Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a couple inches of snow on Wednesday, just in time for a White Thanksgiving. It flurried all thru today, would have been a perfect Christmas Day! Tomorrow-Shopping!!!
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

The many faces of LAD

Redneck Race Car Fan or Santa's Elf, or

Winning Prize Fighter, or


Sumo Wrestler, or


Pig Wrangler.

Let's go with the Pig Wrangler, there's cold hard cash involved!

Missouri

A couple of weeks ago we went to MO for a long weekend for Randy to work on airplanes. We saw all the g'pas, g'mas, friends, airplanes, tractors and some chickens. Notice in the middle column, far left picture, look close, Goldie-the dog-is holding her treasure, trying to share. A nice fish skeleton, just like in the cartoons. She's holding it by the tail and at the end of it's backbone is it's head-or maybe the beginning of it's backbone-not sure which way that goes! Sweet!

Helmet week

LAD recently rediscovered his bycycle helmet in the garage. He decided he wanted to wear it around, so he wore it into the bath, on the drive to school, to the grocery store, to a Christmas open house, and around the house, in the course of at least a week. Then of course, after he takes it off, he falls down and bonks his head on the floor!

Happy Halloween!!!

This was last Sunday, at Huxley they had a Halloween Spooktacular with fun, games and prizes so we went for a little while. LAD loved all the activity! But the best part, by far, was the tractor pulled hay wagon ride!

This was Tuesday night, trick or treat night for us. I just thought this pic was cool-shadowwy!

Here he is all ready to go trick or treat the neighbors. He was very excited! Of course, Lightning went along too.



This was in the neighbors yard. He loved the ghosts! He really enjoyed the whole thing and we have really great neighbors. He especially enjoyed just being outside and "walking"!

Piggy Tails, anyone?

This is how LAD came home from daycare one day last week. One of his classmates, that is a girl, was getting a piggy tail in her hair and I guess ALL the boys thought it was just the neatest thing, so they also ALL got piggy tails. I think one little boy even had two tails!!! LAD didn't seem to mind it at all and wore it until bathtime that night. Daddy was proud! But at least his hat covered it up!!!

Reiman Gardens

We went to Reiman Gardens today. It was about 60 degrees and sunny-a perfect day. We went into the butterfly house, they were very active today in the afternoon sun. Yesterday was overcast, so I think that makes them even more active when the sun finally does come out. LAD walked all around today, no hitching a ride in the stroller. He spent some time pushing it, however. "LAD do it", OK, you are doing it, crash into a bush.

Great Aunt Cindy made this shirt for him. It pretty much sums it up!



This pump squirts the water out of the frogs in the stock tank

Atlas moth, apparently sleeping, apparently nocturnal. He was huge. Probably nearly 12 inches from wing tip to wing tip. the clear areas on his inner wings were translucent. I should have zoomed in and got a better shot of that. I was to distracted keeping little bodies from attacking the unsuspecting sleeping creature! I could just see little Lightning zinging thru the air...but no such catastrophes occured.

Punkin Pickin

We went to The Berry Patch to pick a few pumpkins. They had a gazzilion. We finally found LAD a small one with a handle. It's hard to carry a punkin and a car! He loved the tractor/wagon ride to the patch, of course. And spent quite a bit of time getting up and dusting off after tripping over all the vines and rough ground. The ground was soft from lotsa rain, so that made it just that much better-soft squishy black dirt!



Love these sweet cheeks.



Gotta test out the punkin driving surface.

And the good old ground!

"Drive it on the ground" he says.

Airport Bumming Begins!

First Sunday back, Randy and LAD headed to Boone to hang out with the guys. I bet not all the guys had a fancy Lighning McQueen car, shoes and hat! Not to mention the coordinating passey and blankie! No airplane rides yet, but I'm sure that's coming. LADs already asking to "go flying".

Daddys Home!

Randy finally got home from AK October13. We we very excited to see him. LAD was ok with him being home, only so long as he didn't get too close to Mommy!

Dad and Jean visit us

Dad and Jean stopped in Iowa on their way back from CO to MO. They had their camper and only stayed one night. LAD and Grandpa had to take the lawn tractor for a spin-they're in the market for a new one-test driving! LAD's always up for a ride. Grandpa had to fix, and fix, and fix the little red tractor, the tires come off the wheels. Needs GLUE!

September Trip to Jeff City MO

We all converged on Grant's. Dad and Jean gave their new camper a test run, and I think it passed. We found a playground at the lake where they stayed. The slide was a hit, for all ages.

Fall Photo Shoot from School

LAD's Fall photo pictures from School. They turned out very cute and I'm sure he wanted to take one of the pumpkins back to his classroom! All summer he's called our biggest tomatoes pumpkins, so now he gets to see the real deal!!

PLAYGROUND!

Don't say it unless you're ready to GO! LAD loves to go to the playground and slide, climb, chase squirrels, explore! He can finally stay on the horse swing basically by himself. He can finally reach the bars to hang onto! He was giving the squirrels a good workout this day, chasing them, they didn't want to climb up trees for some reason, they were carrying burdens of nuts I guess. This one particular squirrel found a nice perch to chomp on his lunch! Fine by me-LAD sleeps pretty good after squirrel chasing!

Living History Farms

A couple weeks ago we went to the Living History Farms in Des Moines. They were having an apple festival, of sorts, so we thought it'd be fun to go. The apple festival part was OK, nothing too exciting. The farm was very neat, and we only expolored half of it. It was a beautiful day. We found these HUGE acorns, that's what LAD is clutching in his left hand in the one picture, and an acorn cap in the other hand. They were almost as big as golf balls! They have most of the buildings open where you can walk thru and i think the Church is available for weddings, etc. They had a broom makers shop, and that's what's hanging down, broom corn. It was very neat to see how they made the brooms. The pic with the flag is from the one-room school house.
http://www.lhf.org/

Ready To Ride

Don't say the word unless you're ready to GO. LAD loves to ride on the bike and doesn't mind the helmet at all. If we see the bikes and helmets in the store, he always wants to put one on!