Thursday, October 30, 2008

New Coat, New Toy, and the Firebunny

So when Lena and I were getting ready to go to church last night, she was being really fussy and crying a lot for no apparent reason. She thought it would be fun to just lay on the floor and cry.  I thought it would be fun to take her picture doing it.  I didn't get a funny face, but I did get some cute pics of her in her new coat with the teddy bear ears.

She started calming down as soon as I got the camera out, 
but you can see her face is still a little red.


Now she's quite interested in what's going on.  And I'm interested in the fact that 
she's not crying anymore!


Before long she was feeling up to playing with her new toy.  It's a little table she can stand up to that talks and sings songs and is just lots of fun.  Quite often she can be seen dancing to the music.  So cute!


And earlier in the day the bunny caper struck again.  I guess the bunny is dressed up for Halloween.  We're pretty sure we know who is doing it now.  :)

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Reformation Sunday

Today is Reformation Sunday. That's always one of my favorite Sundays in the church year. I wear red and wanted Lena to also, so I bought her a new red dress and shoes.




Check out that smile! She just loves church. It's getting easier to get a pic of her smiling these days. Yay! She made Mama's day by not requiring a diaper change during the sermon. It's the first time that hasn't happened in like 8 weeks. The congregation actually got to pay attention to the sermon since they weren't distracted by Lena's excessively loud grunting. :)


Here is Lena with her friend, Rebecca. Rebecca had fun playing with Lena today and was probably glad that her sister Emily wasn't there to hog the baby!

We also had a very nice Reformation potluck dinner. I made yellow squash dressing. Check out my cooking blog for a pic and the recipe.

Happy Reformation Day!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Fun Fall Pictures

Today was a full day for us.  We spent most of it at Epiphany Lutheran Church in Dorr.  Jim and Pastor Krenz from Epiphany hosted the first annual St. James Conference.  The topic was prayer and devotional living.  It went pretty well for the first one.  Lena had fun playing with her friend, Madelyn, while we were there.  

Then we came home, changed clothes, and headed downtown.  Middleville was holding what they call "Halloween on the Riverbank."  We aren't really into Halloween, but we heard they were offering fresh cider and donuts, so we thought we might as well check it out.  We really enjoy participating in Middleville community events.  Even though Middleville is small, those events are neat because so many people show up.  We were surprised at how many people were downtown this evening.  The downtown businesses hosted trick or treating and fun games for the kids.  There was also an annual scarecrow decorating contest.  Next year we hope to enter the church in it (we want to dress ours up like Martin Luther. :)  

We didn't dress Lena up (like I said, we don't really like Halloween very much), but we put her in her cozy orange hoodie and it made for some great fall pictures next to the corn stalks and pumpkins they decorated downtown with.



This is one of the scarecrows in the contest.  I don't think it was supposed to have a bottle of beer in it.


A great Daddy/Baby pic. 


Another good one.  I couldn't decide between the two, so I posted both!


Baby and Mama.  Love love love the tongue sticking out!  What a goof!


Should have been shooting video for this one.  She was dancing.


The hoodie twins.


It was quite chilly out there.  We swaddled her up good!


There must have been a scarecrow drawing contest for the kids as there were drawings up all over downtown.  They were really cute.


This little boy's parents were in the same childbirth education class with Jim and me.  He was born the day after Lena at the same hospital.  We found out a couple of months ago that his grandma owns the second-hand shop downtown that we frequent.  Small world!  He is dressed up as a lobster.  


No explanation for this one, sorry.



For some reason, Jim thought it would be funny for Lena to have a big leaf on her head.  She doesn't look so sure.

I got Lena a new red dress for Reformation Sunday tomorrow, so check back for pics of that!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Lena's First Hayride and Bonfire


Tonight we had a hayride and bonfire for church. It was really fun. It was the warmest hayride I've ever been on; I think it got up to at least 82 for a high today! We were all wearing short sleeves. And the mosquitoes were really bad at the bonfire. But it was great anyway.



Lena and her best buddy, Emily. We couldn't get her to keep her glasses on her face. She kept wanting to take them off and chew on them.


Tractor man John.

About five wild turkeys crossed the road in front of us. I tried to get a picture, but the little buggers moved too fast for my camera!


The bonfire. We had a short service "decommissioning" some worn out hymnals and Bibles.
Then we had grilled hotdogs and beans and apple cider.
Thanks so much to the Throop's for hosting!




Saturday, October 11, 2008

Indiana Visit

We were in the Fort Wayne area for the weekend. Jim was attending a conference at the seminary, so we took the opportunity to visit some family.

Thursday evening we spent with my parents. It was Lena's first time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandma made a nice lasagna for dinner, then everyone had fun playing with Lena.


Lena with Grandpa Lee

Lena with Grandma Sheryl


Lena with Uncle Scott

Then on Friday, Daddy took Lena to see some of his family. (He forgot to take the camera, so I don't have pics of them.) It was Hilary's birthday, so she and I went shopping and had a fun "Girls' Night In." We had fun cooking together. We tried four new recipes. Check out my cooking blog to see what we made.


It was a nice trip. Jim really enjoyed his conference and I was happy to be able to spend Hilary's birthday with her.