H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N ! ! !

Avoiding a Meltdown....

So, long-time-no-blog!

I've not been able to bring myself to blog in a while, much to the excuse that I didn't want to face the facts about my hard drive....it's dead.

I got a new one and my computer was up and running within days, but WITHOUT ANYTHING---including ALL pics of Alaina since she was born. I at least had a gradual "dealing with it" process that avoided the meltdown, dry heaving, sobbing mess that I would have predicted I'd be. I was sick to my stomach for about 4 days! I kept thinking there was hope, so I couldn't totally breakdown and vomit like I wanted to, I was holding out hope---over and over. Then as one door would close, there would be a linger of hope again....over and over throughout 2 weeks. So when it was finally time to accept the facts and deal with it, it was a lot easier than if the realization would have come earlier in the process.

I know, the best remedy for dying hard-drives is preventative---BACK IT UP! I had a PLAN PEOPLE!!! There was an external hard drive on my Christmas list with plans to organize all the photos by date [they pretty much are [were] anyway] and back them up on the hard drive at the end of the year.

Well, doom beat me to my plan :( and now I sit wishing I was rich so I could send it off to the miracle place that recovers them for $678 dollars!!!!

So PLEASE let this be a lesson to YOU! BACK UP YOUR FILES....it CAN HAPPEN...the dang thing was less than 3 years old!

I must stop thinking about it now or I will end up in therapy!

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We visited the Pumpkin Patch in St. Peter's on Saturday.

Daniel's Farm & Greenhouse.

It's kinda out of the way, but there are lots of things

to do there to make the drive worth it.

A farmin' family....

Laine loved the hay maze. She would run in and out and all around.

She loved to be scared and to scare the strangers. There were many animals to pet.

Even a Billy Goat!

This is an inside joke---

my best friend calls my dad, Billy Goss, Billy Goat!

A BIG tire swing.

And a horsie tire swing.

We tried to talk daddy into buying one of these,

but he said, "no."

He thinks he can make one.

Ha! Yeah right!

Laine scooted through the muddy tunnel.

We had extra pants, but as you can see in the end pictures,

they did not match very well.

Slides, train rides, tunnels, mazes, animals, and.....

.... ROCKS.....

What fun!

There were several strange, infested looking pumpkins.

It was funny to me, that at 22 months old,

she knew, too, that they were different looking.

She would have played in this corn ALL DAY!!!
We kept coming back to it.

Here she is finally tiring of the corn and eyeing the kids on the riding tractors.

She had to go over and test drive EACH one....and there were alot. One was just like Daddy's.

She was finally content with the one that had the pink trailer.

On the way out, you could cross the bridge to see the fishies.

An idea to steal....

Laine went to a birthday party for her friends, Annie & Caroline.

It was a morning party that you wear your jammies to!

We had a snack---banana with sprinkles!!!

Each person got a party favor----a cup with a twisty straw--fun!

Laine loved the balloons. She got to take a purple one home.

Alaina and the birthday girl, Caroline.

And a big nap on the way home.

Baby Love

Aunt Bethie bought Laine a new baby doll.

She LOVES it.

It has a moon and the word MOON written on its jammies.
Laine saw that and said, "M, Baby M" and so its name since then has been 'Baby M.'

[I didn't even know she knew her letters until about a month or two ago she just started saying them while she was lying in bed. So I got out some puzzles and was pointing to random letters and she would tell me what they were??!!?! She even knows all their sounds now thanks to Leap Frog I guess--I don't know how she learned all that.]

Here are some pics of her opening it...

It's Apple Picking Time

We made our annual trip out to Eckert's Apple Orchard in Millstadt, Ill, on September 26th. There was a huge storm approaching; but we fit in a whole day of fun before the downpour. We got to enjoy the cool winds that the storm brought right up to the last minute--literally. I was buckling my seat belt to go home and it started sprinkling---by the time I had the vehicle in gear to drive, it was pouring! PERFECT TIMING!

Wheee! Laine wanted to go again and again.

Shakin' her booty!




The goats could climb up over the people and onto the 'lookouts' that stuck out of the tree.



But first they had to cross the "Golden Goat Bridge."

"Ohhh, it moves." "Choo, Choo."

[this reminds me of when we went out to dinner for my sister's birthday in August----Laine was eating some noodles and being silly and trying to 'slurp' them into her mouth. I think she got a bit much in there and was about to choke, so Auntie M told her, "Chew, Chew," and she finishes her bite and shouts, "CHOO, CHOO" in her train whistle sound.]

Yuck, Sassafras tea....we weren't going to buy this, so we just took a picture since it says PAPPY on it......that is what she calls her grandpa Goss.

We made sure our accessories for the day were fitting for the destination!

...and take a look look from a YEAR AGO. Here is a link to her blog entry from last year's visit. My how she has grown.

She thought it was funny that she could walk through the rows instead of along the rows of trees. It was much harder for mommy to catch her this way since I had to duck down to get under all the trees.