"Old McDonald Farms"

...as they're called according to Nate this year :) We've gone to three different farms this fall season-and each time I've mentioned going to one to Nate, he'll ask, "Old McDonald farm?" Yes Nate, the Old McDonald farm :) Then he'll proceed to sing the song over and over for a while.

First one : DeWitt Stable

Favorite part : the hayride to the pumpkin patch and picking out a small pumpkin to take him. He carried it with him for days!




Hay maze



Train ride-interesting how the cars are recycled out of something,wish I could figure out what!

Second : Marley Farms with Nate's preschool class



Huge camel!


Mommy feeding the pony-Nate is having an off year with petting zoo animals




What's a farm without a cow?




His favorite part at Marley Farms!

Today's farm : Vertuccio Farm-our new favorite!




Stop #1-another ride! Nate loved that he got to "drive" it!




Milking the cow



Can't pass up the bounce house!





Having fun with daddy



More bouncing!




Above the hay maze



What do you know-we ran into Nate's cousin Autumn in the corn maze :)


Picking out a pumpkin on our way out

We had lots of farm fun this season!

Rollin' and sleepin'

Just today I witnessed Aaron rolling completely over on his own! When he's on his stomach it's pretty visible he also wants to be able to get to the things he's looking at ;) I imagine it won't be all that much longer before he starts to crawl-somehow!

As of last Friday night-Aaron has been SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT! Yay! (now hopefully I don't jinx myself) The first two nights he still woke up during the night but was satisfied with his paci. Some nights he hasn't woken up at all! A typical night looks like this--bed by 7:30-8, "dream feed" at 9:30-10....then he doesn't wake up until 6:45-7:15am! Woohoo! I'm still tuckered out some but slowly I'm gaining my strength and sanity back :) What a huge blessing if this continues.

This past Monday Aaron received his band for his head. We were told that most families begin with making their child wear it 23 hrs a day right off the bat (as they will need to,even during sleep) however we decided it would be best to make it a gradual process. We've never done anything cold turkey before as far as kids are concerned-everything we've ever weaned off from has been a process, so we didn't think this needed to be any different.



Up through today he's been wearing it for all his naps with one break during the day.He's been waking up during his naps, I just wish I knew for sure if it was related to the band or something else.




Tomorrow will be the true test-Aaron hasn't gone to bed at night with it on yet. I'm very afraid he may not sleep well (I just wouldn't be surprised). He does get fairly sweaty wearing it so I can imagine it being uncomfortable to lay in. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'm wrong!



On Monday we go back for a checkup. I hope to find out that Aaron won't need the band past this year but we'll see.

Japan

Hubby has been very busy with work lately. Since September he has been working long hours and has been to Nashville, soon Connecticut and this past week for seven days-Japan! He's been with Nissan for five years or so and this was his first trip there. It was a rough week apart-but at the same time, I'd rather he go and be there for a while than to go for two days and have to come back. Here are some pictures from his time away-



Outside his hotel









Said there were lots of Starbucks stores :)



Japanese Thomas for Nate


My new Starbucks cup- I love! It even came with a free drink coupon inside...which the US girls let me use despite it being in Japanese :)

We're all so glad that the long week apart is over!

Halloween Party

So much fun with our friends this morning!

Scrapbooking design personalized with Smilebox

Family Pictures

Last weekend we had some professional pictures taken-it's been years since we've done so and wanted to have some new ones. Thought I'd share some-there was over a hundred taken.

5 Months Old!

Aaron will turn five months old in a few days! He's had some new developments over the last few weeks:

--loves eating his toes
--DOES enjoy being outside, now that we got a few days taste of fall weather!
--can roll over and is doing this new trick constantly in bed
--is starting to teethe :(
--eating oatmeal

We just took the boys for pictures this past weekend-we haven't done that since Nate was one and a half! I wanted to have some good pictures of us taken. Pretty happy overall.

So-hubby has been busy the last two weekends working on the boys' Christmas present-a giant playhouse! We just got approved by our HOA to do it. We hope to have it done in time for the holiday. It's coming along...

Let The Good Times Roll

In case you haven't had enough, more pictures of the boys! :) It's been another busy week.

Pizza and play at Great Play


I'm flying!


Bouncing fun-now Nate asks almost on a daily basis about going back




Aaron thought it was fun too :)


Finally-some mornings are starting to get nice for parktime! (until mid-morning anyway)



Playing in the kitchen at the Arizona Museum for Youth



Charlie Brown theme



Just chillin'...


Nate showing little brother how his saucer works






Cutie pie

Nate has one more week of school before he has a week off for Fall Break. Over that time we're looking forward to having friends over for an early Halloween party.

He's inching closer and closer to being fully potty trained-something I hope we can shut the book on by year's end :) Actually I'm keeping my fingers crossed that by the beginning of December it will be a done deal when we get to go on our longest vacation of the year to San Diego. We're starting to begin the countdown, can't wait!

Aaron is steadily thriving on his schedule. He still isn't sleeping through the night yet but I'm at least happy that we have a pretty smooth day-he takes three naps, two of which are pretty long (one is one and a half hours and the other is two-two and a half hours long). We're working hard on stabilizing daytime so that we can hopefully work out the kinks at nighttime. It has been so nice to have a friend of mine coach us along on what to do-it certainly helps take the stress off. I pretty much trust what she says and follow whatever advice and pointers she gives out :)

Again on top of all of my different jobs I'm *trying* to start training for the PF Changs Half Marathon here in January. It sure is harder this time around than it was the last time. Of course not only am I just busier this time around to find time (and childcare!) to run but having the energy to do so is the next hurdle. I'm lucky if I can just keep up with the kids,housework, etc etc on a daily basis let alone anything else added to my schedule :) I'm trying to make the effort, it's going to be a long road though I'm afraid.

Can't believe October is here already. I just wish I could see the changing fall colors...

Guess Who, Part 2!

Guess Who part 1 was with the same shirt, these pics are of the boys at the same age (4 mos).

Guess Who....?

It's kind of a question, I think you should be able to tell by the pictures who is who :) I just remembered having a picture of Nate in this shirt so I took one of Aaron and wanted to put the two beside each other to see how much they looked alike.