The carving of the pumpkins!

James started cutting the tops off and hollowing them out. Mari was very intrigued but a little timid (which is really unlike her). Her curiosity was peaked and she wanted to stick her hand in the pumpkin like James was doing, but you can see from the looks on her face she just isn't too sure what will happen!

Here she touched the edge, but then quickly moved her hand back and zoomed back in her little scooter/walker.

Finally, after a few "fake outs" she sticks her whole hand in (all the way past the elbow).

Mystery of what's inside the pumpkin solved, she puts the lid on it!

Jake puts the unlit candle inside Mari's Jack-O-Lantern.

Jake keeps trying to blow out the lighter while I am trying to light the Jack-O-Lantern, so we let him practice blowing out "birthday candles". Mari was taking pointers from the sidelines.

Jake watches his daddy, before drawing a face (which I cut out for him) on his pumpkin.

A trip to the Fairpark (Tupelo) Swingpark

Choo Choo!

While in Fairpark on a walk this afternoon, we heard a train whistle and so we rushed over to the tracks in time to see a very loud and noisy train go by!

Both Jake and Mari were enthralled!

A trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Here we are on a hayride to the hay maze.

Mari thought it was an all you can eat hay ride.

Welcome to the hay maze! They drop you off here and you have to find your way through it to the pumpkin patch on the other side. I have always wanted to visit a maze, but this was the first time I ever have. It was actually kind of scary. I never thought it would be.

James is always quick to decide what he wants. He was done and ready to leave, Jake and I had a harder time making up our minds!

"Too heavy"

Mari was happy with any thing we brought her!

Jake finally found one that wasn't "too heavy" and was excited that he was able to pick it up.

We are finally getting better and felt up to doing something today. We had plans to visit James' sister, brother and sister-in-law last weekend, but the kids and I were at the peak of a two week cold virus. Poor Mari is still congested. She was the first to get it and the last to get better. I had a lot of work due the past two weeks as well and so it wasn't the best time to get sick--not that there is ever a good time I suppose! However, since we are all mostly well, we went to the Buffalo Park today to pick out our pumpkins in their "pumkin patch". We had never been before (to the pumpkin patch-we have been to the zoo part a few weeks before Mari was born) and although it was muddy, we had lots of fun as you can see from the few hundred pictures I have posted above (just a fraction of the ones I took). Jake is as handsome as ever and was excited that he and Mari got to wear identical shirts today. He says the cutest things and has us constantly laughing at his view of things. He kept picking up every pumkin he saw and would then say "too heavy" and put it back down. As you can see in the last picture I ended up carrying his (which I expected to do anyway). He wanted one he could pick up, but then he said "Mamma carry it!", so I am not too sure why it mattered that he could carry it! We got to ride a wagon filled with hay, out to the hay maze and then we walked through the pumpkin patch to pick ours out. Jake was very impressed with the tractor that pulled the hay wagon and he seemed really interested in the rotton pumpkins. He also wanted to stomp on the pumpkins to make them break? I have no idea where he got that idea??? Boys are just different. James and I have been discussing how different it has been having a little girl around for almost a year now! I think Mari is a good cross between James and myself looks wise at least. Most people we meet think she looks like me, but I think in these pictures she looks more like James. She has been such delight. I feel very fortunate that she and Jake were born to us! Jake is really getting excited about getting candy at church and the coffee house for Halloween and everyday he has a new opinion about what is going to happen on his birthday (or at his birthday party rather since it won't be on his birthday this year). I have more pictures to post of thing that have happened since my last post (and I found the pictures of their first day at "school" although they haven't been a single day in the last two weeks). Hopefully, I will have more pictures tomorrow as well since that is when we plan on carving the Jack-o-lanterns.

Ick!!

Don't get too close to the screen because Jake, Mari and I are sick! The plus side is the kids are sleeping more; the down side is that I don't have any energy to do anything while they are sleeping! Oh yeah and then there is the fact that we all feel like we should be the baby because none of us feel good and we are all fussy and snapping at each other! Oh well, we are reading lots of books, watching lot of TV, getting lots of cuddles and drinking lots of sprite (except Mari). I don't feel so bad about all the calories in the sprite because it is all we are consuming today. Jake only wants to eat cereal and I am not really hungry at all. I might get to blog more today, except I am on the laptop downstairs and all of my pictures are upstairs on our desktop computer so I am not sure what I will get around to.

Jakes' first public performance!

I know the pictures turned out a little dark. We sat in the balcony so we could get a good shot (without peoples heads in the way). This last picture is of Jake 'listening' to the childrens sermon led by Susan McDonald.

Party, Party, Party!

A few weeks ago when we went to the FMC family day, which Jake called the party at FMC, he asked the next day (Sunday) if we could go to a party at MSU. Then last week we went to a "party at church" and Jake again asked if we could "go to party at MSU where Mama works". So last night he finally got to go to his MSU party. One of my fellow Ph.D. students who is in his early 50s (third career for him) Bob, and his wife Coleen, hosted some of us Ph.D. slaves... I mean graduate assistants... over to their house for a cook out. We were all invited to bring our spouses and children. Mari played with a little girl named Chloe who was born this past March. They made baby noises back and forth and Mari kept waving at her and trying to pull the bows off her dress. We had a good time. Jake and Mari are about the same age as Coleen and Bob's grandkids and they took to each other quite well. Mari even let them hold her while I ate and didn't seem worried in the least. No one believed that Jake was only two (soon to be three) they thought he was at least four! Jake was intrigued by their collection of toys and with the zebra skin rug (yes a real one) that Bob got while he was in South Africa the past four years. I meant to bring the camara, but in the rush to leave the house with all the usual baby equipment it got left behind. I have other pictures of the kids that I need to post, but I will probably wait until tomorrow afternoon as Jake might sing in church with the Cherub Choir tomorrow! Hopefully I can get some good pictures of that!

Mari has six teeth now She got her left incisor (top) on September 26 and her right front tooth (top) on October 7(Jake only had four by now for comparision). She is almost walking and her hair is coming in soft curls. She still calls me Isla (Jake taught her that) but occasionallly she will say Mamma (if she is upset) and Dadda. She also said bottle this past week and I have heard her say it three times now (once more again today) when I hand it to her or when she drops (throws) it.

I finished their Halloween costumes Thursday night. I took pictures of Jake with his on, I still need to get a picture of Mari in hers. You will never guess what Jake wanted to be for Halloween this year. I will give you a hint--I absolutely hate them.

Anyone who has followed this blog for the past six months will know that Jake has been asking me when his birthday is since James' birthday month (month long celebration) in March. I told him that his birthday was after Halloween and before Christmas, the same week as Thanksgiving, and that when he saw Christmas stuff out in the stores that meant it was getting close to his birthday. So, all the stores now have christmas stuff out and Jake is starting to get really excited. He was looking through my wallet at pictures of him and Mari and saw one of her with a white hat on. He said, "Look, Mari has on birthday hat!" (the birthday hat is a tradition started by Gran McLean). I laughed and explained to him that Mari hadn't had a birthday (anniversary of birthday to be technical) yet. He said, "Oh wow Mari. It's great. You get toys and birthday cake and candles on it" I thought it was so funny to hear his take on it!

Mari is starting to wake up from her nap so I better go! More later including the unveiling of the 2008 Halloween Costumes!