Hey Great Grandma!

Hey Great Grandma Lohman...somebody REALLY likes your strawberry jam!

Fall Fun

Tis the season for raking leaves!  The kids loved helping with raking leaves this year.  However, what kid would choose to rake leaves...

...when they could blow them!  (All raking has thus ended for these Carlson kids! :))

 We had so much fun playing in the leaf piles.  Moving here we thought we wouldn't have nearly as many leaves as we did in Altoona.  Boy were we wrong!  Pretty sure we had more!

P.S. Thanks Susanne for helping me solve my pictue issue!

Random Question

So...in my attempt to upload more photos to our blog...it appears we have used our allotted 1 GB of photo storage.  Being of the "very Dutch (and cheap!)" descent I would rather not pay a monthly fee to add more storage.  Has anybody else who has a blog run into this problem?  And if so, is there any way to get more without paying anything?  Until then...sorry we can't upload any photos!

Halloween Activities

This post is a little late in the ball game, but I thought I should post some pics of the kiddos at our churches "trunk or treat" event as well as our pumpkin carving night.

Our two little kiddos.  This look of confusion on Bryces face pretty much stayed the entire night.  He couldn't quite grasp the concept that by getting dressed up in his cute lions costume he would be freely given candy...without Mom saying no.

Brielle and her sweet Sunday school teacher Miss Tara.

Bryce...still confused.

Bryce would go up to the people giving out candy and extend his arm and would just freeze.  He would simply stare and not move...even after getting his piece of candy...he would still stay frozen with his arm extended.   We had to physically remove him from the scene...otherwise he might still be there staring and standing.

The night before Hallowee we did a little pumpkin carving.

 Grandma Carlson was on hand to be able to participate in the festivities

Unfortunately I didnt' get any of the after shots once the pumpkins were complete, but the kids had a great time.

Fall Fun

A couple weekends ago we took a trip to Arthur, IL...right in the heart of Amish country...to "The Great Pumpkin Patch" to get some good ole pumpkins for carving.  This was seriously the greatest pumpkin patch ever! 

Of course they had your typical huge, ginormous pumpkins like all pumpkin patches...

 ...but they also had this huge wall 'o squash...yes squash...

...and these characters

 ...and a sunflower maze (we were a little late...not much sunflower left in that maze)

 ...and pumpkins as far as the eye could see

 Brielle had a great time in the hay maze...Bryce...slightly confused by what was going on

...and again Bryce slighty confused as to why his parents plopped him on this giant seat

The biggest hit of the day?  Was it the pumpkins or the mazes or the squash...of course not...it was the popcorn!  This was the scene you find during the majority of our afternoon...the kids chomping on popcorn.

 Hey Bryce...why aren't you in the pics with Brielle by this friendly little hay bale guy...

...or running through this giant wall of something with Dad?

 "Too busy Mom...stuffing my face...leave me alone please...nows my chance to get as much in my mouth as possible until Brielle comes back!"

 We had a great time, found our pumpkins, and will be sure to be back again next year!



Happy Halloween!

From the "Cubbie" and the "Nittany Lion"

Weekend Happenings

It was Eastern's homecoming this past weekend so to start the festivities off they had a 2.5K run.  Chad mentioned running in it and I thought "a little over a mile and half...not a prob...I can totally do that"  Well needless to say it was an eye opener as to how out of shape this momma's body is (of course I have to mention that the pace seemed to increase more and more every time Chad waved at another faculty member or said "hey" to one of his students that were along the running route...and he knew a lot of people!)  The kids loved riding in the burley while we ran...I wanted to shove them over so I could cram myself in, but alas I thought that might embarass Chad with his students :)

After the run we found our seats for the homecoming parade.  We had to wait a little bit because we were at the end so it was a good thing we were by the park so we could play for awhile.  

 One might ask "Are those pajamas he is wearing?"  The answer would be yes...yes they are...we are not ashamed (he may or may not have even worn them to the afternoon football game too)

 The best part of parades...collecting the candy!  Despite being at the end of the parade there was still a lot of candy throwing.  Brielle is like no other child when it comes to collecting candy from the parade.  Normally I would expect kids to flock to the candy and cram as many pieces as they possibly can into their hands and shirt and hey even their pants...possibly even boxing out a few kids while collecting. But no...not Brielle...a wad of candy would be thrown in her direction with so many wonderful pieces to be collected and she would go pick up one solitary piece and come back and put it in her bag.  We would then have to urge her (maybe even push her) to get more...I love those flavored Tootsie Rolls!)  So needless to say when Bryce realized her lack of interest in collecting all those wonderful pieces he thought he better get in on the action so he could have some stuff to chew on when he got home.

 We then went to the football game in the afternoon.  Here is Brielle all Polka-Dotted up for the game!  (Looking at this pic you might have thought it was going to be cold for the game...no...it was in the 70's...she just wanted to wear her hat and gloves.  She is one silly girl.  We had a great homecoming weekend and when we got home from the game we had 2 kiddos nap at the same time...woot woot!

This is Proof...

...that Moms never get any privacy!

I am sure every Mom in the world can relate. :)

Can You Tell?

Can you tell that Bryce has an older sister to play with (as well as an older sister making ALL the decisions of what they play?)  Poor kid...one of these times you'll be able to choose what you want to do buddy!

Baking Time!

Tea Time!

 Ballerina Dancing! (He wanted the blue tutu...not the pink one!) :)

Weekends

The past couple of weekends have been full of fun people and fun stuff.  2 weekends ago Chad's dad stopped by for a night on his way to a conference.  Unfortunately I took zippo pics...sorry dad.  He was awesome...playing everything with Brielle and Bryce...from playing soccer and baseball to "making pizzas" to dancing to playing cards.  Dad...can we get some of your endless energy please?!

The following weekend Jeff, Shawna, Peyton, and "the baby inside Aunt Shawna's belly" (affectionately named Jesus by Brielle) paid a visit.  The kids had a great time.  Peyton showed Bryce how to really play with his tractors and big trucks.  Brielle showed Peyton some dance moves at the volleyball game and we all had a great time taking in an evening football game.  Thanks for making the trip Jeff, Shawna, Peyton, and Jesus!

 And this weekend the Carlson clan ventured north to Champaign to watch our mighty Nittany Lions beat up on the Fighting Illini.  The weather was beautiful, the stadium was nice, and the atmosphere was great.