Macaroni and Cheese! WooHoo!

Adalli's first (documented) bites of Macaroni and Cheese. Needless to say she LOVED it!
She is getting so big! She crawls all over, has 5 teeth, says and waves bye-bye and dadda, claps, plays "so big" and gets into all of her older siblings things! She is such a joy to have around and I thank God every day for the healthy beautiful children He has so richly blessed us with!
This is a pocket bib that I was given by a friend. I always thought that the pockets were really just for show because I never thought they would actually catch anything. I was mistaken! There is a small pile of veggies and noodles in this pocket. I suppose that if you compare the amount in here to the amount on the floor it is pretty safe to say that it doesn't catch much but at least the food caught in here can be eaten, unlike the food that falls on the filthy floor! It truly amazes me how I can sweep every day at least 3 times but still end up with Adalli's knees getting brown from crawling all over. I blame it on the constant cloud of dust that seems to hover over my house on these dry days! I am so very thankful for the sunshine that comes from the dry days and in the end a filthy house is worth the crisp mornings and warm afternoons full of sunshine!
O Praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise Him, all ye people. For His merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord! Psalm 117

Quick Trip to Illinois

We spent a couple days in Illinois at Aunt Kay and Uncle Ben's house a couple weeks ago. We had lots and lots of fun crammed in two days! This is a picture of a tug boat pushing a barge up the river. Johnathon was really interested in it.
We had a picnic lunch by the river and spent an hour throwing rocks in to the big river. It was 80 degrees and so beautiful!
Ben took us all to a neat park in Clinton,IA and it had this really neat castle we could climb up and look over the river and the valleys. The trees were beautiful.
Fulton, IL is a small dutch community a lot like Pella. We were able to visit the wind mill there. It was built then brought over from Holland. It was so neat to see how everything worked inside. They really grind grain in it, and we were able to watch it spin and feel the grain after it came out of the stones. I highly recommend stopping. The best part about it is, it was donations only so you did not have to pay for the tour unless you felt like donating.

Fishing

After carving out our pumpkins we headed to the pond to take in a little fishing.



The fish were pretty tiny but we had a great time and enjoyed the warm fall weather!

Pumpkins!

Gideon and Rachel did not have school on Friday so we decided it would be fun to do pumpkins. Thanks again to grandma Jan for a wonderful pumpkin patch! First we picked out the best ones for each of us, then we headed home to get dirty.
Adalli loved every minute of being outside!




They cleaned out and cut out their faces. I am not a huge fan of Jack o Lanterns but it is always fun see what you can make from these fun fall vegetables. I am almost to the point where the older kiddos can clean out the slime all by themselves without me having to get dirty.

More Fall and Harvest pictures

Here are some seed pods from a Candy Lily that Stacy gave to me. I think they are very pretty and a definite sign of fall.
The woolly caterpillars have been everywhere this year! I have had so many in jars and containers all over, we have let them make their cocoons and come out but they are kind of ugly moths; so we try not to keep them inside their cages for to long. I much prefer them to stay and make moths outside of the house!



These are my volunteer baby pumpkins that came up and vined all over my air conditioner unit. We must have dumped some there last year. I love that about Iowa, you can grow about anything, even when you are not trying. I suppose that is not always the best thing, but for this Northern Colorado girl who needs all the help she can get when it comes to growing things; it usually works out for my advantage:)
The progress we have made on our house is amazing and we are so thankful for all the help we have had in getting us this far. This is our very own farmstead that God has richly richly blessed us with!
This is a neat picture of the John Deere tractor's reflection in the chrome stack of the semi.


Here is Rachel and Adalli in the combine. Adalli loves it!


Adalli and dad with matching bald heads! Driving the grain cart tractor for Grandpa.

Signs of Harvest

Here are a few signs that Harvest is upon us!
Tractor's and combine's are everywhere now days! Thank the Lord for a beautiful week so far. They can get so much done when it is beautifully sunny out.
Here is picture of my washer with corn in it. That is definitely a sign of harvest.
An empty chair where BJ sits for supper,
along with empty fields . It is always nice to check off another field for the harvest, knowing that the corn is delivered and God has once again provided for our needs. We have had poor yields this year but on a continual basis God has shown His unending faithfulness!

First Day of School.

Okay, I know that I am a month late on these but they were to cute to not post. :)
Rachel, Gideon and Leah waiting for the bus.
Johnathon goes to preschool Tuesdays and Thursdays. He does very well and seems to enjoy it. The only time it is hard to get him to go is when he knows dad will be in the combine without him.
Gideon with that look of "I am to old for desk pictures mom."

Plaster and Lathe

Before and after pictures of the kitchen, back bedroom and dining room in the house. They got wet with all the rain storms we had this summer so we had to take all of it down piece by piece. BJ, the kids, and I all tackled it one Saturday and got the ceiling all down, then with Mom L and Jeremiah's help got the walls out this week. We should be able to get the electrical done and then start insulation.
The kids started wearing helmets because it kept falling on their heads. Good little thinkers.

One wore out and very dirty crew!!
Finished! Now to pull and pull nails. I kept thinking; wow, can you imagine putting all of this up in the first place? Thank goodness for drywall:)

Our House

This has been consuming all the "free" time we have had since this spring and it will continue for atleast two more months. We have made wonderful progress, our goal is to be in it before or right around Christmas. We have lots to do yet but thanks to all of the good help we are moving forward!
I like the angles in this picture. This is a dormer on the outside,
this is one on the inside.