maddie's baby pumpkin

remember the small pumpkin maddie picked out at the ranch? well, she loves her baby so much she made a bed for it. here's a couple pics i took of the mommy & baby:

now her baby is at nana's house ... they carved it together which actually surprised me since maddie was so attatched to it. should i be worried about her mothering instincts? ha ha.

moments with mad

tonight i was tucking maddie into bed for the second time, telling her that she needs to stay in bed and obey me. and that if she chose to get out of bed again, i'd come back to discipline her.

her response (opening her eyes really wide): "eye, eye captain."

day @ the farm

today we went to the "fall festival" at the ranch where damian works. after a week of rain (longer actually) the sun came out today for the fun.

maddie has been looking forward to this day for a few weeks now. she's been anxious to ride a horse. i didn't know if she'd get scared at the last minute but she didn't! she was over the moon. here she is on her horse (okay, a pony really --but to her it's a horse!):noel had fun watching her from the sidelines:

and he even got a turn in a saddle:

cousin keenin learned how to use a lasso...

...while maddie searched for goodies in the hay with pappy.

there was a pumpkin patch where the kids got to pick out one to take home. noel got a big one (nana's holding it up for him)...

and maddie chose the smallest one. she calls it her "baby."

we all had fun exploring the farm and all the activities.

well, all of us except dame.

he's working all day doing parking patrol. but it was fun for him since he got to wear a spiffy vest and use an orange flag to direct cars.

anyway, that's what we did today! here's the grand finale... the group photo!

time to catch up! ... with a poo story!

well, it's friday night and here i am... catching up on the ol' blog. but hey, someone's got to do it, eh?

we've done some fun things this past month ... a trip to the zoo, walks around town, spending time at nana's (aka dame's mom) ... and now that i've run out of space on my camera's memory card i'm doing some fall cleaning and posting a bunch of pics for you all to see. :)

but before i go on, i wanted to share my day with the kids this past wednesday...

i got off work and headed over to my mom's to pick up the kiddos, spent an hour with her and then headed out to go home. but on my way home i wanted to stop by the gas station to fill up and also the grocery store to grab a couple things...

i got to the gas station and, after waiting a while to get to the pump, realized that i didn't remember my pin number for my debit card. SO... i went home, got the kids out of the car, got my pin number, loaded the kids back up, and then headed to the store.

well, we got to the store and started shopping. noel was in the kid seat and maddie was in the basket. half way through my list, after tossing a roll of paper towels in the basket at mad, she pointed out that there was poo on the paper towel wrapping. yeah, poo.

so after some investigating, i found out that there was poo on the paper towels, her right hand, and the side of the cart. it looked like someone stepped in poo and wiped their shoe on the side of the cart. maddie must have touched it and wiped it on the paper towels. so i told her not to touch a thing while i quickly headed up to customer service and the bathroom.

after carefully inspecting the other items in my cart and moving them to a "clean cart," i flagged an employee and let them know about the poo. they apologized and i told them that it was no big deal --not their fault at all. i was just going to wash maddie's hands really well in the bathroom and continue my shopping. well, after getting her hands poo free, mad turned to head out of the bathroom and it was then that i saw the poo smeared all over her pants, back, and shirt. ends up, she was the one responsible for the poo. i took her by the hand, with noel on my hip, and marched right out of the store to go home and clean her up...

...but first, on the way home, i stopped at the gas station again to fill up my

tank that was beyond empty. this time i knew my pin but my card was still denied. i think this was when i started to get frustrated. i headed home, cleaned maddie, and then went back to the store.

my "clean cart" was exactly where i left it and i finished my shopping --yay! and on my way home (again) i stopped by a different gas station where my card was approved... double yay!

i finally got home three hours after leaving my mom's with a full tank of gas and less than $20 worth of groceries...

...poo free groceries & kids. ;)

...hey Mikey, I think he likes it!

Noel got his first taste-a-roo of ice cream last weekend. He loved it!

Oh yeah, that's good stuff.

Fort Vancouver

Here we are at Fort Vancouver. We didn't actually make it down to the fort. Instead, we walked along Officer's Row. Dame got to push the stroller... with Mad's help.
The George C. Marshall House

The Ulysses S. Grant House. Maddie sees a couple cannons...

Cannon balls!!

.*. our children in the sky .*.

On the Columbia River

Last week the weather was beautiful so we took a walk down on the Columbia River. Here's Dame with Mad putting their feet in...

It was freezing cold!!
Noel was as happy as a clam being pushed in the stroller. :0)

LOTS of pics from the Oregon Zoo

Maddie is very excited to be on her way to the zoo...

...and Noel heading to the zoo for the first time.

Zebras!

Maddie feeding the birds.

Elephants!

Being cheesy on the animal statues--



Maddie loved the monkeys, too.
And, finally, a pig with tusks...

Rockabilly Noel

A couple weeks ago I styled Noel's hair for church with some of Dame's gel. Isn't he handsome? He looks just like his dad --minus a couple tattoos. :)

More fun @ Nana's

Noel LOVES being pulled in the wagon with his big sis.

Sammy-poos!!! Lookin' cute in the 'Couve!