It's the Great Pumpkin Carter Freeman!

Farmer Carter's pumpkin patch is open for business! I took the kids home yesterday to pick the remaining pumpkins. Needless to say Grandma and Grandpa Berry have pumpkins and gourds coming out of their ears! The patch turned out very plentiful! Carter told grandma he wanted to do it again next year and grandma was pretty excited as I think she and grandpa had fun with them too!

Baby boo pumpkins starting to turn white in August
Getting bigger!
It's the GREAT PUMPKIN!
Would you like a gourd?
Wheelbarrow full of gourds! (that was only about half of them!)

We still plan to visit our favorite fall places like Howell's pumpkin patch and the Center Grove Orchard in the next couple of weeks but we won't be hauling home any pumpkins that's for sure! Happy fall!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARTEROO!

My little boy turned 4 yesterday! It is so hard to believe as it seems like yesterday I was holding him in my arms for the first time! We started the day off with his favorite breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes on the special red plate.
We laid pretty low the rest of the day, just hanging out and had family movie night that evening with our bean bags and popcorn. On Sunday we took him to America's Incredible Pizza Company for a super fun time. This place is new in town and is a really great place for kids of all ages. We ate some yummy pizza, rode the go-karts, played mini glow in the dark golf and mini bowling and fed the arcade with our coins. The "Incredibles" sang Happy Birthday to him in front of the entire place and he had this look on his face like "Are you kidding me mom?"









After that we headed home for some yummy cake and of course presents. Carter decided he wanted a John Deere cake this year so again our wonderfully talented neighbor Elizabeth pulled through for us.


Carter was again blessed with so many gifts and so many people who thought of him on his birthday. His "big" gift was a big boy bike.

A super cool Hot wheels set from his buddy Sam! Thanks Sam!

On Monday, I had our good friend and neighbor Erin watch Claire so I could throw a little birthday party for Carter at preschool with his class. I made (with a little help from my neighbors) "cake pops" for everyone and they seemed to be a hit.

Lastly, some fun facts about our 4 year old:

1. Carter Alan Freeman arrived 2 weeks early on 9-12-05 at 12:14pm weighing in at 8lbs 13 oz and was 21 inches long.
2. He is ALL boy. Some of his favorite things are Star Wars, John Deere, Hot Wheels, baseball, anything to do with guns and shooting, stuffed animals, Ironman, Wolverine and Transformers.
3. He loves movies, although isn't really into cartoons, more like action and sci-fi, see above!
4. He loves to have his back rubbed and cons most anyone into doing this for him!
5. Even at 4, he continues to be attached to his blanket and never leaves home without it.
6. He loves to run around in his underwear!
7. One of his favorite things to do is spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house and ride grandpa's lawn mower and tractor.
8. He is somewhat of a history buff like his dad. He can tell you all about Abraham Lincoln, Napolean, John Wilkes Booth, and Anne Frank.
9. He loves to rough house with is dad!
10. He has a kind heart and a great laugh!

Happy Birthday buddy! We can't wait to see what the next year brings for you! We love you!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Today Jeremy and I are celebrating 7 years of marital bliss! It is hard to believe we have been married 7 years already but I can honestly say I love Mr. Freeman more and more each day! Thanks for a great 7 years honey! I love you!

ONLY IN IOWA!

IOWA STATE FAIR!!!
Carter: " Mom, I can ride it by myself this time"

Mom: "Are you sure?"

Carter: " Mom, give me a break, I'm almost 4!"

Mom: " I don't know honey, let's ask this man up here"

Carter: " Mom, come on, what are you worried about?

HANG ON TIGHT!

POOR BESSIE, I BET SHE WAS MILKED A MILLION TIMES THAT DAY!

CARTER: " COME ON MOM, FARMERS DON'T WEAR APRONS!"

AUNT DARCIE DEMONSTRATING THE PROPER TECHNIQUE TO EATING SOMETHING ON A STICK..YUM YUM!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAIRE!!!

Happy Birthday Claire bear! I can't believe today is your first birthday! Where did the year go?

Here are some fun facts about our one year old!

1. Claire Elizabeth Freeman was born 7-27-08 ( on her due date) at 5:24 am, after about 45 minutes of labor, a 100 mile hour drive on the interstate to the hospital and with her mom crossing her legs the whole way screaming at Jeremy "Can't you drive any faster?" She arrived 14 minutes after we got to the hospital!

2. She weighed 7lbs 15 oz and was 20.5 inches long. She had blond/red hair and long fingers and toes.

3. She LOVES to snuggle!

4. She LOVES to suck her first 2 fingers on her R hand.

5. She HATES all green vegetables!

6. She has limited vocabulary of "ma ma" and "baaaaa"

7. She SCREAMS at the top of her lungs if she doesn't get her way.

8. She would rather play with cars, trucks and spiderman than girl toys.

9. She blows raspberries instead of kisses.

10. She out eats Carter at every meal!

We celebrated her birthday yesterday with family and friends with presents and cake. She dug right into the cake like I knew my little porkchop would. I had to put her in the sink afterwards to get all the cake off of her.

Thanks to everyone who made her day so special! We feel blessed to have so many people love her so much!

A LITTLE VA-CA

Today marks the last day of my vacation! The kiddos and I had a great week but man am I tired! I told Jeremy, next time I decide to take a week off, I will make sure to plan a "me" day! I learned a few things this week as well! I learned how much my 3 year old has grown up, I learned what an exhausting job it is taking care of two kids 24/7 ( I now have a new appreciation for stay at home mom's...and a better appreciation for my job!) I learned how much fun it was to play all day with my kids and not worry about housework, laundry, etc! Now back to reality tomorrow!

Here are the highlights of our week! Tuesday our plan was to go to the aquatic center but it was pretty rainy and cool, so plan B was a movie. I took Carter to see UP. Super cute movie! We had lunch at the mall, shopped for some new running shoes for mom and by that time the sun had actually come out. We checked out a little park on the east side called Union Park. The have a carousel, a super fast rocket slide and a wading pool equipped with fountains and sprays. It was super fun! I can't believe we had never been there before but will definitely be going back.

Wednesday, Jeremy took the day off and we took Carter to Adventureland while Claire hang out with her friends at daycare. Carter was super brave on all the rides. His favorite were the raging river where he got COMPLETELY soaked!! I was so thankful the boat turned just as we were heading under the waterfall otherwise it would have been me! He really liked the bumper cars, the frog hopper and the Underground ( roller coaster in the dark) I rode the tilt a whirl with him and literally felt sick for the next 6 hours!! UGH

Thursday we were suppose to head up to Minneapolis to see my friend Jeri and her kids Jaiden and Abrie, but Jaiden came down with a case of croup so we decided to stay away. We were planning to visit the Minnesota zoo, but had to opt for the Blank Park Zoo. We watched a very cool bird show and got to ride the train this time. That night Carter and I went to our local library for pajama story time. TOO FUN!

Friday, the kids and I headed back to mom and dad's for a couple of days. We helped grandma weed the pumpkin patch that is getting ENORMOUS, went fishing with aunt Darcie and Jill, visited great grandma and grandpa Mehlmann and Carter helped Darcie and Jill work on grandma's new deck. We ate tons of good food and enjoyed some very cool weather! We headed back home Sunday afternoon. Daddy made us a welcome home supper complete with movie night and popcorn to follow. My grandparents have this great pond at their farm. All you do is throw your line in and start reeling. All Darcie got done was putting worms on and taking fish off for those of us who refused to touch anything!

Aunt Darcie showing how to set his line.

His first fish! A pretty good sized bluegill!
We caught 16 fish in all..not bad for an hour and a half! We decided to throw them all back to let them "grow up" as Carter would say. I was pretty proud of my germaphobe son, he got brave enough to FINALLY touch a worm and even a fish. By then end of the day he was even breaking the worms in half for us. We could never convince him to kiss a worm for good luck though.

This morning Carter asked me if he could go to preschool! I was telling about what his class was doing this week and he decided going to Backyard Adventures sounded like more fun than hanging out with me another day. Back to work tomorrow!