Outings in October

We had several outings for our family in October.


Washington D.C.

Right at the beginning of the month we made a small trip to the D.C. area, and we got to stay with some friends from Iowa.  It was great to catch up and see them, and we did many things while visiting.

Hannah got a little bored when we hit the D.C. traffic.

Hannah woke up really early one morning and she enjoyed playing dress up before the other kids woke up.

We went to one of the Air & Space Museums, and that was SUPER COOL!  There were airplanes EVERYWHERE!  Nathan and I will definitely have to go sometime by ourselves without a 4 year old.  Poor Hannah.  She got bored pretty quickly.  She did enjoy driving a plane with her friends though.

We saw an awesome spy plane called the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.  This plane was by far Nathan's favorite in the entire museum.  It looks so cool and slick, and it's the first thing you see when entering the floor.

We saw THE Enola Gay.  This is the airplane that dropped the A-bomb.  I'll admit, it was pretty cool to see this airplane knowing the history behind it.  Not to mention, this plane was HUGE!  I couldn't get a full picture of the beast.

We also saw a Concorde plane.  Who wouldn't want to travel from Europe to the US in about 3 hours?!

Hannah saw this airplane and said: "Mommy, that airplane is mad."  Kids.

My favorite plane we saw was the Discover Space Shuttle.  When I saw that my heart skipped a few beats.  

You can see how enormous this shuttle is.  I'm standing right smack in the middle of this picture.

After the museum the kids took a nap in the car while we drove to our next destination.

When they woke up they found out we were at a trampoline park.  Hannah loved it.

We also went to visit the grounds of the Washington D.C. temple.  Hannah really liked the Angel Moroni.

Hannah loved playing at the visitors center.  They have a whole section there dedicated for little kids. She was in heaven because we got to "color" on the i-pads.

After visiting the temple grounds we met up with our friends and went to the National Zoo.  We thought Hannah would enjoy it more than we had imagined, but she was so tired.  She liked seeing the animals, but she was so gassed from walking that after a few hours we decided to go home. Within minutes of getting into the car, she was out.

A few more random pictures of visiting with our Iowa friends.

General Conference

General Conference was wonderful as usual.

I won the conference song pool, but only by one song.  Here was the score:

• Rachel: 14 / 32
• Nathan: 13 / 32

I had 3 favorite talks:

1. Elder Hales' on Meeting the Challenges of Today's World
2. Elder Holland's on Behold Thy Mother
3. President Nelson's A Plea to My Sisters

Pikes

We also went down to visit the Pikes and we played a lot.  It's great because it wears Hannah out.  It's so rare that we get to see Hannah sleeping that we couldn't pass up this photo opportunity.

We played with the cat and dog.  Hannah enjoys feeding them their favorite treat -- string cheese.

We went to a pumpkin patch.

We came home and carved/drew on pumpkins (that we didn't buy at the pumpkin patch because they were WAY over priced).

This is Hannah's pumpkin.  She used every color of marker available.

Nathan made his a mechanical pumpkin.

We then went and had dinner at Homeplace.  The scenery was gorgeous, yet a little chili.  

I guess Hannah's coat doesn't fit Mason.

We also took a ride in the old 1948 dodge car (and I just realized I never got a picture of the full car.  Oops).

Nathan was excited to drive it.  Hannah, well she liked playing with the suicide doors.

In fact, Hannah had so much fun on the trip that she slept in the car for about 2.5 hours on our way home.

Stuff back home

We installed some blinds in the master bedroom, and Hannah helped by wearing her tool belt.

We played at the "wood park" several times.

We got our first frost of the season.

Nathan got sick (poor guy).

Hannah enjoyed her Halloween cards she got in the mail.

And we have enjoyed the fall colors.  This is one of our favorite things about Pennsylvania.  I wish there was a way we could capture the true scenery in a photo.  Pictures just don't do things justice.

Halloween

Hannah has been so excited about Halloween.  She and Nathan carved a pumpkin.

This year, Hannah was a fish.  I got this costume about 2 years ago from a friend at church, but I put it in a box downstairs and forgot about it.  When we were cleaning stuff out this summer, I re-discovered the costume so I asked Hannah if she would like to be a fish for Halloween.  Her reply was an enthusiastic "YES!"  Score for me. 

Here is Hannah demonstrating what a fish does.  I love her face,

This kid loves Halloween.  She doubled the amount of homes she trick-or-treated this year.  Yes folks, we went down the hill and worked the adjacent street.  It surprised us both.  Hannah also enjoys coming home and seeing what goodies she acquired.

And that, my friends, wraps up our outings in October.

General Conference Ensign picture courtesy of lds.org

September -- we are glad you came

We were so glad September came!  Well, I was so glad September came.  There were lots of things for me to look forward to.  I mentioned to Nathan back in JULY (yes folks, 2  months ago) "I can't wait for September to come."  He looked at me with a quizzical look and said "August hasn't even come."  That's how excited I was for September.  It's been a good month!


New food

Hannah has been much better at trying new foods.  Don't get me wrong, she is still picky, but less phobic.  Considering how she was a year ago, this is a vast improvement.

Hannah tried something new this month: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  She asked for one, and I gladly gave her one.  It took her a while to eat it, and she hasn't asked for one since.  I've offered it a few times, but ever since then she declines.

Deck stain

We stained our deck with the help of the missionaries at the first of the month.  It looks so good! When we bought the house the inspector said we needed to stain the deck in about 3 years.  Well, time goes quickly and it's been 3 years!  So hard to believe,

Hannah enjoyed herself.  Well, she enjoyed helping clean the deck the night before.  The boys had fun playing with the pressure washer (uh, I mean trying to figure out how it worked).

Hannah wanted to help "paint" the deck the following day, but I didn't want her get stain anywhere (like our hair, the house, etc.).  Not to mention, Hannah would have painted one spot over and over again, and that would not have been good for the stain on the wood.  So, Hannah and I watched the men throughout the day.

There were a few spots on the deck that were still wet from the night before, so we pulled out the hair dryer and helped moved it along.  It delayed us a little bit, but we still managed to finish before the sun went down.  The weather for that weekend was gorgeous and it wasn't hot at all.  It was a pleasant 70-75 degrees with a very nice gentle breeze.

The deck looks WONDERFUL, and it feels so good to have this project off our list, and especially done before winter approaches!  We got a professional quote for staining the deck and they wanted $475 for a 10' x 30' deck.  YIKES!  I'm happy to report that we did it ourselves for $193.45.  That's right!  We saved $281.55 by doing it ourselves (with the missionaries help of course).  We could not have done it without them.  They were an incredible help.

Here's a shot with one coat added to the railings (we did 2 coats total for the whole deck).

And here's the deck all stained and finished!

Cooler weather is here

We are definitely in the fall season.  Leaves are changing and the temperatures are dropping.

I took some neighborhood kids to the bus stop a few days this month, and it was chilly enough that we had to pull out some of our coats.  Hannah was excited that she got to wear her new coat.  It's a little big, but she'll grow into it.  Look at what the humidity does to her hair!

Sleeping beauty  =  Mommy and Daddy

We were sitting in church one Sunday when Hannah showed us this picture:

She said "this is Mommy and Daddy."  It made our hearts melt.  Then Nathan comically said "the camera adds 10 pounds."  We had a good laugh.


Preschool

Hooray for preschool!  We started up again this month and WE have been so happy about it.

Hannah was so excited to use her new backpack (someone gave us this backpack for free).  Purple and pink are her two favorite colors so she was very elated when she got it this summer.

Hannah loves going to preschool.  She loves making crafts, singing songs, playing with toys, reading books, doing work stations, etc.

And, mommy is happy too.  I am enjoying lunches all to myself, organizing and cleaning our house in peace and quite with no interruptions, etc.  We all love preschool in our house.


Our little get away

Nathan's brother Danny had a drop off in the Pittsburgh area so we met up with him one weekend in Brookville.

We had some friends that let us house sit in the country for the weekend, and we had so much fun!

We watched some old movies, saw several neat buildings in Brookville, drove around some backroads of the country, and we also went to Punxsutawney (which is known as the weather capital of the world).

Have you ever heard of Ground Hog Day (the event or the movie)?  Well this is where the real event (not the movie) takes place folks.  The actual event on Ground Hog Day takes place at Gobblers Knob.  So we went and saw the site where "Punxsutawney Phil," the ground hog, makes his annual appearance on February 2nd.

Hannah didn't care too much for the place (it was a little over her head), but she did enjoy playing with a caterpillar while we were on the "tour."

We also took Danny to see the 99 acre property and tractor collection of some church friends near Brookville.  Danny fell in love with the area, while Hannah enjoyed riding in the "new" car.  At times, we felt like we were in the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland.

We had so much fun in Brookville.  Often times, when we would get in the car Hannah would rest her head on my shoulder, or the cooler, and would just take a cat nap.

FPU

Nathan and I started Financial Peace University (FPU) this month. We have both been pretty excited about this class, but I have been looking forward to this all summer long!  This class is amazing! It helps you achieve your financial goals by showing you how to eliminate debt, save for the future, and give like never before.  We are challenged and motivated to make a plan for our money and change our family tree forever.  Within the first 90 days of this class, the average family pays off $5,300 in debt and saves $2,700.  It's a 9 week course (one day a week) that helps people get out of debt the same way you learned to walk -- one step at a time.

We love FPU and would highly recommend this class to EVERYONE!

Park

Lastly, with the autumn season underway, we are trying to take advantage of the parks a little bit more before it gets too cold.  After Family Home Evening one night we drove over to the "orange" park (as Hannah calls it) and let her run around.

This kid loves parks, and loves them even more with her favorite playmate (Daddy)!

FPU pictures courtesy of Google images