Pumpkin Patch

Our first annual (hopefully) trip to the pumpkin patch. We all ran through the haybale maze, ran through the pumpkin patch and Jadon picked out a small pumpkin to take home and paint and Haven patted a dog. It didn't take Jadon long to figure out the maze and Haven had to use a little help from Daddy, but she did a really good job getting through it.

The lady that worked there loved Jadon and Haven. Jadon informed her that the pumpkin he picked was his favorite and then gave it a big hug. Going back to Haven petting a dog, this is a big deal. She loves animals as long as there is something between her and them or they are on tv. If they get too close to her she starts screaming. We thought we were going to have to get a dog to help her get over her fear. The first thing she saw when we got out of the car was the dog and behold she ran over to it. We were a little shocked and even more so when she reached out to pet it. The dog was so good and just layed there.

Jadon got to take his pumpkin home and paint it that night. Next year Haven will get to pick out a pumpkin to decorate. She still puts way too much things in her mouth to be given paint. We had a great family day and hopefully going to the pumpkin patch will turn into a Wallace tradition. I'm all about traditions in the Wallace household.

Haven petting the dog, still amazed she went near it.

Jadon going through the maze and then when he made it through. Haven and Daddy going through the maze.

Jadon working very diligently on his pumpkin and the finished project.

Jadon's Birthday Party

Jadon's Thomas the Train birthday party was last weekend. He had such a blast. He still at night during prayer time thanking God for his birthday and his birthday party. Here's Jadon enjoying his party:

Gavin got a remote control snake for his birthday and had to get one for Jadon. Gavin brought his to the party so he and Jadon could play with them together. Gavin has gotten so tall lately.

Here is the track Jadon got for his birthday. The trains are battery powered and he will turn them on and lay in the floor and watch them.

3 Years Old!

Jadon,

Happy 3rd Birthday! You are growing up so fast and turning into a smart, handsome, polite young boy. Your daddy and mommy are so proud of you. You are learning already the importance of reading your Bible and saying prayers. You have a daddy that models that so well for you. I love the questions you are beginning to ask, "Where is God?" and "Can God see me?"

You have started learning the role of being a big brother and love your sister so much. You have started talking about how you will hold baby Jude when he comes so he will not cry. I have all confidence that you will be able to calm Jude when he cries. You on most days do a great job of sharing and playing with Haven. You are always on the lookout for things she should not do or things that might hurt her.

You know exactly what to say or do to make us laugh. The way you dance to the witty things you say to the reasonings of a 3 year old. You bring joy to our lives. Your love of trains, planes and trucks makes for lively car trips, as you call out all the trucks (by their correct names) that go by or any plane that might be flying over. You love bubble baths. You love animals, especially snakes (you are your daddy's son). You love to sleep without your clothes. You change so much everyday, I wish I could stop time for a moment and really be able to take in all the things you do.

You are loved by your Nana & Papa, Mema & Pappy, Aunt Mal, Uncle Matt, Aunt Lindsay & Gavin, Uncle Doug, Aunt Wendy, Lucas, Bailey, Micah & Ruthie, Auntie Karla, Uncle BJ & Great Gram. You are blessed with a big family that loves you and prays for you.

Our prayers on this day is that you would continue to grow in knowledge of God, knowledge that would one day turn into a relationship, and continue to grow into a caring, loving, strong young boy and man.

Love,

Your Mommy

Trains & Babies

This weekend Nana took us to Toys R Us. We looked for Jadon's birthday present and a costume for Jadon and Haven for the church costume party. We ended up bypassing the Halloween costumes and looked over in the dress up area and found the perfect thing for Jadon. He is so into trains right now, well, trains and airplanes. Through searching and looking we finally found it - a conductor's uniform. It is perfect! I think he has worn in everyday since we got it. We even wore it to go grocery shopping at Wal-Mart.

I never thought I would be a mom that let my children wear costumes or shorts and cowboy boots or anthing that didn't match, into a public store. Well, when you become a mom you quickly realize that this is not a battle worth fighting. He's hopefully learning to be his own person and not be swayed by what others around him think. If this small act can help in that direction then he can wear his conductor's uniform or put his boots on with his shorts and even wear his bicycle helmet to the mall with Mema.


We do vow, however, to not let him leave the house in just his Incredibles boxers (that he got from Lucas) and a tank top. Now matter how much he asks! That is not appropriate any way you look at it.

Not to leave Miss Haven out, she too got a costume. A cute pink leopard kitty cat costume. She also came away with a baby bottle so she may start feeding her babies.

This is the baby's last feeding of the day before her and Haven go to bed.

Bubble Baths

Haven got to experience her first bubble bath. She didn't quite know what to think of the bubbles and kept trying to wipe them off at first. Eventually she got into it and had fun splashing around and trying to eat them. I honestly think she feels as though she has not fully experienced things until she has tasted them. Everything, and I mean everything goes into her mouth. Jadon caught a frog at Mema's and held it up for her to see. What did she try to do - she opened up her mouth! Thankfully for the quick hands of Mema. I really hope she grows out of this stage.

Back to bubble baths. Here are pictures of Haven's first bubble bath. They have bath toys, but their favorite things to play with are cups.

This is the closest, so far, I've come to getting them both looking at the camera. Now, work on the smile.

Silver Dollar City

Or as my husband fondly refers to it, Steal Your Dollar City. However, this is one of Jadon's favorite places to go. Jadon loves to ride all the rides and has never been scared of any of them. Haven enjoys trying to run off and give me a heart attack. Thankfully we get season passes for Christmas from Mema.

I always love going down and seeing the beautiful decorations, especially for fall and Christmas. Christmas is the only time I get Todd to go down with us, the rest of the year I'm thankful for grandma's and Aunt Mal who will brave the crowds with us. Here are pictures of our fun filled day. Very disappointing about this trip was that I did not get to ride the rides with Jadon. Everything was prohibited if you were pregnant. So, Mema had to fill in for me.

I don't know why I keep trying to get that perfect picture of them both looking at the camera and smiling. I just know one of these days I'm going to capture it that elusive picture. Still, looking at the camera or not they're stinking cute!

This is one of Jadon's favorite rides because he's tall enough to ride by himself. He's giving props to his mamma.

Hard to see him, but he and Mema are in the 2nd to last cart. Unless your young and agile, this ride is not to fun on the ole neck and back.

Haven did a lot of running, and usually from me.

While eating we also caught a show, this is the Guinness Book of World Records tallest palomino trick horse. Quite impressive in person.

Haven smelling the flowers and holding her teddy bear Jadon won for her. I was so proud of him, he won and prize and picked a bear to give to Haven. Of course, he got another chance because of his kindness and he won himself a puppy, seen below.

7 Years!

On Sunday, October 7 was mine and Todd's 7th Wedding Anniversary. The day I married the greatest man and my best friend.

Puggles

No, this is not an entry about dogs. The Puggles I'm talking about is the new program in Awana and refers to a baby platypus. Our church is in it's 3rd year in the Awana program. And this is the first year that it really excites me. Since they added this new club, Puggles, Jadon is now old enough to go. Last Wednesday was his first night as a Puggles, or as he calls it, Piggles. I was the overly nerdy mom there taking pictures of my son with his first name badge, first time with his new teacher in the opening and playing games with other kids now getting to enjoy Puggles.

Here are pictures of Jadon at his first Puggles meeting. By the way he loved it and came home talking about everything they discussed in class. He can't wait to go back, every day he asks me if it is time to go to Puggles.

Jadon with his teacher and my big red bag in the background. I think when Jude comes I may just carry him in it.

His first craft, a picture of the clouds.

No Please

From the moment Jadon started talking we've been working on manners. Instead of just saying No, say No thank you and using please. Well, what do you do when those manners come back to you at a time you least expect it? We had such a time on Saturday night getting ready for bed. Our routine is we all pray together has a family before Haven is layed down for bed. Then we play a game or put puzzles together with Jadon, his choice. After about 30 min of doing whatever he's chosen we read his Bible stories and we pray again and he goes to bed.

When we pray as a family Jadon will pray first and then Todd and I take turns saying the prayers for that night. I had asked Jadon if he wanted to pray. His response to me was, "No please, but thank you for asking". I sat there for a moment taking in what he had just said. I looked at Todd and really didn't know what to say after that. What I really meant to say to Jadon was, "Jadon it's time for you to pray". I didn't intend for it to be a question. But, I thanked him for being polite and went ahead and said the night time prayers.

Later Todd and I laughed about it and then wondered what will happen to us if he learns to start using politeness when he doesn't want to do something. Another thing as a parent you have to figure out as you try to stay one step ahead.

Fair Grove Fall Festival

Saturday was the 30th Annual Fair Grove Fall Festival. My mom and I plan around this every year. We get up early Saturday to join the other thousands of people to walk around and look at various craft booths and vendors. There is everything you can imagine that is homemade. This year we took the kids with intentions of spending the morning doing all the kids stuff and then taking them back home for naps and coming back that afternoon to volunteer picking up trash. During which the trash picking up time we would walk around and check out the booths and see if there was anything that caught our eye.

We did indeed do all the fun kid stuff in the morning. Jadon got his face painted with a big snake, Haven screamed when the lady came near her with the paint. Jadon rode the horses, twice, Haven screamed when she got in the fence with the horses. She loved the horses when there was a fence between them and her, but do not get her inside with them. Jadon walked around looking at the old tractors on display. He reminded me so much of my dad. My dad can walk around for hours looking at old cars and old tractors. I think Jadon stared at one tractor for 15 minutes. I had to explain to him that the nice rope they put around the tractor was their way of saying "do not touch". He so wanted to ride the thing.

That was the fun part. Then came the rest of the day. Our church thought it would be servants to the city of Fair Grove and volunteer to help with trash duty for free during the 2 day festival. My mom and I signed up for the afternoon shift. When we got there and learned of our duties and who else was there to serve and I realized this was not going to be as easy as I thought. Also, our duties were not to go around and pick trash off the ground, it was to empty the nasty trash bags out of the trash containers and take them to the biggest dumpsters I have ever seen. Thankfully we did have some men who could heave those bags up into the dumpsters. Our shift lasted 3 hours and we did not get a chance to look at those lovely booths that kept calling out our names. By the time I left I was exhausted, sweaty and regretting the fact that we chose to park in the free parking lot about 10 blocks away. It really wasn't 10, but it definately felt like it!

This poor horse at 9:00 in the morning looked like me at the end of my day. I don't think it could have held it's head up if you put a carrot in front of his face.

Haven after her long day of riding in the stroller, it's amazing how that riding can tucker you out.

Friends, The Circus & Elephants

It seems like some weekends we don't do anything and then others are jammed packed with all kinds of things to do. This past weekend was one of those every minute planned out. Jadon and Haven loved it, they love to go and usually will go anywhere. On Friday morning we met up with a dear friend from highschool that has a daughter the same age as Jadon. We went to the park and let the kids run around while we tried to catch up on things. We have gone all summer without seeing each other. The kids are finally getting old enough where we can actually get some talk time in. Our times together used to be say "hi" and then run after our kiddos the rest of the time and then say "bye" and hugs when we left.

This park had a cave and the kids enjoyed walking around in it. This is a small cave off the big cave.

After naptime we quickly got around and took Jadon & Haven to the circus. We received in the mail free kids tickets and buy 1 get 1 free adult tickets. Praise the Lord we did or we would have really disappointed some really excited kids. I was shocked when I saw the prices to get in! It was so worth it after a long decision on if we wanted to pay the price of the one adult ticket. Jadon loved every minute of it. He sat there through the entire thing watching in awe everything that was going on. Haven loved the animals and once they were done so was she. I ended up taking her outside to run around and look at the animals. While we were out there we got to see the elephant handlers get the elephants dressed and watched how the elephant then helped the lady get on his back. Haven wanted so bad to run over to them. I could just imagine my little Haven starting an elephant stampede and elephants and baby hippos and camels and zebras and llamas running lose all over our mall parking lot. At the very end we gave in to the extra $5 and let Jadon ride an elephant. He thought he was the coolest kid in there, all big and riding an elephant. I remember my first elephant ride at our zoo. I wish they still did that.

Haven and Daddy looking at the animals.

Jadon thought the pretty lady riding the elephant was a clown. While we were watching her get on the elephant he yelled, "look at the clown!" Oh, I hope she didn't hear him.

Look at our proud son in the red. The poor little blonde in the front cried the entire time.