Isaiah's birthday and other updates

This past Saturday was Isaiah's 3rd birthday. Here we are celebrating. Naomi couldn't make the party because she needed some beauty sleep. Isaiah had fun and even enjoyed blowing out the candels on his cake this year- a first.

We have been pleasantly busy this fall. Micah has not had to travel much so that has been nice. He does have to go to Germany next week however, and he bought me a ticket to go along. It was my birthday present. He ought to be worried that I would have really high expectations for the gift on my 30th next year! So, we are leaving on Tuesday Nov. 6th and the kids are going to "Farm Camp" once more. I am very excited to see Germany. Mom is worried that we are going there to find a place to live. She thinks we have some plan up our sleeves which we do not.

This past weekend was a real downer for us despite having Isaiah's birthday. We took our beloved dogs to a boxer rescue to find them a new home. We are saddened by their absence and I know that we will miss them for a long time to come. Even this morning I missed their noises. The rescue was a great place with 8 other boxers for them to play with. The lady was so nice and reminded me of my dear friend and animal lover Janet Grovo. I know that they are in good hands. The lady at the rescue tried to send three birds home with us complete with accessories. We debated and Isaiah lobbied but we declined. So, we are petless for the first time in 6 years.

Naomi's new hair

Naomi got a haircut yesterday and screamed the whole time which was embarrassing to me. All of the other women in the salon had come there for a relaxing retreat I'm sure and got nothing of the sort, at least while we were there. Anyway, she got a bob-ish thing and it looks really cute. Here she is looking just like Micah and the rest of the Steele clan. Isn't she cute? Isaiah was left along for a while so that I could get some airline tickets and while I was unsuccessful he was unfortunately successful in drawing a masterpiece. The only problem being that it was all over his shirt, pants, and about a 15 foot section of my yellow wall. He used a red marker. I hope it lives up to the name on the marker which says it is washable.

Fun Weekend

This weekend we tried to do some fun activities. First, Isaiah and Micah went to a football game at the high school near our house on Friday night. Isaiah had a blast and Micah had fun watching him take it all in. He loved the band and the hot chocolate and popcorn. He will talk about that for a long time to come.

On Saturday morning we went to a farm about 30 miles east of here where we get our meat. (Both kids whined all the way there...) We have never been there because the farmer usually delivers it to us. We went to check out the farm and get some more meat. We saw the pigs that we are going to eat next week and some of the cousins of the chickens that we took home yesterday. Then we visited the turkey that we will eat for Thanksgiving. Isaiah was disappointed because the Farmer did not have calves like grandpa does. They were at a different farm so we could not see them.

On the way home (more loud whining) we stopped in Galena for lunch and Culver's. Yum yum.

After naps (Isaiah woke up in a horrible mood with taffy in his hair) we went to a pumpkin farm just outside of town for some fun with other friends. That is where this picture was taken. They have animals and hay rides and hay bale mazes and such.

Even though we tried to have lots of fun this weekend Isaiah was pretty grumpy the whole time. He got several spankings- one at the pumpkin farm- and was pretty disagreeable. Micah and I looked at each other in disbelief at the end of the day on Saturday and decided that maybe we should do fewer fun things in a weekend. It was pretty frustrating.

This morning I woke up to Isaiah in my bed. He gave me a kiss and said "I love you mom. You are the cutest girl I ever seen in my whole world." After taking that in I said do you want to get up and eat? He said "yeah, lets get this show on the road!"

Pachelbel Bedtime

Nomi's New Teeth

This is a picture of Naomi with her new teeth. Sorry it is so blurry but it was hard to get her to smile enough to see her teeth while holding the camara and not have her crawl away or all over me! She has two teeth on the top and two on the bottom. She walked for the first time last week. She says dada, mama, Isaiah-kinda sounds like Isaiah anyway, and dog. She is a joy- although right now she has an ear infection and is a little cranky.

Me and my shadow

Here are Isaiah and I in our kitchen yesterday. I took this one for all of you who have been hounding me of a picture. You can kinda see what you are wanting I think:). I am sorry it has been so long since we posted. Alot has been going on around here and we have been terribly busy but doing great. Isaiah is almost potty trained. He is doing a great job. I have hardly had to hound him at all. Micah went out of town for a week. We have been heavily involved in all of our activities as fall has officially started. The weather is beautiful here and the air is crisp!