Crazy fun week!

So many of you know, life's been crazy for us these days! It's fun, but it wears you down fast! Works a little busy, but it's starting to slow down (knock on wood!). Two of my Japanese bosses are going home to Japan next week, so I collected money from my engineers and ordered them really nice watches as going away gifts, and had a goody day at work for them on Friday. Then Friday night, the company had a party for them at the house, and I had a lot of fun hanging out with the guys outside of work, and wound up not getting home until 1 am! Thankfully I don't think there are many pics from that night!
Also this week we had to say good-bye to Mike's little brother Matthew, who is joining the Marines. Monday night we headed to Barry Road to get Tanner a new winter coat and my dad a birthday gift, then headed to the restaurant for a good-bye dinner. He'll be gone for 3 months at basic, so he won't be home til January! I think is going to be a long 3 months! We'll miss him lots! Here are some pics!

Tanner, Grandma, and Grandpa

Good bye kiss!

The boys! Yesterday, my mom and I spent the morning at the Clarinda craft show. It has to be one of my favorite shopping days each year! I just love seeing what new, cute things people have come up with! I'm not that creative myself, so I really appreciated their talents and that I can buy their stuff! The Kawasaki party the night before put a bit of a damper on it for me though! ;) Then I can home, made a fruit pizza, squeezed in a nap, and then took Tanner trick or treating at Mozingo. We've had a hard time getting Tanner into his costume, but took him to Mozingo and then put it on him, and luckily he was so distracted by all the people and costumes, he didn't care what he was wearing!! Then we headed to a friends house for a bonfire and 30th birthday party!

Little Monkey Man!

Tanner with the girls

Next week we've got a couple small things going on during the week and then we have friends coming up from St. Joe for homecoming on Friday night, and we might ride in the parade Saturday, so it should be a fun weekend! Oh and our friend Pam had her baby, so we went to visit them and hopefully my friend Jessica will be having her baby this week! Yay! Oh, and Mike and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary on Thursday. We didn't do a lot for it, (we knew this was going to be a crazy week, so we celebrated a couple weeks ago), but Mike was a sweetie and sent me flowers at work and we got Subway for dinner so I didn't have to cook! Then I picked him up some hamballs and his favorite beer in Clarinda on Saturday! Sometimes it's the small things that mean the most! Hope you all have a great week!

My punkin!!

We took Tanner to the Amazonia pumpkin patch yesterday to pick out a few pumpkins and to let him play. I knew he'd love it there, there are several things for the kids to do and he just loves to be outside doing anything! It was a bit cold out (I think it was about 54 degrees when we were there!), but we still had a good time. We picked out one little pumpkin for the porch, one big one we'll carve maybe next weekend, and one more big one for Tanner. We got him a Mr. Potato Head pirate set that you just stick in the pumpkin to decorate it, so we'll play with that later today. Then Mike and I took him to Kermit and Maryann's to spend the night, and we went out to eat, then to the movies, and then a little shopping before we came home. All in all, it's been a pretty good weekend!! Hope you all had a good weekend too!

Tanner waiting to leave on the hayride! He loved riding on a big wagon!! Of course, Tanner and I found a dog to play with! I think he may like dogs more than I do, if that's possible!
Tanner going through the hay maze!

"Punkin!"

"My punkin!!"

Tanner found a seat!

"I can pick it up!"

Tanner riding in the barrel train!

We found another dog at the petting zoo! Her name is Molly, and she was super sweet!

Tanner kept yelling at this goat, thinking it was a dog, trying to get it to come over so he could pet it!

I LOVE FALL!!

I love this time of year so much!! I love the temperature, the leaves, all the activities, the fall decorations, and Halloween! This month is going to be crazy for us, but it should be so much fun! This weekend we're going to watch Rachel's volleyball game Saturday morning and then go to the pumpkin patch in the afternoon. I think Tanner will love it (but really he loves doing anything outside, AND there will be animals!) and I love to watch him have fun and I get to pick out pumpkins! Then he's going to Kermit and Maryann's to spend the night, while Mike and I go out to eat at Hulahans and go see a movie by ourselves!
Next week, I'm helping throw a baby shower, and we've been trying to spend time with Matthew before he leaves the next week for the Marines. We might even go to KC that Monday night to eat dinner with him before he leaves, and say goodbye. It's going to be a hard night for all of us, but he seems pretty excited about it, and we are very proud of him! Then it's our 4 year anniversary, the Clarinda Craft show, John's birthday party, and a going away party for a couple of my bosses at work.
The next couple of weeks after that will be jam packed with Halloween stuff (I can't wait to carve pumpkins and Tanner's going to be a cute little monkey this year!), birthdays for both our Dad's, Homecoming with visitors, and babies being born! I think this could be the best month ever!!! I'm hoping all of my excitement helps give me plenty of energy to do all the stuff I want to do! I'm am definitely sure I will post lots of pictures of all of our fun, too!