Yard work......

Well, I'm up late waiting for 1:15AM to arrive.......I am headed to Chicago for the next several days along with 2 of my coworkers. We are headed there for a conference and are taking the Amtrak train. Sounds fun, except the travel schedule is not what I would pick exactly. The train leaves Newton (which is 20-25 minutes North) at 3:02 AM. Yes that is AM I typed! We then arrive in Chicago at 3:15 PM on Thursday afternoon. Soooo, we will be on the train right around 12 hours! I didn't start packing until 1o this evening and I'm just waiting on my last load of laundry to dry so I can get the final things packed! Our conference runs from Friday thru Monday. We are leaving a couple hours early as we have to catch the train back home. We will leave Chicago at 3:20pm on Monday and arrive in Newton around 3:30AM Tuesday morning! Then we have to drive to Wichita.....so will probably get home 4-4:30 that morning!

Donnie and the boys will be home alone.....so those of you who work with Donnie be supportive cuz he has baby duty all by himself! Zach has been sleeping horribly (worse than his normal 1-2 times he gets up per night) so he may need to take a nap during his lunch break! Sunday night Zach was up 5 times (one of those being for an hour and a half) and then Monday night he was up 6 times. Can you believe he then only took about a 15 minute nap Monday during the day???? He did take a better nap on Tuesday, but not what you think he should take not sleeping much the night before. I'm hoping he's getting a new tooth and that's what the problem is. I'm praying he doesn't get sick or anything major while I'm gone! That's usually mom's territory......makes dad a little nervous to decipher when/if/and how much meds to give for various things!

Anyhow.....Since I'm up waiting....thought I would blog from a couple weekends ago.....

Two weekends ago, the weather was beautiful so we decided to take advantage of it and get some much needed yardwork done. We started with raking up leaves. I decided to see how Zach would like playing in the leaves so tossed him in.......

He quickly wanted his arms OUT of the leaves and didn't like the feel of them.....

Then he thought about bolting.......

Then he thought it was a little funny......although this is kindof a cautious laugh.....

which quickly turned to tears.......he's looking at his dad to come over and rescue him as his mom was busy trying to photograph the event!

The he spotted me and was pleading louding for me to get him OUT of the leaves. For some reason he was immobilized and was unable to get himself out! I did then put the camera down and rescue the boy......

In the front of our house/yard, we have a little sitting area that we have plants and various things. Well with our remodel job we are doing in the basement in order to add 2 bedrooms down there for the big boys, we are putting in firesafe windows so I can sleep at night and so the foster care licensing folks are happy! Soooo, I have to move my stuff. I decided since it was nice out, I would transplant my plants to a spot by the back patio that has nothing in it buy weeds at this point.

Here's the before pics of the sitting area......

Zach decided to "help" out. He first would help dig and then after I loaded the plants I was moving into the wheelbarrow, then Zach would get in for a dangerous trek to the backyard! Such a long walk he had to pack a snack for the trip! :)

Yes.......that would be crackers AND dirt he ate for his healthy snack!

Here's the finished product of where I moved plants to. This area is kind of tucked away from everything else, so have never really focused much on it. The gate is nailed shut because our lab is naughty and can open it, so we don't ever enter/exit through it. I think it looks pretty good compared to what it did look like. I didn't take a before pic of it so you'll have to take my word for it!

In addition to helping me with transplanting flowers, Zach also had to help his dad mow the yard! He's a busy guy that Zach. He could probably complain he was overworked this weekend as he did more "work" than the big boys at our house! :)

As the evening wore on, Zach found the pumpkins we had gotten at the pumpkin patch. I think he thinks they are balls, he was more interested in throwing and rolling them than anything else!

Well, best head to check on that last load of laundry.....only have a half hour til my ride gets here! If any of you see my baby boy this week while I'm gone....give him some extra lovin from his mama! I miss all 4 of my boys already! I miss Autumn all the time cuz she's away at school.....plus the boys seem to need me more than she does at this point in her life! Doubt I get to blog while I'm away......so see ya when I get back!

Pumpkin Patch.....Part 2

There were so many pics from the pumpkin patch, that it was hard to pick what to put in! But there are other things to post about so I had to limit it to just a few. Ok, I had a hard time picking just a few so be patient with me!

The playground area had all kinds of fun things to do. There were several playgrounds stationed in different areas. They had neat forts w/ slides, bag swings, regular playground equipment, etc, etc, etc. Our kids would've been happy to stay here for most of the day I think! We had a hard time pulling them away to go do all the other things.

Donnie "helped" Zeke climb up the fort ladder and then down to where the slide was. Donnie actually managed to then squeeze himself down this tiny tube slide! I had helped Zeke the time before this and I made all the kids get off the ladder so I could climb back down as I didn't want to risk ruining the pumpkin patch trip by getting stuck in the tube! :)

Here are some random pics on the hayrack ride out to the actual pumpkin patch. You'll be able to tell it was a bit windy and chilly. Derek, Sheri's grown son, is in the blue jacket next to her husband Mike. Sheri is holding Aiden and Alleyah is next to Sheri.

Treyton in the hoodie, Sylvia, Addie and Bradley......

Did I mention it was chilly on the day we went to the pumpkin patch???? Ask Treyton how he feels about the trip? :)

I love this picture of the twins. I can only imagine what they are thinking!

Here we are out picking pumpkins. We found one for Zach that "matched" his look. It has a little scab up where the forehead would be just like Zach! :)

Sylvia found 2 pumpkins.....

Even Zeke carried his own pumpkin......my such concentration!

Isn't he cute......

Justin found a river that was next to the patch. The water was evidently high at some point and drug several vines into the ravine and water. Justin of course HAD to pick a pumpkin from the water as it is much to easy to pick it from the patch!

Here's the last photo of the day from the pumpkin patch......Zach was ready to go at this point, thus the serious look he's got going on! I don't think we were 2 miles down the road before he was crashed out! Actually our entire carload crashed. I took pics of that too, but they are a little blurry so didn't put them on here.

I feel much better now that I have the pumpkin patch posts out of the way! I had a ton more pics to pick from, but these were a "few" of my favs! :)

For those of you that have been praying for Jeremiah I'll give a little update. He was in PICU from Tuesday to Friday. They are still not sure what is causing his symptoms, but they are running tests on his kidneys and adrenal gland. For whatever reason, when he drinks fluids his sodium levels drop to a dangerous level which they feel caused him to have the seizures. They are limiting his fluids til they figure it all out and its about to kill Jeremiah. He LOVES to drink and is thirsty all the time. They have thought for some time he has a form of diabetes that effects just the kidneys....but they are questioning that now too! Soooo, still don't know what's wrong so please keep him lifted in your prayers! Jeremiah was thrilled to be going home and the other kids were so excited for he and Sheri to return home too!

Finally.....the Pumpkin Patch....Part 1

Finally, Donnie spent a whopping 2 seconds on the computer/camera problem and of course got the pics on the computer. I'm SURE the camera was fearful of the rath of Dannon thus decided to be cooperative and had NOTHING to do with Donnie's skills! :)

The weekend before Halloween, we went to the pumpkin patch with my good friend Sheri. You will hear me from time to time refer to her and her kids. Sheri has adopted 5 children and continues to do foster care as well. I am Aunt Dannon to her children and she is Aunt Sheri to mine. I love her kids dearly and we often get together. We took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. Sheri came across Walter's Pumpkin Patch last year and we have decided this is the place for us to return every year. They have acres and acres of fun. We were there a little over four hours despite it being very cold and didn't even get to all the fun things to do! I took an enormous amount of pics in preparation of doing a scrapbook (tutorial one at that thanks to Jake's Aunt Mo!). I have so many to share I will have to show pics in more than one post. Prepare yourself as this one is long and has lots of pics......

On our way to the Pumpkin Patch!!!!! Donnie and I drove one of Sheri's vehicles as it took 3 to get us all there. Sheri's gang included she and her husband, her grown son Derek, 17 year old Alexis, 6 year old Bradley, 4 year old Addie, 3 year old twins Jeremiah and Alleyah, and 1 year old Aiden. Our crew included Treyton, Justin, Zach, our niece Sylvia who is 7 and Zeke who is 2. Quite the entourage! Just a few more kids and we would've had 0-18 covered! Sheri took a van full, Donnie and I drove a car load and Derek drove all the teenagers. Here's our carload all excited to go!

Before entering the patch....we stopped at a wagon for a photo. This is all of Sheri's kids and mine, plus our niece and nephew. Soooo from the left we have Treyton holding Zach, Addie is sitting next to Trey in the green jacket, Sylvia in brown shirt, Zeke in red jacket, Jeremiah in blue vest, Alexis in bright pink holding Aiden. Back row is Alleyah in the white vest, Bradley in the camo vest and Justin in the hoodie. Quite a good looking bunch if you ask me!!!!

Immediately there was a photo opportunity upon entering Walter's.....Zach was less than excited about my excitement! Or maybe he was just feeling intimidated by the size of all those gourds......

They had a very fun train just as you enter that is impossible to resist! Everyone had their own cart complete with annoying horn! We pretty much filled the whole train with just our crew!

Zeke.....

Bradley......

Addison.......

Alleyah......

Jeremiah......

Sylivia and Zach.......

And Aiden.....

They had a giant thing called a jumping pillow. I'm not sure how they did it, but it was a huge nylon canvas pulled tightly but was close to the ground and rounded to where the kids could jump on it and not fall off. They had a ball!Zeke was a bit cautious......

Zach took it all in from the sidelines......

Having fun on the homemade horse......

Treyton and Alexis got a little bored and thought the pumpkin patch was a little lame at times. Although I didn't get anypics of them having a blast at the underground slide cuz they went without me. I'm guessing they had just as much fun as the little kids!

Sylvia and Zeke......Sylvia was showing a little sisterly love atop the haybale structure they had. Zeke got a little scared up so high!

Alleyah got tired of walking......so Justin caved in and carried for the remainder of our trip at the Pumpkin Patch.

While waiting for the hayrack ride to return from the field for our turn, we took advantage of some photo opps......here's a couple from that.....

Treyton our comedic drama king.......he does that to mock me cuz I take pics of everything and it drives them crazy!

And Justin is a close second.......

So that's part one......the next post will have more fun and the actual pumpkin picking! Then I have Halloween pics to post. And then some pics of our weekend work around the yard! Goodness I'm behind in posting! Dang camera/computer technical difficulties!

Please put my nephew Jeremiah in your prayers. He was the adorable little guy in the blue vest up above. He has been in PICU since Tuesday. He had a grand mal seizure at home Tuesday morning and went to the ER via the ambulance. He had another seizure while at the hospital. He's been in PICU ever since. They are not sure what is causing the seizures at this point. He's having a hard time maintaining his sodium levels and they think his kidneys are not working properly. Checking him for several things but so far nothing is coming up as the definately culprit. He has a heart condition which makes things a little more dangerous for him so please pray for his health and for the doctors who are trying to figure out what's wrong. Ever since the seizures he's been disoriented and is very confused, and has slept very little in 3 days now! Sheri has not left the hospital and is exhausted as he has only slept about 2 hours total during the night and then just intermittedly during the day. Hopefully they figure things out quickly and that it is nothing too serious!

Have a good week......