Happy Fall Front Porch Decor

I fell in love with this Huge Front Porch Welcome Sign I found on Pinterest recently, so I decided to create my own welcome sign and use it as the focal point for my fall front porch decor. I found the witch sign at JoAnn's and felt that it was quite appropriate for my house of monsters! I also created a Candy Corn Burlap Banner, stacked some straw bales, and placed the pumpkins along the straw bales to welcome our guests. I love the way the porch turned out, and the welcome sign was so popular that I received requests from my family to create signs for their front porches!

April the Pony

A few weeks ago, Matthew, Peter, Toby, Mary, and Steve went to Jordan Valley to help Uncle Tim brand his calves. While they were there, they bought a pony from Lauretta. Lauretta's grandchildren have grown to large for the pony, so they thought that William, and eventually Joseph, would enjoy riding April the pony! Matthew and Peter were so excited to show William his new pony. They saddled her, led her up to the house, and helped William ride her around the yard. As you can see from the photos, William loves April!

Fishing

Now that the weather has improved, we have been spending most of our time outside. One evening last week, we all went to a nearby pond and fished. This was William's first time fishing, and he absolutely loved it! We bought him a Spiderman fishing pole, and he is fairly certain he is an expert fisherman. Throughout the evening, William (and Toby) caught two fish! As William puts it, he has "two fishies in the bucket!" Matthew did not have much luck, as he did not catch a single fish. However, Peter did very well with a couple of catches. Peter also caught the largest fish of the evening! Joseph and I did not fish, but we had a lot of fun taking pictures and watching the boys fish! I am sure that there will be many more evenings spent by the pond (as soon as baseball season is over)!

Easter

We had such a nice Easter Sunday with our family. Mom, Dan, Greg, Nykole, Tiffany, Chad, and our family all attended the Easter Sunday Brunch at the Ontario Elks. The Elks had a delicious selection of made-to-order omelets, waffles, fruit, bacon, biscuits and gravy, and more! There was something for everyone. If you are looking for a place to go on Mother's Day, I highly recommend the Ontario Elks. They serve the same delicious brunch on Mother's Day, and we will be attending. After brunch, we went to Mom and Dan's house for an Easter egg hunt and dessert. The dessert was so good, but we did not eat a lot of it because everyone was still so full from breakfast! Then, we all took a drive to Adrian to get the grand tour of the property Tiffany and Chad recently purchased. We are so excited for them, and it was wonderful to finally get to see the property that they had described. On the way home, our family took a very scenic and enjoyable drive through country that we had never seen.

We were so blessed this year with a gorgeous Easter Sunday. I always buy the boys coordinating outfits for Easter Sunday, and on occasion I have purchased shorts with polo shirts and ended up regretting it because it was so cold. This year, I decided to play it safe and buy slacks, long sleeve shirts, and sweaters for the little boys. Wouldn't you know it, Easter Sunday was so beautiful that the boys could have worn shorts and polos! It is never that nice in Eastern Oregon on March 31st! After taking some pictures to document the event, I did allow the boys to change into cooler outfits.

We could not have asked for a more enjoyable Easter Sunday!

Joseph Stephen - 10 Months Old

Dear Joseph,

Wow! You are such a busy boy right now! I am not exaggerating when I say that you are into everything. You have learned how to open cabinets, so when I am making dinner you can often be found going from cabinet to cabinet opening and closing the doors and taking items out. You also LOVE the dishwasher. If the dishwasher is open, you are climbing in or taking dishes out of the machine. It has gotten to the point that I cannot do the dishes unless you are in your high chair or your dad is holding you! You are also quite skilled at removing practically every toy from the toy box. The toys at the bottom of the toy box present a challenge though. The other day, you reached so far into the toy box that you fell in!

Your vocabulary has continued to develop, as you have added Dada and Papa to the list of words you know. In addition, you have had your two top teeth break through this month. Even though your two bottom teeth seemed to give you a lot of problems, the two top teeth broke through very easily. We did not even realize that you were teething until one day the first tooth top tooth broke through!

We cannot believe how much you eat! It seems as if you are a bottomless pit. You are not a picky eater at all, and will eat anything that we put on your plate. You will even eat food that your brothers will not touch. It does not matter if it is a fruit, vegetable, meat, or grain, you will eat it and you typically request seconds and even thirds! Despite the fact that you eat all of the time, you have only gained one pound this month. Currently, you weigh 22 pounds and are wearing 12 month clothes.

I believe that you are not gaining a lot of weight because you are so active. You are cruising along the furniture and are so close to walking. On occasion, you can even stand on your own for a couple of seconds. It will not be long before we have a walker in the house! You have changed the way you crawl yet again. Instead of crawling on your hands and knees, you can often be found bear crawling with your hands and feet on the floor and you bottom up in the air. I am amazed by your strength because it cannot be easy to crawl like a bear!

You absolutely love your brothers and they adore you! All three boys are encouraging you as you learn to walk and are trying to get you to walk by holding your hands and helping you walk across the room. William has even started to help you. He will drive his little Thomas the Train tricycle next to you, prompt you to grab the back of the bike and start driving. As he drives, you walk along behind holding on to the back of the seat. It is quite entertaining to watch; you and William seem to love the game, as you both giggle the whole time!

I cannot believe how quickly the last 10 months has flown by Joseph. I can remember the day you were born and the events that led up to your delivery like it was yesterday. On April 16th, it will be one year since I collapsed at work and had to be placed on bed rest until you were born. As I reflect on the last year, I am reminded of how blessed we are that we have such a healthy, beautiful, happy baby boy. We love you so much Joseph!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

It is getting increasingly difficult to keep your month sticker in place as you get older.
As soon as I place the sticker on your shirt, you begin trying to peel it off!

We are working on learning to wave at people!