Snow & Our Sweet Boy! {Digital Scrapbooking}

A couple of weeks ago we got a good bit of snow overnight. It was on a Saturday morning so we bundled up the kids and broke out Jonah's new sled. He loved playing in the little bit of snow we got but Haley didn't care much for it. LOL I just finished up a layout to commemorate the fun morning.

I also finished a 2-page layout for Jonah from our Fall family portraits. I loved that our photographer got several cute shots of our busy boy! They show his personality so well!

Fall Family Fun!

We had the most fun and exhausting weekend! The weather was near perfection and the kids were in great spirits all weekend. It was the perfect formula for all that we had planned to do. Friday was Michael's birthday so we ate out as a family of 4 at our local hometown diner. We haven't ate out much since Haley came along but it went surprisingly well. This was great considering the only empty table was in the very middle of the restaurant so we were totally on display. But it all went good and Haley stayed amused through the whole thing and was content to stay in her seat.

Saturday we headed with some friends to a big pumpkin patch and farm in Springfield, TN. We went to the same place last year and there is just a TON of stuff for the kids to do. It's a long drive for us but it's totally worth it! Jonah surprised us both by wanting to do so much more stuff this year than he did last year. He was not concerned about the crowds or anything this time and the other kids that went with us were all his age so they could do lots of things together.

Miss Haley was so good for us all day. She missed her morning nap (but rested on ride up) and had to hang out in the stroller all day but she was a dream! She never fussed once and just enjoyed getting pushed around the farm and seeing all the kids running around. 

This place has a huge sand pit that is full of diggers and trucks. It is a little boy's paradise. I think Jonah could have stayed right there all day if we had let him. 

We got a couple of shots with the kids. They did good for mine but something caught their attention in Daddy's photo. LOL

They also have this giant inflated balloon-type thing that the kids could run up on and jump around. They called is corn popper. Jonah loved that this year and went all by himself (last year Michael went with him).

Jonah with his buddies Briley and Neely.

Jonah rode behind the 4-wheeler once too! He said it was really bumpy.

After lunch Haley started fading fast and fell asleep. We bumped our way back to the car and she stayed asleep the whole way home. I just had to get a picture of her cute little booties, too!

 

After we all rested for an hour or so we decided to head back out to Piney campground in Land Between the Lakes area to visit with my in-laws who were camping down there. They also were having their trick-or-treating at the campground so we took along Jonah's costume so he could trick-or-treat a little bit. 

My MIL, Dee and the kids at Piney.

Jonah hitting up a nice lady handing out candy.

He wanted his picture taken with the black cat in the background.

 

Sunday we went to church and then came home and made a big pot of chilli for Michael's birthday celebration (really just supper at our house and a bonfire). We had family over and enjoyed chilli with all the fixings, my Mom made Mexican cornbread and my Dad made smoked bologna. We all ate outside by a fire and then enjoyed some delicious carrot cake that I ordered especially for him. It was a nice relaxing evening spent catching up with family. A great way to start the week!

Jonah's First Train Ride

Last Sunday evening we enjoyed a fun "date" with our first-born, Jonah. He has really been into trains since he was 2 but we had never rode on a train before. We decided to give him that experience and Daddy had never ridden a train either so it was fun for them to both experience it together. When I saw that the Tennessee Central Railway Museum was going to have a real steam train excursion for a limited time, I jumped on some tickets for us.

Since it involved driving over an hour to Nashville to board the train, we decided to make a fun day of it with just Jonah. He loved the train and loved looking out the window at all the other train pieces around us. We were in a nice air-conditioned car and we even got to go up and see the engineer driving the steam train while we went down the tracks. That part Jonah was not too thrilled about because we had to walk into an open-air cart and it was hot and loud so I think it just frightened him a little bit. He just didn't want to get up too close and clung to his Daddy but he loved sitting in our cart where you could hear the faint whistle of the diesel train that was pushing us (the steam train was mostly for appearances sake). They had fake engineers on each cart that handed out Thomas the Train pictures to all the kids. The ride lasted a little over an hour but it was plenty of time to just relax and enjoy the ride and let Jonah soak it all up.

Jonah & Daddy's First Hunt

This past weekend marked a big milestone for Jonah and his Daddy. They went hunting together!!

Michael has been looking forward to that day since the day we found out we were having a boy. He wanted to wait until he thought Jonah was big enough to understand what hunting is and be able to somewhat stay quiet. Well Jonah has done very well with knowing when he needs to whisper and when he can talk loudly or normally. I credit us going to church every Sunday for this. We don't have a children's church or nursery class during church so all the kids stay in the auditorium and MOST Sunday's Jonah does great. He is not always still but at least he is quiet. I think that is pretty impressive for a 3 year old!

So they set out Saturday evening to go hunt at our friend's land. Michael took the ground blind so that they didn't have to climb (safety!!) and so that Jonah could still move around but not bee seen by any deer. Well they did not see any deer, just squirrels, but they had a great time together. I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Heading out! Jonah was beyond excited. He did not nap because he was so excited and when Michael went in his room to get him, he asked if Jonah was ready to go hunting. Jonah said "YES!!" and jumped up about 2 feet. LOL

My two hunters!

Michael took some pics of them in the blind. As you can tell they were both having fun.

On the way home (which is just a few miles away) Jonah fell asleep. He finally got warm and full from his snacks. We laid him down on the floor in the living room because we didn't want him to sleep too long. He was OUT!