Christmas Decorations

Daniel really loves the lights in the house and around town. During a recent Lowe's trip he enjoyed watching the blow-up outdoor decorations on display, especially the elves on a helicopter and Santa on a rocking horse.


We have two trees this year. Our little 3 ft artificial is decorated with shatterproof balls and bows just for Daniel. The big tree is a white pine this year with 4 strands of colored and white lights and primarily child-proof ornaments. He loves watching us turn on the lights and gives a big smile when they light up each time.

New Tricks

Daniel has figured out how to open drawers and use them as steps to get to things much higher. That has added a new level of childproofing.



Additionally, anything with a string or cord is super fun to pull around the house. This includes acceptable items like his grasshopper, but also things like my hairdryer and hand mixer. I'll be amazed if those last two items still work the next time I try to use them. Funny little guy.

Samuel's 1st Birthday

We traveled down to Centerville last weekend to celebrate Sam's first birthday and help David and Beth move into their new home. Daniel and Sam really enjoyed playing with each other and even seemed to talk back and forth at times. With the holidays coming we'll hopefully be able to get those two together more frequently.

New Chicken Pen

The girls insisted on visiting the neighbor's yard over the last few weeks and kept wandering further and further. So I finally got around to making their movable pen. When Mom and Dad were down over Halloween weekend, Dad helped me finish it up.

The girls seem to like it and it rolls well across the grass. Interestingly, ever since I started building the pen the girls never really strayed from the yard. They must have gotten the message!

Halloween Fun

We carved our first pumpkin with Daniel this year. I went with the traditional pumpkin face to keep it simple. He didn't know what to think of those pumpkin innards, but he really enjoyed putting the lid on and off again.

When we lit it up he would stand by the front door and watch it outside every few minutes letting us know he had seen a pumpkin outside.

We also took him to the church Fall Fun Fest on Halloween.


He was the Incredible Hulk, I was a chef, and Aaron was a cyclist. There weren't too many things for him to do yet, but in a couple years he's going to love it. Even so, he had a good time looking at everyone and taking in all the activities.

Leaves

The trees in the front yard have been gorgeous the last two weeks.


Now the leaves are falling....but now we can play!

A Weekend At Dillon State Park

We rented a cottage and drove down to Dillon State Park for the weekend: our first getaway with Daniel! Our little cottage was nice and homey with two bedrooms, bathroom, living area, and kitchen. And, it had heat, a major requirement for this time of year with a young one. It was a beautiful, fall drive down to the park because the trees were in full regalia in golds, auburns, and russets.
While there we generally relaxed with Daniel by exploring the park. The park surrounds Dillon Reservoir and it's known for its boating, fishing, and hunting. We walked down to see the marina, but not much was going on this time of year except for all the gulls sunning themselves. We also walked a few trails, the campground loop, and played on the playgrounds.


We had a good time and look forward to more outings in the future as a family.

Apples Galore

Beth Acker and I took the kids to Moreland Fruit Farm on Tuesday to pick apples. We wanted to make some applesauce to put into the freezer. The farm gave us plastic bags that held a half bushel and we took two and headed out to pick some apples. We found the Melrose trees, which were supposed to be excellent for making sauce, and started picking. These apples were HUGE! Nearly the size of Daniel's head! Needless to say, the bag filled up in a few minutes. So we thought, gosh, that was fast....let's get some more! We ended up picking three bushels between the two of us of Melrose, Cortland, and Golden Delicious.


The kids had lots of fun helping and eating the apples.



Then we had to make the applesauce. After three hours of cooking, we only had done one and half bags. Wow, we had picked a lot of apples. We plan to work on the rest of them later this week. Maybe some pies or apple dumplings? Yum.