Happy Fall, Y'all!

We've sure been enjoying the fall weather around here. My mom, brother, Lydia, and I went to Gardner Village a little over a week ago. Lance, Lydia, and I went to Pack Farms pumpkin patch on Friday, and we've let Lydia play at the park every so often. We've also taken some drives to see the leaves. Fall is so fun!

 Lydia at Gardner Village. I made the spider for her hair out of pipe cleaners. It fit right in at Gardner Village.

 Lydia loves riding on Daddy's shoulders.

Pack Farms pumpkin patch. Lydia was a great poser at first.

Pack Farms pumpkin patch.

Pack Farms pumpkin patch straw maze. Lydia LOVED this! She didn't want to come out.

Lydia was not happy to be out of the straw maze. She is distraught.

Pack Farms pumpkin patch. We picked a pumpkin. And we also got a baby pumpkin for Lydia. She loves hugging the baby pumpkin.

Lydia loves the swing. (Mantua park)

She wasn't too sure about the froggy she rode on. She bailed as fast as she could. (Mantua park)

Lance also went to Michigan for 10 days. He went to help Bryce and Jessie (his twin brother and his wife) with their house. Their house is super cute, but is in need of some tender loving care. Since we get help from family all the time, Lance thought it'd be nice to help Bryce out. He installed a dishwasher, patched the bathroom ceiling, fixed a light in the kitchen, and dug up some rogue cement in their backyard.  It was a foundation for something, but that something wasn't there any more.

Lance was going to take vacation leave for his trip, but since the government shut down for a few weeks, he only took a few hours of leave. Score! Thanks for being so stubborn, everyone in congress! Ha ha! Also, we got a LOT done around our house too, with the government's little shenanigans. So, hey, it's not all bad. Sorry to all the taxpayers who paid my hubby to go on vacation and get some household chores done. Bring that up with congress. I'm sure you have a long list of things you'd like to bring up with them...

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their Fall, and has a very Happy Halloween!!!!

I Break Rules Sometimes. So What?

I'm going to break my own rules and do an update post on a Thursday. Normally Thursdays are supposed to be for tips/recipes, but I haven't posted in about a month, so I think this is better.

What have we been up to the last month?

Lydia turned 1 year old! Ah! How did this happen? Did I ever even have a baby? She's growing too fast. She was in the 30th percentile for weight, 40th percentile for height, and 95th percentile for head circumference. I know, big head. She's got the smarts to prove it... She crawls, but prefers to army crawl (slowly making the switch), pulls herself up to standing, walks with help, has stood a couple times without help, says a couple words like "light" and "that," she loves books, tries to feed herself without a spoon/fork, LOVES food, and is just so much fun!

 

Lydia on her birthday

We had a birthday party with family this past Sunday. She LOVED opening presents, loved dinner, wasn't too sure about the birthday candle (Lance blew it out for her because she was going to touch it), and REALLY loved her cupcake.

Eating her cupcake, yum!

On her actual birthday (Tuesday), we celebrated by going to the park. She had so much fun! She likes the swings and the slides best, but we had her climb and try other things like monkey bars and walking around the platforms (with Daddy's help, of course). She also got to go through the car wash for the first time ever. She just looked around silently. I made cauliflower soup for dinner because I know she loves it. I just can't believe my baby girl is a year old.

 

At the playground

We have done quite a few small projects around the house. There will be more on individual projects in later posts, but lots of projects have been done because...

Lance hasn't been able to go to work the past couple weeks, so he's done all the outside stuff that needs to be done before it gets cold. We're making the best of a ridiculous situation... stupid government. It's been kind of fun being able to see him a little extra. I'm not sure what Lydia will do without seeing him so often. She adores him.

In other news, my dad is on the mend. He severely burned his leg while camping in August. He tried lighting charcoal with gasoline, and it basically blew up, caught his leg on fire, and also caught other things on fire. Luckily, the camp was okay, thanks to neighbor campers who helped put out the fire, but his leg was burned really bad. He was in the hospital for three weeks. He had to get skin graft surgery. He had his final (most likely, we hope) surgery last week and is healing well. I took him to physical therapy before his last surgery, and he was doing really well with that. His last surgery was just to address a couple spots where the initial graft didn't take, but they seem to be doing well this time around. He will probably go back to physical therapy next week, and hopefully be able to drive there himself. If not, I get to chauffeur again.

 

Most recent flattering picture of my dad. I took some of him in the hospital, but that's not blog material. Gross!

Well, September and the first part of October have been exciting. Now for the really exciting part of the year! Holiday central! Can't wait!