More Halloween Fun!

Notre Dame puts on a nice little "Fall Family Festival" on campus each Halloween. The weather was great, so we headed over. Sawyer colored a little white mini pumpkin with a green Sharpie (his favorite color).

He threw a full sized football through the hole & won a little toy gun... kinda wierd... wasn't thrilled with the gun thing. Oh well.

He loooooves bouncing in the inflatable bouncing room. He did it twice. I liked this shot, caught between the netting as I stood outside.

Halloween night we had a great party at our apartment complex. The weather was AMAZING! What a perfect day to have an outdoor pizza party. We also had a horse drawn wagon ride around the complex, costume contests and jack-o-lantern judging.

Sitting around the bonfire with his buddies at the end of the party.

Overall a GREAT Halloween week!

I'M PETER PAY-AN!

Sawyer loves being Peter Pan! He saw the movie once, after I bought it from a library sale, and he was hooked.

We found a Peter Pan costume at the Halloween store, but it cost $26... for a raggedy piece of green fabric and a hat with a feather? No no, can't do that. We went to Jo-Anne's next door and I picked up this perfect fabric on sale for $3.99/yd (and only needed one yard). Some foam for the hat base, a pack of red feathers, a slice of pleathery type fabric for the belt, and a pack of sew-on-snaps= $12. Plus, the joy I get from doing my own projects for my family (even if the costume did turn out too big; better that, than too small).

Here's Sawyer with some buddies at the ward Halloween party.

Sawyer and Mommy Bee (my $6 costume, I'm pretty happy with it).

For family home evening, we decorated our 3 pumpkins. We opted for painting this year instead of carving. Sawyer decorated the one he'd picked out at Matthy's farm, Joe decorated the white pumpkin from Grandpa, and I painted the pumpkin that grew in our garden this summer (the one and only- but I'm still happy with it!)

Wisconsin Fun!!!

Joe had fall break, so we decided to head up to Wisconsin. We spent 4 days in Oshkosh (Joe's side) & 2 days in West Bend (Carrie's side).

With Joe's family we hit up one of our favorite Wisconsin places: "The Little Farmer" in Fond du Lac (the city where we lived before ND). Here's Sawyer feeding a goat:

With Grandma Kindt on the hayride:
Climbing the hay castle with Daddy:

Checking out the ox-like-cattle-animals with his Aunt Lisa:

In Oshkosh, there's an amazing wooden playground that Joe actually helped build when he was a teenager. We took Sawyer to it for the first time:

Joe raked up leaves for Sawyer and Uncle Peter to play in:

When we headed down to my parents' place, the first order of business was to go meet Grandma's new pony, Dusty. Sawyer looooooved him & had to help with everything (notice he's holding his rope):

Grandpa fired up the new little tractor so Joe could take Sawyer for a ride around the farm:

On Wednesday, we went to Lizard Mound County Park, which is an old Indian grounds full of burial mounds/effigys. It was a really cool experience to learn as much as we could about this tribe of Wisconsin Indians that practically disappeared... except for all of these hand crafted mounds scattered all over the forest.

Joe loves to climb:

What a beautiful fall day! Looks like we went to visit Wisconsin right at the right time.

"Looks like it's a..."

"...girl... no.... wait a second... I may need to amend that statement.... hmm.... it actually looks like it's a boy. Yes, look, right there... see it? Looks like it's a boy!"
Our doctor was so cruel.
Hahaha...

Yes, we got another sweet shot of his "thingy" later on, basically proving that we are having another BOY! Yaaayy!!! We don't have to buy all new stuff! We also just love boys. How could we not, after Sawyer?

Fall Appreciation

I tried to take advantage of, what might've been, the last warm & sunny day while the fall colors are in swing, and went out for a campus photo shoot. I don't think I've ever appreciated the fall as much as I do this year; I'm absolutely loving it! My only theory is that I'm pregnant and hot all the time, so the cooler weather is refreshing (instead of depressing, like summer is "dying", which was my usual perspective).

Just Can't Wait...

He totally can't wait to have a baby. I pulled this baby blanket out of the dryer, and he grabbed it from me. Next thing I know, he'd gone and gotten his baby, wrapped him in the blanket, and was snuggling him and "keeping him warm" on the couch. He also thinks that he has a baby in HIS tummy; he'll lift up his shirt, puff out his tummy and bellow (in a man voice): "I have a biiiiig baby in my tummy!" as he rubs his tummy... haha :) I still follow up every time with: "No, just mommies grow babies in their tummies." It's not catching on.

4th Photo Tag! I tag EVERYONE!

I wasn't actually tagged, but I read this on a friend's blog and wanted to do it anyway (is that a sign of blogging addiction? Hmm...).

The Game: Post the 4th picture in the 4th folder of your "My pictures" folder & give its description.

I'm so glad THIS was the picture! This is one of my absolute favorite Sawyer pics EVER. I took it when he was just two days old, sleeping in the clear hospital cart next to me in my recovery room. I was all alone & bored (Joe had gone back to work by then) and it was this snowy white light gleaming in the room on him, so I did a photo shoot. Part of me wishes I could see more of him, but it's still cute to see the bright colors of the hat that Joe picked out for him after delivery, and see his tiny new fingers poking out (his other hand is covered with the shirt cuff that went over his hand so he wouldn't scratch himself).

I'm so excited I've only got 3 1/2 months left until I get another new baby like this one!

Ward Campout!

Last night we went out to our ward (church) campout at a local scout campground. We didn't stay the night, for fear of the cold (and me sleeping on the ground pregnant didn't work so well on our campout a few weeks ago), but we did go up for the evening to hang out. Here we are, going down a trail with cool trees overhanging.

A cool split tree:

Playing some ball with Daddy:

We DID set up our tent in the living room, though. Sawyer and Joe lasted most of the night, but I only lasted about 10 minutes on the floor. It's hard to sleep on your side, with your shoulder and hip smashing into the hard floor...

Here we are back at breakfast this morning. Eggs, pancakes and bacon, YUM! Sawyer and some of his buddies found pots & lids to bang & marched around the camp. Very cute! And loud.

Matthy's Farm

Our church playgroup went to Matthy's Farm today, where we had a really nice time! I kinda wish I'd showered since we took so many pictures... oh well.

Anyway, we had a hay ride...

Saw a (fake) pumpkin patch (while on the hay ride)...

Did a corn maze...

Sawyer picked his own pumpkin for free...

Some harvest love shown to Kimberly...

Some bunny love...

Some piggy love...

Did that goat smile at me?

And sat on a huge pumpkin!

What perfect weather & a perfect fall activity!

ACCEPTED!

Joe and I have officially decided to accept the job offer with GE Energy! *WHEW* It feels good to be done with big decisions for awhile! It was very tense waiting to hear from GE, and dealing with other jobs/interviews that came up as the new school year got fired up as well. We feel very blessed to have a secure job, ready for us to start next July. Now Joe can just enjoy school, and probably be home much more (particularly next semester when the baby comes). We are VERY proud of our hard working Joe, who acheived his goal of working for a top energy company!!!

A bit more about the job we're taking: It's a two year rotational program, where he'd get a new assignment every 6 months (and usually move to a new location). It could be anywhere in the world, but most likely U.S. locations might be: Atlanta, Schenectady NY, or Houston. Joe is also very pro Europe, and will be pushing to go over for at least one of the rotations (for example, their wind energy is based in Germany). The moving is a little scary, but we've learned that GE will take care of eeeeevvvverything, and extra, so it's not so scary anymore. I'm trying to see it as "being paid to travel". Plus, we'll be done with the program & pick a job to settle down with before Sawyer even starts kindergarten, so the timing couldn't be more perfect to have a little adventure.

While Joe is interested in all areas of energy, he's particularly drawn to nuclear (which was his job last summer for the internship- at their nuclear headquarters in NC). Joe is very passionate about nuclear power, and keeps up on the news and much of the literature; so, if you ever spark up a conversation with Joe about the nation's energy crisis, be ready to hear a lot of pro-nuclear facts and figures (take this as your warning... .for good or bad, I suppose)!