Pumpkin Carving and Tubes

Hello everyone! I hope this fall has been treating you well! We had a miserable September, but October has made up for it with gorgeous fall days including a few reaching 80 degrees! October has also been dry which means Scott has gotten field work done beyond what they can usually crunch in before the weather gets bad! It's been quite enjoyable!

As most of you probably know, we moved to the farm in September and have been busy with the aftermath of that process. As organized as I was for moving day, I feel like our house has been nothing but chaos since! We're still living out of boxes and trying to day by day get things put away and walls painted as well. If I wasn't preparing for Thanks-Christmas at the same time, it probably wouldn't seem quite as overwhelming, but it will be quite rewarding, I'm sure, when it's all done!

Jacob has been keeping us on our toes since we've moved! He's become quite comfortable with just sneaking outside to go check out what the guys are all doing in the shop or in the barn. We've had to work persistantly on setting some new boundaries in the yard, but he's gotten pretty good at staying near the house and not going beyond the "forest" (the row of 3 or 4 pine trees that create a borderline to the sheds and barns). Jacob is now able to hang out with Scott and Grandpa Anderson while they work on equipment or feed livestock. He's a pro at "wrenching" the combine and tractors and has worked diligently the last few weeks at hauling leaves in the yard. It's so much fun!

Jacob got to spend a morning in the hospital getting tubes put in his ears with hopes of eliminating his repetitive ear infections. So far, so good. We're keeping our fingers crossed. One of the following pictures is of Jacob in his hospital bed after they had given him some medicine to calm him down. The combination of having to get up at 4:30 in the morning and having to have his pants taken off created quite a little terror, so he got some happy meds and transformed into the biggest goofball. I was able to get him to lie in his hospital bed and asked him if I could take a picture with my phone. He said, "Wait! I pwetend I sleeping!" So, as you can see in the picture, he's smiling big with his eyes closed! So goofy!

As everybody was preparing for Halloween, we were invited to a friend's house to carve pumpkins. I don't recall ever carving pumpkins before and I know that this was Jacob's first time at carving a pumpkin, but I'm pretty confident that we had one of the best ones by the end of the night. I freehanded a train on a pumpkin that Jacob grew in our garden! It was pretty neat and I was kind of proud!

I regret to inform you all that there are no pictures of Jacob in his Halloween costume this year. He insisted on being a "Train Mister Conductor" after I begged and pleaded for him to just be a firefighter since we already had all of the gear! But he had his heart set, so I picked up a pair of bibs and found an engineer hat at Target (conductor/engineer, he doesn't know the difference I don't think!). Sunday at three in the morning, the stomach flu hit Jacob and had him laying in bed all day Sunday and most of Monday as well. So, no trick or treating here, but I don't think Jacob even noticed, which means he is truly a child of my own heart - Halloween is my least favorite time of the year!

Thanks so much for checking in! God bless! Scott, Kim, and Jacob