Because of Grandma...

 

...Silas had yummy treats to find. 

When no one was looking, Sy pulled these cookies out of Grandma's cooler and dug in. I think he took bites out of at least 4 of them before we caught him!

...the boys have quilts for their beds.

Thanks, Grandma!

Jonah's Early Birthday

My parents brought Jonah his birthday presents for him when they came down. His birthday isn't until November 7, but he got to celebrate early! And, the boys got a few little things for Halloween, too!

Martin's Hillside Orchard

My parents came down last week for a few days. On Thursday, we went to a garage sale and then to a pumpkin patch. I found a few treasures - a little rocking chair for the boys that is in pretty good shape and is very sturdy (actually Mike and I can just barely fit in it, too!) and the cutest set of four square shaped salad-sized plates that have little blue tulips and some other yellow flowers in one corner.
The pumpkin patch was a lot of fun. Sadly, Mike wasn't able to join us. We were the only ones at the pumpkin patch, so we had time to enjoy what we wanted to on our time. The boys had a GREAT time!

 LOVE these two pics!

Brothers

Silas at 15 months

Jonah (February 2010) at 15 months

The Pumpkin Patch

Last Tuesday, we went to Vala's Pumpkin Patch for the day. It was an AMAZING place! I got half-priced tickets from a Living Social deal which had to be used last week. We had no idea what to expect. On their website it said that they had something like 44 attractions...I don't know that we even got to half of them! Sadly, we never even got to the pumpkin patch. Strange, huh? We were so busy with the other attractions that when we finally made it to spot where the hayrides to the pumpkin patch start we had already been there for 5 hours. The man at the station said that the pumpkin patch ride took about a 50 minutes. Since it was already mid-afternoon, about 80 degrees out, and we had two tired boys, we decided to just purchase our pumpkin from the store at the entrance. Maybe we will go to another pumpkin patch later this month where we actually have time to get to a field of pumpkins! The boys loved all of the attractions at Vala's. I think Jonah could have been there for days and still not take in everything he wanted to see. It was such a fun day and a great time together as a family! Sorry, there might be a lot of pictures here.

 

Our growing boys!

 

Sy enjoying the pig races

 

Jonah cheering on his pig. It came in last. 

 

In one play area, the kids could slide and jump into piles of hay

 

Wondering if he really wanted to scare the crows

 

Riding a tricycle around the trike track

 

Sy finally decided it was cool to wear sunglasses

 

Jonah with the train engineer

 

Riding the train

 

This llama really wanted to eat

 

Sy feeding the goats - remember our trip to the MN zoo?!?! 

This experience with goats was much, much better. 

 

Watching the pumpkin-eating dragon show

 We walked through a 3 acre corn maze and got lost - a lot.

Sy somehow slept during a very bumpy ride through the corn maze

 

We ended our day with a ride in little tractor-pulled trailers.

After all of the exciting parts of our visit, we picked out a big pumpkin for our family at the pumpkin shop at the entrance to the pumpkin patch. We let Jonah pick out a mini pumpkin for himself and one for Silas. I think Grandma Nelson would be very pleased with Jonah's pumpkin selection tastes. :) 

Sy Lately

 Silas has been so fun recently. He loves to play around and just have fun! Some new things for him are that he now sleeps with his favorite monkey toy (it's so sweet to watch him hug Monkey) and that he is walking about half the time. We think he could walk more, but he seems to still prefer crawling. I'm pretty sure that his favorite words are "bubble" and "uh oh." He is getting pretty good at making animal noises and can make the sounds for a cow, sheep, dog, duck, lion, snake, and bear.

Jonah Lately

The biggest news about Jonah is that he is nearly potty trained! We started just about two weeks ago. Until tonight, he had gone 6 days without an accident! Even with going to church, Bible study, shopping, to the park, on walks...he stayed clean and dry! We are so pleased with his progress. Jonah often goes on his own without our prompting. And, he has even stayed dry during naps. I tried potty training for one day back in May when he was 2 1/2 years old. It was a terrible day! So, I thought I would try again in a month or two. The summer got so busy that I didn't get back to it until 2 weeks ago. I am so glad that I waited until he was older (2 yrs, 10 mos). It has been much easier on me and on him!

 

Jonah is really enjoying listening to books on tape - yes, cassette tapes. My mom made a whole series of books on tape about 20 years ago for her special ed. students. Jonah has loved inheriting this set! He listens so intently for the bell and turns the pages at the right time.

 

Eating a tomato straight out of Mommy's garden