Jumpin' Josh!

This little toy was a favorite of Jon's growing up and you can see that it is a favorite still. Josh was having all sorts of fun playing with it last night! Check out this little video clip:)

Daddy Day!

Jon took the boys for most of the day yesterday and enjoyed a very nice day outdoors after 4 days straight of rain! Good thing, today we have what feels like 50 mph winds. Josh was almost blown over trying to walk into the church this morning! I got the grocery shopping done, cleaned up the house and spent a few hours at the scrapbook store trying to get caught up on Josh's book. I am so far behind....I will never get caught up...but I have to try! Here are a few pics Jon took on his phone...

Notice the Curious George band-aid on Caleb's finger? Josh managed to get his finger pinched in a pair of scissors while I was gone! It wasn't bleeding, but a band-aid cures all wounds for a 4 year old! Josh spent a few minutes in time out and said he was sorry...looks like Caleb forgives him!.

Caleb's Quote

It has been awhile since I have posted a quote from Caleb...there has not been a shortage...just mom not having the time to pass them on to you!! Anyway, Caleb had a runny nose and a strange squeaky cough yesterday and then woke up with a very strange sounding voice this morning...kind of like a frog. He said, "mommy, I think I may be getting air-in-gitis!" I asked him to repeat what he said because it was hard to understand him with his Kermit the Frog voice! I said, you mean laryngitis? He said, "yeah, that is what I said, air-in-gitis!" I wonder if his ears are plugged too?!

Return to Palisades!

We had another beautiful fall day today and decided to take the boys back to Palisades State Park to see all the fall colors. Caleb had his leaf collection book in hand and off we went!! I will preface this by saying that we thankfully did NOT run into any dog doo-doo this time (refer to 'Park Exploration' in July for that story)! We started off our visit with a favorite activity for the boys...climbing rocks! It is amazing how entertained they can stay with a few (or a thousand in this case) rocks to climb on!

Josh was behind me on the trail and I heard him say 'mommy, mommy' so I turned around and he was sitting on this rock saying "cheese!" I guess he wanted his picture taken?!

We climbed rocks down by the river and saw our first glimpse at the wildlife there...a little water snake. Jon thought it was a giant earthworm at first! Then we noticed that it had a long tongue...guess not! The boys thought that was pretty neat. Other 'wildlife' discovered on our visit: tons of ladybugs, bees and grasshoppers! Caleb wanted a picture of each...but I won't bore you with those pictures!

We had to climb around on a few trees of course...there are quite a few to choose from and the fall colors were great!

Sorry for the picture...could not get this to go the right way!

There were leaves everywhere and what does that mean...a huge leaf fight!

It seems that mom was targeted more than dad though...

But in the end...there were lots of kisses to go around! Someday I won't get all these kisses from my little guys...I am sure enjoying them now while I can get them!

After we picked all the itchy leaves out of our clothes...we headed to another trail down to the river. Josh and Caleb loved jumping from rock to rock and playing in the 'cold water' as Josh said!

I let Caleb have the camera for awhile to take all his 'wildlife' pictures...I guess he decided to take a few self portraits!

End of Soccer Season

Caleb had his last game on Saturday and he was pretty sad that his first season was done. He has made improvement during the season and is excited to give it a go again next fall! He was especially excited to get his first medal!!

Go Caleb!!

Yeah...Caleb made his first soccer goal today!! Go Caleb!! He had a huge smile and gave me a thumbs up!!

Guests Galore!!

Last week was busy with lots of visitors! The boys loved all the attention and Jon and I enjoyed catching up with everyone!

Aunt Sarah came from CA to visit on Tuesday afternoon and left Thursday AM. She went to Caleb's soccer game on Tue. evening and then we went to story time Wed. AM and the zoo in the afternoon.

The boys loved their time with Auntie Sarah! Caleb was pretty sad after she left and said that he wanted to move to Cali!! I would not mind...especially now that winter is on the way!!

Grandma & Grandpa Miller came by on Friday and left on Saturday so that Margaret could attend a conference. We did not get to see Grandma much but she did leave the conference early to catch Caleb's soccer game in the afternoon and then we had a late lunch together. Caleb enjoyed showing Gpa Joe his states game...he has his own rules that he is explaining here!!

Then, after church on Sunday, we got to visit with Denise! She ran in a marathon in Rapid City and stopped by for an hour or so on her way back to Wisconsin. Josh missed most of her visit because he was napping. He was just warming up to her at the end of her visit and then it was time for her to go. I was totally not expecting this, but after she left he cried for 5 minutes!! I guess he was just getting warmed up to her and was sad to see her go!!

Miller Farm Week

Wow, I am really behind on this website...just pretty busy lately! We actually went out to Jon's parents farm a few weeks ago, but I am just now getting around to posting a few fun pics of our time there. We had beautiful warm weather the whole time and really had fun with the boys. Here are a few of the things we did.

Jon worked the first 3 days, so the boys and I did some fun things around the farm. We picked a sack of apples...

...which I later forgot! When you pack everything but the kitchen sink, it is pretty easy to forget the sack of apples you picked the first day! Josh was pretty proud of his find!!

I gave Caleb a "big, long" swing ride, as he puts it! He said that he likes daddy's pushes better...I guess he can go REALLY big!!

Josh enjoyed hanging out with Ally, riding his bike and playing on the smaller swing set! He was a bit fearful of Ally this time...not sure why! But looking at this picture, they seemed to find a friendship eventually!

We were fortunate enough to catch two of Katrina's volleyball games this time as well. She is the team captain of JV and also plays on occasion on the varsity team. As you can see, the kids did not watch much of the game...it was way too much fun to climb up and down the seats!

It was a family affair...we all attended her games! Grandpa & Grandma Miller rarely miss a game and mom and sister Cassidy are cheering Katrina on too!

Caleb is an official Northwestern fan now...Katrina got him a T-shirt too!

We also attended the home coming parade and got a TON of candy! I am not kidding! I think the parade was all of 10-15 minutes and the boys got way more candy than they can ever eat..and Halloween is still on the way!

Josh got this ball globe at the parade...that is my kind of thing to get at the parade...things that do not cause cavities! We broke down though and let him enjoy his first lollipop! He loved it!

Jon took the boys out each evening to a favorite place of his when he was a kid and they went exploring! They went to an old abandoned RR track, a bridge and threw rocks, some different tree groves and saw some pheasants. They had a lot of fun with daddy!

Caleb went to Cassidy's house one afternoon, so we took Josh on a 4-wheeler ride. On the way, a huge dog jumped out of a neighbor's yard and chased us for a bit...that was too close for me! We took a different way home!

We took Josh out to inspect Grandpa Joe's soybeans..."look ready for harvest Papa"!!

And we mooed at a few cows!

And sized Josh up to his tree! He is just as tall! Like his new smile...we tell him to say cheese and he gets a bit excited sometimes!

We decided to take the boys to Storybook land and visit the Land of Oz. Grandma came along too!

I have a picture of Caleb holding this munchkins thumb when he was about 18 months...he has really grown!

We will document Josh's height against the munchkin too!!

It was nice to follow the yellow brick road through the fall leaves with Grandma!

New Addition to the Family!

We went to the Family Fun Festival at Caleb's school and they had a ping pong ball game to win a goldfish. He played a few times and was unsuccessful (I would have had a hard time winning one too...I think that they had quite a few goldfish left over at the end of the day). He was so disappointed and has talked about owning a fish for some time. We thought it might be a good time to get one for him.

So, we went toWal Mart and got 2 fish (.39 each), a tank (10.00), rocks (2.00) and fish food (2.00). Caleb's smile (priceless)!

He decided to name them after the Little Einsteins, Leo and Annie! Annie is no longer with us...actually there were 2 Annie's in all, we did the switcharoo without Caleb knowing the first time she died! After the 2nd Annie not making it...we decided it was time for him to face the music! It did not seem to bother him much. He said, "mommy, Annie is floating in the tank! Can you get her out"? So after he forgot about it I went in and scooped the 2nd Annie out and sent her off down the toilet!!

Fun at Falls Park

A Sonic burger picnic!

Rock climbing and Josh admiring an airplane over head!

Boys at the falls.

And the favorite...skipping rocks with daddy! Josh and Caleb love hunting for the 'perfect' flat rock and counting how many times it skips over the water!