Pumpkin Patch

Sunday was a gorgeous day, so we hit up the pumpkin patch (on the 5 yr anniversary of the weekend that Jake proposed to me - by carving it in a GIANT pumpkin after we hit up Apple Hollar pumpkin patch). It was pretty fun, and Layla was in heaven. Her favorite thing these days is pumpkins, so to walk into a field of them was probably like if one of us were to walk into a field of money that was up for grabs. Or wine, whatever.

As you'll see by the pics, I think the biggest event was Layla's run in with the llama. The pics will tell the story, but let's just say llamas are now on Layla's shit list.

Awe... fam shot. We were looking directly into the sun... so I think all three of us were gritting our teeth through the pain.

Layla, observing all the pumpkins while eating popcorn.

Man, this is a lot of pumpkins!

Jake shooting the pumpkin blaster. In his words, it was, "Awesome."Pumpkin blaster target.

After he shot. What a dork. ;)

Layla thought this old broke down wagon was the bee's knees. I was a little nervous that the wheel was going to fall off.

Layla on the choo choo train ride. She loved it!!! We had to go twice.

Mother of God... you want me to do what? You want me to reach my hand over and pet that giant thing that's staring me in the face? Whaaaat? Getting close...

Closer...
Chomp! Here's where the llama decided to tug on Bean's jacket a bit. She was NOT a happy camper after this. She screamed, "AAAAhhhhh!!!!! Lllllaaaammmmaaa!!!" She was the only one at the pumpkin patch having a fit at this time.

Feeding the goat. Gross.

Oddly enough, these goats were picky. After this pig scarfed all the food Layla had in her hand, Layla bent down to pick some up off the ground and feed it to the goat. He wasn't having any of that.

Weekend w/ Bean

The weekend was a good one... a little weird without 2,340 things to do, but relaxing all the same. Saturday, daddy took Layla to run errands with him (aka, dink around at Fleet Farm, Cabella's, some other hunting store, Kmart - for a pumpkin bucket and a giant stuffed fish, etc). While they were gone, I cleaned. Niiice. Sunday was awesome weather day, so we took Bean to a pumpkin patch (those pics are saved for another post this week. No really, I already did the post and have it on reserve).

Pictures below are just some randoms of the weekend. I'm seeing more and more each day how badly we need a new camera. Dear Santa, please send new camera.

New potty, drinkin' chocolate milk. She was mad that this potty didn't have a "flusher", but we're trying to tackle this potty training things from all angles!

She's gonna kill me for this pic someday... Daddy and Layla were watching baseball. And, well, this is how daddy watches baseball, so this is Layla's impression of daddy.

Making popcorn!

Ohhhh! Pop, pop, pop! Bean, when you were in my belly, we called you "Popcorn" cuz it felt like there was popcorn popping in my belly when you'd kick!

Eating popcorn out of her "punkin toy".

Here's Bean singing the intro of "Single Ladies" and a little of "Zippity do da". Then she says hi to almost everyone in the fam and then some. Too funny. She was sitting on the counter playing w/ play dough (from Auntie Megan and Uncle Hot Hair).

Terrible Two's

Well, we're there. The terrible two's. They are upon us in full fury and we're loving it (please note sarcasm). You can see the "Devil" in her eyes in this picture, can't you?? Can't you?? Here, we were doing some artwork at the kitchen table and I so rudely interrupted her by asking her to please smile for the camera. Yikes! ;)

Layla's latest: waking up at 4:30 a.m. to talk, yell, play, have a tantrum, then when it's finally time to leave the house 3 hours later she says she's tired. Lately, I've felt like a terrible mommy because all I want to do is yell, "Pleeeeease!!! For the love of God child, BE QUIET!!!!!! Stop wining!!! Stop crying!!! Stop throwing things!!!" Not long ago, I taught Layla what "patience" means. Now, whenever I say, "Do you know what it means to be patient?" she says, "Wait?" and I say yes. BUT, that has backfired because I'm trying to teach her all kinds of words now like "manners", "do not whine", "be polite", etc. Whenever I say things like, "Do you know what it means to be polite?" she'll say, "Wait?" Pretty funny but frustrating at the same time.

Jake's been really busy lately with school so Layla and I are often left to "fend for ourselves" and / or amuse ourselves. This weekend I chased her around for a bit with the camera to try to capture some of her sassy and chatty moments. Here's what I got... Nothing spectacular but stay tuned. There's never a shortage of sass in our house, that's for sure.

In this video, you'll probably sense the exhaustion in my voice when she walks away from her book and tries to take the camera from me. Then you'll note that I've fallen off my rocker by teaching Layla to "shake her booty". Great values, mom.

Real Photo Shoot

Whoa. It's been a while since our last post. Where did September go? Oh, that's right - bow hunting started. Which means when we're not working, Jake's off in the woods somewhere (mostly out of town) and mommy is chasing Layla or off gallivanting with friends. So, the last thing I've wanted to do in my "down" time is log on to the computer - even if it is for a good cause (as I sit here logged on to two computers at once, trying to blog and get work done for a project deadline that crept up on me, and, I'm sitting on the phone with our useless IT group, trying to get logged on remotely. Yes, I said it - USELESS. They're useless and I cannot wait until we can this horrific VPN provider that calls themselves iPass. Yep. I said it. Go ahead, sue me).

So, I suppose that sums up the past few weeks in a nut shell. We've been moving at warp speed and we're pooped. Work's killing us both, Layla is in "never stops talking" phase and the "ShermBurger" wedding is coming up on us at an alarming rate!

Jake's fall softball team is doing "so-so"... I dunno, I think maybe they're at 2-1 right now?? I stopped listening before summer ball ended. ;) Absolutely notta going on with me. Just trying to enjoy the time I have with Layla at night and on the weekends. I swear, ever day she blasts at us with more energy than the day before! She's really starting to come in to her own, that's for sure.

Today, we had our annual family photo shoot - Jake, Layla, Mommy and Hudson (of course). It went really well and we managed to get all the outside shots in before the rain started (I see now that the sun is coming out but oh well, I think we got some pretty sweet shots in). Layla got some by herself in the studio as well. I think they're all going to turn out great, as our photographer shared a few of the pictures with us straight off her camera. Even Hudson had a self portrait done!! :) Amy (photographer) was impressed with how well Layla did and said that she's not used to 2 year olds doing that well for photo shoots (hmmm... imagine that, Layla enjoying her moment in the spotlight). She recommended that I send some of Layla's pics (ones that we had taken today or ones we take ourselves) to Kohl's for their ads. I guess they do all the photo shoots for their catalogues / circulars in Milwaukee - wouldn't that be fun!?

As soon as we have some of the shots from today's shoot, I'll post them for you. No seriously, I will. For now, I'm signing off... I have a crick in my neck from typing and waiting on hold with the world's LOUDEST, most ANNOYING hold music ever. Grrrrr.