Luke went to homecoming this year with Mackenzie Crandall who is a sophomore. They went with a group of 32 people to Lino's in Rockford. He had a great time at dinner and at the dance. It's hard to believe he is in high school already. He is really enjoying everything about high school and I am glad. Luke is doing really well in his classes and in football so I think he has adjusted to high school.
This is a portion of the group Luke went with. There were so many kids we couldn't get them all in the picture. The girls all had beautiful dresses, remember when we wore sweaters and skirts to homecoming???
We went to the pumpkin place over the weekend. We each picked a pumpkin to carve. It has become a tradition to outdo each other with our carvings. I must admit my pumpkin is usually spectacular :) Luke picked out his pumpkin in a record 30 seconds, while Caden took a little time trying to look for the perfect one. He ended up going with a small, fat, green pumpkin so I will be excited to see how it turns out. I went with a "Cinderella" pumpkin which is short, fat, and a reddish orange. Even Dyl picked out a pumpkin, which I think is as big as he is!
Caden wasn't feeling that well during the pumpkin adventure, but was excited to go anyway. Luke had other things he wanted to do so he tried to rush all of us. Doesn't he look thrilled to be there in the picture?
On a side note, Caden is also doing really well in school and did a great job in football. This seems to be his favorite sport, at least for now. We start basketball in a couple of months so we'll see how well he likes that.
On a final note, the Dyl has been growing and doing new things every day. This includes becoming very mischievious. He even has a laugh to go with his new personality and it is very sinister. I'm starting to worry what the terrible two's will bring, because he is a crazy man already! He has also started growling, really for no reason. He has little temper tantrums where he throws himself on the floor and does a little fake cry. Isn't he a little young for that? It couldn't be that he is a little spoiled?? He does have 2 brothers that will do anything for him and shower him with love and attention. He's got it made!
The first door is the storage area, the second is the bathroom, and the french doors go into the future exercise room.
The bar area, minus the actual bar. I need to take pictures of the inside so you can see Ben's wonderful beer sign!
Once the basement is finished we will have a bar area, a family room, Luke's room, bathroom, and a workout room. This picture looks into the bar area. There is a log beam at the top and will be stone along each side. 
There will be a bar sink and a fridge near the bar.
This picture looks into the work out area and the bathroom. Luke's room is to the left. We still have several things to pick out like the doors, trim, vanity, etc.
Ben installed a fireplace in the family room area. We will put a TV above the fireplace at some point.
I will try to do a better job posting updates. Hopefully the next time I show basement pictures there will be drywall!
We then drove over to another field to cut down our Frasier Fir. Its my favorite tree, although we had a hard time finding one that we liked this year.
We held our annual pumpkin carving day last Sunday afternoon. We are very competitive about carving the best pumpkin! No one can see each other's masterpiece until we are all finished. This year seemed to be the year of the mean faced pumpkin. Caden was so helpful that he carved his own and also carved Dylan's.
Dylan with a carving knife - scary! Do the boys realize he has the knife? Someone could lose an eye.
Good job guys - the pumpkins turned out great!
Caden wasn't feeling that well during the pumpkin adventure, but was excited to go anyway. Luke had other things he wanted to do so he tried to rush all of us. Doesn't he look thrilled to be there in the picture? 
On a final note, the Dyl has been growing and doing new things every day. This includes becoming very mischievious. He even has a laugh to go with his new personality and it is very sinister. I'm starting to worry what the terrible two's will bring, because he is a crazy man already! He has also started growling, really for no reason. He has little temper tantrums where he throws himself on the floor and does a little fake cry. Isn't he a little young for that? It couldn't be that he is a little spoiled?? He does have 2 brothers that will do anything for him and shower him with love and attention. He's got it made!
