Falling Leaves

We don't have too many, but the leaves from all of our trees are piling up quickly! Mom and Dad decided to take advantage of today's gorgeous weather and rake up piles of leaves to jump in over and over and over!
I was inspired by my cousins blog that you can see if you click here and decided to try a couple of his diving moves!

I loved getting buried in the leaves and watching the clouds! I could lay there all day!

Above you can see Sadie getting in on the action and below Mystic even tried it out! We had a blast and I suggest if you haven't, build your own pile of leaves, to dive on in!

Harvest Festival 2008

Harvest Town, USA was this year's theme of our church's annual Harvest Festival and we had a blast! After a great lunch Hannah headed straight for the ponies! The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the fun definitely ended too early! After, we headed to the "Pumpkin Shoot!" Where there were at least a gazillion empty shells on the ground by the time we left and they weren't even close to done for the night! Hannah had a blast playing with 4 other girls and making "dirt soup" "dirt salad" and "dirt dog food!" Everyone laughed at the girls, who walked by, who were basically the color of dirt by the time we left... especially Hannah's friend Eva who was in a white shirt and white tights when she showed up! Good thing for bleach! (I left my camera in the car and you had to walk through a crazy uneven field too far to motivate me to go back and get it! Sorry!)
She's a natural! =)

They also had a petting zoo that we could barely drag Hannah away from. She especially loved the ducks! We have spent the summer feeding them and she is continuously asking to pet them but can't because they are wild. Today she was absolutely thrilled to get up close and personal with this little guy!

A dwarf pony just her size! At the request of a horse for her birthday I use an excuse that a horse is too big.... Now what?!?!?!?


Hannah loves dogs and we always teach her to ask the owner before she walks up and pets a new dog. We tell her not all dogs are nice like Sadie. Well since they had this dog in the petting zoo we didn't remind her because we didn't even think about it. So Hannah walked straight up to the girl (we were wondering what she was doing?) and this little voice asked "Can I pet your doggy?" It's a little cheesy but we were proud! It always feels good when your child functions independent of you in a way that keeps them safe or aids in smart decisions! Hannah tends to turn the fear function off and can dive into things pretty quick so it was nice to witness her taking caution... even if only with the dog in the petting zoo! =)

Then we headed for the hayride! We had someone playing the guitar and everything on ours! It was so much fun! Hayrides are my favorite thing!

And here we are enjoying it!

There were HUGE cupcakes.... Hannah loves the frosting! This cupcake was so big that she only made it halfway through before she stopped and said "Mom... I need some water!" =)

We kept her going all day with sugar and looked forward to the crash when we got home so we could all go to sleep! (Instead John and I watched a movie but it was nice to have Hannah to bed earlier than usual!)

Hannah being a goofball, if only we could use this method more often! =)

1 House + 2 gallons of "Milk Chocolate" paint = The same house... but better!

John and I are definitely the persons who adore change... explains one of the reasons why over the past eight years we have never lived in the same place for over two of those years! December 30 of this year we will have been in Nampa for 2 years! (With no plans of leaving! Sorry Grandma! Crazy I know!) But the fact hasn't changed that around this time we begin to itch for change. So instead of packing up and closing our eyes while we point at the map for our next destination... We headed to Home Depot, approx 7miles away! It's amazing what a couple of cans of paint, some clearance plants, and rearranging of the furniture can do! We feel like we're in a new place! =)

So yesterday we began the process of change, and it feels so good! Of course Hannah needs to be part of our projects so she sat high above the safe floor and handed John paper towels and any other necessities he might need to prep the walls.
Hannah couldn't have been more excited that she was able to help her Dad with such a grown-up project! She's getting so big!
Hannah even got to help paint the walls herself! So excited!
This is the picture where Hannah is claiming Child Labor! Ha! Don't let that look fool you, she was thrilled! So we are taking this process in stages... 1-2walls per night (all we are painting is the family room/kitchen, but the house has tons of separate walls, nooks, etc.. don't have 12 full hours to paint non-stop anymore!). When we finish I'll post some pictures of the final product!

When 6 become 11

We are a happy little family... John, Christina, Hannah, Sadie, Mystic and Susie... But the house was still so empty that we have adopted the 5 dogs pictures above. They showed up about 3 days ago when Hannah and I came back from the wilderness trip and have never left. Since it seems as though they may be around for a while Hannah has given them names. They are "Uno, Dose, Tress, Cuatro, and Daisy." We still don't know what breed of dogs they are but I do know this... You don't have to feed them, clean up after them, or make any additional room for them! That is the beauty of imagination!

Hannah's first backcountry camping trip!

4 days in the back country, 1 snowstorm, 1 bear, 9 chickens, 40 people and lots of fire and good food to keep us warm! What more could you ask for on Hannah's first camping trip!

After driving up Tuesday night we awoke and began to set camp up. In the picture above is the pastor of our church.... Pastor Steve. He and Hannah have become close friends over the last year, even more since he told her about Bruno his horse. Hannah has been waiting for weeks and weeks to meet Bruno and ride him! She finally got the chance! To meet him that is... a bear came through camp the night following the above picture and Bruno cut up his legs pretty bad when he freaked and got his leg stuck in the fence etc... Good thing he was overall OK though! Hannah was sad she couldn't ride him but was happy to talk to him everyday and help feed and walk him!

Since this was Hannah's first camping trip, she needed to explore everything with her dollar store magnifying glass that was worth it's price in gold!

Here Hannah spent some time relaxing while all of the students were working... I'm sure they wished they could hang out in the hammock for a while!

This is Samson... Bruno's best friend. Hannah was glad he didn't hurt his legs when the bear came through, so she made friends real fast hoping to ride him instead!

Both Samson and Bruno were very gentle horses who Hannah simply adored! They loved to sniff her and get close... I think it's because she always smelled like Smores and the grass she would feed them!

3 years old and riding bareback already! Simply amazing!

Above are all of the guys from our church that came to help with the trip, who all affectionately nicknamed Hannah "Peanut." She's sitting with Pastor Steve.. next to them is Mike Dale... and next to him is Jerry Gould... It was great to sit around and hear all of their camping stories. They were all really great with Hannah and helped me wrangle her for the week. It was wonderful!

Here are all of the brave SOE students! They really did phenomenal with all of the tasks we came up with for them!

Running around in the wilderness is an exhausting thing! I could always count on finding Hannah asleep in Pastor Steve's arms at the end of the day... I don't think he minded the excuse to sit down!

This is one of the girls right before the "Chicken Chop"... yep you read that right! We bought some chickens and the students had the task of catching, killing, and dressing them to cook for dinner that night!

This is Rose and she was the best shot of the night! It was amazing and not one person freaked out! Everyone participated and did great!

This is Ky and Eric getting ready to pluck their dinner for the night!

And what a success! 8 chickens cooked over the fire and split amongst the teams! The 9th chicken was used for wolf bait which didn't work... most likely because the snowstorm that was blowing in!

We had no problem keeping warm! 40 people cutting firewood... we never ran out!

Here is Hannah on Samson again! If he had his saddle on, she was requesting to ride him! They became great friends!

Here is Hannah taking Samson on one of his morning walks. I just know she's going to ask for a horse for Christmas!

Didn't hesitate to climb up on the four wheeler either! Everyone was impressed with our little camper! Said she was right in her element and conquered the wilderness with more zeal than most!

One day when all of the students went on a day hike, Pastor Steve and Jerry took us on a drive/hike of our very own...

... and this is the beauty we found.

4hrs later the snow began... and didn't quit!

Even though we look cold here... we were actually toasty warm! Our faces were red because they were so hot from the fire! We found ourselves constantly backing up because we were burning through so much wood!

One of the students plays the harmonica and Hannah wanted to try it of course! Our little multitalented girl!

Then of course I had to take a turn while Hannah took my picture! She's quite the photographer as well!

Don't you feel warm just looking at that fire!

Since the snow wasn't quitting and was building up quickly we decided to pack up and head out early! But first Hannah ate her weight in snow while we packed up camp! Our little snow eater was sad when we came down out of the mountains to dry land! We told her there would be more! So if you've made it this far through this very long blog... I'll let you know we had a blast! It was an amazing experience and I can't wait to do it again next year! I'll leave with with the following pictures of the unbelievable beauty we lived in for four short days.... We'll be back that's for sure!

Happy Birthday John!

Here we are again... Another year since this wonderful man was born! Isn't he the best!?

We (Hannah and I) are so grateful to have him in our lives and wouldn't trade him for anything! So Happy Birthday to the Best Husband and Father we could ever ask for! We love you!

Below is a video of Hannah singing the last part of "Happy Birthday" to John. I am so bummed because she beat the camera and I missed the first part of her song! She did so great, and didn't miss a beat! She is the best too!