A day of raking

Jessie working hard to make her piles of leaves.


Kat "helping" daddy by putting leaves in the bin the riding mower catches them in.


Both girls helping to clear the leaves out from under the bushes.

Such a pretty girl helping out with those leaves.

Kat showing off her handful of leaves. Again about to "help" daddy by carrying them to the bin.

Jessie throwing handfuls of leaves in the air. Before long they were throwing leaves on top of each other. These were not dry leaves either. Leaves were showing up in the bath (in Jessie's hair) and in the washer because they stuck to them.

Kat throwing her leaves up in the air. She had taken her coat off by this point because she was too hot.

Pumpkin fun and Halloween

Kat ready to be pulled around at Gene's to pick out our pumpkins. It was a VERY cold and windy day and she refused to walk.


Jessie loved pulling the wagon. She felt like such a big girl being able to pull her around.



We got Kat out of the wagon for this picture. They look like they are smiling, but they are really wincing in the wind.



Posing with our choice of pumpkins.

Posing again in front of Gene's barn.

All carved and ready to be put outside. Kat picked the happy smile on the left. Jessie chose the scary smile in the middle, and I took my first crack at carving with etching tools for Goofy on the right.

Jessie doing a scary pose.

Susan or Ginormica from Monsters vs. Aliens and Cinderella on the ant at Zoo Boo.

Cinderella by some pumpkins. Maybe one will turn into a coach for her.

Getting ready to go out Halloween night for some trick or treating.

Sorting out "the haul" after a busy night of trick or treating. We went to trunk or treating at Hope and Westwood Reformed churches. We also went trick or treating through Parchment. Kat was collecting her own stash on her lap here.

Jessie's 6th Birthday and others

My "little" girl is 6 years old now. The time is just flying by.


She was VERY excited at her party this year. A lot more than normal. She had a lot of fun.




She got to take her friend Madelyn to McDonald's and to paint pottery for her friend party. The girls had lots of fun painting.



Showing off their works of art when they were done. They couldn't hold them because they were still wet and needed to be fired in the kiln.

Jessie made Kat a "car seat" out of the Mega Blocks. Kat sat here happily for quite awhile.

The girls watching a movie on Jessie's iPod (her big birthday gift) after bath time.

Pictures of Sesame Street, first day of school, and others...

This was the girls enjoying the 123 Elmo Live show. Kat never got off my lap or Tom's lap the whole show. She had a lot of fun though.



Jessie posing for a pic.


Kat dancing with mommy. I know I said she never got off our laps, but this dance didn't last more then 30 seconds. We were in the front row so when the characters came off the stage we were really close to them. The girls got lots of high fives from them, even Elmo!

All the girls during intermission.

Jessie ready for her first day of school.

She wanted to pretend to walk to school, even though we drive her there.

She's my school girl now, and she's loving it.

Practicing lining up on the first day. Notice how tall she is compared to the other kids.

We're not sure if she'll be Jojo for halloween, we were just trying the costume on. She was too cute in it not to post it though. As soon as I put the hat on her I said "She looks exactly like Jessie did". If I compared the two pictures I'd have a hard time telling them apart.

Listening to Jessie's new "music player" together. They each have an ear piece on.

Kat with her mega block creation.

Jessie at her new ballet class.

Feeding the budgie birds.

More feeding the budgie birds.

and more feeding the birds.

Mommy and Kat on the swan boat. We have pictures of Jessie and daddy on the boats too, but you'll have to use your imagination for those.

The rest of our summer...

OK, I'm finally posting some new pictures. These are some pictures from late summer.


Here is Jessie next to her sunflowers that she grew this summer. She was very proud of them. Next year we'll work on some more flowers.


Kat was loving the swings on this trip to the park.


I know it's not a close up picture, but this one shows that Jessie FINALLY learned how to pump her legs and swing on her own. Thanks Bepa!

Jessie driving the girls to the park. This will be her last summer driving the car. You can see how high her knees are in this picture. I just can't imagine her fitting in the car next year. Kat will inherit the pink car next year. I think we'll have to put 2 pillows behind her for her to reach the peddles. Jessie started with one.

Daddy got this nice picture of the girls wearing his hats one day.

Kat LOVING the aquarium at John Ball Zoo. She just can't get enough watching "fishies".

Kat hanging out the train at John Ball Zoo.

Jessie posing for the camera.

Both girls, and mommy, loving the pigmy goats.

This is Jessie posing on a frog statue at Fort Wayne Zoo.

I had a request from someone (Mike S.) for a picture of a giraffe, so here it is. This is at Fort Wayne Zoo. We never did feed the giraffes this year so I didn't get any off the girls close to the giraffes.

The girls had a ball watching the sea lions swim back and forth in their huge tank. They would just sit and wait at the window for them to make it back down to their end.

That's it for now. I will try to post some other pictures I have from the Sesame Street show we saw and Jessie's first day of school soon.