Halloween 2009 at Chappell

Josiah dressed up as Thomas the Train this year for trick-or-treating on campus.

Whenever I can, I join in. I actually wore this conductor's hat to teach all my classes.

My grumpy lil' trick o' treater...

Josiah leading the pack!


All done! Back to eat my treats!

Experiments with Jared

Jared LOVES his science experiments! :)

Fun in the Pumpkin Patch

Jared was so thrilled to be the official pumpkin picker for the family!

This is the BEFORE photo when the boys visually protested being constrained for a photo!

Jared got back into the spirit quickly!

One of Josiah's favorite parts was scaling the various planks that the bales of hay rested upon.

Jared's goal was to find the biggest pumpkin they had!

While Jared searched for the perfect pumpkin, Josiah ran laps around the pumpkins!

Jared struggled to choose! There were so MANY perfect pumpkins!

Every chance Josiah could, he would run back to the picnic table. I think he was hoping they would serve lunch! :)

Here is the AFTER picture... the boys had SO much fun running up and down the aisles of pumpkins!

Jared really wanted to help carve out pumpkins (he was going to be a scooper) but he did NOT like the smell. Every time he tried, the poor child would gag!

He DID help me draw the plans for carving on the pumpkins!

We did it! Dalvin and I carved our first pumpkins (Dalvin's is on the left, mine is on the right)! Jared approved of our efforts-- after we implemented his recommendations of course!

All in all, the boys were pleased. It was a good day, full of pumpkin cheer!

Happy 2nd birthday, Josiah! :)

Jared's 4th Birthday...

Just a few extremely belated birthday pictures from Jared's party in July!

The Book Nook

I recently created a booknook in the corner of Jared and Josiah's playroom-- it's nothing fancy, but they LOVE it. They ask to be read to every day and they spend time snuggled in the floor pillows turning the pages of whatever book catches their fancy. It's the best thing I have done in awhile! :)