Hunter's Farm Pumpkin Patch

Today John and I had so much fun going to the pumpkin patch. We met up with some women and their kids in a stay-at-home-moms group here in Tacoma and made the long (eternally long with unhappy kid) drive south to Olympia (45min). The weather was supposed to be wet and ugly, but the day turned out quite nice. It was cold and slightly drizzly when we got there but warmed up and stopped raining for the 2 hours we were there! Hunter's Farm is by far the neatest place I've ever taken John to. It was extremely kid friendly, with lots of ways to get dirty...and to clean up! There were actually outdoor sinks to wash up after getting muddy, petting animals, and letting them lick food out of your hands.

First we rode the tractor-pulled wagon contraption out to the pumpkin patch to choose our very own pumpkin. They were all different sizes and scattered through about a 2 acre plot, but it was lots of fun getting muddy walking from one side to the other. Then the tractor picked us back up on the other side and brought us back to the main part of the farm. We washed the pumpkins off and took them to the car.

"Alright, I don't know about them pumpkins and mud, but I like this here bush"

"Big..."

"...little" (This is the one we picked!)

"Alright mom, this is too fun!"

"What next? It's cold."

Then we got to pet the animals! John absolutely loved the pygmy goats, and there were lots of them. The goats would eat right out of your hand and let John hug them; they climbed all over the fences and up a huge scaffold made just for them. It was a very neat experience for both of us, and as you can see John had a blast!

After that we took some pictures inside and out with scarecrows, lots of hay, and some cutout picture things. "Smile, here's my toofers!"He's getting so big!Poor tired boy

Doesn't John look thrilled? He was so tired! It was quite an experience for a 15 month old! Oh and did I forget to mention the huge hay maze, created under an old tin-roofed barn structure, and when you reached the end there was a 15 foot high long slide!

All in all it was a fantastic trip and I can't wait to take John (and daddy) back to Hunter's Farm at Christmas to chop down our own tree!

Fall in Tacoma

So beautiful! It has been pretty cold here over the last couple weeks but the scenery keeps getting prettier. The trees are orange and red and yellow, and Johnny loves finding the leaves and carrying them around. Last weekend was Isaac's first weekend off in about 3 months, though before that he'd only ever had Sundays off. We were in heaven with daddy home all day Saturday and Sunday! It was such a blessing to get to go down to the water for a walk on the trail.

Sunday was such a busy day! We went to church with some friends of ours (Shawn and Jodi) and after that we drove quite a way to pick up a rocking chair for Johnny. We were able to relax for a while during John's nap, but after that we drove to Seattle to pick up the Stegmans truck. We drove back home and Isaac went further south to pick up our new entertainment center. It's so neat!!! Thank you Craigslist.com. Anyone who doesn't know what that is should go right now and find something fun. We finally feel like our house is furnished and set up like a home, yay! The kitties love the new stuff too! Okay, hope all is well. We're around. By the way, I lost my Comcast e-mail address so it's changed. If you need it, please call me, or e-mail my mom or one of my relatives, they all have it, but I lost most everyone else's e-mail addresses. So if you want to stay in touch, call me!

"Look at my new chair guys!"

I took John to an open gym playtime for babies today and met up with some friends and their boys. It was lots of fun! Jamie is wearing red and Jodi has on blue. Their sons are Alex and Austin.

The beast

Our Apartment

Ready to blog...finally

John swinging in GA before we left

Hi all, we're finally up and running on the internet. I've actually been avoiding coming to my blog because it was so relaxing to not blog for a while, but alas, we're back. The move went smoothely and we're settled in nicely, with only a few things left to do. We all love the new place, so do the cats. They're quite at home and love to run around the circle that the apartment is layed out around. Soon I'm going to screen in our back deck so they can go outside too! We don't have many pictures of the move because the camera went dead, but it went like this...1) House exploded into ruins 2) Ruins get packed into boxes 2) Boxes get packed into truck 3) Drive truck across country 4) Unload boxes from truck 5) Unpack boxes. Yay, that's it. Goofy tired boy playing mini-poker

John is doing really well, other than the occasional tantrum and battle of the will. He's getting more and more stubborn, yet he still obeys and is mad while doing so. He stomps and yells while doing what mommy told him to do, it's actually really cute, but we have to crack down on that attitude soon. We are all missing our church and friends in Georgia. Sunday I was really sad not to go to National Hills and see all the kids in the nursery, and we both missed our Sunday school class and church. This coming Sunday we're going to try a new church here that some of our friends go to, and we'll probably keep hopping for a while until we find a good fit.

Wearing mommy's vest around

We've actually already seen Jen and Ryan and the boys (hi Jake!!) and had a blast showing them our new place Friday (1 day after John and I got there!), and hanging out Sunday at lunch. My friend Christy also came and spent a day here with me and John, and I hadn't seen her since Christmas so it was a wonderful visit. I sure miss all my friends. Hmmm, what else? There really isn't much going on. Isaac has been busy working and God has already blessed us abundantly in Isaac's work. He worked his last home show last weekend and it went very well, and now he's working on getting settled into a good schedule of work and family. We've seen Jim and Kathy once or twice (we went to the home show with them) and they've been tremendously helpful getting us settled in. Kathy unpacked my kitchen and went through a lot of odds and ends for me, Jim drove our moving truck across the country and helped load and unload, and I'm very thankful for Jim's tools while we get settled.

I'm really excited now because my mom is coming to visit in 2 1/2 weeks! I can't wait to show her our new place and for her to get to spend some fun time with Johnny. We haven't seen them since July, so he's changed a lot. I'm looking forward to being able to visit more often since we're on the same coast now.

Going for a chilly walk!

Hmmm, what else? Yesterday at lunch, Johnny and I were praying for the food and before I could get out an "Amen", John said it! It was completely unprompted and very adultlike and cute. Today we are going stircrazy because it's raining yet again and we have no rain gear to go outside in. After John goes to bed I'm going to get him a rain coat and boots so that we can go outside when it rains and splash around. Nothing much else is happening, but we'll keep you all posted!

Mike found a great spot in our new kitchen!

Missing everyone who's not here,

The Stegman Fam