Pre Christmas 2009

Christmas in our little northern midwestern town is quite charming. They really do up the town with lights. I've never actually seen anything quite like it. It might even top Baltimore's 34 Street in quantity (but not quality).



Next on the list was Santa. Jamie asked for a steamroller. Will he get one? Only Santa knows for sure.



Last weekend we went to a great big tree farm about 30 miles north of town. Surprising to us was the fact that the farm was placed upon a series of rolling hills. They take you out on a tractor ride to get to the fields of trees.



We had a lot of fun running around on the hills searching for the perfect tree.





Here it is:



Sitting on the tractor after the hayride:



Back home, we decorated it up with handmade ornaments. We figured we should save the pretty glass stuff for when Jamie is a few (maybe many) years older.



With the look on his face in this picture, maybe you can get an idea as to why we might want to wait to put out the nice ornaments. (Shortly after this picture was taken we had to invest in a chain door lock, because he kept escaping and running off down the sidewalk!)

Here's the house!

Front view of our recently renovated Bungalow built in 1920.



Here is our "formal" living room I have just finished painting a lovely golden yellow color.



Here is the purple dining room. Purple paint sucks! It gets on everything.



Here's a view of the kitchen before the appliances were put in.



The den "Tibetan Orange"



Jamie in the giant fish tank that is our downstairs shower.



That's it!

Happy Halloween!

T-minus 10 and counting. Jamie is dressed as a Space Shuttle Astronaut. First stop, neighbor's house for beer and wine.



Commander Jamie orders more candy. Blast off!



We are approaching the International Space Station. More chocolate, please.



The scene from Mission Control. Operation Barter and Trade.



Landing gear engaged. Post binge milk and cuddles.

Stonewall Pumpkin Festival

Hello World! Yeah, it's been a long while. Moving, new job, trying to buy a house. Lots of excuses.

Anyhow. Here are some pictures from this weekend's Stonewall Pumpkin Festival at the Van Hoosen Dairy Farm in the "historic" Stony Creek village in our neighborhood.

First there was the hay ride. Actually there were several hayrides because Jamie loves tractors. He cried every time we had to get off. Poor kid.

Off we go!




Next we went and picked out our pumpkin.

Jamie hunts for the best one:


Found it!


Then we hopped back on the hay wagon and took the pumpkin to the carving station. Actually we made a side trip to play on the hook-and-ladder truck.

Jamie loves firetrucks almost as much as tractors.

Driving with Momma.


Back to the carving tables:

Guts!


Jamie helps Dadda scoop out the brains.


Our pumpkin on the stonewall.

A couple more pictures from our visit to the beach

These are actual from the wedding reception. The wedding reception was a little too much for little Jamie. Too much stimulation. He ended up playing by himself off in the dirt after numerous near escapes and much timeouting. Wine made it all better.

So we're moving in two weeks...

What better time to update the blog? It's not like I have any boxes to pack or anything? Let's see, since my last update in oh... April, I've gotten a job offer from Oakland University in Rochester Michigan. Micha-what? Michigan . . . you heard me! So we're packing up the truck and we're movin' the family! to Michigan, real cold, Michigan, where the bays aren't salty, Michigan, where car companies keel over and die. Michigan, you'll always be / / No, I can't go that far. In two weeks, seriously, I should be packing.

Rochester, 2009's #52 on America's Best Places to live according to Money like who really cares about this stuff anyway magazine.

We also went to the beach for a week for cousin Dan's wedding. Jim and Mary took us out on the boat with Sarah and Mark. That was fun.

Evidence:















So that's that. Maybe in another four months I'll update again! C-ya!

Kinder Farms

Yesterday we took Jamie to Kinder Farms Park. It's not a kids farm like the name might suggest, that's just the family name, but it does have animals. It's run by volunteers and local 4H clubs. They raise chickens, goats, a few cows, sheep, and rabbits among other things. Jamie had a great time looking at all the animals. He even got into the farming mood by pouring a bucket full of muck all over himself. They also had lots of old and restored tractors and implements all over the place which he loves. It's a pretty cool place to take a kid. To top it off the have a great big playground. We'll be going back!

Sparkles the goat



Jamie and the bunnies.



Jamie attempts to feed the piglets a rock. (The other kids were feeding them grass, Jamie just has to be different. I blame his mother.)



Yet another goat.

Haircut!

Jamie had his first real haircut this weekend. He's had a couple of trims to get the hair out of his eyes but we've always just let the rest grow wild.

Wild Hair:



We set him in his chair at snack time and started to cuttin' We found that M&M's were the best distractors. (What problem can't M&M's solve?!!??)



We left the leftovers outside for the birds to line their nests with.



Here's the results:



A little boy emerged!



I also got into the act. Here I am, shaved head and beard, sporting the lambchops:

Too cool

No caption needed.

Happy Easter!

Here are some pictures from Jamie's first Easter egg hunt. He was very exicted about it. Friday Christine explained to him how the Easter bunny comes and hides Easter eggs full of candy in the yard. Then Jamie says "I want Easter egg", so then she says Okay, lets practice, and she took one egg and "hid" it in plain sight on the couch. ("Hiding" is a relative term when you are talking about a two year old.) When he found it and opened it and saw that there really was candy inside he said "I love Easter egg!". When Sunday morning came it was more of the same. He loved it. Here's the photographic evidence.