I’ve ever given (seriously, quoted Princess Bride, how can that not be awesome?), and then dancing the night away. 

Pretty busy week we’ve had.  There are of course pictures in the gallery with more details so, see ya there.