Walking

My baby is all grown up.  She is lovin' purses, keys, bracelets, cell phones and going to visit her best friend, Jadyn.  Everyday, mulitiple times a day, she stands at the door saying, "Go! Jadyn!"  Basically, she wants to get out and go over to Jadyn's house.  This last week Jadyn has been busy with her Grandma who is visiting.  So, we try to do other things.  One afternoon, we just gave Whitney a 'purse' (lunchbox) and a set of keys.  She was off.  She has a hard time walking in these adorable white boots- but doesn't seem to mind.  Although she can now walk (very unsteadily) on her own, she ALWAYS wants her hand held.  I need to appreciate her wanting to be my sidekick now.  I'm sure she'll move on soon enough.

Time to Carve

Sunday after church, we headed over to the Dansie's house to enjoy a delicious soup dinner and carve some pumpkins.  I am so bugged that I didn't take a picture of the pumpkins after they were carved.  I think it might have been the fact that my little girl wanted me to "walk" her around and around and around.  She's very into walking, lately.

Whitney enjoying Reece's jumperoo toy.

Bart carving our pumpkin

Davis & Brian gutting their pumpkin.

Carving time- Brian's was a Brutus Buckeye pumpkin & Bart's was a pig/rabbit pumpkin.

The Witch Is IN!

Yes, it's not quite October 31st, but let's face it-
It might as well be!

This year Whitney is going as a little Witchy-poo.  So CUTE!

Here's the two of us going all Witchy!

She didn't mind wearing the hat- can you guess how we made it stay?  With a clip, of course!

Go Buckeyes!

Whitney hit a milestone last Saturday.  She went to her first college football game.  She was decked out in her little Buckeye cheerleader outfit and everything.  We didn't stay for the entire game- but we did get a lot of cute pictures.  Whitney's favorite part was half time when the band did their thing.  She was movin' and groovin' to the music.  Can we say future Chatelaine??

Pumpkin Festival

Since moving here we had always wanted to go to the Pumpkin Festival down in Circleville.  We heard so much about it, so this year, nothin' was stopping us!  Not even the fact that we woke up on Friday morning to a very RAINY and WET day.  Being from the rainy state of Seattle, I thought the rain wouldn't be a problem.  I was wrong!  We drove down and and while Whitney finished her nap in her car seat, we waited for the rain to let up.  It didn't.  It just rained harder and harder.  When Whitney woke up, she had the time of her life "driving" the steering wheel and pushing all the buttons to the stereo.  About 45 minutes later, we thought we'd just pull out the umbrellas and go to the festival.  Needless to say, we were one of the few who were hard core.  It was basically empty and sort of freaky with all of the carnival stands and smokers.  We got a few good pictures and went back to the car to drive home.  We were soaked!

  

Getting Ready for Halloween

Halloween is almost here!  This is one of Bart's FAVORITE holidays- so I decorate the house, and try to make it a fun time for our family.  We decorated sugar cookies.  I was SO disappointed in the recipe I got online (won't use that one again!) but went ahead and decorated some cookies with Jadyn's family.  Here are a couple of pictures of Whitney loving the icing!

Meeting the Amish

A few weeks ago, we went to Amish Country.  It was absolutely beautiful.  I wanted to meet some real amish people- hey, it was one of the reasons I was excited to move to Ohio.  There is a little Amish house that gives tours.  We decided to take one.  I learned a few things about the Amish & Mennonite religions- and yes, I got to talk to a real life Amish person.  It was great!

The Amish religion does not have church houses.  Instead they meet in homes (for weddings & funerals too!).  This brown thing on wheels is a bunch of pews (kind of like bleachers) for funerals and "outdoor" meetings.

Me & Whitney outside of the Amish home.

Me & Whit inside the Amish home.

This is the lady who gave us the tour.  We are following behind.

At the barn outside of the home- yes, real animals and YES REAL smelly.

Whitney in the Amish school/classroom.  I think she's ready for KINDY-GARDEN.

FYI- Amish people do NOT appreciate their pictures being taken.  I wasn't actually trying to get him in the shot- I was trying to get my view from inside the buggy.  He was the real Amish man I spoke to.  He is SO nice!

Right before our ride in the buggy.  Bart was surprised with how comfortable the ride was.  Shall we get it as a second car?

Here are some of the other buggies.

The drive home entailed me taking a lot of "drive by" pictures.  Here is a school house that had children playing outside at recess on our way there.