Thanksgiving, "Christmas" and a Zamboni?

I think Megan was just a little tired after Thanksgiving round 1 at Grandma-greats house. Mark and I laughed so hard when we looked back and saw Megan sound asleep like this. She only slept for about 20 minutes during our road trip from West Unity, OH to Ann Arbor, MI she was just so excited to see her cousins.
After Thanksgiving round 2, we decided to open our not so secret, Secret Santa gifts for the kids/aunts/uncles. Megan learned very quick that opening presents was fun and she wanted to help everybody else open their gifts.

All of the kids are getting so big. They are all so cute, it was great seeing them.

Conary was exhausted! I don't think he was used to Liam's sleep schedule, poor guy. I just hope he was able to sleep on the drive to his hockey tournament the next day.

Megan and Liam showing off their Dala Horse from Sweden. Uncle Jesper and Aunt Lisa have purchased these horses for all of the kids. Megan and Liam both were very excited to have their own horse.

PIE!!! Blueberry pie...so good! There was 3 different kinds of yummy pumpkin pie, but Megan wanted blueberry.

I braved this group by myself to watch the hockey game. Everyone except Aunt Tracie and Conary we at the game, but our seats were kind of everywhere. We had Mark's work tickets so I had all of the girls in the 4 seats so they could sit with each other. The only rule was that they had to pound on the glass when Adrian scored. Of course they were very well behaved and I think that surprised a lot of people when they saw me walk in with all of them.

Mark joined us for the 3rd period.

We signed Crystal up to ride the Zamboni during the second intermission, but she got bumped so a grandchild of the tournament sponsor could ride. But since Mark knows the rink manager, he said Crystal could ride after the game. It was way past her bedtime but while she was waiting for her turn she had fun running around on the ice.

Does she look like she is excited? Megan was just as excited to watch her cousin ride on the Zamboni. Megan still randomly talks about Crystal on the Zamboni and somehow I think she will mention it for awhile.

Crystal being Crystal. She is always so animated, I love it! Keep in mind that she is doing this in an empty arena, just think of how much she would have hammed this up if she had an audience!

As you can see it was a great few days with family. Can't wait for all of us to get together again. We always have so much fun and all of the cousins love to just hang out and play, that is something to be thankful for! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Sweet Corn

I still haven't found the cord to my camera so here are some "old" pictures that I never posted. I think I took these the week we moved, hence they never made it to the blog before now.
In preparation for the long winter, we had to re-stock the freezer with yummy, fresh sweet corn. So one afternoon, during the peak of sweet corn season, we loaded my car with 4 bushels, yes bushels, to sweet corn! Megan just couldn't help but get in the action of husking all of that corn.

She looks like a pro doesn't she!?!

Using a different but just as effective form.

She knew she needed to throw the husk away.

Just a little smile after all of that hard work.

If I recall, it was shortly after this picture that I tried to put Megan down for a nap and she had a huge meltdown. So we never got to help with cutting the corn off of the cob. I'm sure Megan would have had a blast pouring the corn into bags to freeze. But since we were in the middle of a big move she was not herself. We had fun and Grandma still shares some corn with us anyways :)

$.59 bag = fun!!!

OK yes I have been slacking so here is a quick something to make my cousin and Grandma and Papa smile. I will try to do a better job at posting things in a timely manner. I have cute leaf pictures but I don't know where my camera cord is so these videos will have to do :)

So it was right before Halloween and we may or may not have had slightly too much candy (somebody Mark had to open the candy before Halloween), but out of pure boredom we discovered that a $.59 IKEA bag can provide a ton of entertainment for us. Megan loved it, and Mark and I couldn't stop laughing at Megan's giggle. So what to do...grab a camera and film it!

After stopping Baron from eating Megan's food, I started filming again. Did I mention that we were bored!?!

Halloween

Before we went out trick-or-treating (Megan's first time) we went to a Halloween party at the Olsaver's house. Megan was very excited and had a week long countdown until the party. When we got there Megan was a little shy because all of the kids were running around in their costumes and she couldn't tell who they were. So being a "Chef" she wanted to play with the kitchen.

After dinner they was a craft for the kids to do. Megan and Mark were making a ghost with tissue paper.

All of the kids right before going out to trick-or-treat. Cute huh!?!

My Chef Baby! She wouldn't look at the camera because she was too busy watching all of the costume and kids go by.

Just following Rosemary's lead because in the beginning she had no idea what was going on.

After a few houses she figured out what was going on. She didn't really get the saying "trick or treat" part, but she did say "Thank You" to everyone.

How cute is this!?! The girls holding hands as they walked to the next house. It was adorable!

Back at the Olsaver's house...Megan didn't not want to stop getting candy but she had had enough walking at this point. I think all of the kids asked to be done. All were very well behaved and all had lots of simple fun...can't wait for next year!

Carving Pumpkins

When we finally got around to carving pumpkins, Megan and I decided to clean out the insides during the day and then wait for Mark/Daddy to get home to carve them. Megan was very excited to started this pumpkin process.

Yes, she is chewing pumpkin guts! She liked watching me scoop all of the goo out and then about a minute later the thrilled had worn off.

She came back to the table once I moved onto another step. She helped pick out about a dozen seeds from the goo and had enough. But she really liked when she was able to stir the slimy seeds around. I think this part was the most fun for her.

Now that Mark was home we could finally carve the "silly face" and fish in the pumpkins. Once again Megan was interested for about a minute. It was right before we were done that I realized I didn't know where any of our candles were. So I had to make a quick trip to the store. With candles and lighter in hand Megan finally got excited when we were taking each pumpkin outside to light.

Look at our "unique" pumpkins. After spending way too much time on these pumpkins and not having much interest from Megan, I didn't spend too much time trying to create a fun design. She said she wanted a fish and I gave a her a fish. And well, silly faces are easy. But it really didn't matter because by the next day the squirrels that are the size of cats had already started chewing on the fresh pumpkins. Oh well, there is always next year.

Now I know you want to see pictures from Trick-or-treating but you will have to wait. I will post them soon, but I haven't been taking too many pictures lately so I need to save the Chef pictures for a bit :)

Pumpkin "Patch"

Today was a beautiful day and we wanted to take advantage of it so we decided to go find a fun pumpkin patch. Knowing that they don't really exist anymore, we we looking for a place that sold pumpkins that had some charm. The first stop on our pumpkin adventure was Grandma Berthold's house. We planted some pumpkins this spring and from the 3 really long vines, we got one sad little pumpkin! Megan of course loves it, she calls it "Baby Pumpkin"

Next stop was Carpenter Farms, about 3 minutes outside of Adrian.

Before checking out the pumpkins, Megan first had to look at all of the animals that were there. Here she is petting the goats and sheep. This was a huge step compared to how she acted with the animals at the fair a few months ago.

Then she found the mini-horsies!

Checking out the ducks. She liked being able to stand on the step and look at the ducks, we spent a lot of time here.

We finally picked out some pumpkins! 3 in all, not sure yet if all of them will be carved, but I want to try lots of different pumpkin seed flavors so I need lots of pumpkin seeds!

It just kind of worked out (and through the convenience of Facebook) that a couple of our friends also came to the "farm" with their children. So it was fun watching all of the kids play and run around with each other. Tyler Bruggeman #62 was all about digging in the corn. Megan had to watch him for a bit and I had to tell her it was okay to sit in it before she became interested.

Not quite that same as digging in sand, but they had all of the same tools that Megan has so Megan knew what to do.

Still loving the corn! The owners said that the corn table was such a hit with kids last year that they knew they needed to build something bigger. This covered wagon was perfect! As you can see, the kids loved it!

Next stop, the kids straw maze. Megan and Mark managed to make it to the back but then they had to find their way out! I think Megan at this point wasn't sure about how itchy the straw was, so she was walking kind of funny.

The second turn in the maze, Megan was more adventurous. She managed to find all of the dead ends :) I guess sticking her tongue out helped her think of the way out.

She is starting to get the hang of this maze thing.

Just a fun video of Megan and some friends trying to find their way through the straw maze.

Just some small projects

Here is a BEFORE picture of part of our new kitchen. Don't you just love the counter top color (for the record, we don't!)

Another BEFORE picture. Because my father in law was really excited to get started I never got a picture of the kitchen with the very dated stove top and oven in. But try and picture a really old electric stove top, with the controls in the vent hood, in the section next to the bag on the counter. Yes, that's right a stove the Megan could reach from 2 sides...not good! Then in the hole in the big column thing, picture an oven that none of my cookie sheets would fit in.

Looking at the kitchen from our "family room" Inviting right!?!

A nice built in desk that had to be sacrificed so we could move some big appliances around. Plus you can see a far window on the left, that is a window in our office/toy room so we didn't need the desk.
Mark and his Dad ripping out the cupboards less then 24 hours after we bought the house!

A fun action shot of the dust flying and covering everything!

An AFTER shot of the kitchen so far. The fridge is in it's final location, but not that fridge. A new stove/oven/range is coming and will go under the new microwave. The base of the cabinets that we took out is going to be a new island and we have one more set of upper cabinets to hang on the far right. But things are looking good, now we just need to pick a floor and order the counter tops.

Megan, completely on her own, pulled her chair over to a window in the playroom and sat down like this. I think she has settled in to her new house quite nicely.

Papa, Mark's Dad (in red) and Uncle Ken doing a little electrical work so we could put a range and a microwave in the spot where the fridge was. Plus Papa has added 14 new lights in our family room/kitchen area. What a difference a little light makes! (it's very nice having a retired electrician in the family!)

My Dad giving up his weekend to help with sanding the 1,600 sq feet to hardwood floors that needed to be refinished. In this picture he is working on the floors in the master bedroom, while my Uncle Jim was running a sander on the main floor. Yes, we rented 2 big sanders to get the job done in one weekend.

So what was I doing, sanding the edges on my hands and knees.

If you could read my mind in this picture it would say "Seriously, how many feet of edging do I need to sand? I can't move and I've only done one room. Why did I say it was ok for Mark to go golfing?"

Thank goodness, my Dad figured out that you could line the sandpaper and pad up in a way on the big sanders that would let you get close to the edges without hitting the trim. We didn't have to sand the edges by hand that way...so nice!

We also did some painting. The other rooms are boring compared to Megan's room. My nieces helped me, but I finished the final coat of paint at 11:00 pm and could not stop starring at these stripes. They are so cool, I'm so excited how well they turned out!

So those are some of the things we have been up to. With the wonderful help of family, we have accomplished a lot in the last 2 weeks. More pictures will come, but in the mean time Mark, Megan, Baron and I need to send a BIG "Thank You" to: Mom and Dad Schutte, Mom and Dad Berthold, Lisa, Jesper, Uncle Jim, Ken, Alice, Tracie, Caila, Kelsey (Conary and Crystal would have helped if they were here) The Olsaver Family and Lowes for taking our money.