Pumpkin Fun

This past weekend, we embarked on a little journey. We ventured to Louisburg, KS to the Cider Mill and then to Powell Pumpkin Patch. The Cider Mill was somewhat disappointing because they weren't actually making any cider, but we still enjoyed the cider donuts and apple cider! Yummy!

 

Then, we headed off to find the pumpkin patch. Lydia LOVED everything about it - from climbing on the hay bales, to going down the slide, to going through the hay maze. But her favorite part was finding her pumpkins.

 

Here are Lydia and Daddy looking like quite the fashionable pair in their sunglasses before we head off into the field to find our pumpkins.

 

Here are Hannah and Daddy - she looks so big in this picture! We had a great time and ended up with three big pumpkins, two little pumpkins, and five gourds. We will see how long they stay in my front porch in my cute little pumpkin arrangement! :) Have a great week!

Growing

 

Hannah turned six months old last Saturday (October 11th). It is amazing how time passes by! You can see from the picture that my baby isn't too much of a baby anymore! She is definitely growing up and developing her own unique personality. Brian and I have gotten the biggest kick out of watching Lydia and Hannah interact over the last couple of weeks. They really do like to entertain each other - which is great for us!

Hannah had her six-month visit at the pediatrician on Monday. Here are her statistics:

Weight - 17 pounds, 1 ounce - 75th percentile
Length - 26 1/2" - 75th percentile

We also started cereal on Monday - she HATED it on Monday, but she is slowing getting the hang of actually keeping the food in her mouth. We will add peas tonight - I hope that she is as good of an eater as her big sister! We can always hope!

Where We Are

 

I apologize for my delay in posting blogs over the past couple of weeks. We have enjoyed having Brian home with us, but my afternoons have been spent hanging out with him instead of posting my usual blog entries! But he is returning to Embarq on Monday so I thought I would try to get back into the swing of blogging again.

We have made a couple of quick trips to see family over the past couple of weeks as well. We went to Hiawatha on Friday, October 3rd to see my family - Molly, Kevin, and Will were here from Wisconsin so we enjoyed seeing all of them. Lydia also had her first chance to ride on the combine with Uncle Griff - she really enjoyed it! She also had fun on the tractor with Grandpa. At least she knows that the appropriate color of farm equipment is green! :) I had another wedding on Sunday, October 5th. I only have two more weddings before the end of the year so I am finally winding down another busy wedding season.

Last weekend, we made a quick trip to Wichita to see Brian's family as well. He had fun hanging out with Uncle Chris and Aunt Brooke at their garage sale. Lydia also had another sleepover with cousin Parker - they always have so much fun together! And finally, the highlight of the trip came when we got to go to Brian's Uncle Steve and Aunt Linda's house in Kechi to see their horses. Lydia is fairly obsessed with horses right now so she thought that was pretty awesome!

I think we might head to the Louisburg Cider Mill and Pumpkin Patch this weekend so I should have more wonderful pictures next week! Have a great weekend!

Doctor's Appointment

Lydia had her two-year doctor's appointment with Dr. Martin on Tuesday morning. She did wonderfully during the appointment. She actually sat in her own chair and let Dr. Martin listen to her heart and look in her ears, nose, and mouth. I couldn't believe it - she will hardly let me change her diaper without throwing a complete fit! Dr. Martin predicted that Lydia will be completely potty trained by the time she is 2 1/2 as she is definitely showing signs of being ready. Actually, I am afraid that I am the one who is not ready for this process to begin! :) But being out of diapers will be a good thing!

Then, it was on to the shots. We really hadn't explained this whole process to Lydia so when the nurse came in, Lydia immediately asked for the band-aids. We told her that if she laid still on the table for the nurse, she would get the band-aids. Maybe I should have explained that the shots came first. As soon as she felt the first shot, she started saying, "No band-aids." We may never get her to wear a band-aid again! She had to get her second Hepatitis A vaccine and her flu shot so it wasn't too bad!

Her statistics from the appointment are:

Weight - 27 pounds, 5 ounces - Between the 50 - 75% percentiles
Length - 35 1/2 inches - Between the 75 - 90% percentiles

Just for comparison purposes, I looked up my weight and length at my two-year doctor's appointment, and the were:

Weight - 30 pounds
Length - 35 inches

We will have to see how much she changes in the next six months!

Happy Birthday Lydia

 

This is my favorite picture from Lydia's 2nd birthday party! She loved the chair that she got from Grandma and Grandpa Howard. If you read my previous posts, you will notice that the party was definitely a little more subdued than our original plan (since she was still recovering from hand, foot, and mouth virus). But Lydia definitely had fun! Also, I posted a slideshow with all of the pictures from her party for you to enjoy on the right side of our blog! We started the day with kolaches and cinnamon rolls from Barb's Kolache Bakery right down the street - Lydia loved that! Then, all of the grandparents met at the park at 10:00 a.m. for the official party. Lydia had a great time on the swings and slides that she didn't even want to open presents! :) But, once she finally got into the presents, she had a great time seeing all of new "ultra feminine" gifts!

After opening the gifts, Brian tried his fate at flying a couple of kites that we bought! There was hardly a breeze on Saturday morning so it wasn't extremely successful, but we all had fun trying! After kites, we ate the wonderful cake that Aunt Brooke made for Lydia! You can definitely tell from the pictures that Lydia enjoyed this part (no surprise there, she loves food)! After the cake, we all took a balloon and had a balloon release. Honestly, I think the balloon release was Lydia's favorite part of the entire day! That may become a birthday tradition for Lydia. After that, we went home for Lydia to take her afternoon nap! You can tell from one of the pictures in the slideshow that as soon as she got home, she collapsed into her purple polka dot chair (sweaty hair and all). She took a great nap!

After naptime, we packed up and headed to Crown Center for dinner at Crayola Cafe with Grandma and Grandpa Ruppe. Lydia especially loved her special crayon glass and the strawberry ice cream for dessert. We tried to give her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner (her first attempt at peanut butter), but it didn't go over so well! We will definitely try again! But Lydia's favorite part of Crown Center was riding up and down on the escalators - that was a new experience. I think between Brian and I that we made about 6 round trips on the escalators! What a wonderful day!

Wedding Flowers

 

 

 

So, I thought that I would post a few pictures of the flowers from a wedding that I did on September 20th. I have gotten several requests from my loyal blog readers for pictures of these flowers. For this wedding, the bride simply wanted to have green flowers and greenery for the bridesmaids (who were wearing black dresses), and her bouquet consisted of green, yellow, and white flowers. I was a little concerned what everything would look like, but it actually turned out beautifully. Also, I did a large spray arrangement for the altar at the church as well as a large arrangement for the sign in table at the reception site. The reception was at Studio 2131 in downtown KC. It was a wonderful loft in an old building with a state-of-the-art kitchen - really awesome!

Bike Riding Fool

 

Okay - I apologize that it has been so long since I have posted a blog entry! We have had a crazy couple of weeks! This is a photo of Lydia right before she and Brian took off for a bike ride! This was actually taken on the morning of Saturday, September 20th - that same evening, we had a babysitter watching Lydia and Hannah so we could get some errands run for her birthday. Megan (the babysitter) called us to tell us that Lydia had just vomited all over her! Wonderful - huh? Anyway, we rushed home and discovered on the following Monday that Lydia had hand, foot, and mouth virus! And the best news, Hannah got it too (just two days later). So, needless to say, that we cancelled Lydia's big birthday party celebration on Saturday, September 27th and just had the grandparents come. I really didn't feel like infecting any other kiddos with the virus!