The Pumpkin Patch

We had a fairly nice day as far as the weather goes on Saturday and Danny had the day off, so we went to a pumpkin patch about 15 miles outside of Des Moines. We started off with the hayride out to the pumpkins.

Once we got to the pumpkin patch, we were allowed to get off of the wagon and wander around to pick out a pumpkin. Below, you can see the first pumpkin that Alyssa picked out sitting up on the wagon (to the right of Danny and Alyssa).
And here is Alyssa's second choice. She had a hard time walking through the thick brush so Danny needed to hold on to her.
And here is Ashley enjoying the pumpkin patch (or rather me taking a quick picture before she could get anything into her mouth).
After the hayride, we borrowed a wagon to pull our 17 and 21 pound pumpkins around. Alyssa wanted to help.And so did Ashley.

Alyssa got tired after a few feet of pulling and had to take a rest.

There were many other things to do at the pumpkin patch besides getting your pumpkins. Below is a hay bale maze that Alyssa probably went through at least 10 times.

We didn't get it caught on camera, but by the 6th or 7th time through, she started taking her time going through and she would stop and sit on every hay bale that she could throughout the maze. Here is a nice close up picture of her in the maze.
Here she is coming out of the tunnel at the end of the maze.
They also had some inflatable rides which she also did each one about 10 times. This caterpillar had a lump in the middle that she had to climb up and slide down while inside. Because of this, we had an older boy help her through it the first time. But after that, she went all on her own. And every kid loves the bounce house. She is a lot better at doing these now than she was on New Years Eve. That was the last time she had the chance to go in one.
Here is Ashley chillin with the pumpkins and hay. And yes, she did manage to put something in her mouth before I could take the picture (By the way, these aren't our pumkins, they were inside of a gazebo there set up for decoration). And this is what happens when you ask a stranger to take a picture for you. You can almost see us in the picture below.
We had a lot of fun and Alyssa cried a lot when we had to leave. She has asked to go back to the pumpkin patch a few times since then.

On a totally different note, just to follow up on our last post, Danny filled up for $2.35 a gallon today. We still can't believe how much gas prices have dropped in the last two weeks.

How Low Can You Go

As everyone in the country has probably noticed, the gas prices have dropped a lot this week. Last Monday there was an article in our local newspaper saying that here in Des Moines we had some of the lowest gas prices in the country. I had decided to take a picture of it to share with everyone. Little did I know then that our prices that were already under $3 wouldn't be as rare a thing by the end of the week to everyone. The picture below was taken on Wednesday.

Here is a picture taken on Friday.
And then there was Saturday's price.
On the way to church yesterday, I noticed that it had dropped down to $2.66. Isn't it great to finally see some relief at the pump.

On a side note, if anyone is wondering why our super unleaded is cheaper than our regular unleaded, it is because the super unleaded has ethonol in it which is a biproduct of corn, and fortunately we have a lot of that in Iowa.

Matching Jammies

We bought these matching jammies for the girls awhile back and finally had a night where they were both wearing them and in a good mood. It's so fun having two girls and dressing them in matching outfits. Alyssa especially loves wearing things "like Ashley." We're enjoying it because we are sure that before too long Ashley will want to do everything like Alyssa and Alyssa will probably hate it.

Here is Alyssa giving Ashley loves.
One of Alyssa's favorite things to do is to lay on the floor next to Ashley.
There's our happy Alyssa
and our precious Ashley.

Walking With Dinosaurs

On Friday night, we went to Danny's arena to see the show Walking with Dinosaurs. Alyssa has been so excited all week to go to Daddy's work and see the dinosaurs. We left Ashley home with a babysitter because the show went past her bedtime. Danny got us one of the luxury suites for the show with 17 tickets so I was able to invite some friends to come with us. Alyssa loved seeing the dinosaurs and would roar like the dinosaurs when they would come out.The popcorn was a big hit with all the kids and you can see that Alyssa was right in the middle of all the mess.
What a character she is. Each night as Danny has been getting home, he has given his backstage pass with a T-Rex on it to Alyssa and she loves it. That is what she has on her shirt.
Here she is sitting on the lap of one of the Young Women in our ward whose family came to the show with us.

Beans and Rice

After working hard to get a good food storage supply, I realized that it was time to learn to cook with the food storage food. So this week, I decided to try making Brazilian Beans and Rice. I volunteered to feed the missionaries this week and after finding out that one of them is a vegan, I figured I would just make it the night that they were coming. I was impressed when the meal actually looked and tasted how I remembered it. Unfortunately, the Elders had to cancel, so we had a lot of leftovers. And after about three days, the smell of garlic was finally gone from the kitchen, fridge, and trashcan. Danny's comment was "Next time, maybe you should stick with garlic powder." I write that because I agree with him. The smell was pretty strong. It was fun making them and now after tasting beans and rice again, I wonder how I managed to eat it every day for 18 months. But I can't complain because at least we were fed.

Meeting the Baby T-Rex

We took Alyssa to a free promotional event for Walking With Dinosaurs this week at Danny's work. They had a coloring contest and a trivia ticket giveaway and then they brought out the baby T-Rex to meet everyone. Below is a link to a video that gives you an idea what it was like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92Mkic_pjBA

Alyssa loved the T-Rex. She laughed everytime it would roar and go up close to people. She didn't even get scared when it came close to her. We think she is going to like the show on Friday night a lot.

Our Little Ashley Girl

We haven't posted anything about Ashley in a long time, so here is an update on her. She is now sitting up very well and she is grabbing at anything that is withing her reach. She especially loves really small things (like all babies) such as pieces of lint, crumbs, or anything else that the rest of us tend to overlook.

Last time I measured her, she was 28 inches long and between 20 and 21 pounds, but those aren't official doctor visit measurements. She has bright blue eyes just like Alyssa and her Daddy and very blonde hair unlike any of us. She is, however, still pretty bald.

She is pushing up very well on her hands and she can get to most anything on the floor by rolling and scooting. She can even reach stuff on the lower level of our coffee table. She is looking like she is close to getting those knees up under her, but it still could be a long ways off. Who knows.

She is a very good eater if you can't tell from her chubby face and rolls. She loves baby food a lot more than Alyssa ever did which is good since she hasn't cut her first tooth yet. We've tried giving her a few finger foods, but she still gags on them, so she probably isn't ready for them yet.

She finally slept through the night for the first time in 6 months this week, and she did it twice!! She has been a better sleeper than Alyssa. When I do get up with her during the night, I've just fed her a bottle and put her right back down, so I'm not losing much sleep. Alyssa always liked to stay up for 2 hour stretches in the middle of the night.

She is a sweet baby and we are glad that we have been able to enjoy the non-mobile baby stage a lot longer with her than we did with Alyssa (who crawled at 5 months!!). We love you Ashley!

Preschool Field Trip

For Preschool we decided to do about one field trip per month. The first field trip was on Thursday. Someone knew the Dairy Manager at one of the grocery stores close by so he gave the kids a tour of the back freezer, behind the milk shelves, and then walked them through all of the other dairy products in the store. He talked about where it all comes from and what they do at the store to get it ready to sell. The kids thought it was pretty cool to walk inside of the big freezer. Afterwards, he gave them some chocolate milk and suckers that they ate at some tables at the front of the store.

I attempted to save her white shirt from disaster by tucking a napkin in it, however the following picture is evidence of why she ended up with a big chocolate milk stain.
Here is a picture of Alyssa later on the day (with a very nice smile I might add) showing that she didn't only get chocolate milk on her shirt, but also the blue sucker.
I think that she had a lot of fun on her first field trip. Next month, I'm hosting the field trip to the combination fire and police station. I think they are going to love that.