Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Pumpkin Patch Time!

10/18/08



After the Haunted House we went to the gas station I needed a pick me up so we stop to get a cappuccino. All the kids actually had a blast to get something special at the gas station. I told Laura that next year lets just take the kids to the gas station and then the pumpkin patch. They were more thrilled about getting a pop than going to the haunted house. Anyways I digress... we went to the Smith's Famly Farm. The kids had an absolute blast playing on the Farms play area. We were able to sit back and watch them play, play and play some more! After that we loaded them in the "Hummer" wagon and walked through the pumpkin patch. Then to the corn maze. My favorite part was the corn maze. We let the kids decide which way to turn. I pretty much think we were walking in circles the whole time but we made it out!!

Children's Museum Hauted House

10/18/08

It's Halloween time and like every year we go to the Children's Museum's haunted house. This year's theme was a haunted train. We had 2 car loads go... well because we have small cars and all the kids are still in car seats anyways... Our wonderful friend and her children went, Laura, Ethan and Olivia. Also, our niece Reagan went. Of course we went, Keegan, Angela and Ian. In general the kids had fun. Reagan wouldn't let go of an adults hand the whole time in the haunted house. Unexpectedly Ethan didn't enjoy it as much as we thought. Olivia and Ian thought it was pretty awesome! The best time was walking over the bridge with the spinning wall around you. Can you say vertigo!! Olivia made it through really easy! I had to walk across with Reagan who just stood there and Ian he walked pretty well..but let me tell you I was all over the place and dizzy as all get out! Hey..I had to go through it two times with Reagan and Ian, I have an excuse!! With the haunted house done we went through the Children's museum. All in all it was a good time. The kids really did enjoy themselves but the parents...well um by the time we made it to the playscape room we were honestly and truly ready to go!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Ethan's Birthday Party

10/13/08

Happy Birthday Ethan! We celebrated our good friend, Ethan's birthday today! He is such a special little boy. We love him so very much. Ethan does not like birthday cake very much so I made him birthday cake cookie! We also had kettle corn and a fire. We had lots of fun together!

We love you Ethan! Love, Uncle Keegan, Aunt Angie and Ian

Monday, October 13, 2008

Wedding

10/11/08

After the pumpkin patch, we went to my cousin's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding with fall theme colors. Very nice! Anyways... after the couple’s first dance and they opened the dance floor to everyone. Ian took control. He danced and danced!! He was so cute. It was so wonderful to see him have fun. (He must get his moves from me because his dad can't dance at all! Sorry sweetheart... the lies we tell ourselves only hurt us in the end!)

Grandma & Grandpa Bear & the Pumpkin Patch

10/11/08


Today we went to the pumpkin patch here in town. We had so much fun going with Grandma and Grandpa Bear! Ian was so excited to go to the pumpkin patch with the barn. We petted the cats, took a hay ride and picked out some pumpkins. The best part of it all is Grandma Bear and I got us some cushaws!! I know your saying what in the world is "cushaw?" Honestly, I'm not completely sure either. I think it's either a gourd or a squash...all I know is that Grandma Bear made a cushaw pie last year for Thanksgiving... and oh my goodness it was wonderful. I've been talking about cushaw pie all summer long! Now we are in the fall and cushaw season so... I'm be making me some cushaw pie!!

Thursday, October 9, 2008

10/09/08

Well, it's Thursday and I still have a cold. You know how some people say feed a cold, starve a cold so on and so forth... I say keep on truckin'!! No time for stopping when you got a cold. It just makes you stronger. I'm not sure if that is sarcasm, bitterness or how I truly believe? Well, anyways was looking at old pictures again and found this one of Ian and his "buddy" at one of his baseball games this past summer (2008). Each season the teams play at the High School's diamond and the girls baseball team buddy up with the players so the parents can have a break and actually watch their kids play. It's one of my favorite times of the season. Ian seems to enjoy himself thoroughly. The "buddy" has been his for the last two years! The first year all Ian did was run the whole time and she without complaining ran along side of him the full hour! She is an amazing teenager! This past summer Ian actually played with her! It's been awesome to see Ian's progress through the years! God is amazing!! Amen!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Rap Star?

10/08/08


I've got a cold so I don't feel like doing to much so I decided to look at some of our pictures on the computer and I found this one. It made me smile. Could it be that our son's true identity is a DJ/Rap Star? Who new?!


Monday, October 6, 2008

Bored and Baking!

10/06/08

Well... I got bored today and decided to make Ian some donuts and snickerdoodles. I honestly haven't had any of Ian's gfcf goodies for a while now and I had some time so I went for it! I decided that I work very hard on the things I bake and I wanted to take pictures of them.

So...here you go....






Hey... don't be jealous of my gluten free baking skills!! (okay if you haven't seen Napoleon Dynamite then you'll probably not think that funny!)


Anyways, while I was taking pictures of my masterpieces, I noticed Chang outside in the upside down pool.



What a pampered little pooch!


Oh Crap! Mom saw me!
I know I'm a dork...but it was funny at the time.


Hey for those of you who remember our first beloved doggie, Moe. Take a look at the picture below and notice Chang's snaggle tooth. Just like Moe's always was! Funny huh!











Sunday, October 5, 2008

Catepillar



10/05/08




We went to church today and almost always after church we head over to mom's to have lunch. Which we totally enjoy! We had vegetable soup which Ian ate it without complaint! Hallelujah! Afterwards, Reagan, Ethan and Ian went outside to play. I decided to join them and look at some recipe magazines. I wanted to see what cookies and desserts to make for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Well.. anyways Keegan and the kids discovered a catepillar by the tree. I really don't know who's idea it was but they built the catepillar a new home to live in.



Unfortunately...



The rocks thrown in the middle may have not been a good idea. Not sure if the catepillar enjoyed that or not?!

Pumpkin Patch

10/04/08



Well... I woke Keegan up and we headed out to Tuttles Orchard! We had a blast! Ian was horribly excited. Yes I mean horribly excited... acting like a weirdo!! First we went to the Apple store to buy some Apple Cider and Apple Butter. Ian kept rearranging the store.... Keegan was trying to keep up with him to put things back were they belong all the while trying to lecture him to stop to no avail! After that excitement we got in a huge line to pay for our goodies.






Finally......






We go to the pumpkin patch. I love picking out pumpkins. Its so fun to watch Ian try to pick the "best" pumpkin. While we're there we ran into our friends Tim, Jennifer, Reachel and Lucas. Ian and Reachel chased each other around the pumpkins. At the same time we were yelling for them to avoid the smashed pumpkins on the ground so they don't slip. With blessings there were no injuries or slipping on the pumpkin mush!






Tuttles has a very nice play area... to get some of Ian's wiggles out we let him go play.. and play he did! I even played a bit as well. I jumped off the hay bales. I asked is it going to hurt when I land? Keegan assured me it wouldn't. Lies.. I tell you...Lies!!! It hurt and I lost a bit of bladder control when I landed. Yes it's true after you have children your bladder doesn't work the way it should!! Well anyways we had so much fun we stayed until closing time.






Oh by the way we didn't take any pictures of Ian at the Renaissance Fair but he did wear his "crown" all day long... even at the pumpkin patch for the most part!









Saturday, October 4, 2008

Renaissance Fair

10/04/08

What a gorgeous day we had today! We took Ian to the Renaissance Fair today and had a blast! Keegan and Ian were thrilled to watch the Jousting Tournament. I had fun too! Ian wants to be a king for Halloween so we thought we could find a something for him there. We did find a shield and sword... the awesome part was the vendor gave it to us for free!! Pretty cool...huh! We also discovered was Ian loves kettle korn. First we bought just a small bag for Keegan and I to share because Ian said no he didn't like it. Ian tried it again and kept eating... and eating... and eating! We had to go back and buy another bag just for Ian.

We are going to try to go the pumpkin patch today as well. Not sure if we'll get there or not..Keegan has a headache. If we do I'll share the pictures we take!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Connor Prarie Field Trip






10/03/08

Wow.. am I exhausted today! Ian had his field trip at school today. I was blessed to be able to ride on the bus with the children. It really wasn't that horrible. It was and still is a gorgeous day. We really had lots of fun today. We even were able to watch Native Americans dance at a pow-wow.

I am really beat though. I should be taking a nap right now but nope I wanted to share about my day. I do enjoy spending time with Ian, especially at school. I did have to threaten to take away his privileges of watching movies for this weekend if he didn't start behaving.

Food really did turn things around for the day. After we ate lunch we were all in better humor. That's when I grabbed my camera from the bus and started taking pictures of Ian and his classmate. They kept begging for me to take more pictures so that was fun!


I have a hankering for some donuts. I might just have to make some gluten free ones "for" Ian. Ha Ha they are more likely for me!



Thursday, October 2, 2008

Hmm... What to say?!



10/02/08






Well, this is my first posting...hmm what should I talk about? Well, lets see... I'm Angela, (if you already didn't know!) I'm married to my awesome husband Keegan and we have an adorable son named Ian.






I thought it would be fun to to have a blog to send to family and friends. I would love to be able to share our life stories and pictures with them!






I guess some background information would be... my husband and I have been married for eight years. I can't believe it.. although there are days it feels like a million years but for the most part it feels like it is flying by! We honestly have 4 children total. We lost two babies before we could greet them our Heavenly Father took them home to heaven. We also have a foster daughter named Liz. She is all grown up and has a child of her own, Alayna. Which makes us foster grandparents!






Our son Ian is 6 years old. Oh my, six.. he is growing up way to fast! He is in first grade this year. Have I said his is amazing yet? Well.. he is. We prayed so hard and for so long to have him and God granted us the privilege to have Ian to raise. (We had lost one baby before we had Ian and then lost another baby after we had Ian.) I had a lot of complications with my pregnancy with him. The birth ended in an emergency c-section. All in all Ian was a wonderful baby. I was blessed to nurse him for about 14-16 months. Which I enjoyed completely! He met every milestone a baby/toddler is to make. But.. something had happened to Ian. He seemed to regress. Well.. in retrospect he regressed. I had no idea what was going on. I was a new mom with a husband who worked full time and went to college part time. (Which he graduated a year ago.. Hallelujah!) God blessed us with people in our lives who noticed things with Ian. So.. I called joint services and had he evaluated. They immediately put Ian in speech therapy 3 times a week. After that a spiral of testing, more testing and then some more testing. I will never be able to thank Ian's first speech therapist enough for being bold enough to tell us she thought Ian had Autism. We had Ian tested 3 times to the same avail.. he has autism. He was diagnosed at age 3. He was in a special needs preschool for two years. He had a wonderful teacher! She was and still is a Godsend and became a wonderful friend to me! He was doing so well that we decided to put him completly mainstream (layman's terms a "normal" classroom). That didn't go so well. Right before Thanksgiving of his Kindergarden we transferred him to a different school in the same district and things went a little bit more smoother! Now... he is a big boy and in 1st grade. So far so good! His teacher allows the children to bring pets in the classroom for show and tell. So last Friday I took our two puppies, Chang and Boaz in to school. Ian thougth that was pretty cool! I was thrilled to be able to this for Ian. He is going on a field trip tomorrow and I get to go with him!


Chang Cecil & Boaz Warrior