8 months

I forgot how active babies get around this time!  Eight months, and this silly guy is more charming by the minute.  Everyone enjoys watching his little little adventures and I think he love the fact that everyone loves watching him :).  He is a happy live wire, tossing and turning during diaper changes (especially the extra messy ones!), pulling himself up to just about anything and helping himself to a little sunshine and fresh air if the back door is left open.  He goes with the flow... We love you cart-man!

October at a glance...

It has been a busy month… Lucky for us the weather has allowed us to spend lots of outdoor fun before the cold sets in.  Lately some of our favorite places to go are grassy fields to run and have some fun imaginative exploration.  Around here October starts out with balloons in the sky and while we did not make it to the Balloon Fiesta this year, we had a lot of fun counting the balloons in the sky and seeing some nearby landings.  J’s school is close to the Fiesta so we had some exciting morning drives taking him there and so far his most highlighted day at school was “the day that a hot air balloon landed in the parking lot”!  He will tell you all about it if you ask him.  Unfortunately I didn’t pull the camera out to take any new pictures of the balloons this year, but I still have the post card I sent you all last year (just so you know the offer still stands to host if you ever want to plan a trip to come see the Fiesta for yourself!). 

 

Another highlight was my birthday and we had a nice get together with friends and neighbors.  I think we had about 10 little kids running around our house that evening… I am not so thrilled to be 32, but we had fun celebrating! 

Yet another wonderful highlight was the weekend spent with Great Grandma Poach and Aunt Nancy.  We hardly ever have out of state visitors so we were all excited to have these guests of honor!  It just so happened to be my mom’s birthday the day that they arrived, so I made arrangements to unwind from our long days at a local Tea Room.  We put our lady-like manners on, sipped on tea and enjoyed the 3 course meal of dainty little savory and sweet treats.   

 Happy Birthday, beautiful Mom!

 We enjoyed your lovely company Grandma and Aunt, come again soon- please!

 

Their visit couldn’t be complete without a trip to the botanical gardens.  Beautiful fall colors were all around us. 

I think the boys kept them busy, what do you think?

 They boys enjoyed getting to know them, they are still talking about our fun weekend.

October wouldn’t be complete without a few trips to the pumpkin patch. 

The hay stack scramble to take a picture... Not too successful! 

 Goat feeding was the best part...

 

On the home front, the adventures are getting bigger for the little guy as his horizons are now a couple of feet higher... He has learned to pull himself up.  He is quite proud of that accomplishment!

I think he had a plan... He managed to tip this box upside and climb, climb, climb.

 He accomplished his goal and then looked around to see who saw him do it.

 a few minutes later it he managed to do this... 

 On a more serious note, the sad news of the passing of Mike's Grandpa has hit us all near and dear this past week.  He was such a kind and generous grandfather/great grandfather to our family, his memories will live on. We love you Pa Pa Freddy!

alpacas

What is cute, curious and fluffy all over?  Alpacas!  These are such cool animals & I would have never even know except that we got the honor of taking a visit to an alpaca farm.  Some day (when I grow up) maybe I can be an alpaca farmer ;). 

Just as we were curios to see what an alpaca was, they were curious to meet us!

These are the mamas.

We got an introduction from the farmer herself.

Then it was feeding time. 

These are some of the babies... Only 1 and 2 months old, they are sooooo fluffy soft!

The farmer calls this an alpaca kiss- she is holding a feeding pellet in her teeth and the alpaca gets it out.  She knows her alpacas well!

They are not very big.

They look so relaxed and happy.

K loved taking one of them on a walk.

J warmed up the that idea too.

This one was my favorite!

The owner of the farm showed us how she turned there wool into yarn... It was so soft it felt like cotton yarn.

She showed us her spinning wheel... Funny- when we got home this is what big J would not stop talking about, not the alpacas themselves but the yarn spinning!

Kind of like a camel, kind of like a lama- an alpaca!

What a lovely farm it was, it even had a pond.

Watching the alpacas was hard work for C!

Brothers!

Brotherly Love...

Starts with 2...

 Then another joins in the fun.

 Can't forget the 'Me too!'.

 Oh what fun they are (when they are getting along :)!). 

School Days at the Fair.

One of the nice things about having a school aged kid is that a lot of places offer deals for schools- even if you are a home school.  The NM fair has a program called School Days and as long as you register before you go, you are able to get in for free (all of us including parking!). We didn't stay too long, but we did see the children's farm and all the show animals.  Come see!

There was a working farm for kids, so we put our kids to work!

Picking apples...

 ... Riding BIG tractors

 Little ones too!

 Buckaroo riding.

 Watching the pony rides was a hit for these little cowboys.

 Then we got to see the show beauties! 

 They made me want a horse of my own for a minute.

 K had a fascination with the donkeys and mules. 

 We then saw the cows and the equipment to milk the cows with... Then we ate ace cream :)!