Trail Cam

Caught several animals on the trail cam while we were gone!  Take a guess at the second one.

coyote 

 take a guess?!  fisher?  weasel?  ???

fox 

and a daylight picture for reference

Baby on the Blog

"Can't wait to see everyone next week for my first Christmas!"

Ian's turn!

Time for the second in line to have a Christmas concert!  Ian did a fantastic job!

Ingrid's birthday and baptism

 We got our Christmas tree and Felicity was so excited to decorate it.

 I love Felicity and Calvin's faces in this one.  Someone looks a little jealous...

train ride for Felicity's birthday

Felicity is in love with trains these days, so we took her and Ingrid on a train ride for Felli's birthday.  We caught the Metra (the line that runs all the way to downtown Chicago) in Geneva and took it to Glen Ellyn for lunch, which is about 20 minutes away.  We ate at 2Toots, which is a total train themed kids restaurant, where food arrives via train.  We then hopped back on the train and headed home!

Felli picked out stickers to put on the birthday crown we made her.

The restaurant gave her a cupcake and candle to blow out.  There was a little train whistle on top :)  

WHOMP!

It's 4:10pm and the snow is up to my calf.  Wind is blowing.  It's our first snowfall of the season!  Grand Rapids has basically shut down... they RARELY cancel school, but let out early (elementary kids were already off today).

And as I write this, Kyle is stuck with the plow truck in the road!  Ha ha ha!  Well, not funny.  Maybe I should see if he needs help.

Ingrid crawling

Here's what we are doing this weekend.  Fresh soil ready for seed.

And some sod for the areas close to the house and driveway.

baby bears

Costumes!

A buffalo, turtle and a witch!

Happy Halloween!

"Nightmare Before Christmas" themed pumpkins in honor of Calvin's favorite movie.  

David did the left 2 and I did the right 2 with some help from Calvin.

Our little dragon and Calvin the friendly ghost.  

We had to be super fast taking the picture before Isaac took down the hood.

Pumpkin

The kids helped carve their giant pumpkin.

Here's the pumpkin...with sound effects.  ooooooooo!!!

(oops, it's sideways)

Halloween Fun!

The boys at the Dubuque Halloween parade last week.

 Calvin with some of his friends at our daycare's Family Fun Night last week.

All dressed up and ready for the Galena Halloween parade last night!

Helping me make applesauce this morning.

Digging in some pumpkin guts.

Pumpkins

Starved Rock State Park

We went on a day trip to Starved Rock State Park on Saturday.  It's near the town of Ottawa, IL, which is about an hour and twenty minutes from our house.  It was absolutely beautiful outside and the park was really neat!  Tons of cool rock formations, waterfalls, and creeks.  The park is right along the Illinois River.  

We carried both girls in hiking backpacks and it wasn't too bad.  Felli would have had a really tough time with all the stairs and rough trail.